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THE
7VSUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
OUR EXPORT AND IMPORT TRADE.
TO BUILD PIANO FACTORY.
SPECIALIZATION AND PIANOS.
LSi>eeially Prepared for The Review.]
Sheboygan Gets New Concern to be Capitalized
at $100,000.
The Present Trend and Its Results—Where are Our
Superintendents to Come From?—Some Per-
tinent Reflections.
Washington, D. C, April 9, 1903.
The summary of exports and imports of
the commerce of the United States for the
month of February, 1903, the latest period
for which it has been compiled, has just been
issued by the Treasury Department. The
figures relating to the music trade industry
are as follows:
The dutiable imports of musical instru-
ments during February amounted to $75,-
245 as compared with $62,357 worth of in-
struments which were imported the same
month of 1902. The eight months' total,
ending February, shows importations valued
at $722,606, as against $705,035 worth of
musical instruments imported during the
same period of 1902. This gives an increase
in imports for the eight months ending Feb-
ruary of $17,571.
The import figures for the eight months'
period for the three years are as follows:
1901, $668,137; 1902, $705,035 ; 1903, $722,-
606.
The total domestic exports of musical in-
struments for February, 1903, amounted to
$266,310, as compared with $277,631, which
was the value of the instruments exported
the same month of the previous year. The
eight months' exportation of musical instru-
ments amounted to $2,228,288 against
$2,618,801 for the same period of 1902. This
shows a decrease in exports for the eight
months ending February of $390,513.
The export figures for the eight months
are as follows: 1901,' $1,682,124; 1902,
$2,618,801 ; 1903, $2,228,288.
Of the aggregate exportations in February
there were 945 organs, valued at $76,411,
as compared with 1,149 organs in 1902 val-
ued at $88,005. The eight months' total
shows that we exported 11,839 organs val-
ued at $817,235, as against 12,423 valued
at $868,701 for the same period in 1902, and
11,771 valued at $799,955 for the same period
in 1901.
In February, 1903, we exported 136 pia-
nos, valued at $29,345, as against 169 pia-
nos valued at $28,820 in February, 1902.
The eight months' total exports show 1,405
pianos, valued at $293,603, as compared with
1,564 valued at $293,769 exported in the
same period in 1902, and 1,090 valued at
$227,372 for the same period in 1901.
The value of "all other instruments and
parts thereof" sent abroad during February,
1903, amounted to $160,554, m the same
month of 1902 their value was estimated
at $160,806. The total exports for the eight
months under this heading foot up $1,117,-
450, as against $1,456,331 exported during
the same period of 1902, and $654,797 ex-
ported during the same period of 1901. This
shows a decrease for 1903 over the previous
year of $338,881.
S. S. MAPES INSTALLS MACHINES.
Stephen S. Mapes, piano strings, 511-513
East 137th street, has just completed the in-
stallation of three new machines, all of the
most modern type and made expressly for
the production of the Mapes strings. Mr.
Mapes will leave town for Chicago on Tues-
day. He expects to remain in that city sev-
eral days.
[Special to The Review.]
Sheboygan, Wis., April 7, 1903.
The Arthur J. King Co. have made ar-
rangements with Geo. B. Mattoon for the
building in this city of a piano factory. The
plans call for a factory building four stories
in height to be completed about May 15. The
company will incorporate with a capital stock
of $100,000, outside capitalists, mostly from
Chicago and the East being investors. As
soon as the building is completed 200 to 300
skilled artisans will be employed. The fac-
tory will be under the supervision of S. W.
Miller, formerly with the Hallet & Davis
Co.
FLANERY SECURES NEW QUARTERS.
[Special to The Review.]
Springfield, O., April 7, 1903.
J. L. Flanery has purchased the Ridenour
Building on West High street, making a deal
through Trout & Anderson, the real estate
dealers, and paying the sum of $16,000 for it.
The building is three stories, and one of the
best sites for a business house in the city.
Mr. Flanery will move into the building
about May 1, vacating the room now occu-
pied on Fountain avenue. It will make him
an excellent piano store, with plenty of room,
and one that he can call home in every sense
of the word.
POLICE AFTER PIANO AGENT.
[Special to The Review.]
Hamilton, O., April 8, 1903.
The police are hunting for Joseph Klein,
agent for the S. A. Woodmansee Piano Co.,
Cincinnati, who is accused of selling three
automatic pianos to local saloonists, of col-
lecting $200 on account arid of disappearing
without making any return to the company.
The Woodmansee Co. are behind the pros-
ecution.
BEHNING'S GREATEST^RECORD.
The Bchning Piano Co. are making a great
record this year. "Never in the history of
the firm have we been so busy as now," said
Henry Behning to The Review on Wednes-
day. "It is simply impossible to fill all or-
ders fully just at this time. We must se-
cure more factory space. Every foot of our
present premises, large as they are, is occu-
pied. Just where the additional space can
be had is uncertain as yet, but more must be
arranged for, and quickly."
Gustav Behning returned on Saturday
from a ten-weeks trip in the West, North-
west and South. He received a large num-
ber of orders and established several new
agencies. Chas. Spanier, Behning traveler,
now on the road, is merely making a few
friendly calls. He has been instructed not
to take any more orders until notified from
headquarters to that effect.
With the specialization of factory func-
tions, the future of the all-round piano arti-
san would seem limited, according to the be-
lief of a prominent manufacturer. "In our
plant one of the partners is a practical man
in every branch—can do anything and every-
thing—and his capability and capacity is rec-
ognized by our workmen. Besides he knows
and appreciates a workmanlike job on sight,
which is another factor of strength. His
father, the founder of the business, was sim-
ilarly equipped, and his sons—the second
generation—are now in training along the
same lines; so that we shall not lack for a
capable superintendent for many years to
come.
"But the days of the all-around workman
—at home in every department—is numbered.
What the piano manufacturers will do for
practical superintendents in the next gener-
ation is beyond me. Each branch of manu-
facturing is being specialized; in truth, this
has been the tendency for the last five years.
Factory organization and productivity are
now based on the modern considerations of
economical management. The parts of the
piano are run through the factory on a sys-
tem requiring apt workmen, whose expert-
ness saves material and time. Consequently
while the factory force as a whole is on a
higher plane of productiveness, the individual
loses, in a sense. His apprentice years are
given to one particular kind of work, in
which his skill is highly developed, but every
other part of the piano-making trade is ne-
glected—must necessarily be so.
"The American piano is a work of art, not
only from a musical point of view, but me-
chanically as well; and in a measure this
state of perfection, as I may term it, is due
to the greater skill of our artisans, whose
craftsmanship has been so much improved
in recent years. With this condition, how-
ever, the all-round man is becoming scarcer
all the time, and as the factory superintendent
is recruited from the ranks of this class of
mechanics his position will be harder to fill
than it was in the period when pretty nearly
every other man in the plant, I might say,
knew something, if not wholly and intimately
familiar, with the making, assembling and
finishing of each and every part of the piano."
A MAINE INCORPORATION.
Among the incorporations filed this week
with the Secretary of State of Maine was
that of the Brown Bros. Co., of Portland,
for the purpose of making and dealing in all
kinds of musical instruments. Capital, $30,-
000, of which nothing is paid in. President,
J. M. Brown, Peabody; treasurer, M, A.
Marks, Brookline, Mass.
BEHR BROS. & CO.
PIANOS,
29th Street and 11th Ave., NEW YORK.
HIGHEST STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE.