Music Trade Review

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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, $ajoo per year ; all other countries,
$3.00.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $z.oo per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, JUNE 18, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, I745--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.
TENDENCY TOWARDS CENTRALI-
ZATION.
""THE usual summer stagnancy is now
with us, and accentuated somewhat
by the war. The season and the condi-
tions afford considerable time for retro-
spective and prospective occupation.
There are some of us who will drift with
the tide, others who will work against it,
and still again others whose hearts are beat-
ing for the last time and who will sink for-
ever beneath the onward rush.
There are ever-changing methods in the
commercial world, which it does well to
watch and study. The question which ac-
tuates the successf ul business man of to-day
is, what methods can he introduce which
will be productive of the greatest exten-
sion to his business?
It is true we have a multiplicity of men
and methods. Some affirm that the old
way is all right, and that the change is
hardly necessary or expedient.
Well
endugh for them, they are in the old deep
rut and there they will remain.
There are others, however, of different
temperaments who are seeking to cast
aside as much of the old and introduce as
much of the new as is possible in the con-
duct of their affairs.
One thing is certain, however, and that,
that during the past decade wonderful
changes have been wrought in the method
of manufacturing and marketing musical
wares, a revolution alm'ost which has
meant the building up of new commercial
structures, and the demoralizing of old.
In the commercial, as in the physical
world, constant growth and expansion in-
dicates health and strength. No. business,
can remain at a standstill; it must either
go back or press on to new conquests.
The idea of new blood being necessary is
a fallacy, but the old blood must be puri-
fied in order to reach business success.
It is more truly the day of original busi-
ness methods than any time in the history
of American industries.
There are some men who map out new
lines and are oftentimes accused of pursu-
ing methods which are not legitimate, and
there are always enough who are willing
to prophesy speedy disaster for that class
of competitors.
Frederick the Great made himself very
unpopular—with those who opposed him
—because he disregarded what, up to his
time, was recognized as the proper method
of warfare. In those days two armies
which intended to fight arranged them-
selves on an open field, where everybody
had a fair and even chance to kill every-
body else, and one side seemed to feel in
honor bound to wait until the other had a
chance to make the best possible prepara-
tion to resist the attack. Frederick did
not do things that way. He fought when
it met his pleasure, and got his army out
at all manner of unseemly hours to attack
his foes, without giving them any notice
of his intentions.
He fell upon his
enemies in mountain passes when they
were not ready to successfully resist him.
Hence his unpopularity—with his enemies.
There are a good many people who have
not yet learned to understand Frederick
and his tactics. Every now and then,
however, some one who does grasp the
situation, enters business and makes it
exceedingly lively for his competitors.
His individuality is stamped on every de-
partment of his business, hence we repeat
that this is the day when originality and
individuality count for something in our
industrial affairs.
There is no question but that it is diffi-
cult to get people out of a rut, and natu-
rally the deeper the rut the less inclined
they seem to get away from it, and go
where the ground is a little more level;
but the successful business man of to-day
is the one who fully recognizes that
methods are changing and broadening un-
der modern influences, and that he must
accommodate himself to the changes if he
hopes to reap a successful harvest.
A few years ago, the business men of
this trade could not have met in the frater-
nal manner which we witnessed last week
in Boston, but they have recognized that,
in a way, a certain combination is beneficial
for the interests of all. That really is the
magnet which possesses attracting power
in the Piano Manufacturers' National As-
sociation. Therein lies the cohesiveness
of the organization, and after all, the
music trade congress which occurred last
week in Boston was only a natural result
of the times, born of the necessity of the
hour.
Concentrativeness of action is now a
recognized necessity in almost every
industry. These organizations of our
industrial system simply illustrate the
process of evolution which is going on in
all spheres of business activity. We might
as well ignore the existence of many of the
recent discoveries which benefit modern
civilization as to overlook the steady on-
ward movement towards centralization in
all things. We are in the current which
is bearing us steadily on towards the
Niagara of centralization.
Competition in business is as essential
as healthy exercise is to the human sys-
tem. It stimulates strength and growth;
in fact it is synonymous with industrial
progress, but it is essential that that com-
petition be healthy and be confined to le-
gitimate channels.
A great deal can be written upon the
subject of organization and its several
sub-divisions. We have been for years
firm believers in the doctrine that organ-
ization would be of tremendous benefit to
this trade. We have given every encour-
agement to the Association, and we are
much gratified at the result reached by the
men who have had the matters in charge
during the past year. The Association idea
has come to stay. It may take years be-
fore the ideal is reached, but it is develop-
ing. It is being properly nurtured and
cultivated. The Association is destined to
become a powerful factor in trade politics.
PAPERS AND PATRIOTISM.
T H E figures of our foreign trade relat-
ing only to manufactures and cover-
ing ten months of the fiscal year which
will end with June, are of the most
impressive importance, and at the rate so
far reported, the total exports of Ameri-
can manufactures to foreign countries for
the fiscal year 1898, will reach $290,000,000.
This surpasses any previous figure in an
overwhelming way.
To further emphasize the importance of
this statement, we will state that the ex-
ports will exceed the imports of manufac-
tiires by about $50,000,000. According to
statistics, the exports have never before
surpassed the imports.
This statement alone will emphasize the
superiority of American products, and the
undeniable recognition which they are re-
ceiving abroad.