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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
come so intensely commercial—so fiendish,
I may say, in our pursuit of gain, as to
forget the sentimental side of life, decay
will already have set in.
I believe also that the strongest tie for
the future of our trade in this country is
the tie of social relation and social inter-
course. As I said to-day in the presence
of some of you gentlemen, I think there is
nothing more pernicious than the enact-
ment of laws in the civil code (Municipal,
County, State or National) in advance of
public sentiment; because such laws will
be broken; and a broken law might better
never have been placed on the statute
book.
Our association has been formed for the
purpose of improving the condition of our
trade—for mutual benefit; and this end
can best be attained by the maintenance of
social relation and intercourse one with an-
other. Anxious as I am for trade, I do
not believe that I would say any very hard
things about our brother Smith here.
(Laughter and applause.) He smiles and
looks me in the face in such a genial sort
of way, that "the wind is tempered to the
shorn lamb; " and I am afraid I shall not
be as strong a competitor with him here-
after as I have been in the past.
I do not know when I have enjoyed a
day so much as I have to-day. Probably
twenty or twenty-five of the piano manu-
facturers within hearing of my voice know
that I have never had the pleasure of
meeting members of the trade as I have
to-day. I have been in business, as I
have said, out among the cactus plants
and the jack rabbits for twenty-eight years.
I am ashamed to say that I have been thus
long segregated from those who should
be my business associates; and I am going
to work now to find whether I can put my-
self upon a footing of intimate acquain-
tance with all of them. (Applause.) I
will not occupy more time except to say
that when you come to Chicago next year,
we are going to give you a red hot time.
(Applause).
PRESIDENT MILLER : I presume that every
man, when appointed the chairman of a
committee to choose speakers for an occa-
sion of this kind, has pleasant anticipations,
and hopes that he will be able to do some-
thing of which he may feel proud. I had
such hopes in connection with the selection
of the speakers for this evening. I real-
ized, of course, that I could not accomplish
all that I wanted to do; but I took the
chances. I wrote a letter to one gentle-
man in regard to whom I felt that if he
would honor us with his presence to-night,
I should be able to present to you (I being
a citizen of Boston and we having here to-
night other representatives from Boston
• and from the State of Massachusetts) Mas-
sachusetts' ideal citizen—a man who is to-
day not only beloved by every man, wom-
an and child of his own state, but a man
who is to-day yours, as well as ours. Our
association is honored to-night by the
presence of a gentleman who is to-day at
the head of that branch of our country's
defense which as business men we have
looked upon during the recent war as hav-
ing given the keynote at a time when, in
connection with the success at Manila, it
brought about a state of confidence which
was worth to our commercial interest mil-
lions of dollars—which gave to the entire
country a feeling of hope and security—
which set our machinery to work in every
direction—which enabled our manufactur-
ing industries to operate in the way which
was needed to carry on to a successful con-
clusion the war which we had undertaken.
If ever I regretted that I do not possess
that eloquence which would enable me to
make a speech befitting the occasion, it is
to-night when I cannot but wish that I
might pay fitting tribute to the American
Navy. (Applause.) Its history is a series of
successes from the beginning of our nation
to the present time. Its officers have been
CHAS. H. STEINWAY—Stein way & Sons.
among the noblest and greatest in any
walks of life, not excluding our executive
rulers and the men who make our laws.
Its names are dear to us all.
But I feel that I am trespassing upon
your time and patience by too extended a
line of remark in this direction. (A voice:
"No.") I shall, therefore, present to you
at once the man who is to-day the ideal
man of the country—our Secretary of the
Navy, Hon. John D. Long.
(Secretary Long was received with the
the most enthusiastic demonstrations of ap-
plause, the whole audience joining in sing-
LEOPOLD PECK-Hardman. Peck & Co.
ing the Star Spangled Banner accompanied
by the orchestra.)
HON. JOHN D. LONG'S SPEECH.
SECRETARY LONG:—Mr. President and
Gentlemen: I need not say to you that I
thank you most heartily for the very cor-
dial, patriotic and earnest greeting and
welcome which you have extended, not to
me, but to the Navy and the flag. (Ap-
plause.) My sympathies really are with
the gentleman who expressed just my feel-
ings when a moment ago by his emphatic
"No,"he suggested that the president of
this association should go on with his re-
marks and that I should not be called up.
(Laughter.) The fact is your president
was altogether too laudatory in his intro-
duction of myself. But he could not help
it. He does feel kindly toward me; but
his spirit of extravagant statement comes,
not from his regard for me, but from the
habit of advertising his wares. (Laughter
and applause.) And when you are disap-
pointed in the few feeble remarks which I
shall make, comparing them with the an-
ticipation which he has raised in your
mind, it is only synonymous with the dis-
appointment which the purchaser of a
piano feels after his purchase is made and
he compares the article with that which
was advertised in the newspaper. (Laugh-
ter.) If he had told me before our meet-
ing here, what he has said to-night, that
he desired to have the President and the
Vice-President here, I would have ordered
them over, (laughter) although they are
both very busy at home practising upon
the pianos which they have. (Laughter.)
The President is such an amiable man that
I know he would have hesitated to come,
except under the greatest pressure, for fear
you would ask him whose piano he has in
his drawing room, (applause) and might
suggest that some other make would be
more desirable. (Laughter.)
I have been specially interested in the
remarks that have been made here this
evening. I have listened with pleasure to
the distinguished speakers who have pre-
ceded me. It is true I found it a little dif-
ficult to follow brother Ramsdell, who
talked a sort of piano dialect. (Laughter.)
I noticed you all seemed to understand it
and enjoy it. I enjoyed it, but I did not
understand it. (Laughter.) Yet, I re-
member that some forty years ago when I
was a little boy and went to the town
where he lived, he being then a mature
young man and a teacher in the Sunday-
school, he then talked as plain "United
States" as any man I ever knew.
My friend Smith has brought you the
true Boston spirit—the humanitarian spirit,
the unselfish spirit, the spirit which he
would have you carry from this time for-
ward into your trade—a spirit which he
has intimated you never have had before—
a spirit which will prompt you in dealing
with your customers to suggest to them
that they should buy, not your own goods,
but those of your competitor. (Laughter.)
It is the altruistic principle, and I am ex-
tremely glad to know that you have ar-
rived at that point where you propose to
carry it out. The sympathy which I have
hitherto felt for you and for your custom-
ers will be much alleviated. (Laughter.)
I have been struck, too, with the pro-
gressive spirit manifested by others of your
speakers. I felt sure that Mr. Conway,
from Chicago, was a man of education,
training and ability, not only in business,
but in speech; and it was, therefore, a sur-
prise to me that he should say he never
met a school teacher until some four years
ago. (Laughter.)
I regret that your president has not
called upon others of your representatives,
so that I might have received still further
instruction in these various lines. It has
occurred to me that the navy, to which
your president has referred, might benefit
by further association with this body of
business men—that instead of furnishing
our great battleships with cannons and
with turrets, we might furnish them with
pianos, certain that nothing would carry
more terror to any enemy that was obliged
to listen to their music. (Laughter.)
I began by saying that I thanked you