Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-SECOND YEAR.
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J. B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
EMILIE
Executive Staff :
FRANCES
BAUER,
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
GEO. W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
PnMUM Every Satnrflay at 3 East 14th Street, New York:
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage). United States, Mexico
and Canada,|2.oo per year ; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount
is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite reading matter
$75-°°.
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, DEC. 15, 1900.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIQHTEENTH STREET.
On the first Saturday of each month Th
Review contains in its "Artists Department"
all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or
service of the trade section of the paper. It has
a special circulation, and therefore augments
materially the value of The Review to adver-
tisers.
KINDS OF ASSETS.
\ \ 7E are rapidly approaching the close of
the old year, and while we expect
trade will be naturally brisk from this
time until the close of 1900, yet we are
reaching the time when we must settle
the accounts of the old year.
The business man cannot dodge the mir-
ror that reflects facts; no matter how un-
satisfactory is the general condition—per-
sonally or commercially, he usually forces
himself at the beginning of every year to
the point of considering facts just as they
are and not as his optimistic nature fre-
quently makes him see things.
Stock-taking in the retail piano line is
not a difficult task, and in that this trade
differs from many others where there are
larger moneys locked up in merchandise
which is obviously out of date and which
should be taken at a much reduced figure
in order that a man may arrive at figures
approximating his real worth.
There is no line, perhaps, of manufac-
tured stock, not even excepting the furni-
ture trade, where the manufacturer and
dealer suffer as little loss by reason of out-
of-date goods, as in the piano industry.
In other lines of trade it is very easy
for a man to rate his stock higher or
lower, just as his interest in trade finds
him. He can make himself rich or poor
with very little trouble. His bills payable
is the only factor which he cannot tamper
with, but his bills receivable can be depre-
ciated as an asset, or his stock can be puffed
up according to the exigency.
The piano merchant who has bought
right finds that his stock in hand need suf-
fer no depreciation by inventory. He may
fool himself, however, upon one line of
his assets—and that, his receivables. We
know of some dealers who have sold
hundred dollar pianos at elongated prices
and who in their assets estimate these in-
struments at the retail price at which they
were sold. In this way they have figured
out assets convincingly large on paper, but
which are of such a gaseous character
that the slightest touch of adversity would
explode the whole thing. The flimsiness
of this kind of assets is apparent to the
safe business man. We can name some
concerns, however, who are labeled safe
who have been carrying in part this kind
of business. A man may figure himself
out to be a millionaire on paper at this
rate, but he is drifting far away from facts
and living in a fool's para'dise, when he
permits this sort of estimate to be made
of his assets.
There are many important assets of
business institutions outside of mere stock
valuation and accounts. In a healthy busi-
ness there is the store organization, the store
policy, the store itself, and then the store
location. Who can estimate the value as an
asset of the names of some of the greatest
retail music trade concerns of this country?
The advertising, intelligently done, is also
an asset. It establishes a drawing power
which is an asset of its kind. Dependable
patronage, that is, a trade following, is
also an asset to be most carefully con-
sidered. There are other assets—assets of
a very peculiar nature. The physical con-
dition of the state in which you do
business, the surrounding territory, the
number of towns from which business could
be drawn if properly worked, and the
business health of the surrounding farm-
ing, mining, or manufacturing districts.
These are all contingent assets. Then
there are the assets and liabilities of
weather conditions, crop failures; for in-
stance if you are doing business in a sec-
tion which depends entirely upon the suc-
cess of one crop and that one crop is de-
stroyed, the local assets are pretty well
annihilated with it.
In weighing these pros and cons in busi-
ness does it not seem that all these mat-
ters which are extraneous, are outside of
all calculations, are really the most power-
ful assets yet the most dangerous liabilities
that a merchant can have?
Aggression is a power. Sensation is a
new sound that breaks in upon the monot-
ony of piano work and arrests the atten-
tion of the value seeking trade. It is a
good thing to have a specialty, for this in
a broad sense is the age of specialism, and
were it not for new ideas, new sensations,
new aggressions, the entire mercantile
world would rapidly sink into a state of
decadence.
Aggression is a powerful
asset. It is worth dollars and cents, for it
is power and push that may count for
large dollars particularly when guided by
reason and undeviating honesty.
A PROFIT-SHARING DECISION.
A N interesting decision is referred to in
another portion of this paper where-
by the profit-sharing system of Alfred
Dolge again assumes an interesting phase.
A referee holds that all credits for endow-
ments or deposits made in behalf of any
workman are valid and legitimate claims
for wages, and are to be placed in the pre-
ferred class.
This decision naturally increases the
liabilities of the concern and will draw
still more heavily upon the assets of the
Dolge receiver. It seems to be a reason-
able decision inasmuch as many of the
employees had consented to work for
specified wages with the direct under-
standing that their account was to be
credited with a share of the profits which
they made annually, and this at once be-
comes a part of the wages agreed upon.
Mr. Dolge's system was a very intricate
one, and his method of crediting to each
individual his share necessitated an elabo-
rate and complicated system, and it seems
that this recent decision will further com-
plicate the settlement of the estate of Al-
fred Dolge & Son.
THE RENTAL BUSINESS.
statement has been made by a
vaudeville contemporary that the
piano rental business of New York is prac-
tically a thing of the past and that as
a feature of the retail trade of New York
to-day it is too trivial to be considered.
This is ridiculously absurd.
As a matter of fact, the rental business
has never been better for many years than
during 1900. Ask any of the firms who
make a specialty of renting and they will
endorse this statement.
The renting feature of the business, far
from becoming- decadent, shows surprising
activity. The renting of pianofortes dates
back before the birth of the industry. We
find one Joseph H. Fleming advertising
himself in the Independent Journal (New
York) in May 1785 in this wise: "Piano-
fortes and other instruments made, sold,
bought and exchanged, or let out at quar-
terly payments." It will probably continue
as a feature of the business long after those
who are at present playing their parts upon
the stage have become but a memory.
We have before us an advertisement un-
der date of December 3, 1840. In this ad-
vertisement, published in Worcester, Sam-
uel R. Leland offers '' pianofortes from the
best manufacturers in Boston at three per