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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
No dull season for him when the train is on the way. The fireman
is constantly watching the steam gauge, if not shoveling coal. No
dull season for him.
As a matter of fact, dull seasons only exist for the man who
does not understand his business. Some seasons, of course, are
much better than others, owing to conditions over which the indi-
vidual merchant has no control, but dull seasons should not be in
evidence in our trade life.
/COMMERCE is interstate; credit is interstate; collections are
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interstate, and debts and debtors must be controlled by a
law that is interstate. These are the conclusions reached by Win.
II. Hotchkiss, a referee in bankruptcy, in a recent address upon
the National Bankruptcy Law.
In the course of his arguments, Mr. Hotchkiss presented state-
ments which he had obtained from lawyers in different States in
regard to their assignment laws now replaced by the Federal act.
These statements show that with very few exceptions the majority
of creditors have no protection under the State laws, that the debtor
might pay certain creditors before making an assignment, so that
the remainder would receive nothing.
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SPECIALLY is this true of Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska,
Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee, though in many other
States the conditions are little, if any, better. On the other hand,
all that is good in a strong statute—such as the Massachusetts In-
solvency Law, for instance—is retained in the Federal Law, with
the added advantage that the existing law is uniform, interstate
and national. Yet there are those who ask that the Federal Law
be repealed, that we may again come to the chaotic conditions and
the pernicious practices which obtained before its enactment.
Either we must have one national law or forty-five more dif-
ferent laws, and forty-five times forty-five dark and devious schemes
for defrauding the creditors.
The fact is that the national bankruptcy law is a necessity.
It is essential to the protection of those whose business interests
cover various sections of this vast country.
T
HERE is hardly a city of any size in the United States that
does not boast of one or more well appointed warerooms;
and when we consider the marvelous changes which) have been
made in the store betterments in this trade, we must admit that
piano retailing has advanced tremendously during the past few-
years, and every year shows a constant advance made in this par-
ticular. In some of the cities, the expenditures seem almost lavish
in the equipment of piano warerooms, but the men who have made
the expenditures tell us that they have been amply repaid, that purely
from an advertising standpoint they have won splendid returns on
the investment.
It must be considered that a bright, attractive store is one of
the best advertisements which a business department can have.
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VERYONE likes a tidy, attractive store, and every merchant
can have at least that. He may not be able to expend large
sums of money in store betterment, or may not be able to have a
musical palace like the /Eolian Company, but he can, at least, have
a store clean and well kept. Everyone is attracted by tidy sur-
roundings ; fresh goods, tastefully displayed and pianos free from
dust, arranged so that they are shown to the best advantage. All
of that counts, and every piano merchant can see to it that every
person who enters is waited upon promptly and politely. Nothing
irritates a customer like waiting unnecessarily, and some of them
feel particularly sensitive about approaching a salesman and break-
ing in upon his perusal of the morning paper. A salesman should
never be permitted to stand chatting for an instant when a customer
is waiting. That indifferent, half-hearted way seems to give a cus-
tomer the impression that he is only waiting upon him as a particu-
lar favor.
I
T is unfortunate there is no English equivalent for the French
term esprit de corps—that enthusiastic devotion of all to the
common cause. That is the thing that moves mountains.
Think what has been accomplished in the world time and again
merely by the zeal of one man.
Think of the contagious enthusiasm of a real leader and then
consider its cumulative force if multiplied by the total number of
men connected with an enterprise,
ft mean? the army of Napoleon.
The ability to inspire others is perhaps the greatest facult) a
mortal can possess.
We sometimes think that no man should be at the head of a
busmess who does not have in a marked degree this gift of leader-
ship—the ability to inspire loyalty.
The habit of loyalty must be established. Those who are not
receptive or are incapable of it must be weeded out.
The man who is always considering himself, who is always
thinking. "Where do I come in?" is a bad employee.
When a man can no longer be loyal to his house he and the
house are better off without his services.
If he does not believe in the institution and the men at the head
of it, he. is doing injustice to himself and to them if he continues
in his position.
Every employee is an advertisement of one sort or another.
If he cannot be a good advertisement he has no right to be a bad
one.
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^OMIUNATIOX pianos, that is, pianos with the interior player
mechanism, will shortly cease to be a novelty. There are
many of them on the market and more coming, and by the way,
already there is quite a business being built up by one or two con-
cerns who supply the interior mechanism to any piano manu-
factured. It certainly does away with large expenses incident to
experiments, but it also creates a sameness among players, an
equality which many will claim does not exist. Surely there is
humor in half a dozen salesmen all claiming that their inside com-
bination is absolutely the best, when all of them come from the same
factory, and are as nearly alike as two peas in a pod.
I
F anyone considers that it will be easy to create and carry
through successfully the piano and player exposition at Wash-
ington next year, it shows they haven't gone into the subject care-
fully. Depend upon it, the men who will manage this enterprise
will be compelled to get busy some weeks preceding the gathering
at Washington, and time will not hang heavy on their hands during
the days of real -exposition life. The smallest possible show de-
mands time, and a good deal of attention, and to establish a piano
exposition so that, we will say, fifty to seventy-five different manu-
facturers may be adequately represented means a powerful sight
more work than shows at the first blush. The men who assume the
management of this enterprise will realize it full well later on. A
trade exposition can be made a success, but that success cannot be
won without a vast amount of hard work.
T
HERE are quite a number of "Roycrofters" in this trade, and
all of us, whether followers or not, can read with pleasure and
profit the following gems of thought from the pen of Era Albertus:
Keep your mind on the splendid thing you would like to do; and
then, as the days go gliding by, you will find yourself unconsciously
seizing upon the opportunities that are required for the fulfilment
of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide
the elements that it needs.
Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you de-
sire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you
into that particular individual.
Darwin and Spencer have told us that this is the method of
creation. Each animal has evolved the parts it needed and desired.
The horse is fleet because it wishes to be; the bird flies because it
desires to; the duck has a web foot because it wants to swim.
All things come through desire. We become like that on which
our hearts are fixed.
Many people know this, but they do not believe it so thoroughly
that it shapes their lives.
ON'T trust to persuasion alone to land your piano prospect.
Convince him. Persuasion is the soft glove; conviction is
the iron hand underneath. While your manner may be as conciliatory
as possible, put in your arguments the firm grip of conviction, then
he cannot get away from them.
There is no particular rule that will apply to everything, and no
one can follow in the footsteps of another; he must work out his
own destiny, but it is a fact that the man who usually keeps his eye
on the clock is the one who is not missed by his employer.
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