Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
throw his sure thing with the trust whirl-
The
LYMAN
It cannot be denied, however, that the
whole tendency of the times is toward gi-
pool ?
gigantic stock
speculators
who
gantic combination.
reached out to the railroads, and now the
individual.
banks themselves show a desire to consoli-
While they may be men who
are liberal personally, donating vast sums
date,
Editor and Proprietor
to religious institutions, hospitals, libraries
money trust.
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
and all that, yet their minds have become
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NEW YORK, OCTOBER 8, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745—EIOHTEENTH S I R E E T .
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.
ANENT TRUSTS.
It is true it is in a
and bank
consolidation
means a
It is said that the consolidation of ten
so hardened that they show no appreciation
or twelve of Boston's national banks is as
of
good as assured.
sensitiveness when
they
manipulate
these vast stock jobbing schemes.
A circular has been is-
It is
sued to the savings banks which practically
with them to screw the millions out of the
own a controlling interest in these banks,
people no matter what the cost—no matter
naming a price which will be paid for their
what
holdings.
suffering
ensues—no matter how
The intention is to liquidate
many men are reduced from their positions
these banks and organize a new national
of independence to absolute beggary. Such
bank with an enormous capital.
matters as those have no consideration in
Morgan is said to be behind the scheme.
the counsels of the trust magnates.
Pierpont
It seems as if America had gone trust
But all these trust schemes are not suc-
mad.
Well, it is enterprise, but whether
Take one which has been lately
this sort of enterprise is beneficial to the
formed and is closely allied to the music
country as a whole is yet to be determined.
trade industry—the wire trust.
The enterprise of trusts is measureless,
cessful.
Washburn & Moen, who sell some wire
and with the enormous strength applied it
to the piano trade refused to join the wire
is difficult to predict what will be the ulti-
trust unless they received two hundred
mate outcome of these enormous combina-
TV TO, emphatically no, the trust principle dollars per share. The wire combination
as applied to the music trade industry offered this company $150. They declined
is not dead by any means.
The movement has
manipulate these affairs consider not the
this, and Washburn & Moen stock that had
tions.
It occurs to us that it is better that our
strength should be reserved for enterprise
sort of comatose condition at the present
been paying eight per cent, per share and
whose value we can measure rather than to
time, but it is liable at any moment to be-
selling at about $125 is now $150 per share.
be frittered away on schemes of very ques-
Probably
And there are some who believe that the
tionable issue from an economic point of
before many moons shall have passed we
wire combination will pay $200 per share
view, or schemes where the smaller manu-
shall be enabled to give some interesting
for the Washburn & Moen stock, and that,
facturer, who to-day is independent, be-
facts concerning the inside movements of
too, in the near future.
comes but plastic clay in the strong knead-
come more formidable than ever.
the trust scheme.
In the meanwhile it
The position of Washburn & Moen dem-
may be well to consider the matter from
onstrates that people can live outside of
. all points of view.
ing hands of the giant stock manipulators.
these trust combinations, and in no indus-
EVILS WHICH DESTROY.
Trusts are not by any means secure in-
try could it be so successful as the music
r^vOES it pay to cut prices and thereby
vestments, and as can be proved by ab-
trade, because there is no line of goods
acquire a temporary advantage over
solutely authentic data concerning them,
manufactured on earth where more atten-
there are a greater number which have
tion is paid to the real standing of an
We have been cutting, cutting, cutting
failed than can be credited to the account
article than there is in the purchase of a
in this trade during the past two years in
of the successful trusts—in other words,
piano.
in that line of pianos popularly known in
money-making trusts.
It occurs to us that those who remain
your competitor ?
the vernacular
0$ the
country
as the
" cheap."
Take recent history, and there has been
outside of the combination will be infinite-
a shrinkage of millions in trust stock quo-
ly better off than those who relinquish
tations.
Taking at random a few import-
their individuality to a combination of
ant concerns, we can say that the American
stock jobbers, for it means nothing else.
The men who have ruthlessly cut their
Sugar Refining Company suffered in trust
In the end they may not have even re-
prices are not in as good shape to-day as
stock quotations to
ceived a mess of pottage for their birth-
the men who have maintained a fixed value
right.
for their product.
the extent of
thirteen and a half millions.
over
Consolidated
Is not this, after all, a short-sighted
policy ?
The man who will cut
that good can be
$5.00 or even $2.00 to-day on a certain
bacco combination nearly eight millions;
effected by some sort of combination, but
grade of instruments gets the order, and
while National Linseed Oil is now in liquid-
it may be other than a trust combination
so it has gone on, and the standard—if
ation.
to benefit the members of
Gas passed the thirteen million mark.
To-
Is it not a fact that competition and stock
There is no doubt
this trade.
Those who are easily frightened may ask
jobbing explains this enormous deprecia-
how are we going to fight this giant octo-
tion in stock quotations ?
pus which threatens to overwhelm us?
there is a standard among the cheap pianos
—has become steadily reduced.
Some
manufacturers
have
seen
the
Is
trend of affairs in this direction and have
fact that the history of three-fifths of the
it not better to go with the stream than
realized that the day for making a reason-
trust organizations in A'nerica shows that
against it?
able profit
Is it too not a
the original stock holders have been losers ?
In
some cases, yes.
But where the
passed.
on very cheap pianos was
They have commenced to better
their product, and have consequently ad-
Is it then best for a manufacturer who
stream is leading one to utter destruction,
to-day has a fair business which is paying
it is better to make some show of resist-
vanced their prices.
him a moderate sum on his investment, to
ance at least.
path, for the ruinous competition which ex-
They are on the right