The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1912-05-24
COFFEE TRUST
IS ATTACKED
BRAZIL vALoRIZATIoN PLAN DE,
cLAREo TO BE VIOLATION OF
SHERMAN LAW.
PRICES NEARLYDOUBLED
Government Charges a Conspiracy
$4,000 Bags Valued at $1,000
600 Are Ordered to Be
Sold.

New York, n. Y. - Attorney Cen
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 valorization plan is declared
to be 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
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 a
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 own enrichment"
The suit has a 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 valorizatjop 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 J. 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.
Tho Immediate afsact Of
was to withdraw from commerce TO-.
S6S,266 bags of coffee, says the peti.
ton. The price of Rio No. z, it is
pointed out, as an illustration. has
risen from ~ to 14M 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 its importation in
normal quantities or increased prices
Is a direct restraint upon foreign and
Interstate trade.
Free Sugar Bill Favored.
Washington, ID. c. - The senate
finance committee authorized a favor
able report on the Lodge sub
and an unfavorable report on the SO
called house excise income tax bill
which proposed a tax on the incomes
In excess of $1,000 a year.
Pittsburg, May The federal gov.
eminent filed a civil antitrust suit
against the Aluminium Company OF
h. he hoo
an agreed decree destined to restrain
the aluminium trust from monopolizing
the manufacture OF aluminium and its
products. including cooking utensils
In a petition In equity to the United
States court for the western district
OF Pennsylvania, the company IL
charged with being a monopoly re-
straining interstate and foreign com.
merce in violation of the Sherman law
It is declared to have acquired a sub.
stantial control of the aluminium in.
dustry In the United States and to
have charged unreasonably high prices
and profits on its products.
Nine injunctIons Sought.
The dissolution Of the corporation is
sought. but the court is asked to issue
nine broad injunctions against alleged
unlawful contracts, combinations. con.
spiracies and practices. The govern
ment comedies that the company's
ownership Of more than 80 per cent of
the known deposits Of bauxite (base
Of aluminum) in the United States
and Canada, suitable for the manu-
facture Of the metal Ia mot within
ITSELF unlawful. 1t In charged. how
cONvICTS LAW