Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
tate who shall and shall not earn a living
for his wife and children.
No one doubts the unquestionable right
of labor to organize and move along legit-
imate lines for the greatest advantages and
privileges to which it is entitled, but there
TWENTY-FIRST YEAR.
•EDWARD LYMAN BILL-*—?
is one thing as certain as destiny; it can
Editor and Proprietor
never succeed in this country unless it shows
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
an unmistakable disposition to crush the
3 East 14th St., New York
lawless element which exists within itself.
Political influence may obtain immunity
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will oust unworthy public servants and will
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
t
establish the right of every man to work
Entered at the New York Pott Office at Second Clou Mattw.
when he can get work no matter what op-
NEW YORK, MARCH 31. 1900.
position any man or set of men may at-
TELBPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIGHTEENTH STREET
tempt to exercise. Labor can do much
THE KEYNOTE.
through adherence to lawful methods. In
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
their employment it has the advantage of
and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
public sympathy and public respect, but so
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review wilt
long as it acquiesces in the results of out-
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
lawry, so long as it does not show its con-
trade paper.
demnation of the men who wield it as their
A DEBT TO PIANO MEN.
shield, in brutish assaults, murders, the
T S it not a sad commentary on our mod-
destruction of property, it will continue
ern civilization that in this country,
to lose ground continually, for the people
this refuge for the oppressed of all nations,
of this country will not submit to this cruel
a man may be stricken down, even to
exercise of tyranny in the name of organ-
death, because he does not chose to join a
ized labor. If politicians and those in bus-
labor union and merge his personal inde-
iness by the grace of political influence,
pendence into an aggregated autocracy?
wink at such gross and dastardly violation
In the estimate of this dictatorship
of the most vital principle in our free in-
he ceases to be a man. He is not
stitutions it is high time that the people
even referred to as a non-union man,
exercise their supreme right of control,
he is a "scab," a " r a t " or a "dog."
cast out these treacherous servants and
These pet epithets are applied to men who
make good the boasted freedom that we
want work, whose duty it is to work in
parade before the world.
support of themselves and family and who
It is more than good that the Chicago piano
are content with the wages offered them
and who are willing to attend strictly to manufacturers won such a signal victory in
their own business and comply with all the their recent protracted struggle, and piano
observances of good citizenship. No manufacturers in other parts of America
charge of unlawful conduct has ever been owe these men who stood shoulder to shoul-
made against these victims who have been der in the greatest labor fight in the his-
assailed by pickets. There is not a statute tory of this trade a debt which it will take
framed that has been violated, and yet in some time to repay, for had the union men
recent troubles in Chicago the very police won their point in Chicago, flushed with
who are paid to maintain peace have ar- victory, they would have transferred their
rested and even clubbed these "scabs," sphere of operations to the factories of the
these "rats," these "dogs." They have East, where their arrogant demands and
been reviled beyond all legal sanction. insolent interference with the rights of
Their steps have been dogged by a relent- manufacturers would have provoked fur-
less enemy. Their families have even been ther and more extended outbursts.
terrorized, and these men who only ask
But they did not win.
the poor privilege of working that they
Thanks to such men as W. W. Kimball,
may live are beaten to insensibility by C. A. Smith, Geo. P. Bent and others.
cowardly assailants with the instincts of
Their work will be more and more ap-
assassins in the gaze of the men who are preciated as the old world swings down
paid to protect them. Think of half the endless grooves of time.
killing and marking for life men who were
But why wait until their efforts become
desirous of seeking a livelihood as in the incorporated history?
case at the factories of Geo. P. Bent and
Let us honor them to-day.
Newman Bros, during the labor troubles.
In truth we owe a debt to the piano men
These unions presume to arbitrarily dic- of Chicago.
ASSOCIATION ACTION.
INTEREST naturally becomes intensified
in the Piano Manufacturers' National
Association as the time draws near for the
meeting in Chicago. Without doubt im-
portant issues will be discussed and much
ground which directly and indirectly af-
fects the welfare of the piano industry will
be fairly threshed over, thus separating
the wheat of logical common sense from the
chaff of trade abortiveness and inactivity.
One of the resultant effects of the May
meeting will be to draw piano manufac-
turers closer together and to establish the
Association as a more powerful body in
trade politics than ever before.
It is interesting and somewhat amazing
to note the voluminous arguments of the
Royal Roaster made ostensibly for the pur-
pose of defending a newspaper right to
criticise Association actions. There is no
piano manufacturer who would deny the
right of a paper to criticise, but there are
many, thank Heaven, who do not interpret
abuse as meaning criticism. The paper
which has persistently abused members of
the association, maligned members of the
trade, ridiculed the very principles for
which the association stands, sneered at
its progress, attempts at this late day a
run to cover, and at the same time throw
a few handfuls of sand in the way of
silly arguments in the eyes of members of
the association in order that their minds
may be turned from the real issue at stake.
Just that sort of attitude we usually ex-
pect from an individual characterized above
all things else for the possession of a low
animal, vulgar cunning.
This sort of thing may have been thor-
oughly practical years ago when the plans
of the journalistic thug were comparatively
free from obstruction in the way of serious
remonstrances to the usual methods pur-
sued, but in the year of our Lord 1900
there has been a crystallization of thought
along advanced lines which will within the
near future remove the Roaster entirely
from the zone of influence where he has
harassed manufacturers for so many years.
As an illustration: The recent attacks
upon the houses of Fischer, Hardman and
Estey have done more to weld together the
wavering and indifferent members of the
trade, cementing them closer than in any
similar time for many years.
Manufacturers and dealers have expressed
themselves in no uncertain language re-
garding the attitude of the Royal Roaster in
this particular. A storm of indignation has
swept over the trade, and before it sub-
sides it will have a far-reaching effect upon
illicit trade journalism. Just now a wave
of reform is swashing gently over New