The pioneer express., 1912-05-24
COFFEE TRUST
IS ATTACKED
BRAZIL vALoRlzArioN PLAN be.
cLARED TO BE VIOLATION OF
SHERMAN LAW.
PRICES NEARLYDOUBLED
Government Charges Conspiracy
$4,000 Bags Valued at $4,000.
600 Are Ordered to Be
Sold.

WV NTS OVOSC0O 10 90
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 valorization plan is declared
to be violation of the Sherman anti.
trust law.
The 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 $10,0O0,000, 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 valorizatiop plan
by those interested in maintaining and
increasing the price of coffee. The
fact that the alleged agreements and
conspiracfes were not unlawful in
Brazil and were participated in by
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.
The immediate effect of valorization
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 TX to 14A 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 direct restraint upon foreign and
Interstate trade.
Free Sugar Bill Favored.
Washington, D. G. - The senate
finance committee authorized favor.
able report on the Lodge SUBJ
stitute for the house free sugar bill
and an unfavorable report on the So
called house excise income tax bill,
which proposed tax on the incomes
in excess Of $4,000 year.
Pittsburg, May THE federal gov
ernment filed 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
the 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 sub.
stantial control of the aluminium in
dustry in the United States and to
have charged unreasonably high prices
and profits on it's products. F
| Nine lnjunctions 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 IL mot within
ITSELF unlawful. It IL charged. how
| CONvICTs LAW LEAGUE