17 



coffee. About tw;o months after that she happened to go 

 into the kitchen when the cook was making the coffee. He 

 first broke an egg and thew it away and then put in another 

 one to settle it. He had been doing that for two months. 

 Now, they carry that same characteristic into their ax)ple 

 packing. You show them what you want done once and it 

 is ahvHys done in the same way after that. Of course, the 

 Chinese have not been allowed to come in there, the labor 

 class, for years, so that there are only the older men and 

 the children who liave grown up since this law was passed so 

 the Chinese labor is not very extensive. 



Then, in addition, there is the white labor. That might 

 be sub-divided into two classes, the hobo element from 

 Southern California and anywhere else where work is 

 scarce, and the local white help. In some sections you find 

 the custom is for everybody in the settlement to come out 

 and help on the fruit work. That is, you will go into a 

 packing house and if the man has a number of children they. 

 are all out helping. The oldest daughter perhaps has 

 charge of the packing house and knows' more than any one 

 else about packing. The oldest boy is out in the orchard 

 managing the picking, and the rest of the children of work- 

 ing age are helping somewhere. In other sections they do 

 not do this but depend on what local help they can pick up 

 with this white element that I spoke of. the hobo element 

 that drifts in there. 



Hood River perhaps is a good example of the labor sit- 

 uation. I do not think the Hood River is nearly as bad as 

 many other sections. I spent four. days there going around 

 with the head inspector and he didn't talk to a single owner 

 who didn't want more help than he had, — two packers, four 

 graders, six men to pick in the orchard, and so on. Prac- 

 tically all of them would have a notice on the roadside 

 "Labor wanted $2.50 a day and board," or something like 

 that. This inspector told me that everybody throughout 

 the whole valley was nervous over the labor shortage. I 

 think that was about the 10th of October, and four davs 



