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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
E D W A R D LYMAN BILL « • i •
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,
$3.00.
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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 Office as Second Clasx Matter.
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 24, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIQHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review wil)
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.
SEPTEMBER TRADE.
TIRADE during- the past two weeks has
not been, by any means, up to the ex-
pectations of the great majority of our
people. It were better not to gloss over
the situation, therefore let us speak
frankly.
The Review does not believe in making
false statements by saying that trade is
booming, when really it is not. From all
advices received at this office and from per-
sonal observation, we are confident that in
expressing the opinion that trade for Sep-
tember has been extremely disappointing,
we are only voicing the real sentiment of
our constituents. The people had looked
for better things. Experts in their respec-
tive lines had made rose-colored predic-
tions regarding the early opening of fall
trade. The war was settled—that is for
the present—the crop outlook was excel-
lent and prices were generous—all essen-
tials necessary to general prosperity, and
to think—the last week in August was bet-
ter, as a whole, than any week in Septem-
ber.
Of course, we do not mean to state that
there are not specially favored districts,
which have been exempt from this Sep-
tember depression.
There are certain
points in the West where there is to-day a
splendid trade. They are not banking on
futures, but are face to face with an active
and healthy present.
Again, there are sporadic manufacturers
and dealers who have been blessed with
good, broad, generous rays of September
business sunshine, but for the majority the
rays of prosperity have not glinted through
the present gloom.
What is the reason? Wherein does the
fault lie?
Of course, there are any number of ar-
guments offered ; some reasonable and un-
doubtedly sound, but all the reasoning in
the world cannot disprove the fact that
September trade has been sadly in arrears.
When we consider the vast sums of money
which have been drawn from circulation
by the internal revenue tax, and which is
now lying idle in the vaults at Washing-
ton, we must have at least one good reason
why business has languished. All of those
dollars are drawn from circulation. All of
this money has been retired temporarily,
and is not performing its proper functions.
There is, as many allege, a dearth of
money, and still, if we take perhaps a more
reasonable view of the situation, there
should be no scarcity of money for com-
mercial purposes, but, unfortunately,
through our various agencies, speculative
and commercial, the whole country is
drawn into a nervous spasm over an im-
aginary something which should not dis-
turb it in the slightest.
But then there is that vast surplus held
in the keeping of the Government. Banks
claim, too, that they are compelled to cur-
tail their discounts, owing to the fact
that there is a vast amount of money at
present side-tracked, and in the East par-
ticularly, the monied institutions inform
us that all the money is in the West sent
for the purpose of moving the crops.
All these are old stories. Undoubtedly
there is a great deal of truth in them, but
the discussion of the matter does not re-
move the fact that things are not as they
should be in these late September days.
This country should not be so keenly
susceptible to every imaginary ill. Some-
times we wonder whether the entire com-
mercial interests of the country are not
subservient to the schemes of our giant
stock manipulators. Take our Morgans,
Belmonts, Armours—in other words a
coterie of about a dozen men, and it seems
almost at times as if they depressed or ex-
hilarated the industrial affairs of the coun-
try at will-
Are we puppets to be thus rudely shaken,
or are we independent of the influences of
these great manipulators?
There is to-day, we declare, no real logic-
al reason that can be given, why Septem-
ber has not been better in every way from
a business point.
The reasons are purely imaginary, and
when analyzed disappear as a wreath of
mist before the morning sun. There
should be no stoppage, even temporarily,
in the onward march of America.
We have recently had an advertisement
which is of measureless Value to us. Many
foreigners who knew nothing about Amer-
ican resources, and yet counted themselves
excellent judges, predicted that the war
with Spain would last for years, although
they were generous enough to concede in
the end that the victory would be ours.
Still they alleged that the struggle would
entail enormous losses and sacrifices upon
us. The eyes of those prophets have sud-
denly become opened and our national
power is recognized ds never before; our
future destiny as the world's arbiter of
peace is conceded. Europe is marveling
at the wonderful resources and lightning
progress in the peaceful arts that enabled
us, as by magic, to provide all the neces-
sary paraphernalia to cause a foreign
power to sue so quickly for peace.
The result of this enormous advertising
power is felt at once, as there are orders
to-day placed from foreign customers, who
had hitherto eschewed America, for ma-
chinery and articles of almost every kind
of manufacture. The United States will
soon lead the world in manufactures of
iron and steel, from thimbles to battle-
ships.
There is every reason, economic and
financial, why there should be no halt in
our onward march, and still there is no
mistaking the present conditions. They
are not as they should be. What is the
real reason? Let us get at the root of the
trouble. A country rich in everything
that makes a nation great should not be
hampered and shackled by artificial condi-
tions which seem born either of speculative
or intensely imaginative causes.
A STEINWAY PIANO SALON.
COR weeks that portion of Stein way
Hall, designated as the "small hall,"
has been gradually undergoing a radical
change—a change that means that the
artistic element is to occupy a more prom-
inent position than ever in the future of
Steinway & Sons. When the transforma-
tion shall have been completed the "small
hall" will have become a genuine piano
salon. The walls will be finished after the
Empire, and emblazoned with the coats
of arms and armorial bearings of the
crowned heads of Europe, from whom
Steinway & Sons have received such dis-
tinguished recognition. The wood work
is of ivory finish, and the whole, when
completed, will form a splendid back-
ground for the display of the art-cased in-
struments which will in future find their
abiding place within these rooms while on
exhibition.
At the entrance there will be a reception
room which will be arranged with a hand-