Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE,
7VT\/SIO TRADE
REVIEW
St. Louis officials have had the time and the money, and they pro-
to the chamber of wealth and power.
pose that May opening shall not mean October.
with the spirit of his business and who works intelligently for a
At the Pan-
American some of the buildings were not completed before the
purpose is sure to win.
tearing down process had fairly begun.
in its advertising expenses to-day.
A man thoroughly imbued
A business house cannot afford to halt
The piano manufacturers who desire to exhibit at St. Louis
Wanamaker has spent vast sums of money advertising his
should arrange for space at an early date, as the first applicants
piano department, and the result has been he has developed an
will naturally receive choice space.
enormous trade.
The fair at St. Louis will
Intelligent and persistent advertising is bound
probably be the biggest thing of the kind ever held in the history
to score. It has a drawing power that must assist in business en-
of expositions.
terprise, and no piano man to-day can afford to hide his light under
I T is variously estimated that the promoter takes advantage of
the bushel of indifference.
*
It is not only to advertise, but advertise well—advertise in a
his position and forces some fifty thousand words, most of
which is unintelligible English, upon his limited number of read-
way that attracts people and brings them inside the doors, *then the
ers weekly.
good salesman must do the rest.
It seems pitiful that this incoherent Niagara of jar-
gon should be poured forth upon the inoffensive heads of mem-
bers of the trade at such frequent intervals.
However, the Eng-
Q O U T H E R N BOULEVARD is fast becoming the piano manu-
v
*^
lish, bad as it is, must be tolerated until rigor mortis sets in. The
schemer views with alarm the growing prestige of The Review,
and he fails to understand how a journal can succeed and be clean.
No wonder green-eyed jealousy is eating out his heart and corrod-
ing the sweet serenity of his temper.
facturing avenue of New York.
There are now twelve piano
manufacturing concerns either located on this thoroughfare or but
a few steps off from it.
near future.
The number will be added to within the
Winter & Co. will in a short time commence the erec-
tion of a large factory upon it, and rumor hath it that two other
well-known New York concerns will also begin building operations
H P H E R E is a department store in New York which has been
•*
on that piano artery of our city.
offering pianos on a very small monthly payment and noth-
ing down, which, rumor hath it, will adopt a new system for col-
lecting its monthly payments.
at the present time is being discriminated against
A new debt collecting concern has
by the railroads in Pacific Coast shipments.
San Francisco
hit upon the plan of sending out notices to pay up and look pleas-
houses are ordering pianos via the Isthmus railroad, and they are
ant, in flamboyant automobiles, emblazoned with the words, "col-
reaching the objective point within about the same space of time
lector of unpaid debts." The idea is that the most shameless dead
that it requires to ship them over land, and at a much reduced
beat will give up when dunned in this public fashion.
freight rate. Far Western shipments to-day are decidedly in favor
We question whether the department store will adopt this
of New York by the water route, and Chicago manufacturers
plan, as the method really savors too much of coercion to be em-
probably will endeavor to bring about some change in this partic-
ployed even indirectly by any reputable concern, and since dun-
ular.
ning postal cards have been ruled out by law, so offensive a plan
of collection as this will be found to be illegal by the courts. There
r
more moves in this direction, has again set piano manufac-
is one thing pretty certain, the men who back up such a convey-
ance in front of a delinquent piano customer's residence, would
turers figuring on a new scale of wholesale prices.
One leading manufacturer remarked to The Review this week
not be apt to sell an instrument to the man's next door neighbor.
I
T may not be generally known that Geo. F. Bailey, the circus
man and former partner of P. T. Barnum, who died last week,
was in early life a piano man.
Falling in love with the daughter
of a circus owner, he forsook the piano trade, went into partner-
ship with his father-in-law and finally became head of the greatest
show on earth.
that $20 per instrument would not cover the actual increase in the
cost to manufacture certain styles. Thus far he stated that he had
only been able to get an eight dollar advance from the dealers.
He affirmed that every instrument of the style referred to was mar-
keted at a loss.
O U R E L Y these are not pleasant conditions for piano manufac-
What a wonderful man the industry lost when he decided to
quit it. Special sales would have been as thick as leaves in Vallom-
brosa.
^
turers to confront, and it would seem from indications as if
the price of labor would be still further advanced.
There are ominous signs on the business horizon which por-
I T is a fact that the piano men who are active advertisers in dull
seasons, as well as brisk, are the ones who are reaping the
Take the house of Fischer.
tend labor troubles about May i. Whether or not the piano in-
dustry will be included is one of the secrets which the future holds.
There are many who figure that in various industries serious con-
largest.kind of benefits.
They have been, during the past
few months, perhaps the largest piano advertisers in the daily
papers of our city, and what is the result?
A business largely in excess of the corresponding months of
ditions are liable to arise by reason of the dictatorial demands of
the labor unions.
Manufacturing and marketing a product nowadays with un-
looked-for additions to cost constantly creeping in is a problem
which is constantly growing more and more complex.
a year ago.
It is this keeping eternally at it in dull seasons as well as
brisk that wins.
I "HE recent advance in piano hardware, with the probability of
Strenuousness is the key which unlocks the door
If high
prices are to remain there must be a readjustment along the entire
line in order to put matters on a fair basis for the manufacturers,