January 5, 1977

We Need A Boston Coffee Party

Are we ready for a Boston coffee party?

The patriots in New England a bicentennial ago expressed their displeasure with the high price of tea by dumping a boat load of the stuff into the sea.

It got results, but brought on our first war.

Americans are in a mood once again for drastic action, and the sudden rise in the price of coffee to $3 or more a pound may trigger a world trade war.

It is certain that a few puffs of hot air in Washington D. C. are not going to de-inflate American's favorite brew.

As of yore, determined citizen action will be necessary to stop the gouging that drives up the price of many essential or highly desirable products.

Coffee is just the latest of a long line of trade items that thrive on artificial scarcity.

The Brazilians and Venezuelans - who grow most of the popular breakfast coffee - assert the shortage is caused by a severe frost at the start of the last growing season.

I bought this explanation until last week when a missionary from South America denied there was a frost of sufficient severity to justify a doubling of the cost of coffee in one year.  My reporter is home for the holidays and soon will be returning to his post.  Thus, his name and that of the country in which he is stationed must remain confidential.

He states categorically that Venezuela two months ago dumped "millions of pounds" of coffee into the sea.  There is only one conclusion to such an act - a deliberate maneuver to drive up the price of coffee.

While coffee in the United States soars above the $3 mark, the price in Brazil is just 50 cents a pound.

My minister observer does not believe, and I do not believe, that coffee beans cost $2.50 a pound to ship a relatively short distance to America.  Airlines will carry it in small packages for less.

It will be remembered that the Philippines created an artificial shortage of sugar a few years ago and drove the price out of sight.

American housewives simply stopped buying sugar.  We discovered we didn't really need to have our food saturated with sweet.  Alarmed at the changing taste of Americans, the Philippines relented and now lets its principal product flow to market in a larger - but still controlled - quantity.

Cocoa, the base of chocolate, is tightly controlled, and the two-bit candy bar now is equivalent to the nickel bar of old.

More and more world nations that have a monopoly on an important product are learning how to restrict production and dribble out the quota at high prices.

We scream at the cynical manipulation by the Organization of Petroleum Exportation Countries of the supply and price of oil.  Yet, this is but one of scores of man-made monopolies of trade items.  It is interesting to note that it was Venezuela - not the Arab nations - that created OPEC and still quietly manages its policies.

Whether it is a cartel that hits the headlines, or some of the older ones such as diamonds, pineapples, dye, chrome, bananas, or tin- consumers pay more than they should.

Things that come out of the earth are so critical to our industrial economy that we grit our teeth and pay the tribute.

Things that grow on the earth, however, are vulnerable to consumer resistance.  Food stuffs decay in relatively short order.  A boycott of one growing season - if steadfast - is enough to bring greedy commodity brokers to heel.

Last spring a commodity broker in California called prospects offering to turn a $10,000 investment in coffee futures into a $50,000 fortune in six months.  The fix was in, and insiders got rich at the expense of you and me.

American farmers have several near-monopolies - meat, wheat, soy beans - in great demand by a hungry world.  Yet the American farmer - and his government - refrains from doing to others what they do to us.

If we had the same morals as the coffee brokers, or the cocoa manipulators - and if Congress would conspire to share the profits - our farmers could get rich quick.

Instead, we hold our farmers to moderate (or low) profit; and on top of this we subsidize their out put in many instances with general tax funds to keep food prices artificially LOW.

It doesn't appear to make much sense to pay high price to a cartel abroad while maintaining low reciprocal prices with American tax money.

It is about time our government addressed itself to international black mail.  Countries that permit cartels should pay a premium for the essential products mined and grown in the United States.

Backing it up should be an outraged citizenry willing to dump luxury overboard and change our habits.

Bring on the war-paint and feathers!

Author: Lindsey Williams