Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1899 Vol. 29 N. 13

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
fHE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
tomers, for it is cash which talks most elo- country have had a surplus of equipment.
quently in all the varied walks of life. There has not been business enough to call
Instead of elongated and oftentimes un- for all the freight cars they could put on.
profitable installment sales, it will be, in Many of the cars were allowed to remain
fact it has almost become, a necessity to idle in the sheds and yards.
place stronger emphasis as well as harder
Now the situation is reversed. The
TWENTY-FIRST YEAR.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL.
work upon securing more cash business great trunk lines, particularly in the West,
Editor and Proprietor
than heretofore.
are complaining that they cannot get
There is in the public mind a well-estab- enough railroad cars to accommodate the
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
lished belief that pianos can be bought for demands made upon them. Not only are
~~
3 East 14th St., New York
little or nothing down and any old thing a the cars coming East with the crops of
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, 92.00 per year; all other countries,
month. It is this very principle, backed prosperous farmers, but they are going
$300.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
up by the absence of a one-price system, back filled with merchandise supplied from
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
which has encouraged the public belief in factories that are working overtime. There
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
the idea that there were abnormal profits are 1,300,000 freight cars in use on 187,000
Entered at the New Fork Post Office as Second Class Matter.
in the piano business. Now, the quicker miles of railroad in this country, and man-
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 23, 1899. that belief is shattered and the business is agers of some of the trunk lines say that
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745—E1QHTEE1NTH STREET.
reduced to a solid, consistent basis, the they could use 10,000 more cars if they
THE KEYNOTE.
better it v/ill be not only for the manufac- could get them.
The first week of each month, The Review wilt
turers but for the entire retail trade of
The lack of cars for passenger service is
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
the
country.
Installment
sales
must
be
proportionately
as great, but not as severe-
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
made—that we expect—but they should ly felt. The great famine may be explain-
on our regular news service. The Review will
be healthy sales; and, again, the business ed on the basis that the volume of increas-
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
should be placed on nearer a cash footing ing business has simply overwhelmed the
than it is at present.
railroads.
ON A CASH BASIS.
With the tremendous increase in the
Some piano manufacturers have told us
'"THERE is a manifest disposition on the
volume of circulating currency, there is no that during the last ten days they have
part of manufacturers throughout the
reason to-day why money should not figure experienced much inconvenience in getting
United States to put their business on
more largely in piano sales. We have cars promptly. The fact is there is a
nearer a cash basis. That this tendency is
fallen into the installment rut, and now dearth of cars, just as there will be of
extending to the music trade there is no
that good, generous, inspiring times are pianos as the season advances.
doubt whatsoever, and it means that busi-
again with us, it is well to extricate our-
ness will be run upon healthier lines than
selves from that unfortunate and unprofit-
THE TRUST CONFERENCE.
heretofore.
able position. Let us have more work for
For years comparatively few men have cash. This is going to be the best fall \ I 7HILE the great trust conference which
was held in Chicago last week ad-
been able to insist upon short terms of pay- that America has ever seen in an industrial
journed without reaching any formal con-
ment, partly because of the wide-spread sense.
clusions, or without passing or attempting
financial stringency and partly because of
to pass any resolutions as to evils and rem-
the excessive competition for business which
WHOLESALE TRADE.
brought about all manners of concessions
A ROUND of the factories throughout edies, it cannot be doubted that the bring-
to customers in the way of terms, etc.
the country will disclose the intelli- ing together of such a heterogeneous as-
The great increase in the demand for gence that there is a dearth of accumulated semblage, embracing trust magnates and
manufactured products has afforded an op- finished stock on hand. The summer call labor leaders, statesmen and students of
portunity for introducing reforms in busi- for instruments has been surprisingly large economics, politicians and preachers, on
ness methods, while the advent of numer- and has prevented the accumulation of in- one common platform, and the light which
ous industrial consolidations has supplied struments necessary to meet the anticipated they have thrown through their addresses
on the trust question, should be prolific of
the power to put them in force, one of the early fall demand.
most notable of the changes thus brought
Some of the largest manufacturers in the good results, even if no definite proposi-
about being the terms upon which iron and East inform us of their inability to meet tions or panaceas have been forthcoming.
The main benefit of the conference, ac-
hardware are sold, there being a tendency the present demand for instruments, and
cording
to all the leaders—Mr. Bryan, Mr.
among manufacturers to adhere strictly to as far as the future goes, they are entirely
net thirty day terms without discount for at sea as to how they are going to handle Cockran, Mr. Foulke, Dr. Albert Shaw, Mr.
Wooten, of Texas—is the enlightenment
the holiday rush.
cash.
Now this disposition must be assuring
Months ago The Review predicted just of the whole country as to the intensity
to the business element of the country, in this state of affairs, and the manufacturer and wide reach of the sentiment against
that such a course removes the possible who has not made all the preparations corporate corruption and aggression.
These delegates from all parts of the
danger which is liable to come from over- which lay within his power to meet his
booming or purely paper business. Busi- trade this fall has not acted wisely. All country, leaders of public sentiment, have
ness men can crowd on all the steam that indications point to an active fall, and it is taken home with them new views and new
it is possible when cash is pouring into the wise ones who arranged their business ideas that cannot fail to shape and modify
and clarify their own views and the views
their coffers instead of long-drawn and on those lines.
Activity extends to all industries. Rail- of those whom they address.
much-renewed notes. Piano dealers must
The great oratorical contributions at the
note this tendency and govern their acts roads to-day are overcrowded, a condition
accordingly. In other words, they must which has not existed for years. For many conference were those of Bourke Cockran
work harder to get in cash from their cus- years the great railroad systems of the and W. J. Bryan. The former considered
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
that the fullest publicity regarding the
formation and operation of the trusts would
be an adequate remedy, while Mr. Bryan's
appeal was for the abolition of monopoly
and the restoration of the competition of
the individual by a co-ordinate system of
State and Federal laws.
The eloquence of these great orators
aroused tremendous enthusiasm, but in our
opinion Governor Pingree touched bottom
facts when, in his address, he made the
serious charge against the trusts that they
tend to destroy the individual hope of bus-
iness independence.
There can be no question that as the trusts
grow more numerous and powerful, the
opportunity of the mechanic to become an
employer or manufacturer, the store clerk
to become a small retail merchant and the
small retail merchant to become a wholesale
merchant grows smaller and smaller.
Hitherto, as Gov. Pingree says, the in-
telligent and skillful American employee
"has been something more than a mere
machine. He has felt the stimulus and
ambition which go with equality of oppor-
tunity. These have helped to make him
a good citizen. Take away that stimulus
and ambition and we lower the standard of
our citizenship." And to do that is to as-
sail the national life.
It has ever been the boast of the Ameri-
can people that every man has an equal
chance in this great country of ours.
Emerson declared " America is opportuni-
ty," and thousands the world over have
had every reason to believe this to be the
case. Whatever talent man possessed in
proportion to the industry with which he
used it, this country has offered him in the
past a free field, and an equal opportunity
with every other man to rise from the
smallest beginnings to the largest measure
of independence and prosperity.
Because of this equality of opportunity
millions of people have come to us from
the older nations of Europe, where men
born into the wage-working class remain
there all their lives, and their children
after them, never or very rarely rising or
hoping to rise into the better conditions of
the classes above them.
According to a prominent writer on eco-
nomic subjects it is of comparatively small
importance whether the trusts are cheapen-
ing prices to the consumer, or whether
they are paying higher or lower wages to
their employees. The far larger question
is that which Gov. Pingree puts to the
front: Are they taking away from millions
of men the equality of opportunity which
Emerson said made America what it is?
Are they destroying all the old possibi-
lities of individual independence? Are
they making hopeless wage-slaves of great
multitudes of American men who but for
their operations would be ambitiously as-
piring to better their social condition, and
who by dint of their own ability and hard
work might reasonably expect to do so?
If the trusts are working out these results
they are a detriment to the country and no
lowering of prices or raising of wages,
which they incidentally bring about, can
begin to compensate for the evil they are
doing.
CONCERNING FOREIGN TRADE.
T H E desire among American manufac-
turers to reach out for foreign trade is
growing. The restlessness of American
energy to face the changing conditions,
and to meet, and conquer them with Ameri-
can skill and courage, is causing no little
apprehension among our European com-
petitors for the world's trade. But we
have not as yet made a systematic campaign
for the music trade of Europe. At pres-
ent the efforts seem to be spasmodic, and
as we view them they are in the process
of evolution. The way to action has not
as yet been found. The channels are yet
to be explored and mapped out, but the
strong desire to extend commercial rela-
tions with foreign markets is already press-
ing itself in the intention to find the short-
est routes for our national activities.
The secret of success with the foreign
trade may be summed up in few words.
Those who desire to secure a market for
their goods should pursue the methods
used by those who actually control the de-
sired markets. In other words to build
pianos for foreign trade we must build a
line of instruments which European manu-
facturers are at present supplying to their
customers. That is what manufacturers
in other lines are doing.
We know of one piano manufacturer who
received an order for fifty pianos for Euro-
pean shipment, and these instruments will
be built to conform with the line of Euro-
pean instruments which this dealer is now
handling.
That the American piano manufacturer
is not at present fully aware of the great
avenues of distribution which await him
abroad may be seen in the little interest
manifested in the Paris Exposition. There
are, as we understand, at the present time
only two or three American manufacturers
who have secured space for exhibition pur-
poses.
This lack of interest on the part of mem-
bers of the industry may be attributed to
two reasons. One, that they had quite
their fill of exposition embroglios and en-
tanglements at Chicago, and the other,
that they believe the home trade which is
more profitable, will absorb their product
for a few years to come,
WILL THEY BE ADVANTAGEOUS?
TN the course of a talk on general topics
the other day E. S. Con way, secretary
of the W. W. Kimball Co., said that he be-
lieved the possession of the Philippines
from a commercial point of view would be
advantageous to the United States, and
that Congress will so view it.
A great many others think as does Mr.
Conway in this matter. If we start with
Manila as a centre, and striking a circle
large enough to include China, Japan,
British India, Australasia, Siam, Korea
and the Dutch and French East
Indies, one finds a population of
800,000,000 people—more than ten times
the population of the United States. The
chief ports of many of these countries are
not further from Manila than Havana is
from New York. Into their markets are
pouring a hundred million dollars' worth
of goods every month in the year, and the
trade is rapidly increasing. American
goods are more and more in demand, and
we have always been large buyers in the
East.
The commercial importance of the Pa-
cific is but just now dawning on the na-
tions of the earth. A hundred years will
see greater changes there than the last cen-
tury has witnessed in the countries whose
interests have so largely centred in the
Atlantic.
RETAIL TRADE.
A ROUND of the retail warerooms in
New York furnishes indisputable evi-
dence of excellent trade conditions and
nothing but reports of prosperous tenden-
cies for the future. Members of the trade
state that they have not experienced a
more active September for years, and from
general observation, feel confident that the
increase of business will go steadily on un-
til we reach a record-breaking holiday sea-
son. Even August, the accredited dull
month of the season, has surpassed as to
aggregate sales all previous years since '92,
and September promises to eclipse all re-
tail records for years.
The early activity of the retail trade has
been a surprise to all. Each year retail
trade in the large cities has responded to
the salesman's touch a little later in the
season. In fact, for a few years past there
has not been much activity in the local
warerooms until near the first of October.
This year trade began early in September
and has shown no signs of diminution. In
other words, there are proofs of substantial
increase furnished everywhere we may
visit.
Dewey is coming! If you want a souve-
nir of the event, read page 13.

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