The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-05-15
BRAZIL STRIKES BACK.

Not long ago tho Government dis
missed its suit brought in tho Fed
eral courts TO force the sale of large
quantity Of Brazilian coffee which was
held by the Coffee Trust under the
valorization scheme adopted in Brazil,
| That scheme contemplated the creation
of an artificial scarcity of coffee, part
" by destroying some OF the surplus
of the excessive coffee crop of last
year, and partly by withdrawing from
the market some hundred thousand bags
of coffee which was held in New York
for the use of the Coffee Trust. Dur
ing the process of the litigation the
Trust managed to Hqwdate its coffee
obligations, and this reserve lot of cof-
fec was taken up by the market under
inducements offered by the Trust; so
that there being no reason for the pros
ecution of the suit on the coffee re-
serve, it was dropped.
But the aftermath comes from Bra.
zil Valorization was essentially meant
to help the Brazilian coffee planters, and
the Brazilian government. in pursuance
of much despised sort Of "dollar di-
plomacy'' or financial protection Of its
own citizens. resents the prosecution
made in the United States, That re-
sentiment takes the form Of terminating
the thirty per cent differental in fa-
vor of American millers who had been
exporting to Brazil some S3,OQO.0oo
worth OF -four each year, and the same
ditfcrontial on other customs duties af
fecting American exports will also be
dropped. Embassador Domicio da Cana
Of Brazil has given official notice 10
our administration Of the determina-
tion of his government to terminate
these differentials in favor Of Amerl-
can imports to Brazil. He has held sew
eral conferences with tho State De.
partmont on this matter without result,
aud finally gave the official notice which
his government required.
1t is stated that by reason Of this
termination of the difrerentials in IA.
vor of American exports to Brazil,
Argentina will get the flour trade Of
Brazil, and that our trade in other
respects with that country will be cut
woefully short.
1t has been the effort Of American
business men and manufacturers for
a great many years to cultivate the
South American trade and extend it,
but our unhappy prosecution of the
valorization scheme, which was a pet
measure of Brazil's. is likely to cost
us very dear. And while upon the
subject Of these prosecutions, il may
be as we'll to say again, as we have
stated many times before, that there
has been absolutely no public advan-
tage gained by any of them. Tie most
spectacular was the prosecution of the
Standard Oil Trust, which was sue
cessful, The result was the raising Of
the price of oil and gasoline, although
the suit was successful in breaking
the trust up into a number OF smaller
trusts that all work in concert, The
same was true of the successful suit
against the Tobacco Trust. And so
1t has been in all of the trust suits.
And the complaint is. all the time,
that the cost of living is getting dearcr
and dearer, and that the trusts are
getting frmer and stronger hold upon
the markets than ever before. Evi.
IDENTIFY the best way of handling trusts
has not yet been found 10 the United
States There is something lacking in
our procedure, and we shall have to
pattern upon other nations. which seem
TO do better than we in the handling
of mouopolies and trusts, Germany
seems TO be about the most successful
not only in building up these trusts.
but in handling them to public advau-
tage; and perhaps finally we shall have
to adapt German legislation on this
subject to our own needs.