Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN DILL.
Editor and Proprietor
REVIEW
"These exhibitions also ruin prices, as buyers have the com-
parative prices of many exhibitions, and the salesman who goes out
after one of these exhibitions, meets dealers who tell him they can
get the goods at reduced prices, and he can, of course, make no
sales. He then writes the home office that a reduction of ten or
fifteen per cent, must be made, leaving little or no margin of profit,
and the agent is authorized to make the reduction as the expense
has already been incurred. Dealers, after selling some of the goods,
will repeatedly for a period of six months give orders at the same
reduced prices."
J. B. S P I L L A N E , M a n a g i n g E d i t o r .
EXECVTIVE AND REPORTORIAL STAFF:
GBO. B. KELLER,
W M . B. W H I T E ,
W. N. TYLBB,
L. J. CHAMBERLIN.
F. H. THOMPSON.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER,
A. J. NICKLIN,
GKO. W. QUERIPEU
CHICAQO OFFICE
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 1362 Monadnock Block.
TELEPHONES : Harrison 1 5 2 1 ; Automatic 2904.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS OFFICE:
BOSTON OFFICE:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 173 Tremont St.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
E. C. TORRET.
C H A S . N. VAN BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZQER, 425-427 Front. St.
CINCINNATI, P . : N I N A P U G H - S M I T H .
Published Every Saturday at 1 Nadiion Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SVBSCRIPTION (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 B11L
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 u v *t PIANO T n e d l r e c t o r v ° ' Piano manufacturing firms and corporations
uiULliUKT of PIANO found on another page will be of great value, as a referenct
MANVFACTURERS
f or dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE—NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORtt, NOVEMBER 18. 19O5.
I
NTEREST in the proposed piano exhibition which is scheduled
to be held in Washington during the dealers' convention next
year does not grow apace. On the contrary there is a fixed belief
on the part of many manufacturers that returns from such an expo-
sition will not be commensurate with the outlay, and that is, after all,
what most interests business men. The sentimental side does not
enthuse them greatly, for this is a practical age and men desire ade-
quate returns for every investment which they make.
In this connection we may instance how the furniture men view
expositions. It is known that they hold three large expositions
annually, one in New York, Chicago, and the third at Grand Rapids,
Mich., and in addition to these there are some held in smaller cities.
T
HESE expositions have been the means of bringing a good
many members of the trade together and it has afforded the
furniture manufacturers splendid opportunities to exploit their spe-
cialties—in fact these annual expositions have been features of the
furniture business, and outsiders were led to believe that, viewed
from the standpoint of the furniture men, they were decidedly suc-
cessful, and yet we may say that there is a movement under way
among the furniture men which has for its object the entire abolish-
ment of the furniture exhibits. The manufacturers figure that they
have spent a million dollars annually in expositions.
A circular has been prepared which will go forward to all the
members of the trade calling their attention to the great expense
incident to such exhibitions, and the fact that the returns do not
justify the expenditures. This circular has the signatures of the
leading members of the furniture industry.
T
HE above is an exact quotation from the circular showing that
we were mistaken when we supposed that the furniture trade
stood as a unit for exhibitions. Surely they have tried the matter
thoroughly, and having, as they do, such a variety of lines, it would
seem that the annual trade shows would be a helpful stimulus to
business in every way, and yet the manufacturers assert that they
have found directly the opposite to be the outcome. They have
expended a vast amount of time and money, and they desire to dis-
continue this work because it doesn't pay. We simply present this
experience of the furniture men for the consideration of the piano
manufacturers. The piano men could not spend a million yearly
for some time, but would the outlay of thousands pay?
S
PEAKING of combinations to maintain prices. That is impos-
sible in this or any other industry. It is an open market just
as it should be an open shop, and no one man or set of men through
combination can control the destinies of this industry.
If we go back over a period of twenty years, we will find that
a number of alleged agreements entered into by certain members
of the industry were broken for one cause or another not long after
they were made.
It is no different in this trade than in any other, because the
American spirit of independence will always prohibit any ironclad
"understanding" which might be made between members of an in-
dustry.
W
E remember that some twenty years ago, the manufacturers
of chairs got together and agreed on prices, chairs of a cer-
tain grade to be at a uniform price, and all signed the agreement.
After a time it came to pass that all of the dealers were buying of
one manufacturer, and the representatives of other lines w T ere turned
down on one pretext or another until gradually it dawned upon the
manufacturers that something was wrong. The successful firm was
openly charged with breaking the agreement, but this charge was
denied, and the investigating committee were invited to inspect the
books of the concern. They accepted the invitation, but the closest
scrutiny failed to reveal any irregularity or infringement of the
agreement. All went well until a dealer betrayed the successful
firm which was securing all of the orders by giving thirteen chairs
to the dozen. Five minutes after the discovery there was no sem-
blance of a chair combination, and chairs were selling at all kinds of
prices. And the trouble is in any industry when one concern is get-
ting a little the better of the others the suspicion would be aroused
that he was selling "thirteen to the dozen," or in other words that
there was some rebate somewhere which helped to give him the ad-
vantage.
E
ACH manufacturer will have to solve the business problem in-
dividually, and he cannot rely upon a great deal of assistance
from his brother manufacturer beyond the general agreement upon
rules and regulations which help to uphold the dignity and cleanli-
ness of any trade or profession, but if one manufacturer through
his ability, talent and resources, can create a product at a less cost
than his more improvident neighbor, why should he enter into a
combination when his natural advantages give him a superior van-
E may quote some portions of the circular in which it is tage ground which he does not feel like sharing?
stated: "The great expense of finishing goods with at
Agreements, after all, tend towards a form of socialism to
least one extra coat of varnish, packing lumber, drayage to the which the independent business element is strongly opposed.
railroad, the freight, the setting up, the lighting, the paying of the
salesman, his hotel bill and salary, besides we must either sell our
/"COMBINATIONS may be made so that a certain desired pro-
samples at a discount of thirty-five or forty per cent., or pay the V_^ tection will be afforded legitimate business interests, and that
stevedores double the price we pay at the factory for re-packing.
is about as far as combinations will go, for the personality of some
In addition we must again pay drayage to the railroad, freight,
men is too strong to be merged into any combination. Their men-
packing and drayage to the factory, after which the goods must be
tality is too great and after all the conquering and unconquerable
unpacked and rennished—all of this business at our expense.
force in this world is the mind of man. Its power is absolutelv
W