Chapter XXXI: Some Big Men and Notable Achievements (2)

As is invariably the case when prices reach extreme levels, either high or low, the pendulum swung back rapidly in the other direction. Based on the unprecedentedly low prices, the so-called "cotton crowd" started what was generally known as "the southern boom". Various cotton traders in New York and the South, under the leadership of D.J. Sully, the one-time "cotton king", and ably assisted by prominent local coffee firms, became extremely active on the buying side; and by February, 1904, they had forced the price up to eleven and eighty-five hundredths cents. This figure, the highest since 1896, was reached on February 2, which proved to be another day of enormous speculative dealings, involving roundly 462,000 bags. This marked another turning point; the three succeeding days of record-breaking operations on the Exchange witnessing a break of roughly two cents. Mr. Sully went on a vacation on February 3, and the Sielcken interests sold on a large scale. Business for that day was placed at 555,000 bags, closing prices being about one-half cent lower. This brought on enormous liquidation by western bulls on the following day, approximately 500,000 bags. As a result, prices lost twenty-five to sixty-five points on a turn-over of about 642,000 bags. All records for business were smashed on the following day, February 5. The official record was 689,000 bags, but trade estimates made it more than 1,000,000 bags. On that day, southern interests liquidated heavily, causing net losses of eighty to ninety points. Doubtless the break would have been more severe had it not been for buying by the Sielcken people and several other strong interests at and below seven and one-quarter cents for September contracts.

_The Story of Valorization_

The valorization, or equalization, of coffee originated in Brazil. When the original plan was threatened with disaster, Hermann Sielcken stepped in and saved the Brazil planters from ruin; the Brazil government from possible revolution; and, incidentally, won for himself and those who were his partners in the enterprise much unenviable notoriety.

The principle of valorization is generally conceded to be economically unsound, because it encourages overproduction. And valorization in Brazil would have been a failure, had it not been for a fortuitous combination of short crops, Hermann Sielcken's genius, and the World War. Because of the lessons learned in this experience, Brazil's subsequent valorization enterprises have run more smoothly.

A rapidly increasing world demand, a wonderfully fertile soil, and cheap labor kept the Brazil coffee industry in a flourishing condition nearly to the close of 1889. Coffee consumption was increasing, especially in the United States. By April 1890, the average import price per pound of Rio No. 7 in this country was nineteen cents; and Brazil was supplying only about half our needs. Virgin soil was still available in Brazil, and immigration furnished all the needful labor. Easy profits led to increased investment and careless methods. Her planters were drunk with prosperity. For six years, nearly all the three million inhabitants of São Paulo, Brazil's largest coffee producing state, "entirely gave up planting corn, rice, beans, everything they needed. They bought them because coffee was so immensely profitable that they put all their labor in coffee."

Brazil had been going through a period of low exchange. Paper money fell below par. The exaggerated issues of it, which provoked the collapse of exchange, suddenly endowed Brazil with an abundant circulation of money. Production was enormously stimulated. New undertakings sprang up on every hand. Armies of agricultural laborers were recruited in Europe and shipped into the coffee districts. And then, to make the story short, supply passed demand, surplus stocks began to appear, prices began to fall, and fell until they dropped below the cost of production.

It was in 1896-97, when the new trees came into bearing by the tens and hundreds of thousands, that São Paulo's folly began to tell. By October of that year the price of Rio No. 7 in New York had fallen to about seven cents. The decline continued, until, in 1903, it hung around five cents. Then began the winter of São Paulo's discontent. Too late, the state government tried by taxing new coffee estates, to force the planters to raise crops to supply their own necessities. The times grew harder.

Mortgages held by large coffee houses and bankers were being foreclosed. The industry was passing into European hands. The smaller planters were becoming desperate; and desperation is only a step from revolution. The government of the state of São Paulo knew this; and to save the state, it finally promised it would buy the next coffee crop, and would hold it for the planters at such a price as would be necessary to continue the industry. The protagonists of this plan to valorize coffee were Dr. Jorge Tibiriçá, Dr. Augusto Ramos, and Dr. Albuquerque Lins.

During all the period covering São Paulo's rise and fall in coffee, the financial genius who was to lead her again into the land of plenty had been quietly acquiring a knowledge of her problems--also, the ability to make money out of their solution.

Valorization was undertaken to save the coffee industry. Its intent was good, even if the theory was bad. The scheme was not new, and there were no encouraging precedents to augur its success. The situation was desperate and seemed to justify the trial of a desperate remedy. São Paulo attempted to carry the load; but her resources were insufficient.

The bumper world crop of 19,090,000 bags in 1901-02 was followed, in 1906-07, with another extraordinary yield of 24,307,000 bags, of which Brazil alone produced 20,192,000 bags. To make good its promise to the planters, ready cash was needed; and so the São Paulo government sent a special commissioner to Europe to get it. For sixty years the Rothschilds had acted as Brazil's bankers. The commissioner went to the Rothschilds first. He was flatly refused. After that, he was turned down by practically every bank on the continent. It looked as if the bankers had entered into a gentlemen's agreement to make it unanimous. Then the commissioner bethought himself of the coffee merchants; and that thought naturally suggested Hermann Sielcken, who, singularly enough, happened to be conveniently resting at nearby Baden-Baden. In August, 1906, the commissioner waited upon Mr. Sielcken and begged his aid.

It was Sielcken's hour of triumph. For years he had been soliciting Brazil. Now the tables were turned, and Brazil was asking favors of Sielcken.

The rest of the story is best told by Robert Sloss, who wrote it for _World's Work_ from information furnished by trade authorities--and even by Mr. Sielcken, himself, in various speeches, newspaper articles, and on the witness stand. It is presented here with certain minor corrections by the author:

"Well, what do you want me to do?" asked Hermann Sielcken of the
commissioner from the state of São Paulo.

"We want you to finance for us five to eight million bags of
coffee," said the commissioner blandly.

Here was an adventure. Here was a proposition to lift bodily out of
the market half as much coffee as the world's total production had
averaged for the ten preceding years when prices had been so low.
Presumably, if this were done, prices would be doubled. But Hermann
Sielcken shook his head.

"No," he said, "there is not the slightest chance for it, not the
slightest." And then he pointed out that there would be "no
financial assistance coming from anywhere" if the São Paulo
planters kept on raising such ridiculously large crops of coffee.

The commissioner assured him that the prospect was for smaller
crops in future. Hermann Sielcken was not so sure about it "At a
price low enough," he mused, "I might be able to raise funds to pay
eighty percent on a value of seven cents a pound for Rio No. 5."

The commissioner was dismayed. His government had already promised
to take coffee from the planters at about a cent a pound above the
market, and the market then stood at nearly eight cents. The
government would have to dig to make up the difference. Hermann
Sielcken's terms were the best that could be got, however, and the
commissioner accepted them.

From that time forth Hermann Sielcken was the head of the movement.
He approached a few large coffee merchants, including his former
rivals, Arbuckle Brothers, and drew up a contract. The merchants
agreed to advance eighty percent of the sum required to buy two
million bags of coffee at seven cents a pound. If the market went
above seven cents, the government was to make no purchases. If it
fell below seven cents, the government was to make good the
difference to the merchants by cable.

Before the season was well advanced the unexpected happened. Brazil
was reaping the largest coffee harvest in the history of the world.
The two million bags of coffee purchased by the government were as
a drop in a bucket. Financed by Hermann Sielcken, Schroeder, the
great London banker, and a few prominent European merchants, the
government was forced to buy almost nine million bags. Toward the
end of 1907, the government had lifted half of the world's visible
supply of coffee, but the market stood only a trifle above six
cents a pound. The government was practically bankrupt.

Hermann Sielcken now enlisted the Rothschilds on his side, and
shifted the financial burden from the shoulders of the coffee
merchants to those of the Paris bankers and their American
associates. Then the Rothschilds imposed their conditions on the
government of Brazil. A national law was passed determining a heavy
penalty for any one who planted a new coffee tree in Brazil. The
government guaranteed that not more than mine million bags of the
next coffee crop and not more than ten million bags of any
succeeding crop should be exported.

By the end of 1911, the coffee market stood well above thirteen
cents. Here was a rise of more than one hundred percent in two
years, more than sixty percent in six months. Evidently,
valorization coffee in the hands of the bankers' committee had
become a gilt-edged security. But how?

During the five crop years since the "plan" was launched on the
heights above Baden, nearly 90,000,000 bags of coffee had been
raised in the world. The bankers' committee still held 5,108,000
bags of this. At the highest estimate, consumption had exceeded
production by only 4,000,000 bags. Here was a shortage of only a
little more than ten percent in supply as against demand, so far as
crops go. Yet there had been a rise of more than one hundred
percent in two years in the price of coffee on the New York Coffee
Exchange.... Upon the merchant's ability to deliver coffee on the
New York Coffee Exchange depends the price of coffee in the world.
That explains why the bankers' committee from the beginning refused
absolutely to sell valorization coffee on the public exchanges of
the world. In Europe, they put it up at auction; and when it didn't
go, it was bought in for them. In America, they announced in a
printed circular that valorization coffee would be sold only on
condition that the purchaser would not deliver it on the New York
Coffee Exchange.

Hermann Sielcken absolutely refused to sell coffee to the merchants
on the Exchange. Arbuckle Brothers kept on buying coffee heavily,
as if they would corner the market. They resold the coffee,
however, at private sales, exacting a written contract from the
buyer that he would not deliver the coffee on the New York Coffee
Exchange, or resell it to any one that would so deliver it. The
Coffee Exchange began an investigation, but nothing ever came of
it.

Shortly after the valorization committee had apparently cleared up
$25,000,000 in one year, the restriction as to the delivery of
valorization coffee on the New York Coffee Exchange was officially
removed. Yet neither from Hermann Sielcken nor from Arbuckle
Brothers, it is charged, could one buy any coffee to deliver for
that purpose. In 1911, coffee rose to sixteen cents per pound.

At the end, it was found that the committee's holdings had been marketed at the various sales on a basis, for Santos 4s, from eight and five-eighths cents minimum, to the final sale here forced by the United States government, at which time the price realized was sixteen and three-quarter cents for Santos 4s, and fourteen cents for Rio 7s.

The one fly in the valorization ointment was Senator G.W. Norris, of Nebraska, who early in 1911 called for a congressional investigation of the operations of the valorization syndicate, which he said was costing the American people $35,000,000 a year. The attorney-general was instructed to report as to whether or not there was a coffee trust. It was a leisurely investigation, which encountered many snags placed in its way by those who believed it would be against international policy to question too closely the participation of the Brazil government in the enterprise. Politics played no inconsiderable part in the investigation, which dragged along until May 18, 1912, when an action was begun in the Federal District Court for the southern district of New York, alleging conspiracy in restraint of trade on the part of Hermann Sielcken; Bruno Schroeder, of J. Henry Schroeder & Co.; Edouard Bunge; the Vicomte des Touches; Dr. Paulo da Silva Prado; Theodor Wille; the Société Generale; and the New York Dock Co.; also praying for injunction and receivership of the valorization coffee then stored in the United States, and amounting to 746,539 bags. The injunction was denied.

Immediately thereafter, rumors began to circulate that the government's coffee suit would never be tried. The Brazilian ambassador threatened diplomatic interference, and Attorney-General Wickersham let it be known that a friendly settlement might be effected. Sielcken boldly challenged the authorities to prosecute the case, and even seemed to invite criminal proceedings against himself. Saving the government's face, and Brazil's face, at one and the same time, proved to be a long and tedious process.

Meanwhile, Senator Norris introduced in Congress a bill designed to give the government power to seize importations of coffee when restraint of trade was proved. It was vigorously opposed by many prominent green-coffee men and roasters; but in February, 1913, it became enacted into a law. It effectively killed all future valorization schemes in so far as direct participation by this country is concerned.

About December 1, 1912, Attorney-General Wickersham accepted good-faith assurances from Mr. Sielcken's attorney--who represented also the Brazil government--and agreed that if the valorization coffee stored here was sold to bona-fide purchasers before April 1, 1913, the government's suit would be dismissed. In May, 1913, the attorney-general of the new Wilson administration, which came into office in March of that year, issued a statement saying that, good-faith assurances having been received from the Brazil government that the understanding was fulfilled in letter and spirit before the date set by the previous attorney-general, and the entire amount of coffee disposed of to eighty dealers in thirty-three cities, the suit would be dismissed.

In the United States Senate about the same time, Senator Norris renewed his attack on "the international coffee trust". He charged that the coffee sale was not as represented, but merely a transfer, and called upon the Department of Justice for the facts, with names of the alleged purchasers.

Attorney-General McReynolds, on May 7, 1913, declined to send to the Senate the official correspondence in regard to the Brazil coffee-valorization matter, because it was "incompatible with the public interests." He did, however, send other papers on the subject. The secretary of state sent copies of some correspondence; but the documents were not made public. This ended the matter, although Senator Norris called for a congressional investigation, charging that the attorney-general had been handed a "gold brick".

Sielcken contented himself with remarking that the suit was a mistake in the first place, and that it was a foregone conclusion the government would be defeated. Also, he offered $5,000 to any one who could explain the Norris bill.

Valorization, then, was started by the state of São Paulo in 1905, when a law was passed authorizing the state to enter into an agreement with the other Brazil states and the federal government for the adoption of measures which would assure the valorization of coffee and facilitate a propaganda abroad for increased consumption.

The states of São Paulo, Minãs Geraes, and Rio de Janeiro proposed, early in 1906, to withdraw from the markets such quantities of coffee as would keep down exports and maintain profitable prices. The plan comprehended the interested states borrowing about $75,000,000 from European and United States bankers with which to buy up the surplus coffee. To take care of interest and amortization, a tax of three francs per bag of 132 pounds (about 57 cents) was to be levied on all coffee exports, collectable at Santos and Rio de Janeiro. Further coffee-planting was to be checked by enforcing the law which carried a tax sufficiently high to operate toward restriction.

When it was understood that Brazil's federal government would not endorse the plan _in toto_, it was abandoned by Rio de Janeiro and Minãs Geraes. However, the state of São Paulo in the course of the next two years borrowed some $30,000,00 on its own account for valorization purposes, obtaining half the amount direct from foreign banking interests, and the remainder, through the Brazilian federal government, from London sources.

This first valorization was abandoned in favor of the Sielcken plan, which the federal government ratified in July, 1908. By this new plan São Paulo borrowed $75,000,000 from the syndicate composed of American, English, German, French, and Belgian bankers. Out of this it repaid the $30,000,000 loan. The 1908 loan was to expire in ten years, in 1919. Under the plan of the new loan, it was agreed that certain amounts of the valorized coffee should be stored as collateral in warehouses in New York and Europe in charge of a committee of seven, who were authorized to sell the coffee in the market in specified quantities and at prices that would not disturb the price of other coffees. The composition of the committee was as follows: Dr. Francisco Ferreira Ramos, of São Paulo and Antwerp; who was succeeded by Dr. Paulo da Silva Prado; the Vicomte des Touches, of Havre; the Société Generale, of Paris; the firm of Theodor Wille, of Hamburg; Hermann Sielcken, of New York; Edouard Bunge, of Antwerp; and Baron Bruno Schroeder, of J. Henry Schroeder & Co., of London.

Brazil agreed to purchase 10,000,000 bags and to hold them off the market until conditions warranted their sale. It was also agreed that the total exports of unvalorized stocks from Brazil would be restricted to 10,000,000 bags for 1907-08, and to 10,500,000 bags for 1909-10. In addition, a surtax of five francs gold per bag (96-1/4 cents) was placed on every bag exported to pay carrying charges. The management of the government's holdings was placed in the hands of the international committee. This committee issued bonds which were quickly subscribed for; and because of its efficient handling of its huge holdings, prices held steady in spite of the record-breaking Brazilian crop of nearly 20,192,000 bags in 1906-07, and a later one in 1909-10 of about 15,000,000 bags. Indeed, there was an advance of about ten dollars a bag between 1904 and 1911.

Valorization had the effect of stabilizing the Brazil market, and giving the planters and allied interests the assistance they needed to ward off the disaster that threatened them through overproduction. The United States government action in 1912 forced the sale of the valorized stocks held in this country, and the Congress passed the law making it impossible again to offer for sale in America stocks of coffee held under similar valorization agreements.

The coffee situation became so serious in 1913, that São Paulo again entered the money market for another loan, borrowing $37,500,000 through the good offices of the Brazilian federal government, following this up two years later with another loan of $21,000,000. According to a semi-official statement issued in Brazil early in 1919, the status of valorization at that time was that the first loan of $75,000,000 of 1908, had been entirely liquidated, and the two later loans were greatly reduced. At the same time, it was announced by the president of the state of São Paulo that the surtax of five frances would be withdrawn as soon as the liquidation of the loans had been completed. This surtax, however, is still in effect. In 1919, the São Paulo government proposed advancing the _pauta_, or export duty, very materially. A strong protest was made by all the exporters; and a compromise was at last effected by which the proposed increase in the _pauta_ was canceled, and the existing surtax of five francs per bag continued as an offset.

The valorization project just described was the second of its kind, a former attempt having proved a failure. At that time (1870), the Brazilian government had been a large purchaser of Rio coffee, buying it in lieu of exchange, as it had large remittances to make. The coffee was sold through G. Amsinck & Co., and it is believed that heavy losses were sustained.

Since the Sielcken valorization enterprise, the Brazilian government has promoted two more valorizations, one in 1918, another early in 1922.

_War-Time Government Control of Coffee_

The board of managers of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, Inc., had realized, late in 1917, that war-time government control of coffee trading was likely in view of the government's activities in other commodities. To guard against the danger of a sudden announcement of such action, the president of the Exchange was empowered from month to month, at each meeting of the board, to suspend trading at any time that conditions warranted; so that, when President Wilson announced, on January 31, 1918, that all dealers in green coffees were to be licensed, the Exchange was fully prepared. Trading was suspended pending further information, and owing to the farsightedness of the board of managers, all danger of a panic in the market was averted.

By 1917, the allies had stopped shipments of coffee to Germany through neighbors who had been her sole source of supply. Stocks in all the producing countries were accumulating, and São Paulo had embarked on another valorization scheme to protect her planters. The markets of Europe were entirely controlled by the governments; and the United States was practically the only free and open market. The market here was steady and without particular animation, and showed none until the end of November, 1917. At that time, speculation activities, steamer scarcity, and the steady advance in freights, became decided influences in the market; and prices began to advance.

Freights on shipments from Brazil had advanced from one dollar and twenty cents per bag early in the year to unheard-of prices; and, before the bubble burst, had reached as high as four dollars per bag. With this steadily advancing freight, speculation in coffee became more active; and prices naturally began to rise. The relative cheapness of coffee compared with all other commodities; the fact that coffee here had shown very little advance; the prospect of an early peace; the large European demand to follow; were favorite bull arguments. The market became excited; speculative buying was general, every one, apparently, wanted to buy coffee; and twenty cents per pound for Santos 4s in the near future was a common prediction.

The United States food administrator had shown his antipathy to uncontrolled exchange operations by his action on sugar, wheat, corn, and other commodities, dealt in on the exchanges; consequently, the proclamation of President Wilson regarding coffee was not a surprise to those who had been watching the situation closely, especially as on January 30, 1918 (the day before the proclamation) the president of the Coffee Exchange was summoned by telegraph to appear in Washington to discuss ways for a proper control of the article, and the best means to bring about such control. As a result of this summons, a committee of the entire trade, representing the Exchange, the green-coffee dealers and importers, the roasters, and the brokers, was appointed by the Exchange to confer with the food administrator at once, in order to work out a plan whereby the business could be kept going. After a long conference, rules agreed upon were approved that became the basis on which business was conducted until the withdrawal of all regulations regarding coffee in January, 1919. Much trade criticism followed the publication of some of these rules.

George W. Lawrence, president of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, was called to Washington on February 28, 1918, to take charge of a newly created coffee division under Theodore F. Whitmarsh, chief of the distribution division of the food administration. In this position he rendered a signal service to the trade and to his country. Although subjected to a cross-fire of criticism from many green and roasted coffee interests, he never wavered in the performance of his full duty; and his good judgment, tact, and loyalty to American ideals, won for him a high place in the regard of all those who had the best interests of the country at heart. He was ably assisted in his work by Walter F. Blake, of Williams, Russell & Company, New York; and by F.T. Nutt, Jr., treasurer of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange.

A coffee advisory board was appointed in June 1918, to serve as a go-between for the trade and the food administration. Those who served on this committee were: Henry Schaefer, of S. Gruner & Co., New York, chairman; Carl H. Stoffregen, of Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co., New York, secretary; and William Bayne, Jr., of William Bayne & Co., New York; S.H. Dorr, of Arnold, Dorr & Co., New York; A. Schierenberg, of Corn, Schwarz & Co., New York; Leon Israel, of Leon Israel & Bro., New York; Joseph Purcell, of Hard & Rand, New York; B.F. Peabody, of T. Barbour Brown & Co., New York; J.D. Pickslay, of Williams, Russell & Co., New York; Charles L. Meehan, of P.C. Meehan & Co., New York; B.C. Casanas, of Merchants Coffee Co., New Orleans; John R. Moir, of Chase & Sanborn, Boston; and B. Meyer, of Stewart, Carnal & Co., New Orleans.

Others in the trade who served the food administration during the period of the World War were George E. Lichty, president of the Black Hawk Coffee & Spice Co., Waterloo, Iowa; and Theodore F. Whitmarsh, vice-president and treasurer of Francis H. Leggett & Co., New York.

The visible supply of coffee for the United States on January 1, 1918, was 2,887,308 bags. The world's visible supply was given as 10,012,000 bags; but to be added to this were more than 3,000,000 bags held by the São Paulo government. Thus there was little reason to fear a coffee shortage. That coffee should be permitted, with this large amount in view, to run wild as to price, was certainly not the intention of the food administrator, whose purpose was to keep foods moving to the United States forces and allies, and as far as possible, to keep reasonable prices for the United States consumers. Steadily advancing prices of foods meant increasing cost of labor, general unrest, and a difficult situation to meet at a period when the situation as a whole was most critical.

Trouble for the coffee trade was imminent early in 1918, when the shipping board, backed by experts, decided, or attempted to decide, that coffee was not a food product; that no vessels could be had for its transportation; and that it must be put on the list of prohibited or restricted commodities. Mr. Hoover, however, insisted that coffee was a very necessary essential, and that tonnage must be provided for an amount sufficient at all times to keep the visible supply for the United States up to at least 1,500,000 bags of Brazil coffee; and this figure was ultimately accepted and carried out by the shipping board.

These figures, based on the deliveries of the two preceding years, and with dealers limited to ninety days stock in the country, were deemed ample to care for all requirements. It was figured that by November 1, 1918, the freight situation would be relieved to such an extent by the new vessels building, that the amount could be increased should it be found necessary. The food administration, through the war trade board, offered steamer room to importers of record of the years 1916-17 at $1.70 per bag. The first few vessels were promptly filled on a basis of nine and one-quarter to nine and five-eighths cents, c. & f., for Santos 4s, well described. About the same time, our army and navy were able to buy at eight to eight and three-eighths cents f.o.b. Santos, for shipment by their own vessels. After the first few vessels offered by the War Trade Board were filled, the trade became indifferent. The warehouses in Brazil were loaded with stocks; vessels to carry coffee were assured buyers at a fixed rate (profits limited); and, as there was no apparent reason for an advance, buyers were willing to let the producing countries carry the stock.

The last week in June brought very cold weather in São Paulo, and cables reported heavy frost. The news was not taken seriously by the trade at large. "Frost news" from Brazil was no novelty, and in the past had always been looked upon as a regular and seasonable method of bulling the market. This year, however, the frost was a fact, and the market began to move upward with surprising speed. Reports of the damage to the trees varied from forty to eighty percent. Quotations from Santos advanced two cents per pound in as many days. United States buyers were not disposed to follow the advance; offerings of steamer room were declined; and boats booked for coffee, owing to the lack of cargoes, were transferred elsewhere. Meanwhile the market continued to advance rapidly. The allies were holding the enemy, and peace prospects were brighter. From September 1 to November 15, the records of the food administration showed very small purchases. The buyers did not believe in the frost. With the news of the armistice, Brazil markets went wild; and Santos 4s, which had sold at eight and one-quarter cents in May, were quoted at twenty and one-half cents by December 10.

The food administration had decided, on February 6, 1918, after consulting the committee appointed by the Exchange, and on their advice and recommendation, to permit trading in futures on the following plan: a fixed maximum price of eight and one-half cents per pound for the spot month, with a carrying charge not to exceed fifteen points per pound for delivery for each succeeding month. Thus the price for March delivery was fixed at eight and one-half cents, while July delivery could be sold at nine and one-tenths cents; but when July arrived, it became the spot month, and eight and one-half cents was the maximum at which it could be sold.

This rule effectively stopped speculation, but failed to work out satisfactorily to the trade. Experience proved that a maximum fixed price at which coffee could be traded in would have produced much better results. Business on the Exchange followed its usual course, and the customary hedging of purchases was done by dealers. The indifference of buyers, already referred to, had resulted in a heavy decrease of the United States visible supply; and it had shrunk to 2,445,000 bags on September 1; to 2,173,098 bags on October 1; to 1,857,260 bags on November 1. Included in these amounts were at least 500,000 bags, held in New York by foreign owners, which could not be sold; and of the balance left, there was undoubtedly a liberal amount sold against on the Exchange for future delivery. By October, the situation had become acute. Dealers who had classified themselves as jobbers or importers had gone into the retail classification in order to evade the limitations of profit allowed jobbers, and were limiting their sales to lots of twenty-five bags or fewer. Dealers who had legitimately hedged their holdings were unable to buy in.

The Exchange officials showed no disposition to relieve the situation; and as all prices had reached the maximum price for every month permitted, the food administration, on November 1, 1918, ordered the liquidation of all contracts outstanding, bought or sold, by not later than November 9. This was done; and the coffee covered by such contracts was released to the trade.

The regulations governing transactions on the Exchange were withdrawn on December 5, 1918; and, after a long argument, the Exchange decided to re-open for trading on December 26, 1918. Opening transactions amounted to 25,000 bags on a basis of seventeen and one-half cents per pound or nine cents over the prices at which contracts had been liquidated. On December 28 the price had declined to fifteen and one-half cents. In the opinion of many of our best merchants, the Exchange should have been closed during the war, as it failed to be of any real service. That it was operating at a fixed price for the spot month only, made it of no value to the trade during this period. Of its loyalty to the government, and its evident desire to assist there can be no question; but its cheerful acceptance of the burdens laid upon it proved largely futile.

The action of the food administration in confining the coffee business solely to licensed dealers and to a fixed profit on actual cost; in limiting dealers to ninety days stock; and in prohibiting resales, was the cause of much unjust criticism. The regulations were based on the general rules of the food administration, and applied to coffee quite as equitably as did the regulations governing other food commodities under control and license. As a matter of fact, they were much less rigorous in some ways than the regulations applying to many other articles. For example, ninety days stock based on sales for 1916-17 was allowed on coffee. There was no other article on the food list to which this liberality was permitted. A forty to sixty days stock would probably be found to be the maximum permitted to be carried of other food products.

The general proclamation of the food administration of November 1, 1917, declared:

These general and special rules and regulations are promulgated by
the President to accomplish three principal objects, viz: 1st, to
limit the prices charged by every licensee "to a reasonable amount
over expenses and forbid the acquisition of speculative profits
from a rising market"; 2d, to keep all food commodities moving in
as direct a line as possible and with as little delay as
practicable to the consumer; 3d, to limit as far as practicable
contracts for future delivery and dealing in future contracts.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that a profit to be allowed based on "market value" for coffees was an impossibility, unless this law had been altered to allow all licensees of other commodities to share. Coffee profits were fixed by the food administration on the advice of, and with acceptance by, the coffee committee. They started too low; and were made more liberal, when the first figures were shown to be impossible. George W. Lawrence reports a conversation that he had with the food administrator on this particular subject, and that was characteristic of his broadness. Mr. Hoover said, "The coffee dealers are complaining of the profits permitted them. I want them satisfied; and if the profits are not reasonable, I shall put them where they will be. This war is not going to last always; and at its conclusion I want every American merchant in a position to be able to continue his business and be no worse off than when the war started."

Resales were prohibited, or limited to one transaction, in order to prevent an accumulation of profits, that, added to each transfer, would result ultimately in higher prices to the consumer.

The fixing of profit based on cost, and not on market or replacement value, is a thing that is impossible in normal times. Carried to the last degree, it would mean ruination; for no provision is made for declines in the market, and resulting losses. As a war measure it was inevitable, and so endured. In normal times it is like trying to make water run uphill. With a united people, it worked; but one can not have a World War always to unite the people. It has been said that government regulation of coffees caused a large increase in price to the consumer. This would be hard to prove. The trade, generally, that refused to buy at ten to twelve cents per pound because it did not, or would not believe the reports of frost damage, and thought prices too high, was frantically bidding up to twenty and twenty-two cents for 4s in March and April, 1919. According to the ideas of some enthusiasts, fifty cents was not an impossibility. Naturally such a bubble must burst eventually. Government control had nothing to do with such natural conditions as frost, or as the buyers' indifference. Expansion and inflation were in the air, and had to run their course. The year 1920 brought the aftermath; and in the deflation, coffee, with all other commodities, went down to prices far below its intrinsic value. The expected European demand did not materialize; the interior buyer was overloaded with stock; and the losses of the coffee trade in 1920 will, it is to be hoped, never be repeated.

_The Story of Soluble Coffee_

For nearly two decades, many coffee men and chemists have been seeking a soluble coffee, or dried coffee extract, that would simplify the preparation of the beverage. Thus far, all the products that have appeared on the market are somewhat deficient in aroma and in the more delicate flavors of coffee. A satisfying average cup of coffee can be prepared from the better brands; the chief advantages of which are rapidity of preparation, absence of any grounds, and uniformity of drink.

Considerable progress has been made in certain directions; enough to warrant telling here, though briefly, the story of soluble coffee to date.

Some there are among trade experts and coffee connoisseurs who maintain soluble coffee is an _ignis fatuus_; that it can never be manufactured without destroying the aromatic principle; that at best it is a delusion and a snare. Certainly, many absurd claims have been made for some of the soluble coffees on the market. However, there are others that are not without their merits; and the story of their introduction to the trade and the consuming public is entertaining and instructive.

Dr. Sartori Kato, a Japanese chemist, of Tokio, brought a soluble tea to Chicago about 1899. It was not a commercial success; but it served to bring him in touch with some coffee men and chemists, for whom he produced a soluble coffee in the same year. A company was organized to promote the product. It was called the Kato Coffee Co., and included, in addition to Dr. Kato; Fillip Kreissel, a chemist; W.R. Ruffner, a green-coffee broker; and I.D. Richheimer, a coffee roaster. Kato's soluble coffee was first sold to the public at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. The first quantity order was received from Captain Baldwin and by him used with satisfaction on the Ziegler Arctic expedition. United States patents on a coffee concentrate, and process for making the same (soluble coffee), were granted to Sartori Kato of Chicago, assignor to the Kato Coffee Co., of the same place, on August 11, 1903.

G. Washington, who was born in Belgium of English parents, and who was living temporarily in Guatemala City, invented about 1906, a soluble coffee that was made ready for the market in 1909.

The George Washington Coffee Refining Co. was organized in 1910 to put the Washington product on the market, which it did first under the name, Red E coffee. This was later changed to G. Washington's Prepared Coffee, as an alternative to Washington's Coffee Extract, a name which was favorably regarded by all except certain authorities at the national capital. Associated with Mr. Washington at the start of the enterprise were: E. Van Etten, former vice-president of the New York Central Railroad; W.J. Arkell; Bartlett Arkell, of the Beechnut Packing Co.; C.M. Warner, of the Warner Sugar Refining Co.; and Charles E. Proctor, of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.

The G. Washington Coffee Refining Company has its coffee-roasting and preparing plant in Brooklyn; but its process is a secret one, and has never been patented.

F. Lehnhoff Wyld, who was the Washingtons' family physician when they lived in Guatemala City, and with whom Mr. Washington had discussed his work in soluble coffee, duplicated the Washington product in 1913; and, with E.T. Cabarrus, he organized the _Société du Café Soluble Belna_, Brussels, Belgium, to put on the European market a refined soluble coffee under the brand name Belna.

Eight or ten United States patents have been granted on soluble coffees that have never been applied commercially.

Nowhere has soluble coffee met with such success as in the United States, where a number of brands followed the Kato and G. Washington products. Among them, mention should be made of the C.F. Blanke Tea & Coffee Company's Magic Cup, afterward Fairy Cup, and later, Faust brand, brought out in 1912; the Baker Importing Co.'s Barrington Hall Soluble Coffee, brought out in 1917; and the Charles G. Hires Co.'s brand, introduced to the trade in 1918.

It was the World War that brought soluble coffee to the front. E.F. Holbrook, formerly in charge of the coffee section, subsistence division, United States War Department, said, "The use of mustard gas by the Germans made it one of the most important articles of subsistence used by the army." Early in the war, soluble coffee was added to the reserve ration, three-quarters of an ounce being considered at first the proper amount per ration. After trying to put it up in sticks, tablets, capsules, and other forms, it was determined that the best method was to pack it in envelopes. A month before the signing of the armistice, the New York depot was notified that after January 1, 1919, the requirements of soluble coffee were to be 25,000 pounds per day in addition to quantities packed in reserve rations, bringing the total daily output to 42,500 pounds per day. Arrangements were made to have the total output of the New York zone, 40,000 pounds per day, packed in quarter-ounce envelopes, twenty-four to a sealed can.

I.D. Richheimer, promoter of the original soluble coffee of Kato and the Kato patent, organized the Soluble Coffee Co. of America in 1918, to supply soluble coffee to the American army overseas. After the armistice, the company began licensing other merchants under the Kato patent or offering to process the merchants' own coffee for them if desired.

William A. Hamor and Charles W. Trigg, Pittsburgh, assignors to John E. King, Detroit, were granted a United States patent in 1919 on a process for making a new soluble coffee. Their process consists in bringing the volatilized caffeol in contact with a petrolatum, or absorbing medium, where it is held until needed for combination with the evaporated coffee extract. The King Coffee Products Corp. of Detroit was organized in 1920 to manufacture this product, known as Minute coffee, and a coffee base for soft drinks, the latter being marketed under the name of Coffee Pep. Mr. King had believed for many years that soluble coffee was destined to solve many of the vexations of the coffee business, and had been experimenting with the idea since 1906. To facilitate his investigations, he established a fellowship at the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, in 1914, in charge of Charles W. Trigg. This chemically controlled research evolved a product which, after passing through the laboratory stage, was placed upon a small unit plan basis, and then patented. Five additional patents on the product were granted Messrs. Trigg and David S. Pratt in 1921; and all were assigned to John E. King.

Pages from the Arabian writing by Abd-al-Kâdir, photographed for this work in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris.]