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THE: MUSIC
TRADE,
In the purely price competition, the greater the deception, and inci-
dentally the greater the demoralizing of the business.
W
E are Hearing the holidays, and while it is getting towards the
close of the selling season for manufacturers, there will
doubtless be a big rush of business within the next two or three
weeks. Some retailers hold off until all possible uncertainties have
disappeared before making reasonable purchases, but there is a
danger in holding off too long.
O
F course the piano business needs fresh capital, plenty of it.
How could it be otherwise when the instruments are sold as
they are in many cases on such small time payments?
One reason why business has not been good for the past six
months is due to the fact that a good many dealers have seen that
their capital is becoming entirely locked up in their business through
the small payment system, and they have concluded to go a little
slower. A dealer who has not great capital behind him cannot do a
large business on the dollar a week system without tying up his
entire capital.
There is no doubt about it that a good many of them have seen
the result of this plan, and ar? going a good deal more cautiously
with the time payment system.
As The Review has stated before, we have reached the limit,
and a dangerous one, too.
It is easier to get a little more cash
monthly, provided that principle is instilled in the minds of the
salesmen than it is to get a smaller amount. More cash and fewer
small payments should be the slogan of piano merchants everywhere.
I
T may be that some people are attracted by the dollar a week
plan, but it would be just as easy to double the monthly install-
ment if it were insisted upon by the salesmen. It does not pay at
all times to harp upon the low prices, even if every woman is attracted
by this claim.
We know of one particular store which owes its success in a
large measure to its liberal treatment of customers. It is generally
known that the house always gets a good big profit, and yet its trade
is immense and growing. Thus far I hey have eschewed the dollar
a week plan, and the manager recently told us that all that kind of
trade he would gladly pass over to his competitors.
B
USINESS in the music trade line should be particularly good, for
there is no reason why our particular line should not feel the
inspiring effects of the settled conditions in the political world, which
are being felt in every other trade. Of course such a political tidal
wave, which actually occurred has its advantages and disadvantages.
The close or contested election is sure to cause some bitter feeling,
and it is likely to result with political trouble as well as financial and
commercial disturbances.
These possible disadvantages have been very thoroughly
obviated by the result of the presidential election, and now there is
no necessity for trade to adapt itself to any new conditions. Senti-
ment among the manufacturers and import retailers is highly buoy-
ant, and what Wall Street thinks of the outcome is attested by the
tape. In fact no better augury of stability of trade conditions
throughout the country can be furnished than is presented by the
overwhelming expression of the sentiments of the people.
I
N the big vote there was no hint of restraint, or even of warning,
and the political leaders who, for some years past, have con-
trolled the Government, cannot be blamed for feeling that they have
received directly from the people what the politicians like to call a
''mandate" to continue for four years to come the policies which
they have hitherto adopted. Ours is and ought to be a government
by the majority, and so long as the will of the people continues to
find such frank and unmistakable expression as came out of the
election, there is little to fear even from "the big stick." We are
all DE-lighted with the business outlook, and every piano dealer
should make the most of the conditions.
E
VIDENCE has been rapidly accumulating in the Post Office
Department of late showing conclusively that a great many
carriers in the rural free delivery service have violated or evaded the
regulations with regard to soliciting for retail mail order houses and
prohibiting the furnishing of the names of patrons of rural routes.
Rural carriers have been subjected to every form of temptation
that could be devised to induce them to violate or evade the rules
of the Post Office Department.
REIVIEIW
Montgomery, Ward & Co., offered carriers eight cents a piece
to distribute their catalogues. Sears, Roebuck & Co., wrote car-
riers, saying that compliance with the above offer would mean in-
stant dismissal, then added, "if the time ever comes when you are
permitted to distribute catalogues, or you can get some relative,
friend, or neighbor to do so, we will pay you more liberally than any
one else."
These big catalogues contain illustrations of all kinds of musical
instruments including pianos, some of which are offered at $87.50,
but the Post Office Department will not permit the evasion of the
regulations to the extent of allowing its carriers to solicit for mail
order houses.
T
H E St. Louis Exposition authorities have paid back the United
States Government every dollai which was loaned them. So
the big fair cannot be called a financial failure any more than any of
its predecessors. The stockholders have lost in the St. Louis
as well as former expositions, all of the money which they have
invested. We say all, because the returns to stockholders have
been so slight as to amount to practically nothing, but one of the
foremost lessons of the St. Louis Exposition is that it is first of all a
triumph of business enterprise and achievement, and that this most
valuable influence will be exercised along the lines of commercial
progress throughout the world. The spirit of the business which is
predominant is an expression of our times, our own ideals, methods,
processes and performances, and its crowning glory will lie in the
fact that it has presented to the world more comprehensively than its
predecessors the triumphs of ingenuity, skill, energy and enterprise
in these fields of endeavor which contribute most largely to the daily
comfort and progress of mankind.
T
HE report of commercial failures for the month of October, as
collected by R. G. Dun & Co., indicates continued improve-
ment in business conditions. The number of failures for the month
was 888, against 1,086 in October, 1903. while the liabilities for the
month were only $10,500,000 this year, against $18,400,000 last year.
Alike in manufacturing, trading and banking the number of failures
for the month was less than in October, 1903, and this condition
was especially marked in the matter of banking suspensions. Alto-
gether the showing is a mighty encouraging one.
B
EFORE the election The Review stated that if Douglas were
elected Governor of Massachusetts the credit would largely
be due to the persistent advertising carried on by this candidate for
gubernatorial honors. He purchased a vast amount of space in the
newspapers of both parties in which he exploited his personal
charms in the most flamboyant manner. His election is perhaps
the strongest proof of the force of advertising that is supplied in
events of recent years.
H
IS manager while discussing his advertising campaign, said:
"Well, it was my business to whoop, and the dust hasn't settled
yet. I first proceeded to put a quarter-page 'ad.' in every paper that
would carry it, English, French, German, Portuguese. If there had
been a Laplander's organ I'd had it there. Next I got out twelve-
sheet posters and pasted them all over the State. There was noth-
ing on them but 'For Governor, William L. Douglas.'
Under-
stand, I left 'Democratic' off, and Governor Gaston said to me:
'Buchanan, my boy, that was a damned smart trick.' And you bet it
was. The poster also showed seven pictures of Douglas in the
seven ages. First he was a boy of seven, pegging on the bench.
That was devised to appeal to the workingman. The other pictures
showed Douglas in the cotton mill, driving the prairie, as an appren-
tice, an employer, in the Senate, and in the House. Any one, even
if he couldn't read, understood that poster.
"We counted more on newspaper publicity than anything else,
for I wrote the stuff myself, and I knew the platform. We socked
it to 'em on reciprocity, and that made a hit, for within the last year
60,000 Republicans petitioned the legislature to take action on that
measure. You mav know the State is keen for it."
D
OUGLAS is generally considered to be a strenuous business
man who appreciates the value of advertising and it is the first
time in the history of the nation when a man has been landed in so
high a position through such novel means, particularly when the
popular tide was set strong in the other direction. Shows surpris-
ing strength in advertising, does it not?