Music Trade Review

Issue: 1898 Vol. 27 N. 3

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
-—3—vEDWARD LYMAN BILL-*—*
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
~
3 East 14th St., New York
specialism, events have so shaped them-
we fling the infamous insult, this atrocious
selves that there became a necessity for
lie back into the Courier teeth for future
factories in which special parts of instru-
mastication.
ments could be manufactured at a saving
from a trade publication, shows either ma-
of
licious intent or lamentable ignorance of
time, labor and annoyance to piano
manufacturers themselves.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United .States,
Mexico and Canada. $i<.oo per year; all other countries,
$3.00.
ADVERTISEnriNTS, $2.00 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, JULY 16, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIQHTEENTH S1REET.
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 underlying laws which are operative
This does not alone apply to the piano
trade, but to every branch of industry.
an
action
manufacturer
in every industry.
The man who offers a finished piano for
It is not hypocritical or contradictory to
say that
Such a statement, coming
sale, completed in his own factory, is as
can
much a legitimate manufacturer, as if he
produce actions more cheaply when he is
grew the elephant whose tusks produced
manufacturing three hundred sets a week
the keys.
than one can in making ten sets during
the same period.
Apply the same law to the publication
of papers.
There are a number of papers
In the first place the action manufac-
that we can name in every city of impor-
turer invests capital in labor-saving ma-
tance in the land where the typesetting,
chinery, and his energies are being de-
press-work, binding and editing of which,
voted to one special branch of industry,
is all done at different points and still
hence it is the aim of his life to produce
those papers are not stencil or illegitimate
the best goods that he can at a minimum
publications.
Every man in business contracts for his
cost.
Not only the purchasing trade receives
work
as his means and ideas permit.
a large benefit accruing from his industry
Does a reader in criticising a paper com-
and application, but the purchasing public
plain to the typesetter for an occasional
as well.
error or misprint?
The same applies to case making
Does he censure the
PIANO LEGITIMACY.
—to the manufacture of sounding-boards,
man who runs the press, for an inferior
T H E dying throes of the Courier-Annex
and everything else used in the construc-
grade of press work?
tion of musical instruments.
blame the paper mill for a qiiality of paper?
. are indeed ludicrous to behold. There
is now and then evidence of a little life in
There are examples in this trade, as in
the Annex body as seen by a spiteful kick
all others,
at some particular non-supporter.
reached such an enormous output weekly
A rather peculiar issue, raised in this
where
manufacturers
have
that from their vantage ground they can
Does he praise or
No, it is all concentrated at one point,
whether praise or censure, it rightly falls
upon the publisher's shoulders.
Does a purchaser of a piano blame the
attenuated sheet which is obviously made
well afford
to cover an attack on Henry F. Miller, is
parts of the instrument.
Their output is
the action manufacturer for a slight here
that no piano makers are really manufac-
of sufficient magnitude to justify a large
or there, the varnish maker for poor var-
turers until they themselves make all parts
investment in special machinery, and by
nish?
of the instrument, such as actions, cases,
maintaining a large output they are en-
No, it is always the maker, the man
abled to keep a sufficient corps of trained
under whose roof all its parts are grouped.
men at work in the special departments of
They are placed there by his own instruc-
plates, etc.
Why not go a step further and add to
it, until they raise the elephants in Africa,
have iron mines in Alabama, mahogany
forests in South America and all that ?
No matter where a man may purchase
to manufacture the special
their business.
tions, by his own directions, and he is the
We are neither arguing for nor against
the manufacture of all parts of the piano
by manufacturers.
case manufacturer for some imperfection,
That is purely a per-
responsible party.
At least such is the case in this land of
commerce—this home of piano makers.
parts of anything, the whole is greater
sonal matter and only interests the manu-
With the
than any of its parts, and it is for that
facturer himself, whether he can produce
blumenbergs
whole
that
manufacturer
cease from troubling and
stands
cheaper or better work within his own
the weary piano makers are at rest, we are
sponsor whose name appears on the fall
lines—made under his own supervision—
not acquainted.
board
No matter
or whether he proposes to place his work
be acquired later—maybe.
whether the keys are made in Kamtschatka,
with outside specialists, and have his work
or the ivory taken from some pre-historic
prepared according to his own specifica-
tusks
tions and suggestions.
of
the
other land, where the marc-
the instrument.
found
within
the
Arctic circle,
certainly as long as they are
A knowledge of that will
EXHIBITING INVOICES.
T H E R E are still a few men in the world
grouped
We repeat, it is unnecessary to enter into
together in one factory and one man stands
an argument anent the benefits accrviing in
sponsor for the perfected instrument then
either case.
he is as much a manufacturer as if every
must be decided by the individual.
They are purely personal and
If the
—some inside of the barbed
wire
fence surrounding the music trade—who
make a point of exhibiting invoices of
pianos to customers.
These invoices were
part were made under his own factory
manufacturer can contract for a thousand
gained, in many instances,
roofs.
sets, or any number for that matter, of
period while they held the agency of the
actions per year with a reputable maker at
pianos named in the invoice.
It is a question of material—of scale—of
finish;
a question
of
labor, of
correct
a lower rate and obtain eminently satis-
during
the
They do this with the direct idea of not
supervision, of attention to details in every
factory results, we presume that it is his
only injuring the sale, but of killing the
department that assists to create a perfect
own affair whether he wishes to do this,
reputation of their competitor.
piano.
It is the unfinished product which
is really the cheap piano of to-day.
As
the age has gravitated
towards
Invoices
or whether he wishes to embark in action
should never be exhibited, and any dealer
making on his own account.
But as far as
who shows an invoice of a piano of any
the legitimacy of a finished product goes,
make to a customer with the direct idea of
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE IvIUSIC TRADE REVIEW
injuring- a sale which his competitor has
them have been remarkable for their logi-
various checks and documents with un-
varying regularity.
well advanced is making a deep slash at
cal portrayal of present conditions.
the legitimate business, because he is do-
situation as diagnosed by the active mem-
ing so with the direct idea of impressing
bers of
the customer that extortionate prices are
and it stimulates one to action.
being asked by the other man.
facturers are preparing for demands which
Civil War days, there was a tax on gross
are sure to be made upon them.
receipts applying to railroads, ferryboats,
No one knows better than the dealer
himself that such a conviction is entirely
The
the trade, is most encouraging
Manu-
The point made by The Review in pub-
The similarity between the revenue sys-
tems of the
Civil War and the Yanko-
Spanko War is in the stamp taxes.
telegraph, insurance, lotteries,
In the
theatres,
erroneous, and no one knows better than
lishing interviews from all sections of the
etc., and in addition to the tax on legacies,
the dealer that it is intended that a false
country has been advantageous to trade
there was a succession tax applying to
idea be given to the purchaser by the ex-
interests.
real estate.
hibition of an invoice.
At the inception of the series
Besides the income tax, there
of interviews we stated that if the consen-
was a whole system of direct-consumption
There is a good liberal amount to be
sus of opinion was optimistic then its pub-
taxes on articles of pleasure and luxury,
added to the manufacturers' cost of the in-
licity should result in maintaining busi-
including yachts, carriages, pianos, musi-
strument, to what it costs a dealer to sell
ness confidence.
cal instruments, etc.
it; therefore, on its face, a manufacturers'
view we have continued this discussion,
invoice is incorrect, false and misleading
and, through
in that it does not approximate the real
members of
cost of the instrument.
There are impor-
have been enabled to obtain the personal
tant items such as rent, salaries, advertis-
views of others located in every section of
ing,
the country—not alone those who manu-
freight,
drayage and
many other
things which must be added to the cost of
every instrument.
facture,
With that end well in
The Review mediumship,
but those who sell.
The real
purpose at the bottom of this has been a
These items do not appear on the manu-
facturers'invoice, and it does not become
promotion of the interests of the music
trade.
a piano dealer to exhibit an invoice for the
purpose of deceiving, which bears upon
SOME REFUSE, OTHERS-
its face only the first cost of the instru-
I T has been remarked by some members
of the trade who have been in times
ment.
. The Review regrets that manufacturers
past maligned by the journalistic Pirate
such
who has had comparatively free range of
methods adopted by some of the dealers in
the trade seas, that it was better for them
this trade, but one thing they can rest
to pay tribute than to undergo losses which
have no legal protection
against
assured of, and that, The Review will fight
might accrue
this evil as it has others, and in the end
measures adopted by the Pirate.
to them
through certain
In that
will purge the trade effectually of such
way they have endeavored to create sym-
methods.
pathy for themselves.
let it
If we are to have a shaking tip
be general,
prehensive.
complete
and com-
There are a few, though, who never yet
Such a method as we allude
have lowered the head or bent the knee to
to is commercial anarchy, and the men
the piratical Thug.
who will adopt such a course not only
never bowed in acquiescence, and whoever
deceive the public, injure the owner of the
yields to blackmail, selfishly puts personal
name which the piano bears, but demoralize
comfort ahead of the interests of the com-
trade generally.
munity which demands the arrest, prose-
We should
all
take
cognizance of these matters.
We ask that our readers supply us with
duty
blackmailer.
It may be well enoiigh for some to in-
It is a
dulge in wordy pyrotechnics, filling the
to protect legitimate
circumambient air with a whirling phantas-
methods as we have cited above.
newspaper's
Henry F. Miller has
cution and subsequent punishment of the
facts concerning dealers who use such
interests, and to publicly expose dishonest
magoria of words.
Their adjectives may
methods.
drip with molten
streams of rhetorical
It is publicity that will kill dis-
honesty, and it is the light of publicity
fire, while their verbs gleam along the
that we propose to turn upon all dark or
horizon like comets, and the whole trade
cloudy transactions in this trade.
stands in awe and trembling while the
Review
aims to protect
not
only
The
the
nearby
atmosphere is tremendously agi-
manufacturer, but the legitimate dealer as
tated over the wordy outpouring, and still
well.
after all this, they meekly thrust their
hands in their pocket and walk up to the
A BUSINESS BAROMETER.
I IKE the inrolling tide of the sea, the
captain's desk and settle.
Blood money!
Hush money!
opinions of the members of this trade
regarding the business conditions for the
THE
new revenue
law is
operating
The opinions ex-
smoothly, and everyone appears to
pressed have been varied and some of
be attaching the little revenue stamp to
fall, roll Reviewward.
Russell Caught.
the trade widely separated
AN EMBEZZLING DEALER RUN TO EARTH.
La Verne Russell, who formerly con-
ducted a music store at Margaretsville, N-
Y., was arrested at Oneonta last Monday.
The warrant for his arrest was secured by
Jacob Bros., who allege that he has em-
bezzled the proceeds of several pianos.
Jacob Bros, have always shown the
proper spirit in dealing with men of this
character. It will be remembered that
some years ago, Charles Jacobs went to a
great outlay of money and time to bring a
dealer of Salt Lake City to the bar of jus-
tice, but he landed him there, and his in-
structions to J. W. Stevens, in the Rus-
sell case, were to " g e t the man." Mr.
vStevens camped on his trail from Margar-
etsville to Lanesville, to Albany, to Coop-
erstown, to Oneonta.
When captured
Russell was traveling with another man's
wife. Russell had shown a previous weak-
ness for other men's property.
It is said that Russell had made arrange-
ments with Boardman & Gray, of Albany,
and had tried to obtain money from Cluett
& Sons. The former, however, appear to
be the only firm who lost anything. They
advanced him some money, a mileage
book, and shipped him a piano. It is also
said that Kelly Bros., of Halcottville,
through Russell's persuasion endorsed his
notes to the extent of several thousand
dollars.
Mr. Russell will find that he has run
against the buzz-saw, when he attempted
to do up Jacob Bros., who will perform a
trade service by seeing that just and swift
measures of justice are dealt him.
Ohio Dealer Fails.
[Special to The Review.]
Findlay, O., July n , 1898.
Nelson Anderson, music dealer, has
made an assignment to G. W. Bell for the
benefit of his creditors. The assets are
estimated at $1,000 and consist of musical
instruments and town lots. The liabilities
are not known but are probably as large as
the assets. The assignment was a sur-
prise as Mr. Anderson had been in busi-
ness many years and was thought to be
doing a good safe business,

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