Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL < •< -
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, 9zoo per year ; all other countries,
$3.00.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $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, JANUARY 28, 1899.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIOHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review wih
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.
BYWAYS AND HEDGES.
OUMM ARIZING briefly the business
conditions, it is evident that 1899 will
be a remarkable year. The unprecedented
boom in stocks which we have seen during
the past week is evidence of that confidence
which is an essential to the widening" of the
business horizon.
Speaking on this subject, Senator-elect
Depew, a recognized authority, says that
the people of this country are just awaken-
ing to the fact that we are more prosper-
ous no"w than we have been for twenty
years. The banks are full of money seek-
ing investments. The farmers in the
West are so prosperous that, instead of ap-
plying to their banks for money that must
be borrowed from New York, the western
banks have more money than they know
what to do with and are buying paper in
Chicago. The railroads are doing well.
Take the New York Central, for example.
It is carrying more freight now than it
ever did before. The balance of foreign
trade has turned so much in our favor that
Europe is in our debt more than $600,000,-
000, and promises to continue so. We are
lending large sums of money in Europe on
call. This state of things means that in
this country we must not only get on a
three per cent, basis, but that a long period
of security in business lies before us.
It is true that January thus far has not
been an active, one in manufacturing, and
what January is, for that matter? It seems
that there is a tendency both on the part
of the manufacturer and the dealer to
slacken their efforts during the first two
or three weeks of the year. This habit
has become so universal that the beginning
of the year now is usually marke.l by a
period of dullness.
The general prosperity, however, that
prevails will be of vast benefit to this in-
dustry, and on the whole 1899 begins with
more flattering conditions for the piano
manufacturer and dealer than we have
faced for many years. There are constant
changes going on in our industrial world—
changes w 7 hich will be noticeable in this
industry as in others.
A STRIKING characteristic of modern
industrial activity is the growing ex-
tent to which nearly every branch of inter-
national trade relations are involved. Less
and less do the people of this country ad-
here to distinctive industrial practice and
trade customs. The whole world has been
brought so close together that people every-
where want like conditions, demand like
conveniences and commodities whether
they can be produced at home or have to
be brought from the opposite side of the
Globe. People are no longer confined even
to the use of their native food stuffs, for
the rice-eaters of the Orient are beginning
to buy American flour.
Practically the markets of the world have
become one, and the country that can pro-
duce a good article of the better class or at
a less cost than any other takes the lead.
America has been sending ship plates to
the Clyde, steel rails to India and pipe to
Australia, while the iron trade in Birming-
ham is complaining of the active competi-
tion which they find in American hardware.
There is no room for sentiment in trade.
Neither pride of country, nor the fact that
it is a violation of all precedent, prevents
the thrifty merchant from buying wherever
he can do best.
mechanic, the railway employee and a
host of other classes, as well as for the
farmer, and all of them have benefited by
the new order of things. The experience
of the United States in this respect in time
will be that of the rest of America; it will
be repeated in those parts of Europe where
a similar development has not yet been
known; and the same will yet be true in
Asia and Africa. The bearing of all this is
that the international exchange of commodi-
ties involves the expansion of the world's
shipping. Every year either new uses are
found "for many commodities or uses are
found for them in new countries, and in
either event a certain result is an addition
to the volume of ocean commerce.
T H E committee on commissions of the
National Piano Manufacturers' As-
sociation has nothing to give out to the
public as yet regarding their session in
Chicago. Their report will be made to
the executive committee of the National
Association and will be read before the
Convention which meets in Washington
next April.
IN these days of small profits and close
competition it is surprising to note the
apparent lack of regard shown by the
average retailer for the payment of his
obligations as they mature. Dealers may
have their own ideas as to how they wish
to pay their bills, but they have no right
to say when they shall pay them. The
terms of sale govern that feature of the
business. The retailer who permits his
bills to go unpaid and who fails to arrange
in a business-like manner for his maturing
obligations, is helping to compile a record
aga'inst himself that will work more in-
jury from a credit standpoint than any
other course of action short of downright
dishonesty. Be just and punctual, con-
siderate and frank, and above all be sys-
ft/I. EN now living can remember when
tematic regarding details.
'
the American population was chiefly
agricultural, and when the best managed T H E Government Patent Commission,
which is now engaged in preparing
farm was the one which most nearly sup-
recommendations
for legislation in revis-
plied the wants of the owner and his
family the year round. Not only was all ion of the Patent and Trade Mark Laws, is
the food and much of the clothing of home addressing itself with much energy to the
production, but the farmer, with the aid of problem of how to draft a comprehensive
the village blacksmith, practically supplied general trade mark law.
the implements and tools needed. But the
In a recent decision of the United States
farmer to-day, leaving to specialists in a Supreme Court it was held that the law for
thousand different lines the work of supply- the general registry of trade marks is un-
ing most of his wants, devotes himself to constitutional.
some features in which he can excel,
There is no question but that the value
with the result that he is better fed, better of a trade mark law in the commercial
clothed and provided with better appli- world is considerable. One gets thorough-
ances for his work than his predecessors. ly acquainted with an article by reason of
This division of labor has brought em- a particular illustration which is always
ployment for the factory operative, the used in conjunction with the article.