Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
from winning the higher plane which it rightly deserves. Any man
who proposes to rise by pulling another down is pursuing a false
policy. Such methods have a more serious effect upon the trade
than catalogue houses, and the catalogue house exists only by the
right of price cutting.
T even prices with the retail dealer the catalogue house will have
no reason for existence and cannot exist. The catalogue house
trades upon the reputation that has been built up by others, but this
is no worse than trying to pull down the reputation of a piano in
any locality by quoting wholesale prices. The catalogue houses
try to reap where they have not sown; they snatch the fruit that has
been grown patiently and laboriously by others. They are not the
creators of business. They do not lay stress upon selling reputable
brands of anything. They try to win success by price cutting, and
by the purchase of inferior articles.
Think of a piano being offered for $87.50 retail!!!
No wonder the maker is ashamed to put his name upon such an
instrument. And while we are fighting catalogue houses we should
not forget that we have enemies of our own trade within our ranks.
A
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
Editor and Proprietor.
J. B. S r i L L A N E , Manarflnrf Editor.
EXECVTIVC STAFF:
THOS.
CAMPBKLL-COPELAND,
GKO.
EMILIK FXANCKS BAUER,
B. KXLLEK,
A. J. NlCKLIN,
W. MURDOCH LIND,
ERNEST L. WAITT, 256 Washington St.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
GEO.
W. QUSRIPKL.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
BOSTON OPFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 36 La Salle St.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
R. J. LEFEBVRE.
ST. LOUIS OFFICE :
CHAS. N. VAN BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZGER, 425-487 Front St.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (including posta- ; , United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
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 read-
ing matter, $76.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
THE ARTISTS'
DEPARTMENT
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
"Artists' Department" all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or service of the trade
section of the paper. It has a special circulation, and therefore aug-
ments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
mi rrmov
DIRECTOKT
MANUFACTURERS
^ n e directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
found
o n page
2 g wjll
b e o f great
yalue
as a
reference for
dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW Y O R K , JULY 2 3 , 19O4.
EDITORIAL
T
HE dealers are having some lively times out in Oklahoma City,
and unpleasant personalities are being indulged in which
certainly do not assist in promoting the legitimate interests of the
trade. There is a newspaper warfare on between two concerns,
Frederickson & Kroh and Armstrong, Byrd & Co. The latter con-
cern has carried the fight to an extreme point, and has devoted an
entire page to a belittlement of the form of notes used by their
competitors. They do not stop here, however, but they proceed to
show a ridiculously low price at which a Kimball piano was pur-
chased by Mr. Armstrong, and include as well in their newspaper
war a Werlein advertisement in which a Kimball's slaughter was
emphasized. The Adam Schaff piano also comes in for a slash.
"Absolutely new" "sold at $175 and 30 per cent, profit made."
T
H E R E is nothing dignified or business-like about this Oklahoma
form of music trade advertising in which a competitor's
wares are belittled. The methods are not new, but they have not
improved under usage.
The custom has been indulged in for many years, and it has had
a tendency to discredit the piano business in the estimation of a
certain section of the buying public.
It was believed that the Dealers' Organization would exercise
a powerful influence in stamping out this kind of work, but it seems
from the Oklahoma war that there are still piano scalps sought.
There is need of a serious and honest effort to eliminate this kind of
trade warfare, together with the showing of invoices of pianos, the
agencies for which for reasons have been discontinued. The knives
are out in Oklahoma and they have keen edges, too.
SUALLY when bitter recriminations are indulged in, the in-
terests of the legitimate trade immediately suffer. The dignity
of the business is lowered, and it descends to a merely personal al-
tercation. The business is belittled, and the honor of the piano men
is seriously impugned.
What other trade finds it necessary in the conduct of business
enterprises to purchase space in the papers in which to villify their
competitors' wares in the estimation of the public. As long as piano
men will resort to such methods just so long the business will be kept
U
T
H E Manufacturers' Association has adopted strong measures
to crush out the practice of showing piano invoices for
slaughter purposes. In fact, if the rule which has been passed is
lived up to, a dealer who indulges in this kind of practice cannot con-
tinue to do business with the same line of instruments. Manufac-
turers propose to stand together for trade weal, and it will be inter-
esting to note the final disposition of the first case of invoice show-
ing which is brought to the attention of the executive committee.
T
HE labor troubles which have been reported in The Review at
the Ludwig piano factory, are the outcome of the failure of
the men to live up to their obligations.
How many employers ever break faith with labor leaders ? There
is no instance that we can recall where they have failed to keep an
agreement once entered into, with the representatives of labor.
On the other hand the cases are beyond counting almost where
the unions have failed to carry out their part of the contracts.
In the Ludwig case an agreement was entered into between Mr.
Ludwig and the representatives of labor. It was agreed that no
strike should be ordered in the Ludwig factory during 1904, and that
if any differences arose they were to be adjusted by a board of arbi-
tration. Mr. Ludwig assented to this, and was aware of no trouble
whatsoever with his men until a strike was declared some time ago,
and the men made demands which he could not grant and maintain
his independence.
T
HERE has been, according to a booklet sent out from Indian-
apolis, a decision recently which shows that the closed shop
contract is absolutely unlawful in the State of Illinois.
This decision, which by many is regarded as second in import-
ance only to that of the United States Supreme Court in the Debs
case, declares that all closed shop contracts are void; that such con-
tracts are in violation of the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the
United States constitution; that they are in violation of the constitu-
tion of the State of Illinois, and that they are also in violation of the
criminal statutes of that State. Employers signing exclusive agree-
ments with unions under duress commit an illegal act and when they
voluntarily sign such agreements they are guilty of criminal con-
spiracy. The decision is a sweeping vindication of the position taken
by employers associations generally for the open shop and the en-
forcement of the laws which guarantee individual liberty and prop-
erty rights.
T
HE strike which has been in force at Gloversville for six
months has been concluded and has resulted, after a bitter
fight, in the maintenance of the principle of the open shop.
The result cannot but have an important moral effect throughout
the country, seeing the whole question at issue was the right of manu-
facturers to run their business without the dictation of the labor
union.
No sane person will deny the right of workingmen to organize
and to treat with their employer as a unit rather than as individuals,
when, however, the union operatives endeavor to prevent the employ-
ment of non-unionists, they assume not only a very unreasonable,
but a dangerous position, and one which must lead manufacturers to
form combinations fully as strong as the labor unions themselves.