Music Trade Review

Issue: 1903 Vol. 36 N. 12

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
fflJJIC TIRADE
VOL. XXXV1. No. 12
FDtliM Erery Sat. liy Ei?art Lyman BUI at 1 Madison Aye., Hew Tort, Mar. 21,1903.
VISITORS TO MASON & HAMLIN'S.
FRED P. STIEFF HONORED.
Among the artists who have recently vis-
ited the.Mason & Hamlin piano factory may
be mentioned: Harold Bauer, Mme. Antoin-
ette Szumowska-Adamowski, Thomas Whit-
ney Surette, Felix Fox, Miss Anna Jansen,
Edward Burlingame Hill, Mrs. Minnie Little
Longley, Geo. W. Proctor, Lucien Howe,
John Behr, Miss Alice Cummings, Henry
Goodrich, Jas. J. McLaughlin, Jr., Miss Ma-
rie A. Treat, Carlo Buonamici, Miss Ellen
Yerrington, Warren E. Locke, Miss Anna
Stovall, Robert Eilenberg, Arthur J. Bassett,
Joshua Phippen, John A. O'Shea, A. W.
Locke, Frederic Lamond, Ernest R. Kroeger,
John C. Manning, Carl Stansy, Geo. W.
Chadwick, Mme. Elsa von Grave-Jonas, Josef
Adamowski, Win. R. Chapman, August Spa-
nuth, Eugene Gruenberg, Sol Marcosson,
Charles Dennee, Richard Steele, H. S. Wild-
er, Clifford Sprunt, Bogea Oumiroff, Mme.
Adele Lewing, Herman P. Chelius, S. B.
Whitney, Heinrich Gebhardt, James M. Mc-
Laughlin, Ernest Hutcheson, Arthur Whit-
ing, Mrs. Ella Backus-Behr, Miss Jessie Da-
vis, Alfred De Voto, Emil Mollenhauer,
Jacques Hoffmann, Louis Bachner, Arthur
Farwell, Edwin H. Lemare, Miss Edith
Mann, C. A. Marks, Augusto Rotoli, Ru-
dolph Wertime, Miss Hermine Liiders, Prof.
John K. Paine, Clayton Johns, Arthur E.
Johnstone, Thos. P. Currier, Miss Suza
Doane, Mrs. Langdon Frothingham, R. W.
Lanigan.
Among the several members of the com-
mission just appointed by Governor John
W r alter Smith to represent the State of Mary-
land at the 'St. Louis Exposition, w r e are
pleased to notice the name of Fred. P. Stieff,
of the Chas. M. Stieff piano house, Balti-
more. His selection is a decided compli-
ment not only in a personal way, but to the
music trade industry. The State of Mary-
land has already appropriated $25,000 for
an exhibit which the commission will seek
to have increased at the next meeting of the
Legislature.
N. B. SPENCER ELECTED MAYOR.
N. B. Spencer, the enterprising piano deal-
er of Honesdale, Pa., has been elected Mayor
of that progressive city by a majority—
lousing enough to afford an excellent idea
of his popularity and standing in the commu-
nity. Mr. Spencer is the representative of
the Mehlin piano, which he has sold for many
\ears and of which he is an ardent and en-
thusiastic admirer. The Review congratu-
lates Mr. Spencer on the honor which has
come his way and feels sure he will do credit
to the office and to the industry of which he
is a worthv member.
BARCKHOFF ORGAN IN BALTIMORE.
The Barckhoff Church Organ Co., of Pom-
eroy, O., have received the highest praise
from leading organists as well as critical mu-
sicians for the magnificent instrument which
they have erected in the Broadway Methodist
Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Md. The in-
strument, architecturally and musically, has
given the utmost satisfaction.
THE "SPECIAL PIANO ROOM" IDEA.
The special room idea as applied to piano
display is becoming quite the vogue through-
out the country. All the leading establish-
ments now boast of special rooms, admirably
decorated and furnished, in which certain pia-
nos are shown off to decided advantage. We
notice among others who have fallen into
line recently the J. W. Jenkins Sons Music
Co., of Kansas City. They have just gone
through a remodelling and thorough redec-
orating of the greater part of their store and
have completed three rooms, two in green
decorations and one in blue. The ceilings and
walls are beautifully relieved with floral dec-
orations and doors and windows are hung
with silk plush to match the decorations.
DID BUSINESS OF TWO MILLIONS.
At the annual meeting of the M. Steinert
& Sons Co., held in New Haven last week,
the report showed that the past year was
one of the most successful in the history of
this house. They did a business of over two
millions of dollars in their various branches,
and connections, which is an unparalleled
record. The meeting was attended by Alex.
Steinert, of Boston, Mass.; Albert Stein-
ert, of Providence, R. I., and Fred.
Steinert, of New York. Plans were out-
lined for the business this year which insure
a still greater expansion of Steinert enter-
prise. It is only fair to say that since this
business came under the management and
direction of Alexander Steinert he has eclipsed
the remarkable record made by his father in
its up-building.
Austin Gibbons expects to open his new
warerooms at 145 Main street, Worcester,
Mass., about the latter part of March. Mr.
Gibbons, who was formerly located at Clin-
ton, Mass., handles the James & Holmstrom
and Opera pianos and will add several other
instruments.
SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS.
$2.00 PER YEAR.
RESUMING ITS NORMAL CONDITIONS.
[Specially Prepared for The Review.]
Washington, D. C, March 20, 1903.
The export trade of the Linked States is
rapidly resuming its normal conditions. Feb-
ruary figures of the Bureau of Statistics show
the largest exports of any February in the
history of our commerce, and also show that
the exports of the three months ending with
February were larger than those of the cor-
responding period of any earlier year. On
thr import side, the figures also show a con-
tinuation of the growth which has charac-
terized the last two years, and the figures of
the eight months ending with February sug-
gest that the imports of the United States
in the fiscal year 1903 may exceed a billion
dollars, while the export figures seem likely
to exceed one billion, four hundred millions.
In the short month of February alone the
exports amounted to $125,502,105, which is
twelve millions in excess of any preceding
February, and more than double the figures
of February, 1893, in which month the total
exports were $59,931,984. Taking the three
months ending with February, 1903, the to-
tal exports are $407,526,200, against $215,-
151,471 in the three months ending with
February, 1893. Thus, considering either the
month of February or the three months end-
ing with Feburary, 1903, the total exports
are not only larger than in that period of
any preceding year, but practically double
those of a decade ago.
CHASE & BAKER AS FIRST PRIZE.
The manager of the Castle Square The-
atre in Boston recently selected the Chase &
Baker piano player as first prize to the wo-
man who should guess the nearest to the
total in attendance at the theatre during the
month of February. Mrs. H. B. Rogers, of
Medford, was the lucky winner, having
guessed number 83,583.
SECURE THE MASON & HAMLIN LINE.
F. M. Boult, representing the Mason &
Hamlin Co., and who has been traveling since
Hie first of the year, is now visiting the trade
on the Pacific Coast. He has made a num-
ber of important connections for his house,
notably placing the Mason & Hamlin goods
with the Allen & Gilbert-Ramaker Co. He
has taken some big orders for both pianos
and organs.
Horace P. Montgomery, the old-time deal-
er of Portsmouth, N. H., has secured the
representation of the Chickering piano, which
he will handle as his leader.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
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. NTCKL1N
* Published Every Saturday at I Madison Avenue, New York.*
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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 21, J903.
TELEPHONE NUHBER, 1745-EIdHTEENTH STREET.
THE
ARTISTS'
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in tts
"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. It has a special circulation, and
therefore augments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
tributed over a large surface. A chain is no stronger than its weak-
est link, and when there is an unlooked-for strain, it doesn't take
long to locate the weakest point.
IN trade circles in New York and Chicago there is a clearly de-
* fined belief that possible labor troubles may come with the ad-
vent of May. Organized labor in all parts of the country is be-
coming so dictatorial in its demands that there must be a read-
justment of the relations existing between employer and employee,
or many institutions will close up for an indefinite period.
One prominent Chicago manufacturer when recently discuss-
ing these conditions with The Review said:
"So long as unions have no legal responsibility, and so long
as their representatives may commit acts of violence which go un-
punished, conditions must, to a certain extent, be unsettled and I
think the best way to settle them would be an absolute refusal on
the part of manufacturers to meet the dictatorial requests of labor
leaders. One thing that will break their clutch upon the industry
at the present time will be a return of the hard times, then they
will realize that they played to the limit."
S long as organized labor permits crimes to be committed in
its name, and the perpetrators go unpunished, so long will
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corpora
DIRECTORY
tlons found on page 27 will be of great value as a reference for
OF P I A N O
it be unpopular with the masses of Americans, who, while they
MANUFACTURERS
sympathize with oppressed labor do not sympathize with men who
commit crimes in the name of the organization. Organized labor
EDITORIAL
invariably assumes to speak for the entire body of wage earners,
and treats non-union labor as a trifling minority which has no right
to imperil what the great body of their fellow workers regard as
F^ROBABLY under the stimulating influence of warmer weather
for their good.
*
trade conditions will improve materially. But thus far in
Now, while we hear so much of organized labor, is it not a
the new year retail trade has not been up to the expectation of
many, and there is a marked tendency on the part of some mem- fact that organized labor is a small part of the working forces in
what are called organizable industries? And these constitute but
bers of the trade to go a trifle slow.
a part of the whole working population—that is, the whole num-
Of course reasonable conservatism is at all times desirable,
ber of persons engaged in working for their livings.
but now there are no signs of anything suggesting a panic and
the commercial sky is unusually clear, therefore there is no basis for
I NFORMATION has been refused by different organizations as
pessimistic theories and no well-grounded reason for believing that
* to their numbers, but some statisticians who have gone into the
spring trade will be quiet. General conditions are favorable, and
matter as carefully as they could, have come to the conclusion that
personally, we incline to the belief that the fear of impending labor
numerically labor unions are far from being as formidable as they
troubles is influencing general business in a way which is not par- pretend to be.
ticularly helpful.
In Europe, and England particularly, the labor organizations
Labor troubles there may be, but there probably never was
a period when the prospects for an active spring, not to speak of
an advancing market in prices, were so flattering as is the case at
the present.
I T is rather surprising when we study these conditions that the
*• conservative element in our trade should be steadily gaining.
After all, it is not a bad indication, for it eliminates the danger
which comes from overstocking. There is to-day no congestion
of manufactured goods in any part of the country, and while pur-
chases have unmistakably slowed down, there is no reason to doubt
that spring trade will be satisfactory.
One result of conservatism will be increased financial stability.
The inclination of some piano men is to do too much business on
too limited an amount of capital. Now, if there is going to be a
tightening up of times, it is better to have that strength which
comes from concentration than to have the resources thinlv dis-
A
have gone squarely on record as opposing labor-saving machinery.
Now, the American is too wise to attempt anything like a system-
atic and organized opposition to labor-saving machinery. He rec-
ognizes that machinery is a necessity of modern industry, and has
observed that in some mysterious way, it increases the demand
for labor to a far greater extent than it displaces it.
T AST week while discussing business matters with The Review
-•—' Louis F. Geissler, of that great Pacific Coast house, Sherman,
Clay & Co., heartily endorsed the utterances of this trade news-
paper that the up-to-date piano man should have his complete line
from the cheapest to the highest grade of instruments, each sold
in the proper class, and the price of each marked in plain figures.
The house of Sherman, Clay & Co. was the first institution
in the far West to adopt the plan of having all instruments marked
in plain figures, and it is a policy which has resulted in a most
satisfactory manner in extending confidence in the firm.

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