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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
bellowings and intemperate ravings anent
stencil and individual members of the trade.
It reminds us of that time in the history of
our " once formidable " when it was at the
flood-tide of its triumph and it sent forth the
ultimatum to the trade to pay its advance
in advertising rates or get out. In other
words, it had dominated, dictated and con-
trolled until it believed that its demands
would never receive a check.
It is well to recall those former condi-
tions and contrast them with the present
day. It would seem to us that the decay
has been so pronounced as to be beyond a
question of argument. Many of the adver-
tisements of the most distinguished houses
in this trade appear no longer in its columns.
Others have refused to bow the head and
bend the knee to those orders, which in by-
gone years were listened to with the closest
attention. The long line of men waiting
their turn to reach the captain's desk and
settle at the crack of the lash was well
understood from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
There was one great dictatorial power which
must be appeased or the heavens would
fall and the welkin ring with the fierceness
of abuse delivered at the heads of those
who refused to pay the regular tribute.
What must the feelings of those men be
to-day who have been forced to pay tri-
bute ? Have they forgotten the unhappy
past, or do they now revel in the oppor-
tunity to give thrust for thrust before the
curtain shall have been rung down upon
the closing act of the drama ?
He is driven to the last ditch. His abusive,
egotistical and insane ravings only show
what desperate straits he has reached. The
mock heroic and the grandiloquent air
which he assumes little becomes his fallen
condition.
THEORIES AND FACTS,
"TRADE during the month of May has
been materially disappointing. On
the whole, we had expected better- things
for the month. With the advance of the
season we naturally expected a quickening
in the demand for pianos and allied prod-
ucts in all parts of the country. --^
In some other industries there is consid-
erable activity, and it is announced that in
the lines in which wire, brass and copper
figure, trade is not only good, but that
further advances will be made in prices.
This will interest piano manufacturers.
It is believed by some that the new con-
solidations which have taken place in al-
most every industry, have had much to do
to hamper trade in nearly all lines, in that
it continues to bewilder the trade and sug-
gests questions as to what the final out-
come is to be on this subject, on which
America seems to have gone mad. Some
expert financiers allege that the heavy cap-
italization of the principal consolidations
in the different trades involves great and
grave financial responsibilities to those
producers. It is argued that the fixed
charges in the way of interest on bonds
and dividends, or preferred stock, are an
addition to cost which gives rival produc-
ers in other sections opportunities for suc-
cessful competition.
It may be of interest to go over some of
the published figures to ascertain approxi-
mately what, on the face of the term, this
means:
Beginning with the Federal Steel Com-
pany we find that this concern have out-
standing $27,359,000 of 5 per cent, bonds
and $2,600,000 of 6 per cent, bonds, which
call for $1,523,450 interest annually. There
is outstanding $53,253,500 of 6 per cent,
preferred stock, which is not cumulative,
however. With a total annual output of
about 1,800,000 tons of finished and partly
finished material this would present a charge
of, say, $2.50 per ton. Since the company
must depend largely upon outsiders for
their coke supply, they must pay a profit in
that direction, and they must also pay
royalties on a considerable part of their
own products. On the other hand, there is
an income of some importance in the way
of subsidies.
The National Steel Company must meet
interest payments on $2,561,000 of bonds,
and provide for 7 per cent, on $27,000,000
preferred cumulative stock, a total of $2,
043,660 of annual charges. The company
have a rated capacity of about 1,800,000
tons of steel, so that this would represent
a charge of about $1.25 per ton. This
looks low, but it must be considered
that the product is the relatively crude
form of billets and sheet bars, and that the
ore supply and the coke supply are only
partly covered. On the other hand, the
close relation between the company^ and
the finishing mills of the American Tin
Plate Company and the American Steel
Hoop Company assures an outlet for up-
ward of 1,000,000 tons of product at re-
munerative rates. It is understood that
the company have long time contracts on a
low basis for Rockefeller ores, and have a
sixth interest in the Oliver Iron Mining
Company's output of iron ore.
The American Steel & Wire Company
have dividends to pay on $38,150,000 of
preferred stock and on about $700,000 of
bonds, making a fixed charge of about $2,-
700,00*0 annually, or, say, $2.75 per ton on
about 1,000,000 tons of finished products.
While controlling only a moderate per-
centage of raw materials, and dependent
n
largely upon others for steel, the wire com-
pany market, besides large lines of staple
goods, very important amounts in value of
high priced specialties.
It is true that these great trusts have
enormous assets, but they also have gi-
gantic responsibilities. How will they all
stand the test of next year's great political
struggle? Will the strength which it is al-
leged unity possesses prove stout enough
to stand the strain?
DEMANDS UPON MANUFACTURERS.
DIANO manufacturers have to suffer a
great deal through unjust demands
made upon them from various sources not
onl)'- from parties who have purchased their
pianos at retail, expecting to expose the in-
struments to all sorts of climatic changes,
and bring them around to the factory in
the course of three or four years, and get
new ones in exchange, but there are many
dealers who will also make exaggerated
and unfair claims upon manufacturers.
In many instances manufacturers will
allow concerns all concessions in the way
of repairs, incidentals, deficiencies, in fact
acquiesce in all of the claims made by their
agents rather than have an open break
with them which means not only the loss of
customers, but indulging in considerable
correspondence of an unsatisfactory na-
ture, and the fear that a refusal on their
part to acquiesce will lead to a knifing of
pianos in their respective territories.
Now pianos, like all other combinations
of wood and metal, are extremely suscep-
tible to atmospheric influences, and it is
folly to suppose that a piano can be ex-
posed to radical changes without showing
the effects of the variations of temperature
through which it has gone.
We have had from time to time, our
attention called to ridiculous and unfair
demands made upon manufacturers. Re-
cently a point in mind:
A Southern house shipped back five
pianos to one of the old and reputable con-
cerns of New York. Some of these instru-
ments had been out over two years, some
in ebony casings and some in mahogany,
but invariably the exposed portions of the
cases were blistered by being exposed to
great dampness. An examination revealed
the fact that all covered portions of the
cases where the scarfs came across the tops
and on the inside of the fall-boards the
varnish was as smooth as polished glass.
The strings of all of these instrument were
badly rusted through exposure to damp-
ness.
All of us who have traveled in the South
know well that that is a most trying part