Music Trade Review

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'HE MUSIC TRADF REVIFW
i
From the Editor's Note Book.
THE RELAXATION IN BUSINESS
FALL PROSPECTS—PETTY SPITE IN TRADE JOURNALISM—GOOD
WORK CONTRASTED WITH BAD WORK—THE LIBEL SUIT OF THE TIMES—THE LAW OF
LIBEL
THE STATUS OF PIANO ATTACHMENTS
FRENCH'S NEW INVEN-
TION—THE EFFECT OF THE GREAT STRIKE UPON BUSINESS
THE
CRY OF THE
DEMAGOGUES—THIS COUNTRY
IS ALL
T
RIGHT BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT—SNAP SHOTS.
~~\
HESE sizzling humid days of
July with the mercury soar-
ing in the nineties are not
conducive to business or com-
fort. There is of course a
relaxation of all lines of busi-
ness, and the sales for the next sixty days
will be sporadic; still there always is trade,
and one beautiful thing about the piano
business is that the sales come in unex-
pectedly, and it only takes a few busy
hours a week to make a pretty fair average.
I notice that there is not a marked ten-
dency on the part of manufacturers as a
whole to accumulate stock for fall trade.
In this I think they are guided by the
•experiences of the past three years, which
in many cases have been most bitterly dis-
appointing.
I think, however, that there are signs
which clearly indicate a revival of busi-
ness. The manufacturer in our line in
order to get the tide at its flood must have
his stock in readiness to catch the first
wave, for wave there will be, and that
right early too.
What a powerful lot of petty spite and
jealousy there is in music trade journalism
anyhow! One would think to read the snap-
ping and snarling constantly going on that
trade editors were separated by only the
slightest barrier from a condition of
savagery and that they were really thirsting
for each other's blood.
Trade journalism is necessarily a limited
field in which to employ one's ideas and
energies, yet notwithstanding its limita-
tions, surely men who are engaged in that
vocation should conduct themselves as
gentlemen and have their journals portray
the better spirit of trade and not the low-
est. We should seek to build up rather
than to demolish.
It is really too bad that some of these
discontented fellows can't have the whole
field to themselves and prowl around at
will without the slightest limitation being
placed upon them either as to the amount
of money they should compel manufac-
turers to disgorge, or as to the ruthless
manner in which they should be handled.
These men have mistaken their calling;
they should better be armed with a highway-
man's bludgeon and with a mask over their
features they would be appropriately
garbed to ply their nefarious task.
One annoying thing to these fellows is
that the respectable element in trade
journalism keeps them from doing their
worst, or their best, which ever way you
may wish to put it.
How the prices would go up and how
thuggery would prosper if the decent, self-
respecting papers of the trade should
retire. But they won't, so the insatiable
appetite of the disappointed ones must
remain only half appeased. And the band
played on.
*
•
*
*
I am informed that the announcement
was rather premature of the dismissal of the
$25,000 libel suit of the Chicago Musical
Times against the Indicator. It may
be the next case on the calendar and will
probably go to court Wednesday of this
week.
The law of libel is plain and it might be
well for all editors to refresh themselves
occasionally regarding the use and abuse
of their position toward those with whom
they have no special affiliation.
Judges who preside over libel suits
usually are influenced in their decision
by the intention of the defendant. It is
the intent to injure one that forms the real
basis of all libel suits.
Massachusetts is ahead of all other States
in the law of libel. In that commonwealth
if a newspaper publishes a report which is
calculated to injure an individual that per-
son has the right to demand a retraction
and if the retraction is given there is no
ground whatsoever for a libel suit. Such
action would be immediately thrown out
of court in the State of Massachusetts. In
other States one may bring a suit against a
newspaper owner without giving him an
opportunity to remedy the evil, which
possibly was done unintentionally or
through false advice, and oftentimes secure
heavy damages.
The existence of such laws are a constant
menace to the freedom of the press,
because every newspaper editor may be
led to publish certain reports which he
believed to be correct, and still he is liable
to a damage suit. He certainly should
have an opportunity of giving the same
publicity to the correction that he gave to
the original statement. It should not be
all one sided, and the libel laws of this
country certainly demand careful revision.
The freedom of the press should not be in
the slightest degree restricted and at the
same time every one should have fair pro-
tection from malicious and intentional
assaults.
*
*
* *
In the fall there will probably be a num-
ber of piano attachments placed upon the
market. Thus far no attempt that has
been made has been successful in a mone-
tary way. They have all required too much
expert assistance to keep an instrument in
repair when out of range of the watchful
eye of the inventor. There is no doubt
but that there will be attachments upon
the market this fall which will be success-
ful, both from a financial and musical
standpoint. This is the age of automatic
instruments, and the trade will be quick to
appreciate any attachment which has real
merit and which can be sold at a price to
come within reach of the masses.
*
*
*
*
The result of the suit of the John Church
Co. against C. F. Goepel & Co. will have
a far reaching effect upon the future of
similar inventions in this trade. I under-
stand that Mr. French, the inventor of the
"plectraphone," has sold his new attach-
ment to the Chicago Cottage Organ Co.
This is a report that has reached me, but I
have not as yet had it verified.
*
*
*
*
The great mining strike which was her-
alded to begin on July 4, at which time a
quarter of a million of miners would lay
down their picks, seems to have lacked that
materialization which was fondly hoped for
by the strike leaders. If the strike should
exist it would unquestionably have a seri-
ous effect upon trade, and worse than all it
would give the political demagogue an
opportunity to raise again the cry of "the
classes against the masses.''
The fact is there is in America to-day a
large class who do not appreciate the real
benefits afforded them by the enlightening
influences of this great Republic. Liberty
to them means license—license to carry on
attacks against the government—against
men who have been fortunate enough to
secure a greater proportion of this world's
chattels than their neighbors. This they
may have gained by frugality, by intelli-
gence, by industry, it matters not, but be-
cause they have wealth, position, they are at
once the objects of attack by those who look
with jealous eyes upon their possessions.
They are men who have no discriminating
power between good and evil, but their in-
born sense of combativeness compels them
to use the license which is afforded them
under republican institutions to attack the