Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
vernacular of the day as an "off year" for
business, yet when the lound-up for the
year is made it is generally found that al-
though trade has been somewhat fitful dur-
ing presidential years, yet it is in volume
quite up to other years.
LYMAN
At the present time the country is men-
Editor and Proprietor.
aced by the silver craze to such an extent
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY that it will naturally act detrimentally upon
business interests. The present conditions
3 East 14th St., New York
and the fear of free silver will not be con-
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage) United States and
Canada, $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ducive to an enlargement of trade; it will
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
rather tend to depress and contract credits,
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts y special dis-
count i* allowed.
which immediately will have a reflex effect
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
*• made payable to Edward Lyman BilL
upon business. Merchants will buy spar-
Bnteredatth* New York Post Office as Second-Cla^s Mmtttr. ingly, and manufacturers will be influenced
by the same feeling in their preparations
NEW YORK, AUGUST 15, 1896
for fall trade.
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1743. — EIGHTEENTH STREET.
It seems to us that the free silver craze is
on the wane. During the past week we
••THE BUSINESS MAN'S PAPER."
have had opportunity to come in contact
with men from remote parts of the Union
where it is alleged that the silver God has
many worshippers. They inform us that
there is now a strong tide setting against
the free silver belief, and the more this
campaign of education is carried on the
more remote are the chances for the success
of the silver candidate.
The wage earners of the country are be-
ginning to realize that there is no country in
which wages are so high as they are here,
or none in which the dollar received in wa-
ges will buy so much; while on the other
hand every country in the world that is on
a silver basis the most hopeless pove.ty on
the part of the working masses obtains to-
day.
Mr. Bryan, although a clever orator, has
failed thus far to show how fifty-three cents'
AS SEEN THROUGH THE " R E V I E W "
worth of silver with a government stamp
GLASS.
N these humid August days, with the thereon will purchase a gold dollar worth a
mercury soaring in the nineties, it is hundred cents or its equivalent. He is a
not to be expected that there will be, as most clever judge of that style of rhetoric
long as this sort of thing continues, much which at once appeals to the passions of the
activity in business circles. Those estab- people, but not to their sense of logical
lishments which deal in cooling liquids judgment.
The interests of the employer and em-
whidh assuage the thirst are the most gen-
ployee
are identical, and they will not be
erally patronized just at the present time by
deceived by clever mouth-filling figures of
a thirsty and long-suffering public.
Notwithstanding the intense heat and the rhetoric which appeal only to the passion or
general sluggishness of trade, men are even prejudices of the people. Rhetoric is de-
now preparing for an active business as lightful in its way, but what we want just
now is logic based on facts that will with-
well as for a political tall campaign.
Dealers during the next few weeks will stand arguments which may be brought
make preparations to augment their sum- against it.
Figures of speech are one thing—the re-
mer stock by substantial additions to cap-
ture the early fall trade. They are even now sults obtained aie quite another.
When the workmen fully realize just
visiting and are on the way to commercial
centers where they can select the wares what free silver means to them, then they
which appeal strongest to the needs of cannot record their vote towards making
their condition many times worse than at
their local trade.
Notwithstanding the fact that a presiden- present.
The practical illustration give^i by some
tial year is generally characterized in the
I
L
manufacturers in the distribution of Mexi-
can dollars which contain more silver
than our own for fifty cents is having
its effect. The "toiling masses," as Bryan
loves to designate them, are beginning to
realize and will more and more as the
months pass b) T , that their conditions will
not be improved even if they have twice as
much money as they now have when it costs
them four times as much to buy the neces-
saries of life.
While the financial question is the domi-
nant one of this campaign, it cannot be
overlooked that the matter of protection of
American industries is just as important
to-day as it has been in the past. We are in
close touch with all countries through the
. mediumship of steam and electricity, and
we are face to face with certain conditions
which did not exist a few decades ago.
We have read with considerable interest
an article by the Hon. Robt. P. Porter, in
the current issue of the "North American
Review," entitled " I s Japanese Competi-
tion a Myth?"
It will surprise and even startle many who
peruse the article inasmuch as it reveals as-
tonishing facts regarding the tremendous
increase of Japanese manufactures during
the past few years.
Speaking of some cities of Japan, an in-
teresting fact revealed is that in the Osaka
district, under the shadow of immense es-
tablishments, whose tall chimneys remind
one of Manchester, Philadelphia and Chi-
cago, thousands of human beings labor with
tools so crude and implements so antique
that one is taken back to the cities of the
ancient world.
What do these tremendous contrasts
show?
The courage of the Jap.
He simply throws aside the old device
when he can secure the new. The Japanese
manufacturers of silk have produced that
article at sjch low prices that the Ameri-
can silk manufacturer is pushed out of the
market, and to-day, instead of sending
handkerchiefs and wearing apparel to the
heathens, they are sending the manufac-
tured goods to us.
Last year we bought from Japan $50,000,-
000 worth of goods; Japan bought of us
about $9,000,000. Japan takes our $54,000,-
000 and buys $56,000,000 of England.
Now, in the face of these figures, is it not
well for the people of the United States to
look at the question of Japanese competi-
tion as well as all other European compe-
tition, free from all sentimental considera-
tions?
We allow Japan to come to this country
and sell $54,000,000 worth of goods whileshe
only takes $9,000,000 from us. She in the