The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1912-05-31
COFFEE TRUST
IS ATTACKED
BRAZIL VALORIZATlON PLAN DE.
CLARED TO Be VIOLATION OF
SHERMAN LAW.
PRICES
Government Charges a Conspiracy
$4,000 Bags Valued at $4,000.
600 Are Ordered to Be
Sold,

New York, N. Y. - Attorney Gen
eral Wickersham moved against the
sO-called coffee trust, or Brazilian val
Orization scheme. In a petition in
equity, filed in the United States court
here, the v%alorization plan is declared
to be a violation Of the Sherman anti
trust law.
TIE court is asked to decree the
scheme unlawful, to enjoin the valor-
ization committee from withholding
coffee from the market and to appoint
a receiver to sell the $4,000 bags
valued at $4,000, 900. now alleged to
be stored in warehouses of the New
York dock company.
The government also applied for q
temporary injunction restraining the
valorization committee from removing
or disposing of coffee held in America,
pending the termination of the issue.
The members of the valorization
committee have agreed and conspired
among themselves, the government
charges, to withhold from the market
large quantities of coffee under their
control for the purpose Of raising the
price to an unnatural and unreason-
able extent. They have thus attempt
ed to restrain the coffee trade through
out the world, including interstate and
foreign commerce Of the United States
and ito injure and defraud the public
for their W enrichment
The suit has q distinctly interna-
tional color. The Brazilian state of
Sac Paulo, the greatest coffee district
in the world. is party to the agree.
ments which are declared unlawful in
America. The government holds that
the Brazilian state was induced to en-
act laws and enter into agreement in
connection with the valorization plan
by those interested in maintaining and
increasing the price Of coffee. The
fact that the alleged agreements and
Conspiracies were not unlawful in
Brazil and were participated in by
q foreign state, the government holds,
cannot justify the commission by any
act in the United States to restrain
trade. The defendants are:
Hermany Sielcken Of New York;
Baron Bruno Schroeder Of ]. Henry
Schroeder & Co., Of London; Edouard
Bunge of Antwerp; lie Vicomte de
Touches, of Havre; DR.. Paulo da Silva
Prado, of Sac Paulo; Theodore Willie,
of Hamburg; the Societe Generate, of
Paris, and the New York Dock Co. All
except the last named are members of
the valOrizatiOn committee.
The immediate effect of v%alorization
was to withdraw from commerce 49,
668,266 bags of coffee. says the petit
ton. The price of Rio No. 7, 1t is
pointed out, as an illustration, has
risen from w to 14N cents. an in.
crease of nearly 100 per cent.
AS the United States consumes 40
per cent of all the coffee sold In the
world. the petition declares that every
act which prevents it's importation in
normal quantities or increased prices
is a direct restraint upon foreign and
Interstate trade:
Free Sugar Bill Favored.
Washington, D. c. - The senate
finance committee authorized a favor.
able report on the Lodge sub
stitute for the house free sugar bill
and an ~unfavorable report on the SO.
called house excise income tax bill,
which proposed a tax on the incomes
In excess of $4,000 a year.
Pittsburg, May 1.-THE federal gov.
eminent filed a civil antitrust suit
against the Aluminium Company of
America, which will be the basis for
an agreed decree destined to restrain
the aluminium trust from monopolizing
Me manufacture Of aluminium and it's
products, including cooking utensils.
In a petition in equity to the United
States court for the western district
OF Pennsylvania, the company is
charged with being a monopoly re-
straining interstate and foreign com
merce in violation of the Sherman law
1t is declared to have acquired a sub
stantial control Of the aluminium In
dustry in the United States and t
have charged unreasonably high prices
and profits on it's products.
Nine lnjunctions Sought.
The dissolution Of the corporation 1.
sought, but the court is asked to issu.
nine broad i~njunctions against ALLEGED
unlawful contracts, combinations, con
spiracies and practices. The govern
ment comedies that the company
ownership of more than 80 per cent o
the known deposits Of bauxite (bas
Of aluminum) in the United State
and Canada. suitable for the MANI
faoture Of the metal is mot within
! ITSELF unlawful. It is charged, how