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THE MUSIC TRADE
UR special Far Western reports indicate a season ot unusual
activity. Up and down the Pacific Coast our advices point
unerringly towards a business year of great activity. Up in Port-
land they are getting ready for a big fair and the Portland people
are going at it in a way which reflects credit upon their enterprise.
And the exposition at Portland is bigger, by the way, than many
anticipate. It will, in point of extent and beauty, eclipse the Pan-
American at Buffalo. It will mean that Portland will be a busy city
for the next eight months, but leading piano men there tell us that
they do not feel that the Exposition will assist their own particular
enterprises. It is the old story told over and over again of people
saving up money to visit the expositions and the home trade suffer-
ing thereby. Still, these Western fellows are hustling and progres-
sive, and we do not believe that the Northwestern Pacific Coast
music trade men will suffer by reason of the exposition, particularly
when general conditions are so flattering.
O
COMPREHENSIVE survey of the trade as a whole, which
is given in an intersting series of letters received from our
various correspondents indicates that May and June will be lively
months in music trade circles. This feeling exists throughout the
country. The reports are satisfying, for they are cheerful in tone,
and point to a large volume of business throughout the spring and
early summer.
Our correspondents state that there is a general recognition of
the fact that prosperous conditions are prevailing in practically all
sections, and in connection with nearly everything indicating that
the year will be a notable one, giving employment to labor, and tax-
ing the producing capacity of manufacturers. Indeed the reports
from the crops are promising, and even at this date have a decided
effect to stimulate confidence and encourage enterprise. Complaints
are already heard of difficulty in obtaining raw material, and a
scarcity of goods in several lines. In the South the low prices of
cotton affect trade somewhat, but the South is broadening, and does
not depend fully upon its cotton. The financial condition is gener-
ally satisfactory, and little complaint in regard to collections is heard.
A
I
T is generally believed that piano merchants are paying closer
attention to collections than has been their wont. Then again the
general inclination is to get larger prices upon installment payments
and narrow down the time limit as closely as possible. On the
whole the music trade situation for 1905 promises to be satisfying,
and from a variety of standpoints.
Usually at this season more or less interference with business
is apprehended from labor troubles. The building trades have been
particularly liable to outbreaks of some sort which have played
havoc with the plans of builders and those furnishing material for
building operations. A more promising outlook for work is more
likely, for such disturbances do not seem probable this spring. At
present the iron trade is running under such high pressure, and all
branches are so well employed that the factor of labor becomes
exceptionally important.
LL the other elements entering into the business situation are
highly favorable for an indefinite continuance of prosperous
conditions. Securities of good character are marketed easily.
Interest rates are so low that it seems almost impossible to reconcile
them with such an active condition of business as we are experienc-
ing. Railroad earnings are increasing, and railroad companies are
buying very freely to cover their requirements.
Manufacturing establishments are enlarging and improving
their facilities to handle the constantly increasing business pouring
into them. In this highly favored period of activity the outbreak of
labor troubles of magnitude will be most unwelcome. But happily,
there is nothing on the horizon which indicates otherwise than favor-
able conditions in the labor situation.
A
SUBSCRIBER writes: "I have always admired the dignified
position of The Review, particularly in its attitude tow T ards
the other trade papers, some of which through motives inspired by
jealousy have sought for possible ways in which to retard your
onward growth to greater influence and power." It may be truth
that our friend expresses, but we have been so much interested in
the broadening influences of this business that we have had no
time and less inclination to concern ourselves in the slightest with
the compliments paid our work by our lesser contemporaries. We
have perhaps not been as expressive of affection as we should have
A
REVIEW
9
been towards those of the craft who have paid us such marked
attention. We have been reasonably busy attending to our own
affairs and those of our clients which have a direct relation to this
paper. Our policy has been to create a newspaper value of such
commanding importance that on account of actual values presented
we should win support. We concluded that our own opinions of
our contemporaries or their sweet regard for us could have no pos-
sible bearing upon the newspaper values which our clients had a
right to expect from us. Therefore we left them out of our weekly
work and no sorrow was felt by us in adhering to these lines. It
was not dignity—it was simply our conception of clean newspaper
work.
N the storm of the years that are fading we were never tempted to
swing a club even in the warmest competition for advertising,
and we have always considered the matter of differences which
might exist between the management of this publication and others,
really of no interest to our readers. Close observation has taught
us that our supporters cared little for personal attacks, or news-
paper controversies, and while readers may take some interest at
times in the topics under discussion, personalities shortly become
simply wearisome. American tolerance and good humor are
remarkable, but there is a limit to good nature, and papers should
have good manners as well as an individual, and not take an unfair
advantage of their readers. No newspaper should use its columns to
persistently pour out abuse upon competitors. A thief may call an
honest man a rogue but it does not necessarily follow that he is one,
and a discredited publication may call the editor of another paper
all kinds of criminals, but that does not really make him one.
The well-balanced editor of a journal of wide circulation and
real influence has neither time nor inclination to fill the columns of
his publication with long personal paragraphs regarding the follies
or frailties of his contemporaries. He never compels his readers to
wade through a labyrinth of personalities, which are oftentimes
nauseating, and all of the time disgusting. He never uses his po-
sition to impose upon his readers personal matters which are not of
the slightest interest to anyone save himself.
I
ERE'S an association suggestion for the Dealers' Association.
The Review for years has been using the term commonly, piano
merchant instead of piano dealer, believing that the term merchant
is more dignified than the term dealer. It thus better befits the
piano merchant who is alert in spirit and up-to-date in his methods.
It may be that while one who retails pianos in an indifferent and an
unenterprising manner may be designated a dealer the same as the
horse dealer—one whose conduct of business is characterised by
modern methods backed with skill and enterprise is entitled to the
honorable name of merchant which carries with it dignity and mean-
ing, and which is more appropriate and applicable than dealer. The
latter is given to any one who handles any kind of goods in any
quantity from the rag dealer up.
H
OW, when a man has gone through many years of business
experience in the piano line, he desires the distinction over
almost every other line of mercantile business, and he is entitled
to be known as a merchant rather than the dealer. We therefore
suggest in a kindly spirit that the name of the merchants be sub-
stituted for dealers in the title of the piano retailers organization.
Suppose this were followed, and suppose every man selling
pianos at retail should adopt that plan, would it not add dignity to
his calling in his own locality? Does not the word merchant mean
more and impress one more than the word dealer, and if so, is not a
piano man entitled to all that he can get in a fair way ?
President Miller has asked for suggestions, and The Review has
had the audacity to make one.
N
PIANO manufacturer who has recently given out some large
advertising contracts stated to The Review that he believed
that a manufacturer should never overlook the trade paper adver-
tising contract for that work, in conjunction with magazine expendi-
tures, would bring about excellent results. He said that he was
more than ever impressed with the returns from advertising and
that he felt that any concern which was conducting a business
extending over the country should always be in evidence before the
trade and general public. The keenest business men of the country
to-day are firm believers in the advocacy of printer's ink, and they
realize more than ever before that a position worthy of holding
must be fought for.
A