Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
7VHJTSIC
PIANO AGENT ARRESTED.
ELIMINATE THEf k COMMISSION EVIL
[Special to The Review.]
[Special to The Review.]
Boston, Mass., April 21, 1903.
Between 300 and 400 employees of the
Boston and Cambridge piano factories met
in Wells Memorial Hall Friday night, and
with practical unanimity manifested their ap-
proval of the work which the general organ-
izer of the Piano and Organ Workers' Inter-
national Union, Charles Dold, has been do-
ing here.
Perhaps half those present were already
members of three local unions, 19 and 21 of
Boston and 44 of Cambridge, which has late-
ly been organized and claims a membership
of over 100. Nearly 100 non-union workers
handed in slips bearing their names, signi-
fying their intention of becoming members.
The meeting had been in session for over
two hours before the full meaning of the
work of the organizers was made evident.
Mr. Dold was called upon, after speeches
by President Murray of Local 21, the pre-
siding officer, Thos. P. Darvis, president of
Local 19, and President Dennis P. Driscoll
and Henry Abrahams of the Boston Central
Labor Union.
Mr. Dold declared that next fall, when the
organization had been perfected, the piano
manufacturers of Boston and elsewhere will
be called upon for a reckoning; the griev-
ances of the employees all will be summed
up and submitted to an impartial tribunal for
arbitration, if necessary, but the wage scale
to be made up will be presented to the man-
ufacturers and a demand for its recognition
made.. He expressed his entire satisfaction
at the work accomplished in spite of unfav-
orable predictions.
Thos. P. Darvis said the meeting had been
called solely for organization purposes. The
price obtained for the manufactured article,
he said, had led the piano worker to believe
in the justice of a request for more wages.
"My experience with Boston manufacturers,"
he said, is that they are disposed to be fair,
and to treat the union representatives as gen-
tlemen. I know of no factory here where
the employees work more than nine hours.
Some work eight. We will not strike unless
they force it upon us."
Portland, Ore.., April 20, 1903.
Charges too numerous to count can be pre-
ferred against Bert Prout who was arrested
in Pendleton a few days ago, brought back
to Portland yesterday by Sheriff Storey, and
sent to Moscow, Idaho, last night by one of
the Sheriff's deputies.
Prout's original intention seems to have
been to embezzle $400 from the Eilers Piano
House by which he was employed as agent,
In trying to cover up his first crime he ap-
parently committed a number of others, and
the company do not know which one to pros-
ecute first.
Prout was Eilers' agent between Spokane
and Moscow and his work was supervised
by Geo. A. Heidinger who is the agent at
Spokane. He sold a piano to a man in Mos-
cow for $400 cash, and represented to the
firm that he had sold it on the instalment
plan. As first payment on the piano, he sent
in $20 of the money and kept the rest for his
own use.
When a sale is made on the instalment
plan it is necessary for the buyer to sign
articles of agreement.
"I am doing a little business with this
man," said Prout to the Postmaster, and if
there are any letters come to him from the
Eilers Piano House, put them in my box
and I will take them out to him." The Post-
master consented to this arrangement and
when the contracts came to be signed they
were placed in the box used by Prout,.
The piano had been paid for and he saw
no reason to take the agreements to the buyer,
so signed the buyer's name himself and re-
turned them to the company. This act add-
ed tampering with the mails and forgery to
his list of crimes.
When the time came for the second pay-
ment to be made and no money received,
the buyer of the fine piano was taken to task
and the whole matter leaked out. Prout by
that time had made an attempt to get away,
but was caught at Pendleton.
Prout was well known in Pendleton, and
served a term in the County Jail there two
years ago. He was taken back to Moscow
to be tried.
HANDLING THE PIANISTA.
Says Mr. S. Hamilton—System is Parasitical—Sub-
ject Should be Discussed at the Forthcoming
Convention—Some Excellent Suggestions.
BOSTON PIANO WORKERS ORGANIZE.
MOHR HAS THE SOHMER.
Louis Mohr who recently engaged in the
piano business at 606 Clinton street occu-
pying a three-story structure admirably
equipped, is handling the famous Sohmer as
his leader, and the Capen and Newman Bros,
pianos and Newman Bros, organs. He also
has the celebrated Cecilian piano player and
a full line of small goods. There have been
many callers to Mr. Mohr's establishment
during the past week.
Decker & Son have consummated arrange-
ments with Kohler & Campbell whereby in
future they will handle the Pianista piano
player at their retail warerooms on West
125th street which are under the competent
management of T. Linton Floyd-Jones.
M.. O'Neill, of Shenandoah, Pa., has se-
cured the agency for the pianos manufac-
tured by Hardman, Peck & Co.
Noted for Perfection in Tone and Durability
FACTORY, 11TH AVE. AND 50TH ST., NEW YORK
"The elimination of the commission evil
from the trade is a consummation devoutly
to be wished for," said Mr. S. Hamilton, the
progressive dealer of Pittsburg, Pa., in the
course of a chat with The Review. "The
system is parasitical, purely, and while we
may benefit by it in one case, we lose in an-
other, so that taking the year around, the
dealer who has his money invested, and who
spends it in advertising and exploiting his
goods in an honorable and business-like way,
finds himself out hundreds and perhaps
thousands of dollars without compensation
on this evil, and yet until practically all of
the leading dealers all over the country unite
in refusing to pay commissions there can be
no hope of relief.
"This we know can be accomplished in
time, but not in a day, nor in a year. But it
seems to me that if you and the other lead-
ing journalists in the trade would mark out
your line of policy and without deviating
from it keep at it straight along, it would
have a marked effect within a very few years
at most.
"I trust the approaching annual meeting
of the National Dealers' Association may take
some action on this and it seems to me every
member of that Association would cheerfully
sign a contract with each other on the com-
mission evil question, and if this is carried out
fully, I believe ninety per cent, of the dealers
throughout the country would join in such
united action even if they did not care to be-
long to the National Association,. I wish
such an effort would be made, and I believe
if taken up by some enthusiastic man, whose
sole duty would be to make it successful, and
if necessary pay the expenses and salary of
such a man to travel from one end of the
country to the other, that within six months
every dealer of prominence would have joined
in this common cause."
AN ECHO OF THE BARKER FAILURE.
[Special to The Review.]
New Haven, Conn., April 20, 1903.
In the April special sessions, Judge George
Wheeler was engaged with the case of Frank
L. Booth. The suit was first brought in
June 1901, against Jacob Doll, the New
York piano manufacturer, and others, and
Attorneys Edwin S. Thomas as trustee of the
bankrupt estate of Wm. L.. Barker, of Hart-
ford, formerly a Chapel street piano dealer.
Barker failed in April 1901, after losing a
suit on an advertising bill and at that time
he had several pianos in his store. The
trustees appointed over the estate sent these
pianos to Frank Booth the auctioneer, to have
them sold as assets with which to make a
settlement with the creditors.
At once Doll replevined the pianos, claim-
ing that they had been merely consigned to
Barker. The trustees claim that they belong
outright to the estate and Booth brings the
suit to determine the party to whom he shall
give over the property,