Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
ists among- the cheap makers is bound to end
in disaster unless their course is changed
materially.
Trade paper work has advanced beyond
DEPARTMENT STORES.
T H E R E are three department stores in
Trade is worth nothing unless
New York which
to-day
advertise
little, petty, narrow, spiteful, cranky, ig-
norant statements.
It has advanced to a
These instruments are in
dignified position, and men who edit trade
reached such a point that there is but little
every case what is commonly known as
papers should show that the evolutionary
or no money in certain lines of pianos man-
"stencil" pianos—that is, they do not bear
stage has reached them.
ufactured, and still manufacturers will con-
upon the fall board the name of the manu-
this
facturer.
must be sincere, and when they pose as
it pays a profit.
Affairs, however, have
tinue to adhere to this destructive policy.
The price-cutting evil has existed in the
bicycle trade, and has to a large degree
undermined the process of manufacture in
pianos for sale.
They are offered at retail from
If the editors in
trade hope to have weight, they
$125 to $160, and are made by manu-
teachers
facturers in this city.
upon the elementary conditions which sur-
It
is true
a number of instruments
they should at least be posted
round trade matters, in order that they
may be retailed from department stores,
may make a truthful
tended to the retail trade, a notable illus-
but we do not believe that they will ever
same.
tration of which is the Wanamaker-Seigel-
reach an output which will cut important
The trade press is essential to trade
Cooper affair over the Humber bicycle.
figures in the distribution of pianos and
greatness, and successful publications are
organs.
endowed with worthy ideals and exert a
wheels.
Ruinous competition has also ex-
These wheels were retailed
by John
Wanamaker last fall at $100, and sold by
the same concern in the spring at $75.
There has been in
this State and in
others, a strong desire on the part of the
It seems that, according to Wanamaker,
people to curtail the business of the de-
the Humber Co. broke its contract and
partment stores by imposing upon them a
sold wheels to the Seigel-Cooper Co. Then
special tax for each line of goods offered.
the war began which ended
in
Seigel-
Out in Denver the aldermen have voted
Cooper offering Humber wheels for $25,
practically to prohibit
and as Wanamaker plainly says in his ad-
cerns.
vertisement, "A price-cutting war, child-
measure taxing department
ish and absurd,
continuous effort
for
portrayal
of
the
the realization of
their mission.
T H I N G S have brightened materially in
a business sense during the first week
of October.
Reports from all sections of
con-
the country show that there is a hearty re-
This they have done by passing a
vival of business which portends an ex-
department
stores to a
cellent condition of affairs from this time on.
has compromised
the
prohibitive point.
There are now two al-
It was during the summer that The Re-
best bicycle reputation in the world."
He
ternatives forced upon the merchants of
view, after carefully weighing the condi-
further propounds the very pertinent in-
Denver by the bill.
Prices must be raised
tions, and receiving personal opinions from
quiry, "May not the quality of bicyles be
to a high figure or every individual de-
tradesmen in every city in the land, gave
also compromised by the same influences
partment must stand disassociated
with
its note of warning to manufacturers to
that have destroyed
any other.
It is not believed that this
have finished stock on hand to supply the
bill will be upheld in the courts, still its
demand which was bound to be made upon
future
very passage shows that the people of
them.
Humber bicycle qualities rests in a degrad-
Denver are not in favor of department
counsels of this paper are wise, heeded our
ed policy to meet a degraded price."
stores.
warning.
says
"the
avoided
the market?" and
conclusion
that
can
scarcely be
the only hope for
This incident is full of lessons for both
piano manufacturer and dealer.
What is true of Denver is true of the
virgins.
Some, who have learned that the
In this case" they are the wise
Their business lamps are full and
It had its
great West, for in no part of our country
origin in the failure of the Humber Co. to
exists that intense antagonism to depart-
The others are now hustling to meet the
live up to a contract made with Wana-
ment stores that is apparent in the West. In
orders, and some of our concerns cannot
maker, hence it emphasizes very strongly
New York we have become accustomed to
begin to supply the trade which is now
the advantages to be derived from what
their existence and there is really no an-
reaching them.
nowadays is sometimes considered an old-
tagonism to them, but outside of this city
fashioned standard of business morality.
in the smaller towns of the State, there is
are giving forth a splendid illumination.
TT was some two years ago that Marc Blu-
The price-cutting evil is childish and ab-
that same deep-rooted feeling against de-
menberg made the ridiculous and bom-
surd, and it means ruin to a name and
partment stores that is becoming strongly
bastic boast that he would annihilate all of
ruin to a business.
emphasized in the West.
the other papers.
Another incident
which
He referred to them in
endearing terms, applying
illustrates a
such
loving
suicidal business policy was evidenced in
TT seems a pity that some editors of trade
epithets as "fools," "asses," etc., and told
this trade last week by an auction sale of
papers do not keep in close touch with
in soft, sinuous terms how he would meta-
pianos which have borne a reputation for
trade environment.
honesty and reliability.
phorically wipe the
earth
with them—
crush them—annihilate them.
that
that the editor of one of our western con-
these pianos netted at auction about $60.00
temporaries gave our locality a roasting- on
It is interesting to note that the annihi-
to the manufacturer shows that the cost of
the state of trade which exists here in Van
lation process has been largely confined to
manufacture was not covered by a great
Wyckville.
the Courier precincts, and it is believed by
many dollars.
The fact
It was only last week
In other words, by this
The statement shows extreme lack of
move the manufacturer himself not only
courtesy on the part of our visiting editor,
lost money on every instrument that was
many that Mr. Blumenberg, owing to the
enormous demands
made
upon his re-
a total ignorance of the real conditions
sources, has become rather tired of pour-
sold, but the figures at which these instru-
and a cranky desire to do harm.
ing money into the thin, little Annex.
ments were sold have gone forth to the
If the
The
editor of the paper had any knowledge of
Annex was marasmic from birth, and now
trade and must forever act to his disad-
mercantile conditions as they exist with
he is attempting to pump into it a sem-
vantage.
are
us, he would know that banks have not
blance
suicidal policies in business which it is well
closed down on piano paper; on the con-
patronage at almost any price.
to avoid, that is, if the concern has a future
trary, piano paper—that is reputable paper
in mind.
—is sought for eagerly by banking men.
In
other words,
there
of life by soliciting
advertising
The very fact of the enormous sweeping
reductions and special offers made to get