The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-12-15
Every 1e a Pound
Coffee Price Hike
Cost $40 Million

| w dSliinBIOil I'LL n D-AiI OD- scdl
old retired government clerk got
his annuity check the morning of
Dec. /, cashed it at the corner bank,
and went into the nearest chain
store to buy some eggs and Bord-
ems coffee.
AS he told it to Sen. Guy Gillette
Cd, Iowa), he walked to the coffee
shelf found the clerk marking out
the 42c price on the jars, and sub
stituting sic. "My annuity doesn't
change, but that's a pretty steep
price change for coffee sitting on
the shelf" he told Gillette, whose
subcommittee is investigating the
recent steep rise in coffee prices.
The elderly man, who volunteered
to appear, presented the coffee jar
top as evidence"
A Washington housewife sent in
a can Of coffee from another local
supermarket, with four price
stamps on it-markups from 55cI
to 60c while the can rested on the
shelves.
For every cent that coffee prices
are raised nationally, it's costing
the US consumers $20,000,0c0, Sen.
Gillettee pointed out.
As the subcommittee, and its
counsel, Paul Hadlick, tried to get
at the bottom of the sudden scar
ing coffee prices, the evidence
pointed more and more to manipul-
alton of the coffee market either
by the Latin-American coffee-pro-
ducing governments represented
in the Pan-American coffee Bureau,
or to some smart spectators in the
US who bought big hunk of the
coffee supplies, at low prices, and
then spread the "scare" that sup
plies would be short.
The Pan-American Coffee Bur
eau may be in effect a cartel, con-
trolling flow of supplies and prices
of coffee, Hadlick speculated. The
subcommittee has asked spokesmen
for the Bureau to meet with them,
but the attorney for the Bureau
claims diplomatic immunity" for
it's members.
Meanwhile, though, questioning
of government experts brought out |
this;
THE rumored failure" of the
Brazil crop, major source of coffee,
is simply untrue. The US Embassy |
in Rio de Janiero cabled in Nov
ember that it hazards forecast |
that 1850 harvest will exceed 1949 |
by one-half million to 100000
bags"
"A report from Nicaragua re-
ceived by the Commerce Dept in
dicated that the sudden near-doub-
ling of coffee prices this past fall
was "unanticipated." In fact, a
major part of the Nicaraguan crop
mad already been sold at the earlier
ow prices.
3-There already has been a drop
in coffee buying in retail stores,
to the counsel for the
Retail Food Merchants Associa-
ion, and Commerce Dept market
ng experts pointed out that fur
her drop can be expected as house
wives turn to cheaper beverages,
ea, cocoa and the like. |.
4-President John C. Gardner of Is
he New York Coffee and Sugar. Is
Sxchange-the only such agencyl Is
n this country-blamed housewife Is
boarding for the continued rise of 5
'etail coffee prices. He indicated &
hat restaurant owners and indi-
'iduals were buying three and four
months stock of coffee. Counsel s
1adlick pointed out that this was 8
since the average family
sed about a pound a week, and 8
here were no evidences of buying >
n 15-or- 20-pound quantities. &
5-Newspapers were also blam- :
d by Gardner, though he conceded 4
hat the big advertisements taken y
Y the Pan American Coffee Bur- 4
au in the daily press might have y
elped start the splurge of scare 4
tories. Pan-American's advertis- 8
no. budget in the LIS i'm 1913. Had