The association started with these officers: Julius J. Schotten, St. Louis, President; M.H. Gasser, Toledo, vice-president; W.E. Tone, Des Moines, treasurer, and W.J.H. Bown, St. Louis, secretary.
Meanwhile, as a result of an agitation started by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, a meeting of New York and eastern coffee roasters was called at the Fulton Club, New York, October 27, 1911, to discuss plans for a national organization. M. H. Gasser attended this meeting, and told of the plan of the western roasters to organize such an organization at a meeting called for Chicago the following month. The promoters of the eastern organization subsequently abandoned their efforts in favor of the western group.
Robert Meyer, St. Louis
First president of the Coffee Roasters' original organization
At the first convention of the National Coffee Roasters Traffic and Pure Food Association, held in Chicago, November 16–17, 1911, all the foregoing officers were retained, the office of second vice-president was created, and Frank R. Seelye was selected to fill it.
That the organization idea was popular among the roasters was evident from the fact that at the close of the convention it was announced that the membership was then seventy-one firms in cities as far east as Virginia and as far west as Kansas City. The convention demonstrated that the association was really a national organization, which quieted suspicions prevalent in some quarters of the trade in the east that it was chiefly a Mississippi Valley unit.
The first convention is remembered principally because of Hermann Sielcken's defense of the Brazil coffee valorization plan, which was then the big question of the coffee trade. The titles of some of the other addresses will serve to indicate how the scope of the association had enlarged since its organization a few months before: "An Attack on Valorization" by Thomas J. Webb, of Chicago; "Uniform Food Laws", by W.T. Jones, of New Orleans; "Penny-Change Systems," by R.W. McCreery, of Marshalltown, Ia; "Traffic and Freight Abuses," by W.E. Tone, of Des Moines; "Transportation Problems," by Carl H. Stoffregen, St. Louis; "Coffee Publicity," by F.H. Henrici, of Chicago; "Coffee Roasters' Costs and Accounting," by F.J. Ach, Chicago. The first convention proved a success, and attracted attention.
The second annual convention, held in New York, November 13–15, 1912, showed that the association had grown to a membership of 135 firms located in all parts of the country, and that its influence had extended throughout the whole trade. Valorization continued to be a much discussed subject. Hermann Sielcken and others again defending it in speeches; but the majority of the association seemed opposed to the scheme. Probably the most important feature of the convention was the report of the committee of nine men who had visited Brazil to investigate conditions there and to interest the Brazilian coffee growers in an advertising campaign. An address on this subject was made by the editor of The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, in which he suggested a plan for propaganda and advocated scientific research to find out the truth about coffee.
The election of officers resulted in the selection of F.J. Ach, Dayton, as president; Frank R. Seelye, Chicago, first vice-president; Ross W. Weir, New York, second vice-president; and Robert Meyer, St. Louis, treasurer.