Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
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N important meeting of manufac-
turers from all parts of the United
States was held in Cincinnati last week for
the purpose of forming a National Conven-
tion of Manufacturers. The avowed ob-
ject of the organization is to develop for-
eign trade, to have expositions in the South
American capitals, to urge control of the
Nicaraugua Canal by the United States and
to keep in touch with other matters affect-
ing the common interests of the manufac-
turers of this country from non-political,
non-partisan and non-sectional standpoints.
The meeting, we are pleased to say, was a
great success, but strange to say the piano
trade was not specially represented at such
an important conference.
A
HE national bankruptcy bill—a meas-
ure of considerable moment to the
business community, is now before the
United States Senate for final action, and
there is considerable prospect of its becom-
ing a law this session. It behooves every
business man who is in favor of having the
present complicated system of state bank-
ruptcy laws simplified and rendered uniform
to exert every influence with his represent-
ative in Congress to see that the bill re-
T
ceives fair treatment when it goes back to
the House for consideration of the amend-
ments made by the Senate. If this bill
becomes a law it will prevent dishonest
failures and compel impartial consideration
for all claims alike; it will punish the man
who makes a trade of fraudulent assign-
ments, or who sells out his assets for the
benefit of a favored few; it will, mean-
while, give the honest, but unfortunate
debtor, a chance to start afresh.
The absolute need of a national bank-
ruptcy system is more and more apparent
every day. To the music trade, as well as
other industries, it appeals with equal
force. For years strenuous efforts have
been made to secure legislation on this im-
portant matter, and now that the proposed
measure has reached its present stage, it is
hoped that every business man will put his
shoulder to the wheel and push it along
until it receives the President's signature.
THESTEINWAY CASE. •
ONSIDERABLE space has been oc-
cupied in the columns of the daily
papers in this city during the past week
regarding the case of Henry W. T. Stein-
way against the trustees of the corporation
of Steinway & Sons. The plaintiff alleges
that the corporation has engaged in other
enterprises than that for which it was orig-
inally formed, which he claims is detri-
mental to the interests of the stockholders.
Also he alleges many other things, which,
it seems to us, he has been unable to sub-
stantiate in the slightest degree. It occurs
to us that as the matter now stands it is
purely and simply an affair in which the
individual members of the corporation of
Steinway & Sons alone are directly inter-
ested, and it is of little consequence or in-
terest to the outside trade or public.
Therefore we must hold to our firmly es-
tablished principles of eschewing that
which relates directly to the personal affairs
of individuals in this trade. We may add,
however, that some of the plaintiff's claims
appear utterly absurd, and in the business
light of to-day have a decidedly ridiculous
tinge. To any one of even ordinary intel-
ligence the fact has long been apparent
that the European artists surely did not
work without compensation, and for Henry
Steinway to allege that expenditures relat-
ing to the employment of musicians were
unjust and did not properly belong to the
corporation of Steinway & Sons, seems
peculiarly absurd. Upon reading the re-
ports in the papers during the past week
we are much impressed with the idea that
the plaintiff in this matter has a long cher-
C
ished grudge against his uncle William,
and that he is using the court in this city
as a vehicle on which to parade his peculiar
allegations..
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DOLGE'S IDEA OF NATIONALIZING THE
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.
HE speech delivered by Mr. Alfred
Dolge at the twenty-sixth annual
reunion of his employees, in Dolgeville, N.
Y., was a notable one in every respect, and
we take much pleasure in presenting it in
full to our readers in this issue of THE
T
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Aside from an able review of the busi-
ness situation for the past twelve months,
and its bearing upon the industries of
Dolgeville, Mr. Dolge puts forth what we
consider a feasible plan for the ultimate
solution of the wage problem. Mr. Dolge
is not a theorist in any sense of the word.
He has had a wide and extensive experi-
ence—practical and thorough—and his opin-
ions upon economic questions are the re-
sult of earnest and conscientious study. In
fact, his views upon these subjects have
been received with the respect due an
authority by thinkers at home and abroad.
In his speech Mr. Dolge advocates the
establishment of a National Labor Insur-
ance and Pension Fund—a broad applica-
tion of the insurance system which has
been in successful operation in the Dolge-
ville factories for twenty years, and which
has lately been adopted by the firms of
Daniel Green & Co., and the C. F. Zim-
mermann Co.
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He is of the opinion that if all employers
woiild set aside a fraction of i per cent, of
the wages they pay, just as they set aside
a much larger percentage for their profit
and loss or wear and tear accounts, a fund
would be created which, if paid to the
Federal Government, would insure workers
a guarantee that in the later days of their
life they would not become a public charge
•upon the State, or die of starvation.
When Mr. Dolge makes this statement,
he is not simply theorizing. He has the
advantage of being able to point to a prac-
tical application of the system. The na-
tionalizing of this plan would result in in-
suring wage-earners that degree of cer-
tainty as to their future, which the em-
ployees of the Dolgeville factories enjoy
to-day. As Mr. Dolge very clearly shows,
"the adoption of this system would effect-
ually disperse Socialism and Populism,
both standing menaces to progressive civ-
ilization," and would make better citizens
without in the least interfering with indi-
vidual development. It would, further-
more, in our opinion, engender a spirit of
patriotism among the working classes, and.