Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
LVMAN
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East I4th 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
ertion. On quarterly
q
Insertion.
or yearly contracts i< special dis-
count is allowec
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman BilL
Bntered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 26, 1896.
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. — EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE BUSINESS MAN'S PAPER."
BY THE MAN AT THE MAST-HEAD.
future—their opinions regarding the com-
ing election—its probable effect upon trade,
and allied matters.
We have been only able to select a few
of the many replies which we have received,
it being impossible to print them all in
full. Our selection has been fair in that
we have not been influenced by personal or
political views in the matter of publishing
a fair digest of the opinions of dealers all
over America as expressed to THE REVIEW
over their own signatures.
These opinions should carry weight with
the manufacturers as they express clearly
and emphatically the views of business
men who are engaged in enterprises which
afford them opportunity to fairly forecast
the business situation in their respective
localities.
The consensus of all the views received
is that conditions during the past ten days
have materially improved in all parts of
the country. The last two weeks of Sep-
tember have been encouraging from a
trade standpoint, and October bids fair to
furnish a considerable betterment in trade
conditions.
A perusal of the many letters received is
convincing that we are to receive a fair
amount of business this fall. Casting aside
all rhetorical garnish, all political verbiage,
the situation as we sum it up stands pre-
cisely as follows:
The election of William McKinley will
bring about an immediate restoration of
confidence—that confidence is the real basis
of business—because credit without confi-
dence cannot exist. Stocks are low—in
truth in all lines stocks were never so de-
pleted as at the present time. The mills
and factories must at once start; in fact
many are starting up now in order to ac-
cumulate a stock of goods for the holiday
trade. There will be, should McKinley be
elected, and that seems extremely probable
now, an immediate revival of business.
That revival will in a sense be spurty, in
that there will be an abnormal demand
during the months of November and De-
cember; after that we will predict a quiet
January, and trade building slowly and
steadily; no rush, no boom, no sudden ex-
pansion, but gradually the trade arteries
will all assume their normal functions, as
the pay roll in the various factories in-
creases, and the distribution of money be-
comes larger. Then an era of gradually
increasing prosperity for a term of years.
HE REVIEW has taken extraordinary
methods to gain a comprehensive
view of the true inwardness of trade condi-
tions throughout America. We hold that
it is an important function of a trade pub-
lication to keep its readers acquainted in a
business sense with the fluctuations of the
trade barometer.
It is true that trade life has been hover-
ing in the vicinity of the bulb during the
last few months. There are indications,
however, that the storm signals may be
withdrawn, and that the depressive and
cyclonic trade atmosphere which we have
endured for some time past will be succeed-
ed by a rising temperature and clearer
commercial conditions throughout the
That is about the way the man at our
country.
mast-head outlines the situation at the
During the past few weeks we have ad- present time. We do not wish to urge un-
dressed communications to hundreds of wise action on the part of manufacturers,
dealers all over America, asking their opin- but we do believe that they should consider
ions anent trade conditions present and one thing, and that is that we are to have
T
considerable of a demand for pianos and
musical instruments this fall. The de-
mand will come, and with a rush too, after
election.
We know by our recent travels that there
is comparatively little manufactured stock
on hand, so it seems to us that all manu-
facturers who expect to be in line to sup-
ply the demands made upon them with
anything approximating promptitude, must
prepare a finished stock to meet the de-
mands Which assuredly will come.
The dominating question of the political
issues of the day has subordinated every-
thing else to its influence. It is the Jug-
gernaut which now crushes everything
else in its path.
Some men may criticise the trade jour-
nals for their expression of views upon the
great political issues of the day. They
claim that business publications have noth-
ing to do with politics. To such men we
would propound the question: "Then if we
have nothing to do with politics, why should
politics have everything to do with us?"
In other words the business man is seriously
affected and crippled in his trade extensions
by reason of the absorbing effect of poli-
tics, then why should not a trade publica-
tion which is the exponent of a particular
trade do everything in its power, exert its
influence in the highest degree towards aid-
ing that party, the success of which it be-
lieves will promote in the highest degree
the business prosperity of the trade in which
its interests lie?
We say THE REVIEW is essentially a non-
partisan organ, but in such times as these
it does not hesitate, in fact it would fail to
do its duty as a true representative of the
music industry of this country did it not
exert its influence towards the establish-
ment of what it believes to be of the great-
est interest for the prosperity of American
industry.
There is one point in connection with the
present campaign which perhaps is not
fully appreciated by the great mass of
Americans, and that is the immense edu-
cational advantages afforded by the cam-
paign literature which has been issued from
the headquarters of both of the political
parties. We say never in the history of
American politics has there been dissemi-
nated such a vast amount of educational
matter, and never before have the people
as a whole understood the complex situa-
tion of politics and finance as they under-
stand them to-day.
Talk with men who a few months ago
were in entire ignorance regarding the term
of sixteen to one, they can to-day tell you
all about the political and financial system
of the United States Government, quote