Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
For personal gain some dealers are willing
to sacrifice a successful and growing future.
We believe in special announcements, in
special advertising to attract and to interest;
but we also believe in maintaining the dignity
of the trade and assisting to augment pub-
lic confidence in piano values. We do not
believe in the freak plan that is adopted by
some concerns. Neither do we believe wholly
in the staid, conservative advertising matter
that was wholly in vogue years ago, before
the era of new advertising schemes swept
down on the country.
1 HE AWARDS AT THE ''PAN".
~T HE exhibit in the
Interesting f a c t s
concerning the piano
exhibit—The domin-
ance of the players—
Receive higher official
recognition than pi-
anos—Small g o o d s
men—The R e v i e w .
music trade pavil-
ion at the Pan-Ameri-
can was, in some ways,
remarkable. T h a t it
was not fairly representative of the indus-
try was a fact which would impress the aver-
age citizen visiting the Exposition, whether
or not familiar with the extent and variety
of firms engaged in piano manufacturing.
The absence of the names of great firms
who have contributed so much to the growth
of the industry for the past century will at
once be obvious. The limited space at the
disposal of manufacturers prevented many
from taking part in the Exposition, who
otherwise would have been glad to have
participated.
An interesting fact, however, was the dom-
inancy of piano-players, showing that this
comparatively new adjunct to the music
trade industry had become so prominent
that it at once dominated the Pan-Ameri-
can Exposition, so far as the exhibit of our
own industry was concerned.
There were practically only four distinct
piano exhibits, while the piano-players fig-
ured wholly or in part of half a dozen ex-
hibits. Some of the manufacturers of play-
ers announced their withdrawal from the
competitive race some weeks ago, and it is
interesting to note that every player which
was entered for competition and remained
V the finish received a gold medal.
Even the most skeptical can no longer
doubt the distinct place in the industry which
the automatic piano-players have won, and
it is pretty difficult to predict where their
educational influence will end in developing
and cultivating the national musical taste.
It is beyond estimate, too, what effect they
will have upon the sale of certain kinds of
sheet music. The ability of these inventions
to successfully translate classic music with
all the delicate shades and colorings is admit-
ted. Where will their influence end? The
players must henceforth grow as a factor in
this industry, and as time rolls on, undoubt-
edly, new inventions which will further sim-
plify their operation, will be made, because
there will be more time, more inventive intel-
ligence concentrated upon this department
of our industry than ever before. The play-
ers will assist the industry. They will stim-
ulate the interest in pianos and piano-play-
ing.
The Pan-American Exposition has fur-
nished us an object lesson not intended orig-
inally, perhaps, by the exhibitors themselves,
but nevertheless an undeniable one, of the
piano-players' importance.
A number of the manufacturers of what
we commonly term "small goods" also re-
ceived gold medals. Silver medals were
granted the action manufacturers, while the
highest official recognition of pianos was a
bronze medal. All parts, accessories, small
goods and sheet music came in for a higher
grade of recognition than pianos. A number
of firms received diplomas of honorable men-
tion, and in this class was The Review. This
honor paid a trade publication was significant,
because we may state that there was no spe-
cial department of technical and trade journ-
als, as at Paris, where The Review received
the Grand Prix; but The Review exhibit was
placed in the publishers' department, in line
with the greatest book publishing concerns
on earth, many of whom spent thousands of
dollars on their individual exhibits. It is,
therefore, a special honor paid to a trade pub-
lication, and through it, to the industry which
it represented, that it received official rec-
ognition when compared with the greatest
results of the printers, illustrators and litho-
graphers' art. Trade journalism has won a
place among the recognized industries of the
land.
gent to the ordinary mind. But, as a matter
of fact, the operations of the trusts have now
so permeated the great mass of business
transacted in this country, that if severe leg-
islation were passed to exterminate the
trusts, the shock to our business interests
would be paralyzing.
Gradually conservative investors have been
induced to purchase stocks and trust securi-
ties, and if, later on, legislation were passed
which would invalidate or greatly depreci-
ate certificates of stock, bonds and other
obligations of these great corporations, why,
a panic would occur which would be beyond
power of estimating. The serious financial
panics in our business history would be a
mild zephyr compared with the cyclone of
disaster which would follow such an act.
Men who have scrupulously avoided all in-
vestments in trusts, and whose business is
absolutely independent of connection with
them, would not be able to escape serious in-
jury.
While we firmly believe in the curtailment
of trusts, yet we also believe that unwise
legislation would precipitate business paral-
ysis upon the country, and men should
weigh well the consequences before they urge
unwise legislation. We believe in publicity
as a cure for any evil, and if all these corpor-
ations which invite support from the pub-
lic and whose stocks are listed on the vari-
ous exchanges be compelled to show pub-
licly, not only their gross and net earnings,
but also the character of their receipts and
expenditures, and the form of the agreements
under which the constituent corporations are
operated, why, it would be wise legislation.
Laws compelling this is about as far as we
can
go at the present time in the suppression
NEED OF LEVELHEADEDNESS.
of trusts.
Talk of trust legis- "T HERE will be plenty
lation—Great interests
of trust talk dur- '"THE year opened up in a most encourag-
to consider—Publicity
the best cure—Make ing the next two months.
ing way for the manufacturers of pia-
the corporations show
By that we do not spe- no-players, and it will close with vastly great-
itemized statement of
their affairs.
cially mean piano trust er possibilities than were apparent even at
talk—although the promoter will endeavor the beginning of January. The victory which
to revive his scheme—but Congress will be the players have won at Buffalo, and the
urged to pass stricter anti-trust legislation iact that they are generally recognized to-
with the object, of course, of crippling the day as great educational factors in develop-
trusts so that they will not be able to trans- ing the interest for music—and good music
act business in their present form.
at that—will be recognized by the dealers,
It is a grave proposition, and is liable to and every manufacturer of piano-players that
have far more serious consequences than
contain merit will be busy.
many at the outset will be willing to admit,
It will be some years before the great de-
because the number of trusts has increased
until scarcely a branch of the productive in- mand is supplied. The piano-players are
dustry can be named in which some powerful "IT"—with big capitals—and the dealer who
combination of capital has not been formed is without a player to show to his customers
which controls a large percentage of the busi- has not looked out for his interests as care-
fully as he should.
ness.
In some lines these combinations, or con- T""HE live men of the music trade industry
solidations, represent a capitalization which
have learned that they might as well
is staggering in its colossal aggregation of
figures. It is only a trust promoter who stay out of business as to stay out of the
could recite these glibly enough to be intelli- prominent papers, and the leading trade