Edith Daley Richmond-Chase article

CHASE PLANT MAGNIFICENT SAYS E. DALEY

By Edith Daley

San Jose Evening News, July 14 1919

Richmond-Chase Company, Dried Fruits, Canned Fruits, Orchardists.

Back of the gold-lettered sign on the windows of the spacious and beautifully fitted offices on West Santa Clara street there is something more than a mere business background. There is ambition, industry, integrity, a wealth of experience, and success. E. E. Chase and E. N. Richmond head the corporation which was formed early this spring and bring to it their combined knowledge of the fruit industry. Each of them "grew up in the business."

"How long have I been engaged in the fruit canning industry? Must I tell that?" asked E. E. Chase with a smile. "That is almost as bad as asking a woman to tell her age!" However, he did tell---taht he came to the Golden Gate Packing company when he was a youngster, more than 40 years ago. "I was just a roustabout," he explained with a reminiscent smile. Forty years of honest effort---rarely successful effort--of untiring zeal and irreproachable methods! E. N. Richmond adds to that his more than twenty years of like integrity and ability in the dried fruit industry, and together these successful business men blend experiences and strong personalities into the "dream come true" that lies back of the gold-lettered sign.

"Elmer" and "Ed!" We heard them call each other that. It was most refreshing in the midst of a business camouflage of dignity that often seems afraid of upsetting! It visioned business as a great gamer that mean play with much the same zeal with which they play ball on the corner lot or flew kites in their knee-trouser days.

"Ours is a three-cornered proposition," explained Mr. Chase. We own and lease over 600 acres of orchards. We have three dried fruit plants, two of them in operation. This season the capacity of the Castle Brothers plant will be doubled and the Edenvale plant increased 40 per cent. The capacity output is provided for up to the first of next year. That means 150 to 175 tons a day."

"How about the labor situation," I inquired.

"Couldn't be better," said Mr. Chase. The situation is perfect. The best thing for the dried fruit industry was the act of the Industrial Welfare commission increasing the minimum pay for women and girls up to a place where they can make fair wages. The same thing applies to men through Governor Stephens' action in his appointment of Ralph Merritt to settle the wages of adult male employees in canneries and dried fruit packing houses. Merritt accomplished a very remarkable feat in obtaining the consent of workers, organized and unorganized, to abide by any decision that he might make regarding their pay for the season. At a meeting attended by practically all canners and dried fruit operators they unanimously agreed to the same proposition.

"There was no real official position no law," he continued, "but absolute confidence on both sides in his fairness. The pay of the men has been increased over 40 per cent."

In the opinion of Mr. Chase these wage adjustments have only been a "fair proposition since producers are prosperous and canners and dried fruit men are receiving a fair margin."

The new Richmond-Chase $250,000 canning plant is in operation, although it is not fully completed. NOt only up-to-date equipment and utility were considered in these plans but beauty and comfort as well. The plans had to undergo slight changes in order that some fine old trees might be saved. There is a row of magnificent trees along the entire west side of the plant, and when the landscaping plans are complete this cannery will have an attractive setting. Captain E. E. Chase Jr., in charge of the big plant agrees with you when you remark that it is "mighty fine". He is pleased to show you and you are pleased to see all the equipment that make this place of fruit industry with its more than 125,000 square feet of floor space the last word in modern methods. It is flooded with sunlight from immense skylights and sweet with fresh air. From receiving room to cook room it is all under one roof. From end to end of the big place with its 475 busy workers, there is an unobstructed view owing to the fact that all the belts and wheels and accident-provoking machinery is underground. The few necessary belts that come above the floor are covered with guards. When the machinery is all installed there will be no handling of fruit during the entire process from box to warehouse. A conveyor system that seems almost human is the "carrier." Fruit is all mechanically instead of hand-graded. There is cooling room and an immense warehouse. The sirup room and storage for extra cans are upstairs. It is all so clean and airy and bright with sun that the workers with their blue aprons and crisp caps are a contented lot of women. For their convenience there is a fine cafeteria and a rest room with a nurse in constant at tendance. Nothing has been left undone to make this new plant the last word in comfort, convenience, sanitation, and mechanical equipment. With Capt. E. E. Chase Jr. superintendent of the cannery and Capt. Cedric Richmond looking after the interests of the Castle Brothers plant, the Richmond-Chase Company have two able "lieutenants" ---even if they are captains! This "three-cornered proposition" as Mr. Chase calls it, is an institution of which the Santa Clara Valley is very proud, the new cannery alone being one of the finest plants in California.