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THE MUSIC TRADE
6
REVIEW
account of drought, which has caused the death of tens of thousands
of sheep. South Africa has never yet recovered from the deficit
caused by the Boer War, so there will be unquestionably a shortage
of wool. This is, of course, a matter of strong interest to the piano
manufacturers, for it must mean that felts will cost more within the
near future. Men in all lines will simply have to adjust themselves
in the way of prices to new conditions, and everything now is tending
towards an upward price, and there is no apparent inclination of an
early decline.
EDWARD LYMAN DILL.
J. B. 9P1LLANE,
Editor and Proprietor
imging
Editor.
EXECVTIVE AND REPORTORIAL STAFF:
Quo. B. KELLER,
WM. B. WHITE,
W. N. TYLKR,
L. J. CHAMBERLIN.
F. II. THOMPSON.
E MI LIE FRANCES BAUER,
A. J. NICKLIN,
GBO. W. QUERIPEL.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAOO OFFICE
ERNEST L. WAITT, 173 Tremont St.
E. P. VAN HAKLINGEN, 1362 Monadnock Block.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
Ti:u:riioNKK : Harrison 1521; Automatic 2SI04.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS OFFICE;
R. W. KAUPFMAN.
E. C. TORREY.
CHAS. N. VAN BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZOER, 425-427 Front. St.
CINCINNATI, P.: NINA PCGH-SMITH.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage), 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
reading matter. $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman BllL
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in Its
THE ARTISTS' "Artists' Department" all the current musical news. This Is effected
without In any way trespassing on the size or service of the trade
DEPARTMENT section of the paper. It has a special circulation, and therefore
augments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
m i r r m o v «* PIANA T n e directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
UIK.LHUKT
MANVFACTUR.ER.S
f or dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORft,
NOVEMBER
11. 19O5.
EDITORIAL
T
H E R E is no mistaking the fact that hiisiness in the music trade
wholesale and retail is unquestionably very large. Some of
the leading 1 manufacturers are unable now to supply their trade
promptly and there is a big problem on hand to take care of the in-
creased business which will come in in order to satisfy the holiday
trade.
Many manufacturers report orders on their books as carrying
more instruments than they have the capacity to supply before Jan.
1st. Business this fall is going to be a record breaker in every
respect, and delays in getting instruments will cause piano mer-
chants many grievous disappointments.
Then, too, there seems to lie a difficulty in shipping, and the
delay is causing already some inconvenience. The shortage of cars,
and the limitation in transportation facilities are already recognized
as interfering somewhat with the course of business, and as the sea-
son advances more trouble is to be expected from this source.
P
IANO merchants, generally, who attempt to forecast the future
are endeavoring to have their stocks in such shape as to be
able to take care of their trade, and avoid a depletion of instruments
which means too big loss of business. With this condition of trade
there is little or no occasion for the cutting of prices, and from the
advertisements which have been regularly mailed to this office from
various parts of the country we are glad to observe that the dealers
are obtaining splendid prices at retail. A number of manufacturers'
have advanced their prices, too, and they have found that the dealers
have not demurred in the slightest to paying more, as they under-
stand full well that there has been a large increase in the cost of pro-
duction.
E
VERYTHING is going up, and there is no telling just where
the end will be. The iron industry shows an unprecedented
activity, and the big plants to-day are somewhat loath to take advance
orders for iron and steel at the present market prices. Tn the textile
industries, too, a satisfactory state of activity exists, and some of
the men who are best posted on the wool trade say that there must
necessarily be an increase in the price of wool within the very near
future.
There has been a big shortage of the wool crop in Australia on
W
HAT a tremendous force—a selling force the player-piano
has become in the retail trade! And we cannot agree
with some of the pessimists who say there will be an early decline
in the popularity of this recent claimant for popular favor. It does
not follow, by any means, that the cabinet or movable player will
be cut out, because there are many thousands of people who will
be unable to consider the cost of the player-piano. It will be en-
tirely out of their reach on account of its present large cost, and it
will be some time before the price diminishes in an appreciable
degree.
We have, during the past week, received communications from
a large number of dealers who affirm that the player-piano has been
the means of creating new 7 life in their business. It is plain, too,
that some of the manufacturers are helping the dealers along by
their liberal plan of advertising. This force alone would maintain a
demand because it creates and accentuates interest in players. But,
of course, this demand would not remain permanent unless there
were real merit contained in the player-pianos themselves.
The player department of the business is an important one, and
it is helpful just now in making pianos talked about, and sought
by many people who are enthusiastic upon the subject of players.
I
T will most always be that the successful man of to-day is a
stickler for system. He has found it a necessity. Competition
is keen, and the demands of business require that all levers be set at
the proper angles for directing results with the least possible waste.
System is important, but system alone will do nothing; there
must be more than a mechanical method. The mere way has no
life in it, but system requires some vitalizing power which permeates
every portion of the business, and the man who depends too much
upon his system to get the business will not secure it unless there be
live force behind the enterprise.
S
YSTEM is an excellent thing, but it is not real system, and will
not help you rear high your business standard unless you have
first vitalized it into a rearer and business getter instead of a mere
good looker.
Your clock will not tell time for you unless you set it going
and nm your clock works instead of letting them run you. It is
necessary to be the engineer. You have got to know why your
pianos are the "best"—know why your stock embraces everything
that people want in the musical line, and to impress upon your sales-
men the necessity of believing in the prices and values which they
talk. Ambition and opportunity go hand in hand, and there is
plenty of opportunity for good men in the piano business if they
want them, and act right. There are too many men who look on
the pessimistic side of the piano business rather than its brighter
side, and the man who acknowledges that he is not a success often
explains the matter and salves his pride by the assertion that he was
given no opportunity.
T
HE question is, did he ever try to make an opportunity? Isn't
it, after all, his fault, that he had no opportunity? Events do
not always happen just to a man's liking. Man was evolved from the
protoplasm in order to create opportunity and get the most out of
it. Nature didn't plan him for his own amusement, or to ornament
the earth; she expected him to be of use. He must justify the fact
of having been evolved at all by forming and finding opportunities,
and welding them into themselves for himself and his fellowman.
We are all co-partners in the great sum of humanity. It is an un-
broken link which connects the men who manufacture the goods
with those who sell them and those who purchase them. Therefore
that which affects one must necessarily reach the other, and if every
man gets to work intelligently to make the most of himself he will
probably reach a fair degree of success even in piano selling, and it
is astonishing, too, what opportunities there are in this business for
good salesmen.