NO INJUNCTION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 111, 11 May 1923, Page 7

NO INJUNCTION

SUGAR SPECULATION IN

AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE APPEALS.

(UNITED FRESS ASSOCIATION.—COFXMQIT.)

(AUSTRALIAN - NEW CBALAND CAILS ASSOCIATION.) NEW YORK, 9th May. ■,

. The Federal Court refused to grant an injunction to prevent sugar speculation. The Department of Justice will appeal.

The Department of Justice, which con-ducted-investigations into the sugar situation filed with the Federal Court, New York, a petition in equity against the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange and the New York Coffee and Sugar Clearing Association, asking the Court to enjoin the defendants from engaging in combination and conspiracy in reBtraint of trade in-raw and refined sugar. The petition and charges were theTesult of fictitious transactions in raw. and refined sugar. The price to the consumer had increased over two dollars per 1001b since 7th February, speculative operations being carried on for the sole purpose of unduly enhancing prices. The petition asked for perpetual enjoinment of the defendants from conducting any transaction involving the purchase, sale, or delivery of sugar, unless the person purporting to make the sale actually possessed a supply of sugar. The petition recited the figures of sugar production during the past year, and summarised the actual sugar trade conditions from 7th February, stating that there existed during this period no economic justification for the sudden or appreciable increase in price, or for any increase, but an orgy of speculation in raw sugar indulged in through the instrumentality of the exchange and clearing associations, After the injunction was first sought, housewives throughout large parts of the United States instituted a boycott with the object of bringing down the price of 6ugar, and, according to a cablegram received this week, have been largely successful.