Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
HERE are many piano merchants who have acquired some
sort of an interest in manufacturing plants, and they adver-
tise this product as their "own pianos," which frequently are placed
in a higher position in their published announcement than the
famous old-time makes which have given character and stability
to the piano merchants' business.
The position of dealers allied with manufacturing interests must
be treated from a wholly different standpoint, however, than those
who have actually no monetary interest in any piano producing
corporation. They have instruments created for them, bearing
their own or specified names, and they too frequently use the better
grade instruments simply as drawing cards, while the people are
solicited to purchase their own special brands.
T
T was only recently that a well known Southern dealer who has
the agency for three reliable makes, instructed his salesman
to sell these particular instruments only when they could not close
a sale with his own special brands.
Now, the dealers themselves, that is a good many of them, have
seen that if this course is persisted in, it must mean a demoralization
of piano values in years to come, and they are naturally anxious to
see that the highest condition of trade ethics be maintained. They
have considered the matter so seriously that the subject will be taken
up for discussion at the Dealers' Convention which occurs next
month.
I
T
RADE for the last week has shown considerable signs of
improvement. The features of the present situation which
are most noteworthy are the general employment of labor, the
prosperity of the people, and the excellent volume of business and
the confident feeling which prevails. The decline in stocks has lost
interest to-day for the outsiders more than ever before, and Wall
Street is losing its influence on the business men of the country.
In the minds of many the speculative markets have ceased in a
large measure to reflect the general tendencies in the commercial
and industrial world, and consequently they have lost their accuracy
as a barometer of the country's prosperity or depression.
T
IME was when the money market told with accuracy the state
of men's minds, or at least the minds of a large number of
business men. To the student of the money market to-day, when a
few individuals can offer or refuse funds enough to place quota-
tions at the highest notch, Wall Street furnishes no index to public
opinion under such circumstances.
Reports of the local trade conditions show that general busi-
ness is moving along with an increasing volume. The tone of the
market is on the whole steady, and there are strong indications of
excellent trade for the merchants in this line for the next six weeks
at least before the summer stagnancy strikes in.
HE month of April in piano trade circles both wholesale and
retail seems to have fallen a little behind the record of last
year. May, however, thus far, has given a better account of itself,
and when the entire results of the month's work are computed, it is
believed that there will be a very satisfactory showing.
There is an unmistakable tendency on the part of piano mer-
chants to order in less numbers than ever before. This plan is not
sectional but national, for it is one of the noticeable features of piano
orders for the year, that they have been coming in regularly, though
in decreased quantities.
It may be that the cause of this change from the former condi-
tions is due largely to the fact of the inside piano player, for it must
be conceded that there is, to-day, a deeply seated feeling in the minds
of the dealers that within a comparatively short time, pianos with
inside players will distinctly lead in sales. Whether or not this is
true, is one of the secrets which the future holds, but this certainly
may be one of the logical reasons why the dealers to-day show con-
siderable indifference as to placing large orders for regular styles.
T
HE scheme of the Fred L. Hall Co., which has been fully
reported in The Review, and which was declared to be fraud-
ulent in the Boston court, will rank as a most remarkable case in
this industry.
Now when a court makes the charge that there was intended
fraud on the part of the defendant, and that his representations were
made in order to obtain merchandise for which he never expected
T
REVIEW
to pay, should the punishment stop with a mere reprimand ? Should
not an example be made in such a case as this where there is a
flagrant violation of honest principles?
I
F a man may incorporate for $100,000 without ever paying in a
penny and obtain credit for many thousands by the grossest
kind of misrepresentation, is it enough to simply ask him to pay for
the merchandise in full, provided that he has then property in his
possession which can be used for the purpose?
It seems that it is mighty weak law in a case like this. The 1
court had no hesitancy in declaring the whole scheme fraudulent,
and yet the penalty imposed is that the man pay precisely what he
agreed to, and what the creditor supposed he would do at the time
the obligation was incurred. Wherein is the real punishment? Laws:
are made, not in the spirit of revenge, but for the protection of
society, and how are our business interests to be adequately pro-
tected if such circumstances as this are permitted to go with simply
a rebuke?
/
T
HE Lewis & Clark Exposition opens at Portland on the 1st
of June. This is an enterprise larger than the Pan-Ameri-
can Exposition at Buffalo, in which the people of the entire Pacific 1
Coast are largely interested, and it will possess such attractive fea-!
tures that it will draw thousands from the South and West duringi
the summer, for the weather in the Pacific Northwest during the,
heated term is delightful.
;
The Review has made extensive plans for carrying on import-!
ant work at that point. The director of exhibits has assigned ai
splendid location in the most important structure for this newspaper
institution on which a magnificent booth has been erected. Our'
exhibit there possesses many original and attractive features. It
will be under the personal supervision of a member of our editorial!
staff, Miss Emelie Frances Bauer, who will be aided by a local repre-i
sentative. Miss Bauer leaves the first of the week for the Pacific'
Coast, where she will remain for a period of months.
j
T
HE Review's substitute for the word stencil will live, because!
it is extremely appropriate.
i
How much more fitting to say, special brand pianos than stencil:
pianos. The latter means nothing and the former means exactly
what it says. Special brands, that is brands which are created spe-J
daily for individual dealers.
The term has come to stay, and the work which we have car-
ried on in urging the manufacturers to name the prices at which
their instruments shall be offered to the retail purchaser in order to
more clearly define the position of the special brands is now coming
in for full consideration.
There is a deeply seated feeling on the part of both manufac-
turers and dealers that this is the one great subject of the day. The
Review desires no credit for its work in this particular, and it rather
expects within a brief period of time one of our little imitators will
come out with great headlines and claim the credit for originating
the whole scheme. Credit, nonsense! The man who is looking for
credit is usually disappointed, but the man who goes ahead and per-
forms his duty simply because he knows that it is right is usually the
contented individual.
T
HE recent Supreme Court decision in the Remington case is
one which has direct bearing upon an important music trade
case which is now before the courts. This decision holds that a
personal name cannot be appropriated exclusively by any one as
against others having a right to use it. And the court held that the
name Remington being an ordinary surname, it was manifestly
incapable of exclusive appropriation as a valued trade-mark, and
its registration as such could not in itself give it validity.
Then, here is another point which is of more than passing
interest which appears in the decision.
The courts will not interfere to restrain the use of a family
name where the only confusion, if any, results from a similarity of
the names, and not from the manner of its use, and one corporation
is not entitled to restrain another from using in its corporate title,
a name to which the others have a common right. The question
whether the use of the name was necessary, is not the test, but the
question is, whether its use is reasonable and honest, or is calculated
to deceive.