Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-09-22 | Page 8 | Pupils Work in Canneries Aid in Saving Tomato Crop

Pupils Work in Canneries Aid in Saving Tomato Crop "vrOOKTNG at the Granite school. The girls have half an honr for j IN recreation. They often use the neighboring lawns for a resting place, , as the accompanying picture shows. ' u.. .. 1 J Granite School Boys and Girls Do Bit to Aid Government. GKAX1TE high school will hold its sessions all this week at one of the canneries at Murray. Teachers Teach-ers and pupils are doing their bit for the war by helping to save the tomato crop unloading, peeling and filling into cans. They are working day and night shifts. Two hundred and fifty thousand thou-sand cans of tomatoes are being turned ont each day and an equal amount each night. Tfie weather conditions have been so favorable and the tomatoes coming in so fast, that but for the willing will-ing and helpful spirit of the Granite boys and girls there would have been great waste. "The generous action of Granite high school is setting a precedent for future years." said one of the officials of the factory- "Through the keen insight of Willard Ashton, principal, and the way he grasped the situation, thousands of tons of tomatoes have been saved. Since 50 per cent of the output of .this factory fac-tory goes directly to the government, we feel that this work is as important as any war activity that has been taken up." The "bit" of Granite high at the factory started Saturday a week ago with fifty girls, volunteers, under Aliss Alice Kewley, head of the domestic science department at Granite. The number soon grew to eighty-five. On Thursday school was transferred bodily to the factory, and night shifts started under Miss Lillian Ostland of Granite faculty, working from 7:30 at night to 5:30 in the morning. The women teachers inspect the work and hold it up to standard, encouraging encourag-ing an ocasional slow girl not used to working with her hands. The men teachers unload and the boys keep the girls supplied with tomatoes. to-matoes. W. Maughan, woodwork man at Granite, found his place in mending boxes. James Haslam, commercial teacher, learned that unloading tomatoes toma-toes was more strenuous than pounding pound-ing a typewriter, and suffers from a lame back. A. 51. Beckstraud, head of the chemistry department, utilized his knowledge in riming a steamer. U. G. Miller, manager of the factors", commented especially upon the cheerfulness cheer-fulness of the girls, most of whom have never before worked away from home and the efficiency of their work. The latter, he said. w"as due, in large part, to the able management of Miss Kewley, Kew-ley, who has been acting as forewoman for all the Granite girls. The girls peeled at first an average of ten buckets buck-ets a d3y, but. have already more than doubled in speed. That this is purely a patriotic work is shown by the fact that many of the girls come to work in their own automobiles. automo-biles. The Granite people say that they have been shown every courtesy and consideration by the management of the cannery. They have found surroundings sur-roundings sanitary, aud declare that factory life is "not at all ba.d " under right conditions. Mr. Ashton spoke of the educational value of this experience for his charges. This, he says, is not the first year that Granite has helped out the factory, but it is the first time school has been closed.