University of California Bancroft Library/Berkeley Regional Oral History Office

University of California Bancroft Library/Berkeley Regional Oral History Office Frank T. Swett CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES With an introduction by Henry. s. Erdman An interview conducted by Willa Klug Baum Berkeley 1968 This manuscript is made available for research purposes by an agreement with Frank T. Swett dated March 20, 1968. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. i FOREWARD The name of Frank Swett as one of the pioneers of the California agricultural cooperative movement had come up again and again in my research and interviewing on California irrigation districts and farming for the Regional Oral History Office. Urged on by professors Frank Adams, Henry Erdman, and Paul Taylor, each of whom has rendered invaluable advice to this Office in the selection of interviewees and in the preparation of interview questions, I wrote to Mr. Swett in September, 1961, asking if I might come to talk to him about his role in cooperatives. His immediate answer read, "We1come--bring your pick and shovel and we will study "Archeology of California Agricu1ture"--and you may dig up interesting stories--some fictional and some more-or-1ess authentic." Our first recording session took place in the afternoon of September 28, 1961, at the old Swett home on Hill Girt Farm in the Alhambra Valley near Martinez. This is a two-story brown house set in a pear orchard; the front porch is overhung by a huge wisteria. Mr. Swett's daughter, Mrs. Howard (Peggy) Plummer, met me at the door and took me in to her father's study off the living room. This is a comfortable old fashioned room, dark of wood and wallpaper, solidly furnished, its most important piece a roll top desk which holds the records of many years of Frank Swett's life. ii As elsewhere in the house, there are family portraits and oil paintings on the walls. A fat old dog returned to his nap on the floor as I set up the tape recorder and Frank Swett began to recount the early days of agriculture in California. Mr. Swett, then ninety-two, was a slight man. His hair was white and sparse, and he wore silver rimmed glasses and a hearing aid. For this first interview he was dressed in a grey suit and grey tie which he loosened slightly as the afternoon wore on; at the session the following afternoon he had de-formalized his appearance to the extent that he wore a flannel shirt with the suit. It was apparent that Mr. Swett enjoyed telling about the events he remembered, both agricultural and familial, and that he chose his words as skillfully as any writer. The first afternoon session and the two following ones were full of chuckles and fun; seven years later as I reread the transcript I can still hear the wry mirth with which he told those stories and I hope this will come through to the reader. A portion of the second interview was, unfortunately, lost due to machine failure. However, the transcript of the first and part of the second interview was mailed to Mr. Swett in November, 1961, with the hope that he would repeat in writing some of what had been lost on the tape. A week later Mr. Swett replied, "I think some of the paragraphs should be revised. The responses of 'nonagenarian' F. T. S. afford an illustration of iii kaleidoscopic prolixotic, loquacitic confusion--and I shall try to make the remarks of ninety-two-year-old F. T. S. a bit more intelligible. I shall try to substitute a few paragraphs in less jabberwocky language. You should hear from me in a week or so." In December he wrote, "The more I tried to clear up my helter-skelter remarks, the more confusion I added to my loquacious ramblings... It's like trying to glue together the dilapidated fragments of pottery in ancient cave dwellings~" In January 1962 Mr. Swett came to the Office with his daughter, Mrs. W. C. (Elizabeth) Knoll, and we agreed to a further recording on January 19, in part to get the stories that were lost on the previous recording and also because Mr. Swett had prepared a list of additional anecdotes he wished to include. This interview took place during one of the fiercest storms of the year; crashing thunder drowned out some of the words on the tape. A transcript combining in chronological-topical order the results of the three recording sessions was sent to Mr. Swett. His reply was the first of a series of letters which we exchanged over the years, all of which indicated his concern for checking the facts before releasing the material. In his letter of March 5, 1962, he wrote, "I've tried to check my 'mythology' with Walter Packard, and iv Professor Cruess, and the Gianninni Foundation, and some day when it's not raining I will try to see myoId friends Frank Adams and Dr. Erdman and switch some of my fantastic miss-memories." Several times a year thereafter I sent a note to Mr. Swett asking him to read over the manuscript, but not to feel responsible for checking any official records as this was the job of the historical researcher. In the fall of 1964, instead of a manuscript there arrived in the Library mailroom a large box of Concord grapes, specialties of Hill Girt Farm, which were shared with the Walter Packard and Frank Adams' families. In early spring 1967, when Mr. Swett was almost ninety-eight years old, several calls to his daughter, Mrs. Knoll, started the ball rolling again. The transcript was found among Mr. Swett's papers in the roll top desk and it was apparent he had gone over much of it and had made some corrections. He had also written some notes for further chapters and some of these have been included in the appendix. Even in their incompleted form, they are still full of the flavor of Frank Swett's sharp wit and keen observations. Two interviewers from Radio Station KPFA had tape recorded Frank Swett's memories of John Muir in May of 1964. This tape, along with several others on John Muir, was donated to the Regional Oral History Office, and Mr. Swett gave his permission to have the transcript made available to researchers. It is bound in a volume on John Muir. Willa Baum , Head Regional Oral Hfst ory Office l5-'July 1968 Regional Oral History Office 486 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley v INTRODUCTION Frank Swett became a prominent figure in California when, in the summer of 1918, he became president and general manager of the newly organized California Pear Growers Association- two positions he held until the association passed out of the picture in the middle thirties. Who was he? Frank was one of two sons of John Swett, the prominent and often controversial educational pioneer in California public education in a period when school teacher's jobs were often considered legitimate political spoils. His father had bought a farm near Martinez--presumab1y as a place for retirement. But just as Frank was half way through his college course at the University of California, Frank was called upon to manage the farm for a year when his father was called back to work. It proved to be longer than intended. Frank never did get back to school. But he established himself in the community as a successful farmer and as a public spirited citizen who often had a fresh approach to a current problem. I first met Frank soon after I came to California in mid 1922--1 cannot recall just where or when. I was eager to learn what made California cooperative associations "tick." So I used to drop in at his San Francisco office, meet him at luncheon vi sessions of the Agricultural study section of the Commonwealth Club of California, or chat with him during his occasional visits to the U.C. campus. I always found him an interesting source of information and often a bit of cooperative or political philosophy- or even gossip. I recall one such visit when he recounted the results of his attempts to get growers to slow down on new plantings. The market, he argued, would be swamped with surplus pears when all present acreage reached the bearing stage. To learn how his argument was received by the growers he stationed in the back of the audience an associate who was not known by the growers. After the meeting Frank asked how the speech went. "Fine," was the answer. But some of the growers were saying, "that man Swett has a lot of pear trees. Of course he'll not want us to plant any more trees and spoil his good market." Frank early became alarmed at the continued threat of surplus production. As early as 1912 he castigated those who led newcomers to plant fruit already in oversupply. It was in this connection that he suggested establishment at the University of "a chair of agricultural and horticultural economics." In his attempt to slow down new plantings he became critical of three groups which promoted increased production.

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