Mayor of The Dalles Among Those Who Would Define Food Product
“When may a tomato cease to become a common vegetable and masquerade as a fruit?”
The answer to that question was the cause of the arrest of the mayor of The Dalles last Monday.
Its been troubling a number of fruit and vegetable growers this summer and a few of them have been paying $10 dollar fines because they didn’t label their crates “either one or the other.”
Webster distinctly states that the tomato is “(a) a solanaceous plant, native of the tropics, but everywhere cultivated for its fruit.”
A. Brown came to The Dalles about two months ago, on one of his trips buying up fruits and vegetables for the Portland market. He purchased 44 boxes of tomatoes from the Stadelman Commission house and a number of boxes from various growers around The Dalles, which he shipped with other allotments of vegetables to Portland. In the course of time these were inspected by a state inspector under the Dairy and Food law, and found to be lacking in proper labeling.
They were stamped as “vegetables” instead of “fruit.”
The boys at the packing hose apparently had not been reading Webster lately. The boxes, however, were so mixed up by that time that the inspector could not be sure which was from the Stadelman commission house and which from the growers. After postponing the matter about six weeks he arrived in The Dalles Monday and made the arrest on general principles.
Justice of the Peace J. W. Allen said that he was getting tired of “seeing the boys walk up to his desk and pay a fine on tomatoes.” He said that he believed the cause would not stand trial.
— The Dalles Daily Chronicle, Sept. 20, 1923
Owners Of Still Sent To Jail
Officers Have Long Trip On Fir Mountain
Reminiscent of the old days of moonshiner hunting was the trip into the remote confines of Fir mountain Saturday and Sunday by Sheriff John Sheldrake, Deputy John Sheldrake, Chief of Police Howard Hollenbeck and Federal Agent Zimmerman of the Treasury department. When they returned Sunday afternoon, they were accompanied by Bob W. Gibson and Harley Fisher who, facing a charge of being in possession of mash, had no choice but to come along.
During the past several weeks it had been rumored that “moonshine” was partially filling the void caused by decreasing legal liquor, and the search was based on a slip of somebody’s tongue. The officers had motor trouble and walked several miles before locating the still and the mash, the former being of the once-popular ten-gallon size. The still was not in operation when the arrests were made, but the mash was very much in evidence.
Monday, the two men, in Justice of the Peace Stranahan’s court, entered a plea of guilty and each was sentenced to serve six months in jail, pay a fine of $100 and costs totaling $4.50. They were also relieved of the still.
Federal Officer Zimmerman was last in Hood River when, shortly after Pearl Harbor, he closed the Yasui store in this city. District Attorney Wyers was the prosecutor.
— Hood River News,
Sept. 17, 1943
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