Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
O OME years ago a certain manufacturer who had been some-
what conservative was convinced that the time was ripe to
tell the trade more about his wares than ever before. It took con-
siderable argument on our part to induce him to double his adver-
tising, but we interested him. His work through The Review was
successful. He again doubled his appropriation before the expira-
tion of the first contract, and mind you, he did this of his own free
will. We may say that to-day his account is one of the largest on
our books. His business increase was done largely through adver-
tising. In our particular line we are specialists, and it has been
our aim to work in conjunction with manufacturers so that our
interests should blend harmoniously.
NE of our friends speaks of the piano business in Berlin in a
comparative sense with that of New York, and he figures
that the former city has great possibilities as a piano distributing
center. Now, the real groundwork for a business of such character
as the piano line must be wealth, and the income statistics show that
Berlin, with a population as great as that of the Borough of Man-
hattan, has only one person with an income of $700,000 a year, about
the same that Mr. Rockefeller draws every week, and there are only
sixty-nine persons in the whole city whose annual revenues exceed
$25,000. These figures give some idea of the enormous discrep-
ancy of the wealth of Berlin and that of New York, and show why
a firm like Wanamaker can develop a piano business which would
be absolutely impossible in Berlin.
O
n p H E R E must be wealth in any city where a satisfactory piano
' t business can be carried on, wealth widely distributed. And
there are vast apartment houses in Manhattan in which any tenant
with an income of less than $25,000 a year could not live. Probably
there are more million dollar incomes on Manhattan Island than
there are twenty-thousand dollar incomes in Berlin. We have held
for years that New York in point of population and wealth had
possibilities in the piano business which had never been developed
even up to the elementary stage. We have here a purchasing popu-
lation which is not equaled by any other city on this globe of ours.
HP* HE possibilities of the piano business in a comparative sense
*
between New York and Berlin is ridiculous. We might just
as well say that San Juan, Porto Rico, with its 45,000 population,
should dispose of more pianos than New Rochelle, N. Y., with
20,000 people. The Porto Ricans haven't the purchasing 'power.
They do not have the money, and mere numbers count for naught,
unless they have the wealth to keep the business ball rolling.
Speaking of Porto Rico, some of our friends, both in the piano
and the small musical instrument line, have written us asking for
specific information concerning the possibilities for the music trade
business in our Southernmost possession.
E can say of Porto Rico that, just as we said of Cuba two or
three years ago, upon the occasion of our first visit to that
island, that it would be well to save expense money which could be
better utilized in developing home trade than to devote any time to
seeking trade in a locality where the possibilities are so extremely
limited. While there are a million people on the island of Porto
Rico, their purchasing power is indeed small, but the island is
rapidly developing under American rule and within a couple of
years there will be a fair chance to sell pianos in that beautiful isle.
W
REVIEW
9
A T the present time one or two concerns practically control the
*• *• limited trade in musical instruments in Porto Rico. The
peon class, who receive thirty-five cents a day, are not in a position
to buy many pianos on the instalment plan, even if offered at a
dollar a week, and nothing down. Of course there are many wealthy
people on the island, whose homes are fitted with all of those acces-
sories which belong to more advanced civilization. In a number of
houses which it was our pleasure to visit, we observed pianos which
are considered by the upper class as indispensable.
I N the Governor's palace in San Juan is a magnificent Steinway,
* which came in for a large share of admiration at a musical
entertainment given during our tarry on the island "nestling midst
spheres of summer seas."
No, for the piano business stay away from Porto Rico; but if
a piano man desires to invest in real estate, say in orange groves,
so that he may escape the rigors of the northern winters and lux-
uriate amid trees laden with golden fruit, why for him the island
possesses splendid business possibilities. There is no question but
that, with American intelligence and industry, tremendous changes
will be made during the next few years, and an investment in an
orange grove will be reasonably safe, as Porto Rico lies south of
the frost belt and has advantages in the way of freight rates over
both California and Florida.
n ^ H E record called human history teaches, if it teaches anything,
*
that the unjust thing cannot forever flourish. Call it provi-
dence, call it faith, call it the natural survival of the good, because
the best, explain it as you will, there is seen in the affairs of men
and nations a force that sternly punishes and proportions the pun-
ishment to the magnitude of the offense. The workings of this in-
flexible law forbid that the Paretic Egotist should forever escape
the consequences of his evil machinations. The weakness, incapa-
city and imbecility revealed by his writings and the decadence of his
paper are but the legitimate results of his destructive policy.
Perhaps 'twere well to draw the veil of pity over him. The
ravings of a disordered mind should compel that rather than cen-
sure. May be that he would improve under that kind of usage.
EPORTS from piano men and others show the growing finan-
cial strength of the valley of the Mississippi. It is demon-
strating itself in a variety of ways. The agriculturalists of that
important region, which surpasses in its attractiveness any other
agricultural section of equal area in the world, have been favored
with five successive years of good crops, which they have marketed
at high prices. Never before have they made so much money in the
same length of time. The cancellation of mortgages on farms is
an old story, and very little Eastern money is now invested in West-
ern farm mortgages. Their own local capitalists can now finance
the needs of Western borrowers.
'"T'HE old condition when the East was looked upon as draining
*
the vitality of the West in calling interests on borrowed
money has passed away. With its debts paid and a surplus accumu-
lating in banks or in securities, the West will be a greater factor
than ever in the material progress of the nation. It will be a fertile
field for piano development for many years to come, and it is folly
to cry dull times when there is so much visible wealth to gladden
the heart of piano men.