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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
lies largely with the manufacturer. If he
has determination enough he is in the long
run almost sure to win. It is not generally
difficult to fill the place of the men who have
gone out, and labor unions then find them-
selves reduced to violence and intimida-
tion. This alienates public sympathy and
leads to the interference of the constituted
authorities who, unfortunately, have even
to be forced to do their plain duty to pro-
tect the property and lives of others. The
leaders of these strikes are too frequently
mere adventurers.
We have seen them in the piano indus-
try. They seek notoriety and personal ad-
vancement, and a severe defeat of these
men seems to be the only means of having
the rank and file of labor realize the folly
of violence and intimidation as effective
ways of enforcing their views.
It is certainly most imfortunate that
organized labor should stand so largely
committed to some ideas that are so
thoroughly wrong and so utterly indefen-
sible that it is not conceivable that they
can prevail. The boycott and the sympa-
thetic strike rarely prove effective, and in
the end merely exasperate, though mean-
while they may completely paralyze all
business activity.
Equally erroneous but not even more
strongly endorsed by labor unions are
plans of limiting the output of a worker,
no matter what his capacity, and of plac-
ing all employees, drones and workers
alike, on an absurdly equal basis.
The Chicago piano men fought against
this, and the time will come when the
piano workmen themselves will see that
they are checking ambition by attempting
to bolster up, by their union rules, lazy and
incompetent members on an equal basis
with those who are expert craftsmen and are
ambitious to increase their daily wages by
still further pe fecting their capabilities so
that they may become more useful to their
employers.
The supremacy of American manufac-
turers, whether in making pianos, or in
other lines of manufactures rests primarily
upon three things—on cheapness and
abundance of raw materials, the genius
of the inventor and the skill of the work-
man, and to threaten any one of these
three is to threaten this supremacy.
Indeed the constant attempt of labor
unions to benefit the incompetent worker
at the expense of the skilled artisan is a
standing menace to the progress of our
manufactures. We are successful in this
direction largely because of the individ-
uality of our skilled mechanics and to bring
It does not seem to be generally recog- down this average by a large infusion of
nized that in case of a strike the advantage. mediocrity a.nd incompetence is to take a
our civilization to hold that the solution
will be reached in the natural way of com-
mercial evolution by agreement and mutu-
al concessions of the two parties to the
matter—employer and employee.
We have in mind a case closely related
to this industry in the section which we
designate—the "supply" portion—where a
manufacturer has found that he had a
strike on his hands. He met his men for
an open discussion of points involved, and
all matters were adjusted amicably and
satisfactorily to both parties without the
calling in of one of the high officials of the
organization, who are usually meddlers as
in the case of Dold, the piano men's ' 'agent."
It is well to recognize the fact that the
principle of organized labor has to all
seeming come to stay, and that, therefore,
the practical questions are its direction and
control rather than any futile attempt at
its repression. The labor union is part
and parcel of our industrial life and it is
all right when it meets the employer in
the spirit of fairness.
There are battles to lose as well as bat-
tles to win, is the principle which we all
must recognize, and it does not follow
that it is advisable to yield to the unrea-
sonable demands of labor unions unless our
own manufacturers wish to invite the fate
of the English makers who are bound hand
and foot by the absurd prescriptions of
their employees and who consequently find
this one of the chief reasons why they are
steadily losing their grip on the trade,
since their effectiveness in manufacturing
is hampered by this unwarrantable and
impertinent meddling, amounting to nod-
ding to the dictation of the labor unions.
The decline of English manufacturing
may be laid largely at the door of the
labor unions of that country. They are
killing the goose that heretofore has been
prolific in depositing golden eggs.
Last fall, when the piano industry of
Chicago was completely paralyzed, it then
became apparent that the men were carry-
ing their demands to a point where they
would drive the piano industries from Chi-
cago. In other words, they were following
the same path which had been pursued by
English unions, and which is showing a
steady decline in English trade. It is too
often the case that the demands of organ-
ized labor are both arbitrary and unreason-
able and threaten the business so that it
becomes the bounden duty of the employer
to resist these demands at any cost, just as
the Chicago manufacturers did, since yield-
ing only brings newer and still more unen-
durable demands later on.
step backward. Revolutions, though, do
not go backward, and we are not pre-
pared to exploit a socialistic theory at the
expense of our commercial supremacy. It
is, of course, possible to override the laws
of nature for a time, provided we are pre-
pared to pay the penalty, even the lab«r
unions. The English untons must ere
long recognize the fact that they are
throttling English manufacturers by their
arbitrary requirements and slowly but
surely destroying their own means of
livelihood.
We have seen in this piano industry
labor leaders carry their demands to a
point which, if granted, as George P. Ben»t
remarked, meant industrial annihilation.
T H E appearance of dealers "in our
midst" during the week sfcows that
the trade tide is turning, and from now on
the rise will be- perceptible.
BALDWINS' VICTORY.
A NOTABLE victory has been won by
the great house $f Baldwin at the
Paris Exposition. The list of awards offi-
cially announced last Saturday, gives to the
Baldwin Co. the grand gold prix, also a
gold medal to John W. Macy, the superin-
tendent of the Baldwin factory. As the
Baldwin Co. are the only American concern
making a comprehensive exhibit, it was
expected that the authorities would bestow
the highest honors upon them, particularly
when the excellence of their instruments
and the completeness of their display were
fully considered by the gentlemen com-
posing the jury of awards. The suspense
is over, and the Baldwin house now appears
as one of the great international piano in-
stitutions of the world, having won the
highest Honors at the Paris Exposition of
1900.
One thing in this connection, too, may
be clearly emphasized. There will be no
universal display of awards won at Paris
by piano manufacturers such as character-
ized the closing of the Chicago Exposition,
where awards and medals were granted
galore. It became purely a question of
interpreting the special strength of adject
tives when deciding who really received
the highest honors at Chicago.
Owing to the broadcast distribution of
medals and diplomas, there was a corres-
ponding depreciation in their real value to
manufacturers. However, no American
piano manufacturer can dispute the splen-
didly isolated position of the Baldwin
house in winning triumphs at Paris. This
institution created a magnificent exhibit,
one which reflected credit upon tlae ad-
vance made in musico-industrial art in
America, and their honors at Faris have
been worthily won.