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THE MUSIC TRADE
men who drum business, just as the piano
manufacturers engage travelers to scour
America for patronage.
Bankers and trust companies recognize the
necessity of making a special effort to induce
the public to become their patrons, and it is
within reasonable prediction to say that with-
in a very brief time all of the prominent con-
cerns who are engaged in financial enter-
prises will become general advertisers. Ad-
vertising is the great lubricator of trade. A
concern in a regular line of trade might as
well be out of business as out of the adver-
tising columns of prominent publications.
Anyone who has a commodity for sale must
let the public know that he has the goods,
whether pianos or push carts. These are
the days for big contracts. One Chicago
department store has just closed a deal for
a page advertisement a day for the entire
year. It is said the amount involved in this
single purchase is $125,000. In the East
Wanamaker has contracted for a number of
whole pages, running in papers in New York
and Philadelphia. Lately this great mer-
chant has been giving prominence to pianos
and music boxes—in fact, all kinds of musical
merchandise. Regulars must wake up to the
necessity of advertising.
TWO GREAT TRADE FACTORS.
"F H A T t h e s m a l l
grand and the pia-
no-player have made
great strides in output
during the past twelve
months goes almost without saying; for to-
day manufacturers are having the hardest
kind of work to fill orders for both of these
instruments.
One feature that has helped to popularize
the small grand is its being placed on the
market by some of the leading makers at a
price, which, considering its musical merits,
is not extravagant. A number of other man-
ufacturers have made the small grand a spe-
cial study also with the object of producing
an instrument at a fair price to satisfy the
requirements of a great number of purchas-
ers. It is significant to note that small
grands, both high and low priced, have been
and are in demand, and the prospects are
that this activity will continue during the new
year, which will soon be upon us.
Contrary to the expectations of the many
wise ones who predicted only a few years
ago that the piano-player would never be-
come an enduring factor in the trade of this
country, every live dealer has now found it
a wise move to handle a player in connection
with his business. He has discovered in his
territory a large number of idle pianos, the
owners of which, thank5 to the persuasive
Small grands and
players occupy the
ecnter of the stage—
Increasing demand for
both of these instru-
ments so dealers re-
port.
REVIEW
powers of intelligent salesmen, have been ital and labor and establishing more points of
made to comprehend how satisfactory it is contact between the two."
It seems that, with the tremendous advance
to have a medium of interpretation in their
homes whereby delightful music can be ren- which we are making intellectually and com-
dered at their pleasure. As a consequence, mercially, these great wars between capital
manufacturers of piano-players, without ex- and labor, which do so much to disturb busi-
ception, are busy, and who will now presume ness conditions, could be solved by consider-
to say that the influence of the piano-player ation, mediation and arbitration.
A permanent committee of arbitration, hav-
on the piano output is destined not to be a
ing the confidence of both employers and em-
beneficial one?
Thousands of people in this country who ployees, has been the means of averting labor
formerly hesitated in buying a piano because troubles in one industry, we believe, for fif-
they couldn't play it can no longer have this teen years. A wider application of that prin-
excuse. The piano-player in the hands of ciple should be just as successful in putting
the dealer and the salesman is proving a an end to all labor wars.
splendid argument to augment the sales of | \ | O , there are no Review specials, but we
have endeavored to make every issue a
pianos.
Evidently the small grand with the piano- special—every one better than its predecess-
player will occupy the center of the stage or, and we may say that it is something of a
record to have published an average of
for some time to come.
nearly fifty pages per week for the entire
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM.
year—a
number approximating twenty-five
Y\7 HEN the review of the year's happen-
ings is written it will be found that the hundred pages. Something of a year's work
great agricultural West has been among the truly!
large consumers not only of pianos, but of
luxuries in general. The reports from the
granger States show a remarkable degree of
prosperity. The slight set-back to corn on
account of the drought has been offset by the
prices which have been secured. Thus, the
net profit to the farmer has been as great as
if the yield had been much greater. The same
may be said of wheat. If we take the granger
States in rotation, it will be found that money
is abundant, that land has advanced in value,
and its owners are buying stock and making
improvements. Indeed, a sharp decline in.
populistic oratory is reported from Kansas,
whose deposits are $87,000,000, and whose
farmers' debts are rapidly being paid. At
Oklahoma farms have increased in value fifty
per cent, in a year, its farm mortgages less
than one per cent.
It can safely be said that agriculture, the
foundation of all prosperity, was never in a
more flourishing condition in this country
than to-day, and there are abundant evidences
to this effect in the tremendous output of
pianos in the farming sections of the country.
The contrast as between five years ago and
to-day in the condition of the farmers of this
country is overwhelmingly favorable. Let
us hope that this gratifying condition of
things may continue.
A STEP toward a better mutual under-
standing between labor and capital was
made this week when a meeting of prominent
men representing all shades of opinions and
views—men prominent alike as employers
and employees—met in this city for the pur-
pose, as Bishop Potter put it, "of bringing
back the humane in the relations between cap-
DIANO literature has advanced during the
past few years, and a review of the
work for 1901 would show that during the
past twelve months manufacturers have is-
sued a higher class of catalogues and bro-
chures of all descriptions than ever before.
Xo other line of manufactured products has
been exploited in as artistic and dignified a
way as pianos. This is entirely fitting, and
the superb educational literature issued by
the great music trade concerns assists to dig-
nify the industry and convey not only to
purchasers a comprehensive idea of the vari-
ous instruments, but it also fixes the belief
in the minds of the public that piano manu-
facturing and selling is a dignified and cul-
tivated profession.
1~\URING the past week we have received
more than a dozen copies of various
papers published in as many States, which
have quoted some portion of The Review
editorial utterances, all of which goes to show
that the expressions of this publication are
considered worthy of reproduction by impor-
tant journals outside of this industry.
We are glad to say that the policy of this
paper has been pleasing to outsiders as well
as to the members of the industry which it
represents.
A paper, first of all, must be independent;
it must be guided by honorable motives in
order to gain the confidence of its patrons,
and, we may say, after casting a retrospective
glance backward over a long term of years,
thai; there is but little that we would care
to expunge from Review history if it were
possible.
No one outside of a publication office can