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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL-
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year ; all other countries,
$300.
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insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
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ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New York Post OJJice as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, APRIL 16, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
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 DOLGE FAILURE.
T
HE trade experienced the greatest
shock which it has undergone for
years in the announcement which came last
Monday morning of the Dolge failure.
While it was generally known that Mr.
Dolge, like most men of vast enterprises,
carried at all times great obligations, direct
and contingent, yet as his resourceful en-
ergy was so well recognized, it was believed
that he could tide himself over any ordinary
crisis which might arise.
He, however, decided that the best course
for him to take under the existing condi-
tions was to place his business in the hands
of a receiver.
The long-drawn-out suspense of weeks re-
garding our dealings with Spain has been
such as to render an unprecedented con-
traction in the money market. Commercial
paper which usually has been readily ac-
cepted by the banks was rejected, hence it
has been extremely difficult for firms with
large obligations, and handling a vast
amount of commercial paper to meet their
maturing liabilities through their inability
to secure the necessary discounts.
state that they have been compelled of late
to curtail discounts. They have the kindest
feeling toward Mr. Dolge, and consider that
it will only be a short period before he will
again have complete control of his own busi-
ness affairs.
In our own trade extreme regret is mani-
fest at the financial embarrassment of one
of our most distinguished members. There
is in some quarters considerable anxiety ex-
pressed as to the effect of the Dolge failure
upon the piano trade. Some fear that owing
to the fact of Mr. Dolge's carrying a great
deal of trade paper, his failure will precipi-
tate business troubles among those whom
he has, to a large degree, been bolstering
up.
While it may be possible that there will
be two or three unimportant business sus-
pensions resulting from the Dolge failure,
yet, in our opinion, there will not be any
succession of important disasters occurring
throughout the Spring as a result of the
Dolge trouble. Had it occurred in 1893 it
would have been much different, for it must
be borne in mind that during the past three
years the liabilities of a number of piano
manufacturing institutions have been stead-
ily decreasing, owing, in part, to the fact
that they have been manufacturing less
goods; hence the direct result of the Dolge
failure to-day will be materially less felt by
the trade than if it had occurred some three
years ago. Still it cannot be denied that
Mr. Dolge has had many financial loads to
carry during the past few years, some of
which have become oppressive and burden-
some.
tate, personal property—all goes into the
general pool for the creditors to whom he
virtually says, "Here is all I have, take it,
pay yourselves, whatever is left is mine."
There is no concealment or evasion about
such actions, and they win, as they should,
the hearty applause of the commercial world.
For years this man has toiled, working
harder, longer hours than any man in his
employ, long before he could afford even the
luxury of a horse, tramping through the
snow and slush over the hills to the village
where he had planted his industrial banner.
Toiling on—undaunted by reverses, un-
daunted by conditions which seemed almost
unsurmountable, he worked with an energy
—with a vim—with a perseverance which
few men possess, and still through the years
of unceasing toil he has found time to pro-
mulgate economic doctrines which have at-
tracted the attention of the philosophers of
the old world and of the new. After all the
countless thousands which he has given to
benefit mankind instead of reserving, as
he had the legal and moral right, some-
thing for himself, he says at this critical
juncture, "Here, take it all; after my credit-
ors, myself."
Can such a man be kept down? No, not
as long as the wheels of industry turn!
WEIGH AND CONSIDER.
T
HE leader in The Review last week
regarding prices, seems to have met
with widespread comment, if we may be
permitted to judge from the letters which
have reached this office in reference to it.
One man, whose name, through courtesy
To-day Alfred Dolge is heart-sore and de-
jected—a man suffers in accordance with we withhold, says:
" I believe that you have touched upon a
his mental strength—a great mentality more
than a weaker—yet the reverses which have topic which should be discussed in the
overtaken him will only tend to tempo- broadest possible manner. It is a matter
rarily hamper his onward course. A man which has never been brought up for com-
of generous impulses—he may have given ment. When we compare the installment
more lavishly than he should, and if we prices paid on bicycles, typewriters, furni-
criticise him, it must be to criticise his gen- ture and sewing machines, and the original
erosity, which, perhaps, has overbalanced cost of the articles referred to with pianos,
and the cost of selling them, and the ridicu-
his better judgment.
lous
prices at which some are sold on the in-
When we think of the fortunes which he
stallment
plan, it really sets one to think-
has given away to assist the cause of educa-
tion, public advancement, in pensions, in in- ing. It becomes appalling. Why should
In this particular the Dolge firm were not surance, and in many other channels, all of this trade sell goods at such figures ? "
different from others, and they were unable which expendituies he could have kept for
Another writes: " I believe that two-
to tide their affairs over the present crisis.
himself, we gain a small insight at least into thirds of the pianos sold to-day are sold at
The Dolge financial troubles have been the real character of the man. Had he held lower prices than they should be, and that
the topic of the week, and everywhere there at the moment the crisis came, the tens of the real cost of selling is not thoroughly
have been the warmest feelings of sympathy thousands which he has poured with un- understood. I do not believe that in our
expressed for Mr. Dolge in his present stinted hands into the laps of others, his own larger cities a concern that, I will say,
financial troubles could have been easily disposes of three hundred pianos yearly
position.
does so at a less cost annually than $25,000.
We have had the opportunity of hearing averted.
the opinion of some bank officials, and they
The assignment of his personal fortune This would mean that it costs practically
look upon his embarrassment as only tem- only emphasizes the straightforwardness $83 to sell every piano. It costs too much,
porary, and they further expressed great of his character. Many men would have and I believe The Review has struck the
regret at the conditions which led up to the held this back, but not so with Alfred keynote of the situation when it says that
necessity of taking this step. The banks Dolge. Everything—firm property, real es- we are doing business too cheaply."