Music Trade Review

Issue: 1901 Vol. 33 N. 3

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
true spirit of Americanism is that no man filling its columns with his trust arguments.
As we stated last week, the possibility
shall be prevented from honest work by any
individual or organization, and the practice of forming a piano trust is now exceedingly
resorted to by labor organizations of club- remote, and one of the men who was iden-
bing men who desire to secure honest em- tified with the early movement, and from
ployment has, more than any one factor, whose successful association with a former
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
caused the loss of sympathy which natu- trust it was believed could underwrite the
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J . B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
rally goes to the laboring man. The immu- whole affair, is now in Europe. He has
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
nity enjoyed by those who commit, or are thrown up the matter of the scheme in dis-
Executive Staff:
GEO. W. QUERIPEL
responsible for the commission of serious gust. When this collapse came, and the
A. J. NICKLIN
Published Every Saturday at 3 East Utt Street. New Yort crimes against persons and property to as- piano trust promoter—that is, the special
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico
sist in the attainment of some end deemed agent among the piano men—learned of it,
and Canada, t i . m per year; all other countries, $4.00.
ApVERTISEHENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
desirable by organized labor, is tending to he trembled. Those fat commissions had
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount
is allowed. Advertising Pages $0.00, opposite reading matter,
$75.00.
bring about conditions very closely resem- vanished like a wreath of mist before the
REniTTANCES, in other than currency form, should be
made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
bling those of anarchy. That partisans of noonday sun. He still endeavored to hold
Entered at the Nevu York Post Office as Second Class Matter
the labor unions are manifesting an increas- his forces together in some sort of form re-
NEW YORK, JULY 20, 1901.
ing contempt for everything in the form of sembling compactness. Even in this he
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIQHTEENTH STREET.
law which does not leave them free to in- failed, and the last effort has been to unite
THE
On the first Saturday of each
ARTISTS'
month The Review contains in its flict such injuries as they see fit upon those a number of what we term manufacturers
DEPARTMENT " Artists' Department" all the cur-
rent musical news. This is effected who interfere with their plans, is startlingly of commercial pianos. His chances of bring-
without in any way trespassing on the size or ser-
ing this scheme to a successful culmination
vice of the trade section of the paper. It has a evident. Even when acts are committed
special circulation, and therefore augments mater- which the wiser and more conservative la-
are indeed fragmentary, and there is no
ially the value of The Review to advertisers.
bor
leaders
deprecate
as
ill-advised
and
in-
probability of his arriving at any greater
DIRECTORY o r
The directory of piano manu-
u?.?.?.r.s.T..-.•».. facturing firms and corporations judicious, those who commit them may be success with the remnant of the original
found on page 20 will be of great
value as a reference for dealers and others.
sure of a moral and material support which plan than he had at the beginning of the
A directory of all advertisers is usually strong enough to stand between inceptive move. In fact, at one time it looked
DIRECTORY OF
i Q The Review will be found on
ADVERTISERS
them and the consequences of their crimes as though the trust scheme might go through
page 5.
against the public peace. The acts of the in some sort of a half-hearted way, but,
men who nearly clubbed to death some of we say—and The Review has a reputation
EDITORIAL,
the employees of Geo. P. Bent are still fresh for truthfulness—that the original piano
in our minds, and we have no record of trust scheme has been so completely shat-
RECORDS T O BE BROKEN IF
. any punishment ever being meted out to
'"THERE is every pros- those assaulters. Where this tendency is tered by the rough usage it has encountered
Prospects for fall
trade—Will the vari-
pect that all pre- leading, what may be expected when habit- it is scarcely recognizable, and manufactur-
ous industries be tied
vious records in the ual immunity establishes the usage that a ers and dealers may know that the absorp-
up by labor troubles?
tive plan for 1900 has received such a seri-
—Outlook not wholly piano industry will be
mob, acting in the name or in the interest
satisfactory.
broken during the next of organized labor, may do what it pleases ous setback that it will be impossible to
six months if—and there obtrudes that un- without responsibility under the law—is an resuscitate it within the near future.
There is one thing pretty certain just
pleasant "if" which, like Banquo's ghost, interesting, even if amazing, subject of spec-
now in connection with this trust matter:
will not down. The "if" in this case is labor ulation.
If ever capitalists take up the subject for
trouble. For "if" the piano industry is not
serious consideration again, they will en-
seriously hampered by conditions imposed
THE
PASSING
OF
THE
PROMOTER.
gage as a specialist to exploit their plans of
upon it by the workmen, then we shall trans-
H
A
V
I
N
G
threshed
combination,
a man whose reputation is urr-
act the biggest fall business ever recorded
Only a shadow of
the original piano trust
over trust argu- tainted and who can inspire sufficient con-
in the annals of the pianoforte industry.
s c h e m e left — The
plight
of
the
promo-
ments, personally, with fidence among the manufacturers to cause
During the past week interest has been
ter—Beaten at every
point

Resuscitation
concentrated upon what we term the great
various members of the it to become, at least, a partial success. The
unlikely.
steel trust and its dealings with its employees.
trade without results, special trade envoy has failed completely—'-
Whether we are on the threshold of a seri- the trust promoter then retreated and at- utterly. His alleged retirement was only a
ous labor trouble, which shall practically tempted to excite the industry with cunning- blind, and he is now attempting to organize
tie up the various industries of America, ly constructed associated press dispatches; a trust among the music trade papers.
It is a far cry from the piano trust of
is a secret which the future now holds, and but, somehow, even these arguments failed
at the present time she has not divulged any to descend upon responsive soil, and, as a fifty millions to a trade paper trust of a
of those secrets. Whether labor and cap- result, he has now reached. the last ditch, few hundred thousand. We cannot say even
ital are to tight a giant and decisive battle where he halts a moment before he becomes in this trust connection, how hath the mighty
the first year of the new century, remains engulfed by oblivion and shouts in mega- fallen! Because the promoter was never
to be seen ; and, whether or not this titanic phone tones, "the trust exists to-day in fact, mighty, save in an egotistical sense.
batt'e takes place, it is possible that there but not officially." We might add, "it never
A little later it may be opportune to give
may lie troubles within our own industry, will through the agency of the discredited the inside history of the attempt at forming
for it cannot be denied that the activity of promoter." He can continue to devote page a piano trust in 1900.
the organizer has met with some success.
after page to trust arguments in the col- It should be understood that it is im-
While the people in the main sympathize umns of his decrepit weekly, which, by the possible to carry on secret communications
with the workmen in these struggles, yet way, has sunk to such a position of deca- with a large number of men in different
the violence on the part of the labor leaders dence that he himself publicly disavows all sections of the country without important
has caused a loss of much sympathy. The connection with it, while privately he is leakages occurring at certain points.
TWENTY-SECOND YEAR.
REVIEW
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
9
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A SCRAP PILE OF MILLIONS.
"F HE absorption of
How a Yankee com-
petitor knocked out
the Bryant & May
an old established Eng-
lish enterprise — The
Match corporation of
American factory sys
England by the Dia-
tern wins in pianos as
in all else.
mond Match Company
of America supplies the strongest argument
in favor of the American factory system
and its dominancy over the antiquated ideas
which prevail in factory quarters in Europe.
Tt furnishes evidence in support of the claim
which we have made that if ever the Amer-
ican piano manufacturer gave his attention
seriously to the development of foreign
trade, he would dominate the world. The
Diamond Match Company will make a scrap
pile of the machinery which the British
factory owners claimed was worth a mil-
lion and a half of dollars. Mr. Barger, who
won a decisive victory over the Englishmen,
said: "We shall be compelled to remodel
their entire establishment, which is filled with
machinery which American factories dis-
carded in 1885. England never afforded
a costlier proof of her lack of inventiveness
and bull-dog refusal to profit by the inven-
tiveness of others. When I explain that the
Diamond Company's competitive ability out-
stripped its late English rival exactly in the
comparison of two to one,"it will give a
fair idea of the whole industrial system of
the country." It was a sorry confession
that the chairman of the English corpora-
tion was forced to make to the shareholders
that a great business of forty years' stand-
ing had been compelled to bend the knee
to a Yankee competitor five years old.
What is true of the English match con-
cern is true, of course, of other English and
Continental industries, which cannot long
continue a contest against the competition
that rests upon mechanical and factory per-
fection. As long as American capital and
American labor maintain harmonious rela-
tions, nothing can stop the commercial su-
premacy of this country. It will not re-
quire a piano trust, or even a combination,
to conquer European trade; for there are
many piano factories in this country which
have acquired such mechanical attainments
and perfect system of organization that they
far outstrip industrial institutions in the
same line in the Old World. Review read-
ers will doubtless recall a statement pub-
lished some time ago to the effect that Ger-
man piano manufacturers suggested, in a
document issued by them, that Americans
should be excluded from their factories, for
fear that factory secrets might be exposed
to their competitors from across the seas.
Factory secrets given away to us, and ma-
chinery valued at a milion and a half sent
to the scrap heap by Americans!
There is humor in that, surelv!
It is American inventiveness which counts,
and it amazed the Englishmen to learn that
the manager of the American Match Com-
pany had made expenditures of a million
dollars for mere ideas in machinery. The
American mechanic really must be credited
largely for the tremendous advance made
by this country in peaceful pursuits. Andrew
Carnegie fully realized this when he estab-
lished a school for higher mechanical edu-
cation among his workmen.
A CATALOGUETIOUSE SCHEME.
T" HE d e p a r t m e n t
Intended to use the
mail-carriers as drum-
stores and mail or-
mers—P o s t m a s t e r
General extinguishes
der houses have concoct-
the scheme—Dealers
ed a fine scheme, whereby
f o r m anti-catalogue
house combination.
they propose to use the
postal department of the United States in
an auxiliary way which would be extremely
beneficial to their interests. They proposed
to employ the mail carriers in the rural
delivery service to solicit business, and they
made extensive plans for utilizing this
special branch of our government, by which
they were intending to increase their busi-
ness at the crossroads retailers' expense.
The scheme was a bold one, but it has been
checked by the Postmaster-General. The
mail order houses will have to seek other
means to cut into the trade of the small deal-
er. It is well that the unfair advantages,
which the mail order people would have
reaped had they been permitted to employ
Uncle Sam's messengers as drummers, are
removed.
We are daily in receipt of complaints from
dealers throughout localities which have been
seriously affected by catalogue house competi-
tion—a competition which to-day is a direct
menace to the interest of the legitimate
dealer in every small town—and it is a cow-
ardly evasion of facts by attempting to dis-
pose of this problem, for the reason that pos-
sible arguments which would be brought out
might be used by the catalogue houses as
an argument in favor of exploiting their
wares.
This is nonsense. The agitation of this
matter should continue in a logical, forci-
ble and argumentative way. There is no
argument which The Review has made that
could be possibly used by the department
houses as an aid in their campaign. We
believe the time is coming—not far distant,
either—when the piano manufacturer who
is catering to the catalogue house trade will
find that he cannot ride two horses—in other
words, the regular dealer and the catalogue
house man. Quietly and without threats,
educational work has I n 1 carried along
these lines, until to-day, we understand, that
there is a fixed understanding already es-
tablished between a number of regular deal-
ers that they will not purchase instruments
of men who supply the catalogue house
trade. It is the intention not to exploit
these agreements, and the catalogue house
man will be wondering why his regular
trade has dropped off to such an alarming
degree. The regular dealer does not pro-
pose to have his business undermined by
the catalogue house man, who is supplying
only the cheapest pianos manufactured.
Catalogue competition alive—well, rather!
DEMAND FOR WALNUT.
A CALL among the
W a l n u t much in
vogue—Furniture men
best class of fur-
say that it will be
niture men in our city,
more p o p u l a r than
ever—Piano manufac-
who cater to furnishing
turers interested in the
subject.
the homes of the
wealthy, will elicit the information that wal-
nut is rapidly superseding mahogany in arti-
cles of home furnishings. The new walnut
is finished a trifle lighter than the old, and
with a little hand carving and a touch of
gold it makes the very latest thing in furni-
ture. This is a matter which piano manu-
facturers should bear in mind when placing
their orders for veneers. According to the
opinion of one of the leading furniture men
in the country, more walnut furnishings will
be sold this fall than ever before since wal-
nut came into use. If this be the case—-
and there appears to be no reason to doubt
it—then it would pay piano manufacturers
to increase their walnut orders a trifle, be-
cause history tells us that when there is
an increased demand for any special woods
in the furniture trade, it is immediately felt
in the piano industry, for it follows that
people desire harmony in their home fittings.
If walnut is to dominate in furniture, why,
it is but a logical sequence that pianos in
walnut casings will become immediately more
popular. If piano manufacturers would finish
their walnut cases a trifle lighter, have
carved panels and a little touch of gold,
they would then find that they would be
in line with the leading artistic furniture
manufacturers of America. It would pay
to bear this matter in mind. Every man-
ufacturer has his ear to the ground listen-
ing eagerly for news which is of special
value to his own enterprise. We believe this
little pointer will be worth investigating.
THE NEED OF A LEADER.
A N Y a manufac-
Manufacturers full
of anxiety these days
turer in the vari-
—How far will the la-
bor troubles extend ?
ous industries is re-
—The position of or-
peating the question
ganized labor not con-
sistent.
to himself over and
over again, Will the labor troubles affect
my business?
Will, through sympathetic strikes, the
whole of industrial America be drawn in?
The fear of this demonstrates the close
relations which exist between the various
/V\

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