Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
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EDWARD LYMAN
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East 14th St.. New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage) United States and
Canada. $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts. special dis-
count is allowed.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
tw made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Bntered at tfu New York Post Office as Second Cla ,s Matter.
"THE BUSINESS MAN'S PAPER."J
WHAT CONSTITUTES JOURNALISM.
T would not require the rays of Roent-
gen to show that the interior affairs of
trade are much improved over the week so
recently laid to rest. The trade back bone
has materially stiffened—there is an en-
largement of the vertebrae which is parti-
cularly emphasized in certain localities.
The Wheelock crash has not brought in its
wake the attendant dislocations which many
thought that the trade body proper would
suffer. However, the trade vaticinations
are not all fulfilled, as there are a few
counties remote from Edisonian connection
yet to be heard from.
There is, in strict reference to the Whee-
lock collapse, but little to report beyond
which was presented in these columns last
week.
Receiver' Wiliiam Foster has nothing
to say beyond giving the bare de-
tails which have been previously an-
nounced. Perhaps the most comprehensive
statement of the whole matter, in refer-
I
ence to the various companies involved, was
presented in THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW of
last Saturday. Aside from the accurate
statement made in our reportorial columns,
there was an editorial which assuredly must
have struck a responsive chord in the trade,
if we are permitted to judge from the many
letters of a semi-congratulatory nature
which we have received anent our remarks
on the one great happening of the week.
When letters are sent to a paper under no
seal of privacy they are in a sense newspa-
per property, and we cannot give good rea-
sons why we should not publish the sub-
joined.
"Your editorial on the Wheelock collapse
was most excellent. You showed a fairness
in handling the subject which must have
commended itself to all readers. The trade
papers, as far as I have seen, have exhibited
a lamentable weakness in this matter. They
have seemed afraid to go into the matter at
length. On such an occasion the trade has
a right to expect something from its news-
paper exponents beyond the mere recording
of news. . . THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
did not fail; it proved itself, in the broadest
sense, ' the business man's paper.' "
Another writes: "Thanks to goodness,
one paper has an editorial opinion to ex-
press upon an important happening. THE
MUSIC TR^DE REVIEW resembles the Herald
in its reportorial columns, while its editorial
utterances make it the Sun of trade journal-
ism. "
Thanks, gentlemen of the trade, and
thanks once again. You will find that this
paper will never fail to deal in an exhaust-
ive manner with events of great moment
to its readers. It will always be fair and
just. It will by its policy hold to its sup-
port all fair and liberal minded people. It
will never become a journalistic nonentity.
It will always strive to be a live force, pen-
etrating with cathodic rays the darkest
spots in the trade. The time will never ar-
rive when we will be willing to sidetrack a
fair expression of opinion, for personal feel-
ings of any nature. This paper always has
a duty to perform to its constituency, and
it will loyally carry out its mission. In
hewing to the line, if the chips fly unpleas-
antly, what then ? Once upon a time that
Nestor of American journalism, Charles A.
Dana, remarked of his paper, '' That it was
first of all a religious paper, because it was
bound by religious obligations to the truth
and its own convictions." We are free be-
cause the truth makes us free. We are in-
dependent because our only master is our
own conscience.
shortly give way to a new order of things.
We refer to the fact that certain men think
that music trade papers have no right t a
publish trade news, if it is of a personal
nature, without first consulting the wishes
of the parties mentioned. This condition
has arisen from the fact that the papers
have been run, as a rule, upon narrow
lines. Some men have believed that
music trade papers have had no right to pub-
lish news simply because it was distasteful
to them; that they should first be con-
sulted ; that suppose it is news, their feel-
ings must be first considered. Such a
course has had the direct effect to warp
and contract the policy of music trade
papers. Some men complain of trade
papers, and yet they are doing all in their
power to weaken their mission and lessen
their influence. Imagine Mr. Bennett, Mr.
Pulitzer or Mr. Dana first consulting the
wishes of McKinley or Tom Reed as to the
publication of some inner workings of
their campaign to win the nomination for .
the Presidency.
A paper, be it trade or secular, is a pub-
lic vehicle for the conveyance of news
matter. Who can dispute that in the con-
veying of legitimate news, a paper is only
fulfilling its proper functions ? An inci-
dent to mind, the recent publication of the
proposed Decker Bros. sale. It has been
known for some time that Mr. W. F.
Decker was desirous of retiring from the
piano field. A deal which considered the
disposition of the Decker business was
under consideration. A paper in New
York came out with the details of the
proposed sale, thereby terminating tempo-
rarily the negotiations then fairly under
way.
Was the course of the Courier unjust ?
We say unhesitatingly from a strictly jour-
nalistic standpoint its course was justified.
The matter which it presented to readers re-
lated to an important house. A great deal
was proposed; the members of the trade
were interested.
From a strictly personal view, was it
right to give an undesirable publicity to
certain matters, injuring greatly the
chances of an early conclusion of a dispo-
sition (M the Decker property ? If the
Courier had considered^ the interests of
W. F. Decker ahead of its functions as a
purveyor of news, then it should not have
given publicity to private affairs at such
an inopportune time.
Again, it is not impossible that the edi-
tor of the Courier believed that the editor
of a local trade paper was in the deal to the
extent of interesting Cincinnati parties.
While writing of trade papers, there
Of course, there are many ways of view-
comes to mind a condition which must ing the matter, but journalism shoul