Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-THIRD
YEAR.
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
EBITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J.
B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR
Executive Staff:
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
GEO. W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
Published Every Saturday it 3 East 14ft Street, New Yort
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico
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REniTTANCES, in other than currency form, should be
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Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter
NEW YORK, AUGUST 3, 1901.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIQHTEENTH STREET.
THE
ARTISTS'
DEPARTMENT
On the first Saturday of each
month The Review contains in its
" Artists'Department" all the cur-
rent musical news. This is effected
without in an y way trespassing on the size or ser-
vice of the trade section of the paper. It has a
special circulation, and therefore augments mater-
ially the value of The Review to advertisers.
DIRECTORY OF
The directory of piano manu-
PIANO
facturing firms and corporations
MANUFACTURERS f Q u n d o n p a g e 2g w i l l b e o f g r e a t
value as a reference for dealers and others.
EDITORIAL,
THE BETRAYAL OF AN INDUSTRY.
/"~\ NE of the peculiar
The damage done
the industry by the
conditions brought
d i s s e m i n a t i o n of
manufactured reports
about by the agitation
through the daily press
—How it affects manu-
of the piano trust
facturer and dealer—
scheme through the pub-
An analysis.
lic print is the belief which it has cultivated
in the minds of many that a piano trust
to-day is a living force, dominating the en-
tire industry.
Such a state of affairs demonstrates the
power of the press as a moulder of public
opinion, and shows also the necessity of
h: ving the press reliable in its utterances
concerning all matters of vital interest, par-
ticularly when speculative schemes are being
formulated in which the public are asked to
take stock.
Through the piano trust promoter press
agent, cunningly drawn articles were sent
out through the Associated Press, so that
the reading public in all parts of the country
had piano trust plans served up as a daily
menu. They had no knowledge of the large
element of bluff behind the inceptive move,
and that there was not in any stages of de-
velopment a probability of the trust as out-
lined becoming established.
The people who read of the trust, in the
main, were indifferent as to its existence,
but assumed when the cartoonists themselves
took up the piano trust as a subject of cari-
cature that, as a matter of fact, it had been
formed, while the cartoonists had drawn
their inspiration from the press reports. It
was a case of fake first and fool second.
Now, how has all of this trust agitation
of months affected the trade—manufactur-
ing and retail?
That is a subject in which readers of
The Review have deep interest.
Let us, then, take up the piano trust agi-
tation and see if the net result of the pro-
moter's scheme has not been most detri-
mental to the best interests of the entire in-
dustry.
We have received hundred of notices
which have appeared in various publications
in great and small cities throughout the land.
We select one from the Rochester Chroni-
cle, one of the most conservative, and it
will serve to illustrate the point which we
are desirous of making—that the writer on
the average newspaper believes that the pi-
ano trust exists to-day, or that there
is no possible doubt but it will in the near
future. Then the newspapers immediately
encourage the belief on the part of the pub-
lic that there are abnormal profits made in
vending pianos, a belief which is not sup-
ported by the trade history nor by fact.
Here is the clipping referred to:
The last trust noted is to be, when com-
pleted, the piano trust. Some twenty-three
prominent manufacturing houses, with a cap-
ital of about $15,000,000, will come in. We
do not believe that even a piano trust will
try to advance the prices of pianos, for there
is no invention known to man on which so
great a relative profit is made as on pianos.
The original cost of the piano is not great,
and certain brands of pianos, so to
speak, can be bought for 100 per cent,
over their cost; but usually in the sale of
the instruments there are from $100 to $500
paid just for glory. This is due to the
peculiarity of the female sex, as many a
woman would prefer not to have any piano
at all, rather than not to have one of the
most fashionable make, and this, though if
the lady were to be blindfolded, she could
not, to save her soul, tell the difference by
the tone between one of the famous make
and one of an unknown make.
Scores and scores of papers have accepted
the statements as truths concerning the piano
trust and have published articles which have
had a tendency to discredit the entire in-
dustry in the public mind and to encourage
the belief that purchasers are being syste-
matically robbed by piano men.
Here is a sample from a Salt Lake paper:
The existence of the piano trust is an-
nounced, and the promoter claims that it
has cost from seventy-five to a hundred
dollars to sell a single piano in the past.
Will the trust pocket this now to pay a
dividend on watered stock, or will it share
with the public a decrease of expenses which
the promoter states are out of all propor-
tion to the volume of business transacted ?
The public should see to it that a rock
bottom trust price is secured on pianos.
These are only samples of the many utter-
ances concerning the piano trust. Are they
helpful to the dealer? Do they render the
conduct of his business more pleasurable, or
do they make his path somewhat more
thorny ?
We have on hand communications from
piano merchants who have already felt the
effect of the widespread denunciation of the
present system of conducting the piano busi-
ness. The promoter, in his doctored press
reports, emphasized the point that it cost
seventy-five dollars on the average to sell
a piano.
Suppose it cost a hundred; that is the
business of the industry itself, and not of the
general public, who are asked to defray this
expense.
It might, with perfect propriety, be dis-
cussed in the columns of trade journals; but
the men who would edit such statements
for general distribution is a double distilled
traitor to the industry.
Such arguments could be made before
trust magnates in the support of the claim
of reduced expenses in a centralized busi-
ness ; but how anyone in his right senses
could expect support, even indirectly, from
men whose business he plots to ruin, is a
trifle beyond the comprehension of the or-
dinary inhabitant of this mundane sphere.
What has the regular dealer to say con-
cerning the promoter who has been exert-
ing his every influence to discredit his busi-
ness in the public mind, and to render his
plans of trade conquest still more difficult ?
Let us turn to the manufacturers and note
th. effect upon their interests, of this trust
agitation.
Anyone who has given the subject more
than superficial examination will admit that
the piano dealers have become alarmed at
the prospect of seeing three-fourths of their
numbers swept out of existence, which is
admitted would be the case if a great com-
bination of manufacturers should occur.
They know that trust branches would be
established in every city, for the aim of the
combination would be to extinguish the deal-
ers through competition, which they would
be powerless to meet.
Where would the dealers be, with their
supplies cut off, save from a most dictato-
rial source? They would not be in the race
after a while, and they, fully realizing the
annihilation which would confront them
should the trust come in force, have cast
about seeking possible solutions.
Many have asked direct questions of the
attitude of manufacturers who supply them,
concerning the trust.
Others have felt a sense of insecurity in
their positions, while the trade atmosphere
has been charged with trust rumors of all
kinds, and have sought to develop plans
which would render them completely in-
dependent of manufacturers.
The practicability of certain theories has
been quietly argued, and the co-operative
plan has obtained favor in the minds of
many.