Edith Daley summary article
Edith Daley Sums Up S. J. Canning Plants
By Edith Daley
August 13, 1919 San Jose Evening News
Few of us realize that San Jose is rapidly becoming known as the world’s canning center. Naples with 15 canneries used to rank first. Our city has 15 canneries right “in the midst” to say nothing of the plants outside the incorporation and all the dried fruit packinghouses. We all live on the fruit industry! It is our bread and butter-and jam! It is our jobs and our homes and our pleasures!
We really ought to take off our hats when we pass a cannery and bow to every fruit tree in Santa Clara county! “By their fruits ye shall know them” is literally true of San Joseans. Our valley is simply a cornucopia of abundance overflowing with “fruits in their season”- fruits that pour a steady steam of gold into our eager hands-and most of the time we forget to think that it all doesn’t “just happen.”
Making a tour of the local canneries enlarges the vision. One learns the vast extent of our industry and gains immeasurable respect for it and for the men who are giving their energy and their dollars to make this valley the packers’ Eldorado and a paradise in which to live.
Recent years have brought about vast changes for the better in the canneries. Conditions are better for the worker and decidedly more “sanitary” for the fruit. Health inspection, bacteriological tests, welfare industrial commission, constant efforts towards improvement on the part of the cannery operators have all helped. Eastern visitors frequently express the desire to visit our packing plants and follow on the heels of their desire. We want our “tourists” to have a good opinion of our products so each curious visitor is an added incentive toward the sanitation that is really the canners’ “safety first” rule.
Things are better. Some of the plants are a delight. But there is no cause for complacency. There is a chance for improvement in the best cannery.
First of all, life takes us by the hand and leads us straight to that problem of “Americanization” at every nursery where the children of the workers are cared for during the day. Slides, swings, sand piles, some one to keep them safe are not enough. A real kindergarten worker could do wonders here. While the mothers work the process of the “melting pot” might be helped by proper training. Minds that retain impressions best are the young minds. They are clean and open and ready to receive. The cannery that puts a trained kindergartener in charge of its kiddies will be worthy a place at the top of the list. The children in today’s cannery nursery are likely to be the workers of tomorrow. Their early training is in the hands of the employer. What big-hearted broad-visioned canner will be the first to find in this suggestion something that will pay big returns?
Cement floors - entire cement floors are a foregone conclusion. Flooded every day they mean cleanliness. But cement floors are not comfortable under foot. Some of the canneries have thoughtfully provided mats for the women workers to stand upon. That example should be followed at every plant. Just a little thing - but it may mean the difference between sickness and health to those for whom the management is responsible.
Hands should be washed! I can see some busy forelady reach for the handiest thing to throw at me. Nevertheless-every worker in the fruit, those who touch it with their hands at cutting or canning tables should be asked to wash their hands before beginning work in the morning and again at noon.
Caps should be worn as if it were part of a religious ceremony. Not part of the time-but all of the time and each cap should completely cover the hair. It doesn’t make any difference about sterilization. Cooked unexpectedness isn’t any pleasanter than uncooked!
Aprons are all right. I’m strong for uniforms. But the apron at work in the cannery shouldn’t go parading down the block at noon fastened to a wearer who goes home to cook dinner and do the dishes and take care of the baby! A cannery apron should be just that. It doesn’t need to go elsewhere to collect germs.
One cannery didn’t seem to be sterilizing the cans with live steam. They had “just come from the can company.” Whether just arrived or two years old, the casual observer thinks the live steam is a mighty good thing.
Neither does it seem exactly right for women known to have tuberculosis to be working in the fruit. Some sort of health inspection of workers wouldn’t lower the standing of our pack in other markets.
Perhaps a practical nurse is less expensive than a trained nurse, but it would be fine to have a white uniformed “regular” in every first aid room. Several of the canneries are such top-notchers about this and other things that it is desperately hard not to shout their names. A little more attention to some of the little things things, a little more “get together” spirit among the operators and there won’t be any suggestions left to make.
Health inspection, clean hands, caps and aprons, cement floors with mats, everlasting sterilization, trained nurses, a “get together movement” among canneries- and train kindergarten workers are a few kindly made suggestions. Above all the kindergarteners! It is a vital need and all go far towards solving a problem that is vexing business men and keeping social service and juvenile court workers awake nights!
Suggestions are not criticism. I’m so proud of four canneries that I find myself rising up most anywhere to speak a word for them. That makes me a real Californian and reminds me of a story. A Californian chances to visit a little village back east. He strayed down the street and entered the village church where the minister was conducting a funeral service. The eulogy lacked the usual emotional flowers. There didn’t seem to be any inspiration in contemplating the life of the departed. At the close of the sermon the minister said “Dearly beloved! If any of you wish to speak a few works about our departed brother you may now have the opportunity.” The silence was unbroken. Finally the Californian arose in his place and said: “If there’s no one else to say anything I’d like to speak a few words about California!” That’s the way I feel about our canning industry. It is worthy of an epic.