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THE MUSIC TRKDE
REVIEW
EDWARD
LYMAN
BILL,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J. B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR
EXECUTIVE STAFF :
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
GEO. B. KELLER
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER
GEO. W. QUER1PEL
A. J. NICKLIN
v* Published Every Saturday at I Madison Avenue, New Y o r k . *
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 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, MARCH J4, J903.
TBLEPHONE NUHBER, I745-EK1HTEENTH 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
DEPARTMENT of the trade section of the paper. Jt has a special circulation, and
therefore augments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
THE
ARTISTS
DIRECTORY
nv PI A Mit
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corpora
tlons found on page 27 will be of great value as a reference for
MANUFACTURERS
EDITORIAL
HERE are many unlooked-for expenses which creep into piano
manufacturing which a manufacturer does not count upon
with a degree of certainty when estimating the cost of pianos. All
of the expense does not end when he has figured materials, labor
and selling expenses.
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To illustrate: Take the recent court decision against Kra-
kauer Bros, whereby they were compelled to pay the sum of $14,000
to an employee who was injured in their establishment. The in-
jury occurred to the workman when the Krakauer institution was
opening a branch factory across the Harlem bridge. At that time
\t became necessary to lay off a few of their men, but rather than
do this, they gave them an opportunity of fitting up the branch
establishment. The workman who brought suit selected his own
task, made the scaffold from which he fell, and brought suit against
his employers for injuries which he received at that time. The
suit was at once appealed, and finally resulted in a verdict which
seems to the ordinary man an excessive one to the manufacturers,
who did not seek to place their workmen in an extra hazardous
position.
Some dealers who have made a careful analysis of piano
making and figure out just what it costs to build a piano from
every standpoint, do not include such unlooked-for items as just
mentioned. They usually figure the cheapest veneers, and there
is as much difference in veneers as there is in trade papers—and
the Lord knows the gap is wide enough between some of the al-
leged trade publications. The same may be said of lumber and
labor and still some of the dealers who are eternally trying to
hammer down prices figure they know all about the cost, when
as a matter of fact they know but precious little.
A DVERTISING is steadily improving. At one time in the
* * somewhat remote past, the flamboyant style was in high
favor, but at the present time the most successful advertisers are
careful to exclude everything of the fake order from their an-
nouncements. They realize that their most valuable asset is the
reputation for square dealing and reliability.
There are some cases which have been recently cited in The
Review where dealers have advertised pianos carried by their com-
petitors at ridiculously low rates, simply to kill the reputation of
their rivals in their respective localities.
This kind of advertising has a retroactive effect. It oftentimes
kicks a little harder against the man who uses it than it injures
his rival.
S~\ NCE a piano merchant has fairly won the confidence of the
^ - ^ public he has become possessed of an asset more valuable
than coin of the realm and he realizes full well that in order to
retain this confidence he must fulfill every promise and make good
every claim addressed to the public. He cannot advertise pianos
of other makes than he carries, simply as drawing cards, and then
refuse to sell to callers without running the risk of losing his rep-
utation.
The fact that judicial tribunals are emphasizing the. responsi-
bilities of the advertiser is tending also to make advertisements
statements of facts rather than works of fiction.
HE Supreme Court has just handed down a decision to the
effect that promises made in an advertisement are legally
binding. A Minnesota cold storage company advertised "uni-
form and even temperature," and a patron whose stock of celery
stored in the company's plant was spoiled by too high a temper-
ature was awarded damages because he relied upon the statement
of the advertiser, which is held to be binding.
Honesty in business announcements is becoming more and
more a policy which should be as rigidly adhered to as honesty
in business dealings with manufacturers. The man who would
use a fraudulent advertisement certainly should be looked upon
with suspicion by the man from whom he asks credit. The hon-
est advertiser should fulfill every promise and sell every piano as
advertised. He certainly should be compelled to make good every
claim made in the columns of his local publication, not because
it is sound business to do this, but because it is honest.
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A DDING this sum of money, together with legal expenses in-
* * curred in defense of the suit, to the cost of manufacture
cf the Krakauer pianos for 1902, and it would mean a material
advance in each instrument, and the manufacturers did not figure
this item in the cost of manufacture.
We cite this instance, because the decision is recent and forms
HE authorities of the St. Louis Exposition—which, by the way,
a substantial item of expense which the manufacturers of the
just now is receiving much publicity at the hands of the
Krakauer piano did not count upon when adjusting their whole-
press through the work of President Francis in Europe—state that
sale prices.
the exposition will open on time.
This is only one of many expenses which piano manufacturers
This, indeed, will be a rare exception in expositions, but the
are frequently called upon to bear.
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