Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-04-11

made the farm labor shortage z!
Wash. one day last fall, and
All the stores and movies bad
men and women for emergency
aid in picking apples which had
ripenCG on the trees.
Queried concerning the food
situation and prospects IN his
commonwealth, the Republican
governor, who was former
mayor of Seattle, told me:
I'VE have attempted TO cope
with the farm labor problem in
several ways, and have been
quite successful. l appointed the
director of agriculture to draw
up a plan for the registration OF
state employees throughout the
state who were willing 10 give
their evenings and week-ends TO
the harvesting of crops. These
employees were subject to call by
the u. $. employment service
only when this agency declared
a harvesting emergency existed.
WORK $4,000 HOURS
approximately one-third OF
all state employees registered for
this emergency farm work and
worked n total OF $4,000 hours.
The inmates of various state In
situations were also asked to
contribute their efforts along
this line and responded willingly.
The combined efforts OF these
two groups represent total Of
over 100000 hours OF work, and
answered calls to berry fields,
pea fields, bean fields, orchards,
wheat fields, warehouses and
canneries. This plan assisted In
the saving of considerable vital
foods and was greatly appre-
ciated by the farmers through
out the state.
students of state and private
educational institutions also CO.
operated I'm forming a supply OF
emergency farm labor. Our state
department Of agriculture CO.
operated with the u. s. employ
ment service and the fruit In
dustry In obtaining these work
ers for the apple orchards. High
school students, college and uni
versity men and women and
grade school students turned out
to help harvest the great apple
crop Of the Wenatchee, Yakima
and OkanOgan areas.
These $500 students stayed
for period OF from four to
seven days and worked an aver
age OF 1900 man days, equiva-
lent to 100000 hours and picked
approximately 100000 boxes of
apples. This enthusiastic group
assisted materially In the har-
vesting OF our apple crop.
SAVE MOST OF CROP
"Of great Importance also
was the splendid cooperation of
the merchants and residents OF
the various towns in the farming
areas. The closing OF stores on
certain days of the week made
ID possible for the owners, clerks
and managers to 60 into the
fields and do their bit toward
the harvesting of the crops.
"This untapped reservoir OF
farm labor was the means OF
saving a large part OF our crop.
And IL demonstrated what can
be accomplished when there Is n
concerted action in the solving
OF a problem. The use Of state
employees and students In such
large numbers was an expert
ment and an experiment that
benefited the farmers as well as
those participating"
The farmers of course paid
the volunteer emergency work.
ers for their services. The labor
shortage had been intensified
by the evacuation of Japanese
from the western part OF the
state. These japanese had for
two decades grown the greater
portion of fresh table vegetables
grown in the state.
The Washington plan has been
presented in detail in the
thought that it might stimulate
leaders in the other AZ states to
think constructively about ways
and means of converting the lei
sure time of civilians into pro-
ductive work on the farms.