St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1911-10-21
TO FIGHT COFFEE RING.

reserve supply of coffee In the ware
houses of roasters and jobbers in the
Front and Water street districts is
smaller than it has been for twenty
years before, and the outlook for OBJ
tanning a fresh supply at advantag-
eous prices is worse than it has been
before in a similar period, the pro-
prietors of some Twenty-Five out or
the thirty largest coffee concerns in
the city joined to-day in an informal
agreement to attend meetings looking
toward the organization of all those
engaged in the coffee trade.
The proposed organization, after
being launched among the jobbers
and roasters, will be augmented, &C
| cording to the present plan, until it
| becomes national body, with
branches among wholesale grocers,
| jobbers, retailers, and the ultimate
consumers" A general propaganda
I, against the Brazilian governments
so-called "coffee ring" will be part
of it's active programme, as we'll as
cooperation with DR.. Harvey W..
i Wiley's plan to enforce correct Ia
beling upon coffee dealers, and the
exclusion from the market of certain
| inferior grades.
Those most concerned in promot-
| ing of this organization said to-
day the time had come in the coffee
trade when consumers, retailers, job
bers and roasters must all stand to-
gether against an inside group in the
worlds coffee market, or must Suf-
fer separately from disaster which
soon might overtake all but the very
largest dealers and roasters, :nd send
| the price soaring even above the rec
ord breaking figures of 1891, when
Rio T." the grade of coffee by which
other grades are priced, was sent to
19A cents pound, and maintained
at that point for 8 considerable
period.
BLAME VALORIZATION.
They declare that the bankers of
Brazil's valorization committee, by
holding a large proportion of last
years crop in warehouses and COM
bining with large Brooklyn firm,
and the shippers at the important
ports Of Brazil, who are holding back
the 100000 pounds of this years
crop, which already have made their
way to the coast from interior points,
were entirely responsible for the ar
tificial level to which the market has
attained. --. ..-..
Several dealers, while expressing
their extreme concern over the pres
ent outlook, said that organizing to
meet the coffee ring" would be like
organizing to meet . corner II the
price of wheat. They urged that
those in control of the coffee market,
not being citizens of the United
States, could not be reached by Unit
ed States statutes, and that any retail
iatory tariff passed to harm Brazil
would only muddie the situation that
much more, since their was not the
slightest hope of replacing Brazilian
coffee in this market with the pro-
duct of any other country.
A visit to six coffee dealers in
Front and Water streets this after
noon failed to develop a single in
stance in which a dealer regarded
the future with any particular pleas
ure.
eve don't know what's wrong with
us, exactly" said one dealer. but we
do know we are out of coffee prac-
tjcally, and that all the way up and
down the street it is the same, and
there is none to be had except what
the valorizationists may feel like de-
livering to the market, on their own
terms. | don't know what is going
to become of lot of the smaller
roasters and jobbers. May be our
day is passing for good and all.
-- THE OTHER SIDE.
Henry Nordlinger of the firm OF
Nordlinger & Co., had in his office
copy of the Brazilian Review, which
told the other side of the upward
squirt in coffee prices. This paper
recited that coffee growers who had
been in debt for years were paying
up now, and that investments in the
coffee growing business, which had
gone without dividends for many
seasons, now were gaining current
dividends and back dividends enou n
to make up for all the lean years.
1t was Mr. Nordlinger's opinion that
the combination of the coffee hand
lers with the growers would take
rank with the combinations among
the wool growers and cotton growers
in this country, and would be very
hard to reach.
William B. Harris, an importer,
also the governments authority on
coffee matters having to do with the
accuracy of labels used, is interested
i'll the proposed organization for the
reason that recent decisions by the
Pure Food Bureau will revolutionize
the coffee handling methods to some
degree, and he is anxious to have the
trade in general cooperate in bring
ing about the change called for.
One of the most pernicious trade
customs which has just been broken
up was that of packing small bean
ed variety of Santos coffee in empti-
ed Java mats and Mocha bundles
the empty containers having been
| bought in various countries and ship
ped to a port where Santos coffee
could be advantageously put in them.
Two firms in this city. which until re-
Gently did a thriving business in emp
ty bundles and mats, reported to-da!
| that there is now no demand for
their goods.
CHEAP COFFEE TO ADVANCE.
New York, Oct. ia general adj
vance of from 2 to cents pound
on all coffee will be declared by re-
tailers in this city within the next ten
days, it was announced to-day. Nc
increase in the price of higher grades
is expected. Several reasons are ad-
yanced for this. One is that most
of the higher grades are coffees
which the owners don't wish to hurt
b. advancing the price, another is
that many of the better grades come