en
years. At the end, Sielcken took over the Woolson property at a price
considerably lower than originally paid for it. In 1919, the Woolson
Spice Co. brought suit against the Sielcken estate, alleging a loss of
$932,000 on valorization coffee sold to it by Sielcken just after the
federal government began its suit in 1912 to break up the valorization
pool in the United States. The Woolson Spice Co. paid the "market
price", as did the rest of the buyers of valorization coffee; but it was
charged that Sielcken, as managing partner of Crossman & Sielcken, sold
the coffee to the Woolson Spice Co., of which he was president, "at
artificially enhanced prices and in quantities far in excess of its
legitimate needs, concealing his knowledge that before the plaintiff
could use the coffee, the price would decline." Sielcken collected for
the coffee sold $3,218,666.

When the United States government crossed lances with Sielcken in 1912
over the valorization scheme, it looked for a time as if he would be
unhorsed. But men and governments were all the same to Sielcken; and at
the end of the fight it was discovered that not only was he
undefeated--for the government never pressed its suit to conclusion--but
that his prestige as king and master mind of the coffee trade had gained
immeasurably by the adventure.

Hermann Sielcken typified German efficiency raised to the nth power. He
was a colossus of commerce with the military alertness of a Bismarck.
His mental processes were profound, and his vision was far-reaching. He
was a resourceful trader, an austere friend, a shrewd and uncompromising
foe. Physically, he was a big man with a bull neck and black, piercing
eyes. His policy in coffee was one of blood and iron. He brooked no
interference with his plans, and he was ruthless in his methods of
dealing with men and governments. Usually silent and uncommunicative,
occasionally he exploded under stress; and when he did so, there was no
mincing of words. He knew no fear. Newspaper criticism annoyed him but
little; and he had a kind of contempt for the fourth estate as a whole,
although he knew how to use it when it suited his purpose. He avoided
the limelight, and never courted publicity for himself. Socially he was
a princely host; but few knew him intimately, except perhaps in his
native Germany.

Sielcken's widow was married in New York, February 11, 1922, to Joseph
M. Schwartz, the Russian baritone of the Chicago Opera Company.