The Commissioner Said There Was Work. The Unemployed Asked What It Paid.
Labor Commissioner Lamb reported no takers even for guaranteed hop work at Yakima—and conceded that pay for harvests, railroads and ditch digging was often low and uncertain.
The story, cleaned up
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A great many men are now without employment, but Labor Commissioner Lamb says there is no need for any one to be so, provided he be willing to pick hops at going wages. Mr. Lamb yesterday received a telegram from A. B. Ross, secretary of the Yakima Hop Growers’ Association, guaranteeing work for any number of men from twenty to 100, yet no one responded to the offer. The rate at Yakima is $1 per box of 100 pounds. Mr. Lamb has sent out about 400 men to Yakima and about 100 to the Green and White River valleys.
There is a demand for men to work on railroads and also on the irrigation ditch at Ellensburg, but the commissioner finds trouble in supplying men for the places offered to them. The reason seems to be that the pay, in addition to being sometimes extremely low, is often uncertain.
“The reason seems to be that the pay, in addition to being sometimes extremely low, is often uncertain.”
The story reads like a 19th-century version of a modern labor-market headline: officials announce a shortage of workers while job seekers balk at wages that will not cover the risk. Washington’s harvests and construction projects still depend on seasonal labor, and the question of whether a job is “available” or simply badly paid remains at the center of the argument.
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