Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-SECOND YEAR.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J . B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
EMILIE
FRANCES
BAUER,
EDITOR ARTIST 1 B DIPT.
Executive Staff :
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
GEO. W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
PnDlished Every fttmfty at 3 East 14th Street, New Yorfc
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
$75.00.
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, FEB. 9, 1901.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745—EIQHTEENTH STREET.
On the first Saturday of each month The
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.
should have the forethought and good judg-
ment to demand and receive a just and
fair benefit from the increased purchasing
power of the people.
Instruments should be put upon a proper
price basis, but the wise ones say this is
impossible, owing to keen competition.
Be this as it may, the manufacturer who
sells without an adequate profit on his in-
vestment is not conducting business on
legitimate lines, whether he makes ten or
sixty pianos a week.
The abuses in the matter of price sched-
ules should be remedied now if at all. Un-
less manufacturers take the trouble to
very carefully calculate the increased cost
which results from the higher prices they
are paying for nearly everything entering
into pianos, they may soon be actually
selling instruments at less profit than they
secured before the present prosperous
times overtook them.
This subject is one that merits the clos-
est consideration.
cure the confidence of the consumer at
home. They establish the reputation of
being up-to-date. Many merchants have
not been to market in years. To do so
this season is a duty each merchant owes
to himself."
HOW IS JT GOING TO END?
T H O U G H earlier economists, judged
from their writings, never appear to
have foreseen what our later economists
now say was inevitable as the result of
trade evolution, it is fixed beyond contro-
versy that the whole trend of our indus-
trial development is toward the concentra-
tion in trusts of an absolute monopoly.
Legislation has failed to check their devel-
opment and the best efforts of opposing
legal authority, notably in the case against
the National Biscuit Co., brought in Ohio,
resulted in a victory for the trust. The
Standard Oil Co. has flourished like a green
bay tree through all attempts at adverse
legislation, lawsuits and legislative investi-
gation.
Whether correct, or only partially so,
there is a popular impression that these
trusts have not only regulated prices in
the varied commodities which they control,
but handled legislators and, in exceptional
instances, courts themselves. More than
this, they have been very largely respon-
sible for discrimination in freight rates
against smaller producers, the immense
shipments of trusts leading railroads to
consult them before fixing schedules, and
then making them to the liking of the
monopolies.
To do away with this very manifest
THE TRADE OUTLOOK.
GET IN TOUCH.
T^HE present period of the year is in- T H E R E are undoubtedly hundreds of
variably a dull one in wholesale and
dealers in this industry to-day who
retail circles. When compared, however, have never visited the factories where the
with previous years, the second month of instruments which they represent are made,
the new century opens up with business or who have never become acquainted with
conditions fairly satisfactory. The lull the personalities who have built up these
during the early weeks of January has institutions and with whom they have cor-
been replaced by a steady onward move- responded and correspond week after
ment and demand which indicates a good week.
volume of trade from now until the ac- These are the men who should take ad-
cession of King Torridity.
vantage of the special railroad rates se-
Perhaps the most significant indication cured by the Merchants Association and
of the expectations of manufacturers for referred to elsewhere in The Review, so as
x
the year is the enlargements of factory to get in toiich with the trade by visiting injustice there has been a strenuous effort 1
facilities reported from East and West. piano centers, such as New York for in- to give a larger grant of power to the in-
Each and all are evidently looking forward stance. Even if dealers fail to buy pianos terstate commerce commission so that it
to a year that will exceed 1900 in volume they will get a mental invigorating worth may enforce an equitable freight rate in
of business and profit.
double the cost of the journey. They will the interest of those who are without the
While the industry may congratulate it- not only add to their storehouse of knowl- influence of enormous wealth and a cor-
self upon present conditions and upon the edge, but when they arrive home they will responding volume of freight.
prospects of the immediate future, the sit- let the impression go forth through the
But a counter movement appears to have
uation is not without its dangers. In local paper that they got hold of some suddenly developed. It went quietly on
some quarters there is apparent a failure really clever things.
without attracting public attention until
to recognize that the cost of producing
In this connection the circular recently the open coup by which J. Pierpont Mor-
goods to-day as compared with a few years sent out by the Merchants' Association gan gained control of coal shipment from
ago, is much higher. As a member of the covers these points somewhat pertinently. the great base of supplies. The vital fact
trade said to us this week: ' 'The increases "It is to the interest of every merchant to in connection with this was that he also
that have thus far been made in the whole- go to market and get in touch with new controlled the bulk of the coal output. He
sale selling prices of pianos have not been methods of doing business established by could pay himself three dollars a ton for
sufficient to cover the increased cost, if the the large houses, especially those of the carrying coal, and his competitors would
cost be computed upon the basis of the retail trade. No merchant can hope to have to meet the rate. This simply means,
present figures that must be paid for labor, maintain and retain a successful trade un- as the Detroit Free Press well says, that he
materials and supplies."
less he keeps abreast of the times. New can crush them at will, and his more re-
The general statement at the close of ideas and radical changes of methods are cent purchases indicate an intent to extend
last year was: "Yes, we did a good busi- seen in the New York market every sea- his monopoly of transportation.
ness, but our profits were considerably son. When the merchants of the smaller
It does not tax credulity to believe that
smaller than other years." This complaint towns and villages visit market they not the money of trusts is behind the great
should not obtain at the close of 1901, and only secure new styles with which to make deal recently reported, for it would give
manufacturers, be they great or humble, their stocks more attractive, but they se- them the control of rates from ocean to