Evening journal., 1921-04-02
CANNERIES WON'T
WORK This YEAR
Shore Will be Strange Place
With Tomato Industry
Idle
GAMERS TO HUG
THEIR BANK ROLLS

NAAAn year AAWNN VI AAN
wii stand idle and silent. The farm
ers will turn their land to other
crops and the Gamers will grin and
bear IL, as they watch their machin-
cry rust in the summer heat. They
will lose money-some OF them
big money, as they lost il last year
but they will be practically alone in
their misfortune. judging from in
formation available here.
But the above gives. no adequate
notion of the extent Of the catas-
trophe. The Eastern Shore, to an
Eastern Shoreman. will seem a
strange place, indeed, along about
August, with not a cannery In opera
ton. II will be like Japan without
flowers, or Berlin without beer. The
most distinguishing characteristic will
be gone and only the physical hulk
will remain.
For the Shore in canning time was
something TO remember. In every
field you saw tomatoes: they were
red on the vines. or collected baskets
at the end of the rows. on every
road you met the farm wagons car
rying the fruit to the packing houses.
WANf NNNA |ANkhNM WAEkAA"i AAA@ANA 90
high as the baskets could be piled
on them As you got near places
like Cordova, in Talbot, and Hilsboro
in Caroline county, there would be
loug rows OF wagons waiting TO un-
load, and at the canning house It
self hundreds OF sweating Negroes
yanking baskets to the platforms.
There was a hum and roar atcu- Il
all, the boom was on. and money
was being made and there was lot
10 do. and everybody was incom-
parably happy
Pervading and enveloping the
whole was a mighty smell. The
recent vapors that have been bother
ing DR.. Jones in Baltimore are as
the faint perfume Of spring com
pared to it, No single substance
on this earth can send Off such an
odor as a pile Of tomato skins. Up
in Chestertown, where there was
such a pile at one end of the Wash
ington College athletic field, fierce
fullbacks have been known TO stop
and forfeit a chance TO score rather
than chance not being able TO hold
their breath long enough 70 make a
touchdown. over at Vienna, where
there is a cannery next 70 the rail-
road, the Baltimore. Chesapeake
and Atlantic engineer has been
known to run his train halfway
across the Nanticoke river bridge
rather than stand in the reek from
the factory.
Nor did the ramihcatons of the
business stop at the big. money and
here hundred Of immigrants from
Southeastern Europe e-Hungarians,
Italians. Boheminas and Heaven
knows what not--who set up camps
and became canning-house laborers.
The whole family worked. Father
steered cans down an incline and
brother showed them under a sort OF
crimping arrangement Mother and
sister removed the skin from the
fruit. Collectively, these represent
aives of the Czecho-Slovakian ideals
were known as "Bohicks.' this con-
notating everything from Negroes 10
Chinese. About them was a smell
not esentially different from the
medium in which they worked.
The business had its effect on
politics, civic institutions, indeed, on
the best society. An election in
Talbot was lost not so long since
over little matter Of the price al
lowed farmers for contract tomatoes
School superintendents long age
learned not TO start enforcing the at
tendance law until after tomato sea
son. The child helped with the
tomatoes until every last red tomato
was picked, packed and loaded. Sc
everything is adjusted on that basis
there are no Misunderstanding anc
everybody is satisfied.
This year, gone the buzzing boom
tho lovely smell. the Bohicks. th'
whole noisy. fascinating business
A few Gamers sit and figure sorrow
fully with a calendar, a bank bool
and interest tables. For this year
at least. the business is gone.
Dnigent inquiry fails to revea
. that the farmer is I'm very dir
straits. II is the consensus that n
will pull through. Local grocer
deny that the farmer is on thei
books for household supplies.
leading hardware man admits tina
he has a little more money owed Z
him than usual. but gives il as hi
opinion that the farmers is I'm a fair
ly strong position, for all his poo
talk. Il IS a theory of this ma
that the farmer will complain, n
matter what condition he Is in
- Is believed here that the farme
will wait as long as possible to sc
u ne cannot get signed contract
with Gamers for a tomato acreag,
and that IL he cannot get this n
will set out corn. which he can d
at a late date. When fall come
he will not be materially handicap
. ped by the fact that the cannin
houses did not run. The came
viii wait TO see what he will sc
and possibly make n few contracts
Several canning houses will open II
for a short time I'm the early sum
mer and pack peas, and a few wi
pack sweet corn. Beyond that nc
body seems TO know what will hap
pen.
Il is conceded on all sides, how
ever, that the Gamer Is the man [
whom the sympathy Is due. II
declared that he really is hard hi
He himself blames the Governmer
stock Of army food for his predica
ment. He declares he could hay
come out II he did not have a quar-
tity Of this dumped on the marke
everytime he thought he saw a pric
recovery. But he seems to be TAX
ing II philosophically. Most {
them say they will pull through an
that there may be a boom next yea
The Want Ads will favor person