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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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, $2.30 per inch, single column, per
'a»©rtion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed.
REMITTANCES, to other than currency form, should
to wade payable to Edward Lyman BilL
tintirid at iht Nnu Ytrk Jbsf Office as Second-Class Mmttm.
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 9, 1897.
TELEPHONE NUHBER, 1745.—EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review
will contain a supplement embodying the liter*
ary and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a trade
paper.
THE TRADE DIRECTORY.
The Trade Directory, which is a feature of
The Review each month, is complete. In it ap-
pear the names and addresse* of all firms en-
gaged in the manufacture of musical instruments
and the allied trades. The Review is sent to
the United States Consulates throughout the
world, and is on file in the reading rooms of the
principal hotels in America.
SELL IT AT ITS PROPER PRICE.
OW that we have recovered from the
dark days of business depression and
find undoubted evidence of a return of
something like better times, dealers should
adopt a new policy in connection with the
sale of the "cheap" piano. They should
make it a point to sell it in its class, and
at its real value.
The cheap piano has held sway for some
time, owing to the public demand for
"cheap things," and the "demand" has
been "nursed," so to speak, by no small
number of dealers who found it a profitable
undertaking.
We have now entered upon a new era
when the public at large can afford to pay a
fair price fora fair instrument, and dealers
—that is, the dealers "Who make a specialty
of the very "cheap" piano, and who in
pushing it have presumed to some extent
on the ignorance of the pnblic-^-should be
honest, should sell the piano at a fair profit;
no more.
There is a principle about honesty in a
matter like this. It should obtain with
every dealer desirous of being fair to his
customers, and fair to the manufacturers
of other instruments handled by him.
That there is a change for the better is
N
already evident in the increasing de-
mand for the higher grade of commercial
pianos. This is due as much to the fact
that the public, "its cousins and its aunts,"
have been "taken in" so frequently by
paying three times the value for the cheap
rattle-boxes, that they are demanding and
are willing to pay better prices for reliable
makes of pianos. This, in a measure, will
force the dealer to carry a line of instru-
ments of some standing and reputation.
But there should be no forcing in the
matter, and there will be no need of
forcing if the cheap pianos are sold in
their class, if exaggeration and misstate-
ments are dispensed with.
Cheap pianos will be sold as a matter of
course, but if they are sold simply as
cheap pianos, the dealer is doing his duty
to his conscience and to the trade.
Dealers should not wait to be forced to a
higher standard by the public, they should
take the initiative, they should be the
leaders in stimulating a desire to purchase
higher priced pianos, for such sales help
to make others, and in this way their busi-
ness is augmented. The cheap piano on
the contrary, owing to the use of misstate-
ments which are almost necessary in order
to secure a cetain price, means a customer
lost, for the instrument never satisfies.
This is an important subject which is
well worthy the attention of the trade. We
are now starting on a busy fall season, and
dealers should place themselves on record
as determined to keep the cheap piano in
its proper place, to sell it in its class, to
sell it at its proper price.
#
#
THE BUSINESS REVIVAL.
The reports from the leading financial
agencies anent commercial conditions con-
tinue to be most favorable and gratifying
in the extreme. We learn that not only
does the volume of legitimate business con-
tinue a little larger than the same months
of 1892, but that the commercial failures for
the third quarter of 1897 are lower than
any quarter for twenty-three years. "The
amount of defaulted liabilities," say R.
G. Dun & Co. in their latest weekly review,
" i s the smallest of any quarter for five
years, and in fifteen years only six quarters
have shown smaller liabilities."
These evidences of reviving prosperity
are the more important because prices for
most manufactured products have advanced
but moderately, and are much below the
level of '92, while the speculative markets
are all declining with curious unanimity.
In the music trade industry there are
abundant proofs of a business revival that
is perhaps unparalleled. It is evident at
the factories, we hear it from the men who
have been and are on the road. It is not
a mere indulgence in optimism, but is a
solid convincing reality.
The orders which are being placed with
manufacturers East and West are such as
to compel the assistance of a full force of
workmen and in many cases night work is
being resorted to in order to supply the
demand.
At no time, however, were manufac-
turers so well prepared for this agreeable
condition of things, and there should be
little delay in supplying all orders placed.
The Review has made it a point to visit
weekly the different factories, and from
" talks" with the various manufacturers in
all lines which have appeared in these
columns, it is clearly evident that the
music-trade industry is getting back to its
old-time form.
If there are any who doubt it, they must
be classed among those fossils who have
failed to keep in touch with the chang-
ing conditions of the trade in practical
and business departments. For there are
some people who seem to think that we are
living in the past, and that business will
come to them without seeking it. These
firms—and we are pleased to say they are
getting fewer all the time—may have
reason to complain, but to the wide-awake
and enterprising manufacturer who has
properly equipped himself for the battle
and donned the requisite armor, success is
bound to and will inevitably rest on his
banner.
#
#
THE ASSOCIATION IDEA.
Referring recently to the association idea
in the different industries, Jacob Furth,
president of the Jacob Furth Co., St.
Louis, made the following remarks, which
are exceedingly pertinent to the situation
of affairs in the music trade:
Associations of business men are grow-
ing in number and strength, simply be-
cause the conditions demand harmonious
relations between, as well as concerted ac-
tion.
Experience is teaching us that many of
the things we have regarded as the ameni-
ties of commerce are, in fact, essential at-
tributes of advanced trade methods. Per-
sonal likes and dislikes should no more be
allowed to affect us in our business policies
than should animosity be allowed to color
or control competition. The points to be
gained by concentrating our strength are
of no more importance than the points we
will gain by getting better acquainted.
There are so many interests that are
identical in every branch of trade that even