Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
-^.EDWARD LYMAN BILL
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
t» made payable to Edward Lyraan Bill.
Bnttred at th* New York Post Offic* as Second Class Mmhtr.
NEW YORK, JANUARY 16, 1897.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745.--EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE BOSTON DINNER.
The dinner given by the Boston Music
Trade Association last Saturday, at the Hotel
Brunswick, in that city, was not only a notable
event in the annals of the Boston trade, but
bids fair to leave its impress upon trade life
in all parts of the country.
No one could sit at the board and listen
to the sentiments expressed at that banquet
without being impressed with the seriousness
and intense earnestness with which Boston's
leading merchants and financiers regard the
advantages of organized trade bodies.
It was really the first event that has ever
occurred in this trade in which the matter of
trade associations and their influence has been
the one dominating subject of the different
speakers' remarks.
The committee who had the matter in
charge evidently used discriminating taste in
their selection of speakers, in order that they
might furnish their guests with an opportu-
nity to hear from experts the benefits result-
ing from organized commercial bodies. Mr.
Jones and Mr. Sayward made speeches which
were not only interesting, but remarkable for
the force and strength of their sentiment.
Here is a sentence cut at random from Mr.
Jones's remarks:
" If you cultivate that camaraderie in your
trade, forbidding salesmen to speak ill of their
competitors and of the goods they produce,
and insist upon truth-telling, you will not only
get higher results at the end of the year, but
you will get a pleasure out of business life,
and might make life better worth living."
Solid chunks of wisdom in that, is there not?
Let us cull a sentence from Mr. Sayward's
speech:
" We are not waiting for burning questions.
It is better to handle them, deal with them,
solve them before they begin to burn."
Food for thought, surely.
There is no doubt but that every man who of the new year, The Review feels that it is an
was present at the banquet, whether manu- appropriate time to assure its friends that the
facturer or dealer, was impressed with the pos- work which it proposes to do in behalf of clean
sible advantages which he might derive from journalism during the present year will surpass
a perfected trade organization.
any of its previous efforts which our friends
The subject is of peculiar interest to us, have been kind enough to applaud.
inasmuch as we have been for years persist-
Clean, forceful work, an unimpaired news
ently advocating the advantage of a national service, continuous travelling in all parts of the
music trade association. It was years ago country. All of that means something.
when we took the inceptive move in this mat-
At the rate regular work is steadily coming
ter, and we have carefully watched the growth in upon us we shall be forced to make still fur-
of that sentiment which is tending toward na- ther additions to the size of the paper.
tional organization.
r *—*
The great trouble is men hold aloof from
To-day at 1 p. m., as announced in a previous
these matters because they think they can run
issue of The Review, Rudolf Dolge sails for
their business alone, without any outside inter-
Venezuela.
During his tarry in Latin Amer-
ference of any nature whatsoever.
ica Mr. Dolge will act as special envoy for the
That is true, neither are they relinquishing
National Association of Manufacturers—an
one iota of their business independence when
Association which was formed primarily for
they join an association. But in an association
the extension of the foreign trade of the United
there is unquestionably great strength, as a
body of men—well-organized men—always ac- States.
: * — *
complish much which is far beyond the limits
Robert B. Gregory, of Lyon & Healy, Chi-
of disorganization.
Another trouble is that men expect too cago, has been before the tariff committee,
much. They seem to think that immediate and now holding session in Washington, this week,
startling results should be the direct outcome in reference to the tariff upon musical instru-
of an association's doings. They forget often- ments. Mr. Gregory represented the majority
times that, in order to make a success of any- of the musical manufacturing interests of
thing, it is necessary that they should give America, and it was his request that the tariff
to the furtherance of their ideas in any partic- be allowed to remain unchanged.
After leaving Washington, Mr. Gregory
ular line considerable of their time, and cer-
visited New York, where he met a number of
tainly much of their influence.
The answer to the cry of " What's the use? " the musical instrument manufacturers Thurs-
may be found in Mr. Sayward's reply to Mr. day.
Wheelock's " burning questions ": Don't wait
for them to burn.
Our esteemed contemporary, " The Indi-
If they would put aside, as has been wisely cator," has of late been giving some severe
suggested, a certain amount of money annually reprimands to the publishers of trade papers
and devote a certain time to the aims and ob- who carry that form of advertisements, termed
jects of associations, they would, in our opin- in the vernacular of the day as " dead ads."
ion, derive greater benefit.
We heartily agree with " The Indicator " in its
On the whole, we are a nervous, sensitive expressions in this matter. The dead ad. editor
people, prone to anticipate immediate results, cannot be shown up in too strong a light.
and the association idea has not yet reached
a point where it is acceptable to all. It is grow-
The Everett Building, 141 Fifth Avenue,
ing, and the Boston Music Trade dinner has,
this
city, is fast approaching completion. It is
in our opinion, helped largely to encourage
evident that it will be ready within the next ten
the idea of a national music trade association.
days for occupancy; at least the first floor will
It will come, sure as fate, and a few years hence be out of the hands of the contractors.
many will be wondering why the idea was not
"The Steck piano received a royal send-off in
carried to a successful issue long before.
some recent advertising literature issued by
Nordheimer's of Montreal. The pianos manu-
'*
*
factured by Geo. Steck & Co. are such admir-
The number of new advertisements which able instruments that their very best friends
appear in this week's Review will show that the can be found among the intelligent and dis-
policy of this paper is appreciated by a large criminating dealers and purchasers.
and growing constituency. After all, there is
T. Linton Floyd-Jones is meeting with good
no more eloquent way in which to show the
success on his maiden road trip for Haines
appreciation of good journalistic work than Bros., incorporated, this city. Orders have al-
patronage. It is the sincerest form of compli- ready come in from Buffalo, Detroit, and Chi-
ment that can be paid to one's work.
cago, and, as the saying goes, " there are more
in
sight."
Standing as we are almost on the threshold