Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
tion in many ways and at many times during
the last half century which has just closed.
There is no doubt but these organizations
in all lines have come to stay. There is a
necessity for them which will insure their
permanency, but there is also a spirit mani-
fest among manuufacturers to-day which will
do much to bring about more pleasing con-
ditions and a better understanding between
employer and employee than ever before.
Take the unparalleled gifts of Carnegie,
which, during the present month, amount
to a sum of more than twelve millions, all
given by one man towards benefiting and
elevating the human race. This will stimu-
late others to direct some of their vast hold-
ings in the same direction, and this work
will ultimately lead to higher and better con-
ditions, and a fairer consideration of the
rights of others by both employers and em-
ployees. Education means advance.
There are a number of industrial institu-
tions which are now seeking by reasonable
means to bring about increased interest in
the intellectual side of their work among the
employees of the different factories, and in
our own trade the A. B. Chase Co., of Nor-
walk, O., have introduced a system by which
they are developing interest among their
workmen in stimulating their ideas along
inventive and practical lines.
Frequent references have been made in
these columns to the prizes offered by that
institution for suggestions which may be
useful in the manufacture of A. B. Chase
pianos.
There is no question but the move inaug-
urated by this eminent concern will prove
of advantage to them as well as to their men.
It develops healthy thought along correct
lines, and causes men to think that they are
something more than mere automatons in
the arrangement of a great factory. If their
contributions are of any value, they are paid
for them, and their thoughts are naturally
stimulated along lines which must tend to
their individual advancement.
THE CATALOGUE HOUSE PROBLEM.
Y\7 E have been in receipt of many com-
munications from dealers in different
parts of the country endorsing the position
of The Review in the matter of the catalogue
house problem. John \V. Keyes, of the
Wulschner Music Co., whose communica-
tion appears in a neighboring column, says
that "I have been reading with considerable
interest your editorials in the last few num-
bers of The Review concerning the mail
order houses, their methods, and some rea-
son why their business is proving such a suc-
cess. These articles are the more remark-
able in that you seem to have fully struck the
keynote of the situation. Your advice on
this subject is good and I hope that it may
have the careful attention of the dealers gen-
erally."
Mr. Keyes relates his experience in the
small goods line, showing that precisely the
same conditions exist in that department as
in the piano world regarding the unfair
prices at which certain articles are sold by
some music dealers.
A Western manufacturer, whose name we
are requested to withhold, sends a communi-
cation stating that he believes with us that
this is the live issue of the day, and that he
thinks it the duty of all trade papers to sup-
port this move. He agrees with The Review
in the statement that the origin of the evil
lies in the fact that dealers sell certain brands
of cheap pianos at prices which are not in
conformity with their real value.
We are much gratified that the campaign
which we have inaugurated anent the cata-
logue houses has created such widespread
interest. The outcome of all this agitation
may be beneficial to the trade interests. We
believe that an agitation of this kind, which ,
is primarily made for trade betterment,
should be warmly supported by the entire
music trade press, firstly, because it is right;
secondly, because the desired end is the pro-
tection of the legitimate interests of that in-
dustry from which the trade press draws its
maintenance.
The time to fight an evil is at its inception,
and not when it has become firmly rooted,
when it is very much harder to eradicate.
Whether it will eventually lead to a boycot-
ting declaration against the manufacturers
who supply the catalogue house men or not,
we cannot say; that is one of the secrets
which the future holds, but in the meanwhile
we may keep pounding away. There is no
cure for an evil like publicity. The mere
agitation of the matter has sometimes a very
beneficial effect in bringing about a satisfac-
tory adjustment.
the fact that in nine cases out of every ten
it is one of the cheap, or younger pianos,
against some reputable and old-established
make. In other words, the local dealer who
is, perhaps, using the meanest sort of meth-
ods to down the competing make, is the very
one who is trying to place his piano in a rank
which its reputation does not justify him in
assuming. In other words, it is purely a
fictitious value which he is attempting to
force for his instruments. It is pretty nearly
as bad as selling the cheap piano at a dishon-
est price.
In how many of these battles, in these dis-
plays of wordy pyrotechnics, is there any
equality of values?
In most there is an obvious desire of the
dealer to raise a cheap piano to the equal of
a standard make.
In order to do this, volcanoes of abuse
get in perfect erupting form.
And they keep on spouting.
TRUSTS AND~OTHER THINGS.
A TENTATIVE piano trust may exist
to-day on paper. The accomplish-
ment of that is a comparatively easy task,
especially so when positive statements are
made that some of the greatest firms have
signed an agreement in order to induce oth-
ers to join.
That is delightful so far as it goes, but the
truth is, some of the leading firms, who are
said to have signed a trust agreement, have
never given their assent to any such docu-
ment. There is a well-grounded belief that
certain institutions would hail with delight
an opportunity to unload a lot of doubtful
assets at a large, fat, juicy figure. There is,
however, a healthy element in this industry
that will never easily succumb to the trust
octopus.
Even should the scheme succeed as far as
inaugurating an inceptive move, the anti-
combination forces would prove strong oppo-
nents. Obviously, there has been much bluff
and misrepresentation resorted to thus far
RETAIL PIANO BATTLES.
in alleging signatures to the combination
IT ARDLY a week passes that we do not agreement. The promoter and the "confi-
receive some communications or some dential advisor" may not reap those fat com-
papers containing notices of certain retail missions for which they are athirst.
piano battles which are being waged in dif-
ferent parts of the country. One dealer will | N '97 we inaugurated the custom of print-
ing a directory of names and addresses
accuse the other one of adopting disreputable
methods in the conduct of his affairs. The of piano and organ manufacturers and the
other man will make similar accusations, allied trades. While we found this move
and so the battles continue with plenty of lo- popular, yet, for certain reasons, the custom
was discontinued, but will now be revived
cal coloring which add to their interest.
Our experience in matters of this kind in a somewhat modified and convenient form.
We are in constant receipt of inquiries as
leads us to believe that in almost every case
a man who cries wolf in the loudest terms to whether certain firms are really piano
is the one who is trying to bolster up a com- manufacturers, therefore, we shall present
weekly an authentic directory of all piano
paratively unknown piano.
A careful analysis of the conditions which manufacturing firms and corporations. We
lead to these local piano fights will disclose believe that the dealers all over America will