The Hops Are Ripe, but the Pickers Can't Afford the Ticket
Seattle's labor commissioner can fill only a fraction of orchard and hop-field orders, as low wages and travel costs leave Yakima and Snoqualmie growers short—and one ranch turns to Chinese workers.
The story, cleaned up
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The hop picking season has only fairly begun, and yet there are not enough pickers to supply the demand. Labor Commissioner Lamb said yesterday that he had sent 400 hop pickers to Yakima, and has an order for 150 more, but during the past five days has only been able to secure ten. While some desire to go, they have not the money to buy a $15.50 round-trip hop picker's ticket. Mr. Lamb has orders for about 300 more for the Snoqualmie, White and Green river valleys, but is unable to fill them.
Mr. Lamb has received an order for a large number of men to work on the big irrigating ditch at Yakima. The pay is $1.50 per day, and board costs $4.50 per week. He has sent a portion of the men, but is unable to fill the balance of the order. For the first time since he has been labor commissioner he finds that there is a scarcity of workers. The wages offered are small, but they are high enough to almost clear the city of that class of laborers who are willing to work in hop and harvest fields.
At the office of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad it was learned that the last batch of hop pickers were sent to Snoqualmie early in the week. It consisted of seventy-nine Chinese workers. The owners of the Snoqualmie hop ranch would have preferred white pickers, but they were compelled to fall back on Chinese labor owing to the scarcity of white pickers. They still want more pickers.
At the office of the Northern Pacific it was learned that about twenty-five to thirty hop pickers were being sent out each day to Slaughter and intermediate points. The cry is for more. Meeker & Co., who have the largest hop yards south of the city, will begin picking on Tuesday, and they will need a large force of pickers.
“For the first time since he has been labor commissioner he finds that there is a scarcity of workers.”
The 1890s hop shortage was really a wage-and-transport problem: workers could not afford the ticket to reach the job, and growers filled the gap with Chinese labor even while insisting they preferred white pickers. That mix of labor scarcity and racial hierarchy still shapes Washington's farm economy.
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