Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
without limitation, and nothing comes within its range that is not
utilized in the great progressive movement we call civilization.
Andrew Carnegie, the poor struggling youth, did well not to
merge with his other forces. He had enough power within himself
to accomplish almost anything in this world, and a dinner will be
given in his honor to-night at Delmonico's by the Mechanics' and
Tradesmen's Society, to which he has recently given a quarter of a
million, the president of which is Wm. E. Strauch, that talented
member of the supply trade.
In the individual, strength and direction of effort is as vari-
able as feature or bodily build. Each of the products of the many
nations develop characteristics which of course fall short of ideal
mental development, but each individual, each class, each nation
contributes its quota to the general strength and by the labor of all,
the world moves. Where one fails the other makes up the deficit
and the forward movement continues.
Tyndall says, "the flux of nature is eternally the same," and,
as an element in the plan, so is the increasing energy of mind. But
how much more could be accomplished if the exercise of mental
power could be brought to a high standard of doing things—reduced
to a system in which all the faculties could be mobilized into a unit
of action.
I A HERE can be no halting in the industrial battle by any concern
X
on a vantage ground won. When an institution says it has
won an unassailable point it would be pretty safe to reckon that it
is in a state of retrogression, or that it has commenced to feel a kind
of competition which it will not acknowledge.
Of course, in the piano business it is difficult to dislodge some
of the concerns which have enjoyed an uninterrupted period of pros-
perity for years and who have accumulated a fair amount of finan-
cial assets, but it does not pay to slow up unless one is willing to
give up the struggle, and every essential must be studied.
There is a tendency on the part of some business men after they
have accomplished one thing to consider that is enough, and they
rest secure in a blind confidence as to the outcome; altogether it is
a matter of common knowledge that what means success to-day may
insure defeat to-morrow, unless it be adjusted to meet whatever
possible exigency may arise.
REVIEW
N
OW it pays to analyze what causes have contributed towards
making phenomenal business successes, and if we study those
conditions closely we will find that completeness characterizes nearly
every move made by these men.
It is hardly necessary to particularize in an article of this kind,
but if one scans the piano list for the past decade the names of those
who have steadily worked their way up in the ranks will at once
come to mind. There are quite a number of them.
SUCCESSFUL piano merchant remarked recently while cal-
ling upon The Review that he insisted upon his salesmen
reading at least two of the trade papers weekly. We may say here
that one of the papers was The Review. He said that he believed
that every man in business should find time to read leading trade
publications, that every department contained a value to those inter-
ested in the industry which the journal represented.
There are in this trade, as in others, a number of dealers who
seem to regard trade journals as something intended for themselves.
They do not bother about placing the journals so that they can be
read by their salesmen, and the salesmen themselves do not seem to
realize that a more or less careful and regular reading of progressive
journals might materially add to their fitness in filling a paying
business position.
A
r
SALESMAN cannot know too much about the merchandise
he handles, or about that which his competitor offers. Men
in the professions and arts find it necessary to read, and study con-
tinually in order to keep abreast of the times. They must of neces-
sity learn not only what others in their chosen lines are doing but
how they are doing it, while sometimes the average salesman con-
siders of chief importance as his capital and stock in trade, the
number of years he has been in business.
Years do not count, unless they are well spent, and it is no
difficult matter to find men of but a few years' experience who
know more about the business in which they are engaged than do
some of their associates who have spent three times the number of
years in the work.
It will be found, too, that the knowing ones as a rule may be
classed as students in the line, and they are seeking information
from whatever available source it may be gained. They know that
in the reading of good trade journals they will not only gain infor-
mation of value, but acquire a stimulus which at once makes them
of more value to their employer and to themselves.
A
MOST notable case illustrative of this grievous fault is that of
the annihilation of the Russian fleet by the Japanese. Rus-
sia was prepared for a great naval engagement. She had laid all
the shipyards of the world under tribute to procure her magnificent
battleships and cruisers. Time, thought, and millions were lavished
on the navy, and Russia imagined she controlled the greatest fight-
ing machine, but neglected to train her officers and men in handling
the scientific instruments entrusted to their care. Now, she has
paid the penalty as Italy paid it years ago, as China and Spain paid
it, as England paid it in the Boer war, and as all nations must pay
which worship the weapon, forgetting it is not only useless but dan-
gerous without trained mind, eyes, and hands behind it.
Russia was content with partial preparation, and awful has been
the price which she has paid. Had she trained her men behind the
guns they might have saved the nation from disgrace, for mind,
after all, is the one thing that wins battles and insures ultimate suc-
cess.
T would surprise some of our eastern people to know that pianos
are being delivered by trolley in Indiana and Ohio, where the
service is so perfect that it enables dealers to send pianos over trol-
leys quicker and at less expense than they could in any other way.
The trolley service in every part of the country is assuming
large proportions, and is becoming so efficient that in a great many
communities it is having an important effect upon business. It is
cutting, too, into the regular lines of passenger and freight traffic
to such an extent that the management of the steam roads are buy-
ing up the trolleys. The trolleys, too, are causing them a good deal
to think about, and unless they are alert and quick to act in the
presence of changing conditions and new opportunities, they will
find that they are failing to keep up with the times.
I
S
A
NDIVIDUAL responsibility is based upon the same proposition.
It matters not what one does, whether he be making something,
or selling something, it is his ability to make the sale that measures
his success. It isn't alone the pianos, but good quality is necessary,
but it is the ability to sell them, the ability to use the forces which
lie at one's own disposal. It is necessary to fix that one thing in
mind and act upon it, and it does not pay in business to disregard
the smallest detail, or to look with scorn upon some rising com-
petitor.
We can name some men who have made most marvelous pro-
gress in this industry within the past few years. They have built
business institutions which stand as a credit to their ability and
business acumen, and still they were looked upon with perfect in-
difference years ago. And yet they have had enough strength,
enough personality behind them to have forged ahead and to have
built enormous factories.
I
INCE they have taken on the carrying of merchandise and ex-
press business the work of the trolleys has a direct relation to
the sale and distribution of all kinds of merchandise, and there is
little doubt that such service will increase almost indefinitely, and
that merchants will use up all facilities for attending to customers
at much greater distances and in larger numbers than it was possible
for them to serve a few years ago.
When the influence also of the telephone is considered, it is ob-
vious that merchandising even in smaller towns will afford a con-
stantly enlarging field for enterprise, and when piano manufacturers
have their maximum price thoroughly established a man past whose
house the trolley runs may call up on the 'phone and say: "Send
me by trolley at eight o'clock to-morrow morning style X Steinway,"
and although the distance is twenty miles, the trolley will land it
there the next morning. When this occurs the piano business will
be certainly run on pleasant lines.