OYSTER RAISERS LOSE JAP HELP

OLYMPIA, April 18.--(UP)--Evacuation of Japanese from the Pacific Coast area is a blow to the rich oyster-raising industry in this district.

The oyster industry of Washington is valued at about $1,500,000, with 90 per cent of the oysters on the Pacific Coast being produced in this state.

Back-Breaking Job

Through heritage and long practice, the Nipponese have taken over almost all of the jobs on the oyster beds and in the opening houses and canneries. White people do not care for the back-breaking job on the mud flats or the monotonous opening of oyster shells.

Oyster operators here say the evacuation of their help will leave them with few, if any, workers. The tiny Olympia oysters, which locals think of as the nation's best, will live several years without getting too large, but the Pacific oysters will grow too large for the market if not harvested in a year or two.

The problem of getting spat, or young oyster seed, to grow future crops is not so pressing, although all Pacific spat came from Japan until recently.

Labor Needed

Oyster growers on this coast now are beginning to catch a few spat themselves and are not relying on imported seed oysters.

If labor can be obtained to do the work formerly done by Japanese, the industry will not suffer financially because it has had to pay the Japs union wages the same as white help.