Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1896 Vol. 23 N. 1

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
i
the trade opinion is that they are men
who, clearly, were not entitled to encounter
grievous business disaster.
With such a magnificent showing of as-
sets, it will only be a question of a short
time, in our opinion, before the companies
LYMAN
will all have resumed business. If their
Editor and Proprietor.
creditors were all merchandise creditors,
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
the matter of an extension could be easily
arranged, but we think that the banks upon
3 East 14th St.. New York
an
investigation will not stand in their
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage) United States and
Canada, $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
own light, and will also favor granting such
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts » special dis-
extension as the members of the corpo-
count is allowed.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
rations may deem it expedient to ask.
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Money is the merchandise of banks and
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second-Mass Matter.
when the wheels of industry are stopped
there
is no need of banks. They furnish
NEW YORK, JULY 25, 1896
the necessary oil to industry, but if the
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. — EIGHTEENTH STREET.
machinery is not running what need of oil?
••THE BUSINESS MAN'S PAPER."
We believe, too, that on the part of the
members of the Hallet & Davis corporations
there will be no concessions asked from
their creditors in the matter of a remis-
sion of a part of their indebtedness. We
have no doubt but that they will ask only an
opportunity in the way of time in which to
recuperate and realize upon their assets to
pay dollar for dollar of their indebtedness
in full with interest.
It is impossible at this early writing to
tell just what action the creditors may take
or how they may view the corporation's
affairs, but as business men they must re-
solve upon a sensible course of procedure.
The Hallet & Davis piano may be prop-
erly termed one of the landmarks of the
piano industry of this country. The in-
struments bearing the name of Hallet &
THE FAILURE OF THE HALLET & DAVIS Davis have found a wide clientele of pur-
chasers and the corporate name in itself
CORPORATIONS-CAUSES.
constitutes a valuable trademark which
E cannot recall the immersion of
will under no circumstances be permitted to
any firm or corporation in financial
lapse into disuse.
difficulties in recent years wherein there
The failure of the parent house in Bos-
has been so much genuine sympathy and
general regret expressed as in the unfortu- ton was the direct outcome of the succumb-
nate position in which the assigned Hallet ing of the Chicago branch, which failure
must be attributed to the dullness of the
& Davis corporations are now placed.
times,
and the difficulty which was en-
This feeling of regret is not generated
by the belief that it may react upon other countered to raise money to meet maturing
houses in the matter of a curtailment of obligations.
No one realizes more than the business
discounts, but is one of real sympathy for
men
of to-day how difficult it is to financier
the members of the corporations who have
always stood for that which is highest and commercial institutions in these troublous
best in all their commercial dealings with times. It has not been one year of dull
manufacturers—with the supply men— times, but we are now on our fourth,
with dealers and with the retail purchasers. because it was three years ago last June
Mr. Cook, Mr. Kim ball and their associ- when the panic first struck us. Since that
ates are men who by their rigid adherence time the manufacturer and the business
to the principles of right and honor have man has had in many cases insurmountable
won for themselves the unbounded respect obstacles to overcome.
It seems to us while studying the causes
of the entire trade, and to them at this
critical period it must be in a large sense which were influential in producing this
gratifying to know that the consensus of latest music trade collapse we must not
W
I
overlook the fact that the recent so-called
Democratic Convention in Chicago promul-
gated doctrines which were anarchistic and
revolutionary in sentiment. They went, too,
a step further in their announced repudi-
ation of honest indebtedness. Such doc-
trines scattered broadcast could have only
one effect upon the great financial interests
of this country--that of a contracting of com-
mercial credits and a close curtailment of
discounts.
Banking institutions were influenced al-
most at once, showing how susceptible
they are to politico-financial matters.
If we recollect, shortly after the Tillman-
Altgeld Convention there was threatened a
panic in New York. Chicago bankers also
became alarmed and began to "call loans."
To particularize: The day before the Hal-
let & Davis Chicago assignment Mr. May-
nard, the secretary of that company, was
asked to pay a "call loan" of nearly ten
thousand dollars, which naturally he could
not just at that time meet. Rather than
to have an attachment issued against the
assets in the store, which would prevent
him doing business, he would much prefer
an assignment, which was almost imme-
diately made.
Thus we see brought home to us with
fearful reckoning, the direct result of the
populo-anarchistic repudiation of half of our
indebtedness by the exaltation of an ille-
gitimate dollar in an unlimited sense as a
legal tender.
With such facts before them—with such
unmistakable illustrations of the effect
of lack of confidence, and the scattering
abroad of distrust, some men are so con-
tracted in their views of life that they say
a trade paper has no business to meddle in
the affairs of politics. While we think a
trade paper is essentially a business me-
dium yet we feel that it is fulfilling its
noblest duty when it can best support the
interests of the men who make its life pos-
sible by the open advocacy of those beliefs
which tend towards the betterment of our
commercial affairs by the upbuilding of con-
fidence in our Governmental affairs, which
must necessarily mean confidence in our
local business affairs. For what after all
is oUr Government but a great business
institution, whose purpose it is to collect
and to distribute the revenues—to maintain
consular, postal and other services for the
people; always for the people, we cannot
lose sight of that fact, therefore when its
affairs are in doubt, when its very safety
is jeopardized, when the bonds of the Silver
states are going begging, does it not have
a reflex action upon every business insti-
tution in America?'
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
It might have a different effect were it
not for the fact that we are a credit nation.
We are a credit people; in fact, take the
whole business of the world, place it on a
cash basis, and according to statisticians it
would be two per cent, of the present vol-
ume.
What business man would be satisfied
with doing two per cent, of the business
which he is now doing? He might as well
run a peanut stand and be done with it.
Now what gives this credit? What is
the real backbone of the credit ?
Nothing but confidence.
A belief on the part of the party who
sells money or merchandise, that the one
to whom he sells will pay on the terms
agreed upon. That confidence once re-
moved and it is all chaos and uncertainty.
It is the willingness to live up to busi-
ness contracts—the desire to fulfill them to
the minutest particular—that breeds confi-
dence.
In our opinion the failure of the Hallet
& Davis companies is the direct outcome
of the sentiments promulgated at the Chi-
cago Convention.
Sow the wind and we reap the whirlwind.
In another portion of the paper we pre-
sent a detailed account of the failures as
at present reported.
Some may question the wisdom of the
Hallet & Davis principals in the matter
of the establishment of the Chicago branch,
in the conduct of which such a vast amount
of money was necessary.
Let us ask, what business man, no mat-
ter how keen, how logical his deductions,
could plan for such an unprecedented de-
pression and genera] business shrinkage
as we have suffered and are now enduring ?
Had trade returned to even its normal
condition it would have been different.
The Hallet & Davis Co. had for many
years an outlet for hundreds of pianos per
year with the W. W. Kimball Co. When
that firm entered the domain of piano man-
ufacturing, naturally the Boston company
had to look elsewhere for their outlet.
They had to create an outlet. Not satisfied
with their temporary arrangements they de-
cided upon a move which they deemed
best for their business advancement.
To attribute any part of their disaster to
the fact that they manufactured a cheaper
piano is as erroneous as the statement is
false. Hallet & Davis did not manufac-
ture what may be properly designated as
a cheap piano. They manufactured some
instruments with a plainer case than the
majority of their styles, which considerably
reduced the cost of the instruments. This
in order to cater to a trade which would
have otherwise gravitated elsewhere.
This plan, however, has been adopted by
others and found successful, and it is in-
deed to be regretted that a trade paper
takes such a time and opportunity for the
dissemination of false ideas regarding the
manufacturing department of their busi-
ness.
The Hallet & Davis piano has lived
many years, enjoying a magnificent repu-
tation, and will live to occupy an exalted
place in musico-industrial affairs long after
the writer of this has solved the problem
of future existence.
#
#
£ The news service of THE REVIEW today
is perhaps the best in its history. We aim
to get all the news, the latest news, and it
is not often that THE REVIEW is "scooped. "
Again, the manner in which we serve it
up to our readers seems to be approved.
Take the Pacific Coast States and we pre-
sent an excellent rdsume of the trade in
that locality weekly. Our Western corre-
spondence covers the middle States in the
West, while the home office attends to
Eastern affairs.
Notwithstanding the depressed times
THE REVIEW has not slackened in its en-
deavors to prove itself more than ever a
purveyor of reliable news, and in the tru-
est sense the "business man's paper."
#
#
The speech made by Geo. L. Johnson at
the Stieff annual picnic is reproduced in
another portion of this paper. It is well
worthy of perusal. Mr. Johnson not only
seems to have grasped the politico-finan-
cial situation, but he shows by his speech
that he is amply qualified to talk enter-
tainingly upon the subject.
#
#
It was on July 20th, 1879, when this
publication first saw light. It was not
at its inception a purely trade publica-
tion ; it carried the regular musical attach-
ment, which by the way was thrown over-
board long years ago, and it became the
first exclusive music trade paper in Amer-
ica. It has grown and developed with the
years and we cannot call to mind just now
a single publication which carries a greater
weight, nor wields more influence in th e
trade affairs of this country than this self-
same Music TRADE REVIEW. Our opinion
in this matter is not unsupported.
#
#
Robert A. Widenmann is a Democrat,
but "Fighting Bob" says that he cannot
support the Chicago platform adopted by
the men who have stolen the title of De-
mocracy. He presided at the meeting of
the Democratic Reform Organization held
in this city Wednesday night in which re-
solutions were passed condemning the prin-
ciples advocated by the Chicago Conven-
tion and advocating the placing of a sound
money Democrat in the field as a candidate
for the Presidency.
#
#
Our "Specialty Talk" this week is with
Mr. Ludwig Cavalli. Mr. Cavalli ranks as
one of the best wool experts of America,
and his talk is not only entertaining but
instructive as well.
FERDINAND MEYER, formerly manager of
Chickering & Sons, New York warerooms,
who is having a most enjoyable vacation on
the European Continent, will leave for home
on Sept. 9th.
YESTERDAY a piano tuner in the employ
of Steinway & Sons was seriously injured
at the freight elevator shop in the Four-
teenth street establishment.
CALVIN WHITNEY is in town.
NAHUM STETSON and family left Thurs-
day for the Isle of Shoals, ,N. H. It is pos-
sible that Mr. Stetson may leave his family
at that point while he takes a run West.
THE officers of the recently organized
Brett Piano Co. of Geneva, O., are as fol-
lows: President, A. F. Alderman; vice-
president, H. R. Swan; secretary and super-
intendent, J. B. Smith; treasurer, B. W.
Rote. The factory is now being prepared
for manufacturing, which will be com-
menced around the middle of next
month.
A. A. BARTHELMES& CO., the well known
action makers of Toronto, Can., are, ac-
cording to the Lockport, N. Y., "Sun," de-
sirous of locating in that city. They have
communicated with the Business Men's
Association for the purpose of finding- out
what inducements the city would offer in
case they should locate there. It is claimed
they will employ more than fifty men.
SIEBOLDT & LEGG have purchased the re-
tail warerooms of the Ann Arbor Organ
Co. in Ann Arbor.
W. H. WESER, of Weser Bros., piano
manufacturers, is the owner of a very
pretty summer resort near Ellenville, in
Sullivan County, this State. It is called
"Wyndmere."
N. M. CROSBY, of Bradbury fame, is
spending a vacation in the Catskills. .
J. ALFRED NOVELLO, son of Vincent No-
vello, founder of the great music publish-
ing house of Novello, Ewer & Co., died in
Genoa, on the 18th inst. He was eighty-
six years old. He has not been connected
with the London house for many years.
WILL HARRIS, an employee of the Phil-
lips & Crew Music House, Atlanta, Ga.,
has been arrested on a charge of appropri-
ating a part of the stock to his own use.
PROF. FRED SCHAEHERLE will shortly open
a music store on Liberty street, Ann Arbor,
Mich., which he has recently purchased.

Download Page 4: PDF File | Image

Download Page 5 PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.