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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
" Liberal use of printers' ink by adver-
tising our ways of doing business in a
straightforward, clear and impressive style,
easy to comprehend."
Referring to trade methods 'in vogue
TWENTY-FIRST YEAR.
in his section Mr. Goggan said: "Legiti-
•EDWARD LYMAN BILL.
mate trade in the piano line has been seri-
Editor and Proprietor
ously injured in Texas, by manufacturers
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
consigning instruments to irresponsible
3 East 14th St., New York
parties, who sell them at every and any
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year; all other countries, price. When they could not induce victims
$300.
ADVERTISEJIENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per to pay $500 they would sell for $150 and a
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read' goat or some other animal or garden truck.
ing matter $75.00.
"It is a common thing to receive reports
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
from our salesmen stating that these peo-
Entered at the iVew York Pott Office at Second Clas* MaUm:
ple tried to get as high as $600 for pianos,
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 9, 1899.
and finally cut prices to $200 and even less.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1743—EIGHTEENTH STREET.
"In proportion to popularity and area,
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will there is no State in the Union having so
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore many consignment agents and dealers as
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing Texas, and 90 per cent, of these are not
on our regular news service. The Review will making enough to support themselves.
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
Even those who were apparently doing a
HOW SUCCESSES HAVE BEEN WON. good business on the consignment plan fell
(~\FTENTIMES we hear the remark by the wayside, and some are now in other
^^^ when reference is made to some indi- lines of business.
" These experiences, however, have not
vidual who has scored a distinct success in
life, that he was a "fortunate fellow" or lessened the number of consignment agents
as when one goes out, another springs up
"extremely lucky," etc.
Now, what is this so-called luck? Is to take his place, and new agencies are
there not back of it application, thorough being made right along.
'' On account of these conditions, and
system and ambitiously energetic work?
Perhaps it would not be amiss to quote the gross misrepresentations of the grade of
utterances of a few leading members of the instruments, it is a difficult matter to sell
trade regarding how they have won suc- high-class artistic pianos, even to parties
cesses. While discussing the matter of whose means would permit them to buy
success with that great Texan house, Thos. the best."
Goggan & Bro., Mr. Goggan remarked:
It might be well for the young dealers of
"Points which we believe were instru- the country, old ones too for that matter,
mental in leading to our success were, first: and for those who have not been specially
"Personal attention to every detail of successful, to read over twice just what
our business during the past thirty-three Mr. Goggan has to say regarding success.
years, with long hours daily devoted to our He did not win it in a day, or in a year,
for his early beginnings were extremely
work.
"Employing competent assistance for modest, but he has achieved success and he
every department, and paying liberal sal- tells how.
aries.
Success is what most of us are desirous
" Fixed prices for instruments, (to which of winning.
all our salesmen are required to adhere),
How shall it be won ?
never permitting sales to be made at cut
A GLARING ERROR.
figures, representing instruments accord-
ing to their quality and merits, and always I TNTIL within a comparatively recent
advising the purchase of the best which
period it has been the ordinary cus-
people could afford to buy.
tom of some manufacturers when making
"Liberality to our patrons by exten- mention of the abusive action on the part
sions where circumstances require leniency, of a particular trade paper to refer to the
(as we do not take notes on installment attitude of "the trade press," thus group-
sales these matters are easily arranged).
ing all of the trade papers under the title
"Catering to the wants of music teach- of offenders.
ers and the general public by carrying the
For a long time this sort of thing was
largest stock of sheet music, musical in- permitted to go unchallenged, until The
struments, and musical goods of all kinds Review, smarting under the insults which
in the South, and selling these at satisfac- were bestowed without distinction, re-
tory prices and terms.
sented the epithets applied to trade papers
as a class and demanded that the real of-
fender be named.
Our work in this particular line has been
rewarded with success, for manufacturers
generally when referring to the offending
portion of the trade press specify just what
particular paper they desire to include
in their denouncements. We took the
position that because there had been one
serious offender, a violator of trade morals,
decencies and ethics, that it was a gross in-
sult to place the entire press under ban for
the crimes of one. It would be just as
fair to claim that because there has been
one law-breaker that all people are dis-
honest. We have stated if any manu-
facturer, dealer or member of the industry
has aught to say against The Review, let
him announce it. We can stand the charge
and surely the other party should be able
to support it with argument of some sort.
If there is a single blot upon The Review
escutcheon readers would confer a favor
by designating it, but we will not for one
moment permit the insult to go unchal-
lenged that the trade press is not a digni-
fied and beneficial exponent of industry.
Our Chicago contemporary, the Indica-
tor, seems to have fallen into the error so
common to manufacturers years ago. It
makes the sweeping statement that the
Eastern trade press has not been loyal to
the interests of their Chicago patrons in
their hour of labor darkness.
The evident object of the article is to
create a bitterness on the part of Chicago
manufacturers towards the Eastern press.
We claim that our Chicago contemporary
errs in an important matter in circulating
this sort of implied insult. It has no right
whatsoever to give utterance to a broad
statement accusing the Eastern press of
disloyalty. It should designate fairly and
squarely just the particular papers to
which it alludes. That is the only proper
way, for surely our contemporary is not
desirous of being classed with certain por-
tions of "the music trade press," and does
not mean to state that all of the Eastern
papers have not been fair in their treatment
towards piano manufacturers. We for one
refuse to permit such a statement to go
unchallenged, and we ask of our contem-
porary to point to one utterance of The
Review which has not been fair, consistent
and loyal towards the Chicago manufac-
turers.
Our contemporary will be unable to dis-
cover a statement in the columns of The
Review, either in the editorial or reporto-
rial departments, which does not show that
the sympathy of this paper is entirely with
the manufacturers. Then, if it fails to do
this, it must admit that it commits a glar-