Students Pick Cotton, 1942
A labor shortage during World War II led farmers to hire students to harvest cotton
Dr. Alexander J. Chandler helped to prove the viability of long-staple cotton cultivation in the Salt River Valley with experiments in the 1890s. Cotton became an extremely important crop to Arizona’s economy. Despite a massive price drop in 1920 due to overplanting, cotton remained an important crop.
When the United States entered World War II, millions of young men enlisted in the military. A nationwide labor shortage ensued. In order to keep the thousands of acres of cotton from rotting on the plant farmers had to look in new places for pickers. Several solutions were found. Incarcerated Japanese Americans were hired and bussed to Chandler from the Gila River Relocation Center. Migrants fleeing west to escape the Dust Bowl found work in the cotton fields. Chandler High School students, like those pictured, were also hired to pick the fields clean.