GREAT LIBEL ACTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 256, 26 October 1907, Page 13

GREAT LIBEL ACTION.

NEWSPAPER CLAIMS £150,000 FROM CEKEiL FOOD COMPANY. A libel action in which enormous damages—namely £150,000—are claimed, will shortly be heard in New York, and is attracting enormous attention. With quite a reversal of the common order of libels •the plaintiffs lire newspaper proprietors, the owners of "Collier's Weekly." the defendants being one of the biggest advertising firms in America, the Postum Cereal Company, manufacturers of "Grape Nuts" and "Postum Coffee." The action has tome about thioush n notice regularly issued by "Collier's Weekly' , to the effect that they decline to insert advertisements of a questionable character. A reader drew their attention to the fact that an advertisement Ul their pages claimed that "Grape Nuts" obviated mc necessity of an operation for appendicitis. Very lively correspondence followed. The Postum Company took away their advertisements, and "Collier's" described the foods sold by them as "fakes," and the medicinal virtues claimed for them as "deadly lies." Thereupon Postum published an advertisement far and wide, in which they said: When a journal wilfully prostitutes its columns to try and harm a reputable manufacturer in an effort to force him to advertise it is time the public Uuew the facts. "Collier's," or any other liar, cannot force money from us by such methods." The advertisement, it appears, was written by the head of the Cereal firm him- ! self, Mr C. \V. Post, who is a millionaire. I "Collier's" at once wrltted him and his i company, clalmiug the amount stated. Mr : Post has declared that he v?ill fight to a ! finish, and means to writu much more piquant things about "Collier's" than the advertisement that lias brought about tie action.