Music Trade Review

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THE:
MUSIC
TRADE: REIVIEIW
can have, too, if the people will only take up the matter seriously
and hammer away at the railroad officials. They never have failed
to yield with public pressure, but there is hardly an improvement
that has ever been given for the comfort of the public by the rail-
roads unless it has been demanded by an indignant and long-suffer-
ing public.
READER of The Review sees great peril to this country, if
our gates are opened just a little bit so that a few of the
Chinese can squeeze in through our portals. He says, "Now that
piano making and supply industries have started on the shores of
the Pacific what will be the result to the Eastern trade if we admit
Chinese coolies? They are good workmen, and in a little while
would learn piano making so that they would be good workers in
piano factories which might be established in San Francisco and
other points on the Pacific. The American workmen could not com-
pete with them, and the Eastern manufacturers under those condi-
tions could not compete with the factories on the Pacific Coast.
"It seems to me that there is possible danger to the industry,
Unless we hold rigidly to the enforcement of our Chinese Exclu-
siori Act.
A
E can see no immediate Cause lor alarm, and our friend,
who sees a great yellow peril, has an imaginative vision. In
the first place, we haven't opened the gates, and the probability is
it Will be a long time, if ever, before the hordes of Chinese coolies
can swarm into this country. If they did, conditions would be dis-
rupted, not only in this industry, but in all others, and Americans
have ill times past always found a way to meet complicated con-
dition's;
While we are looking forward to the immense possibilities of
trade in the Orient we will not neglect the peace and happiness of
our home people, and iri return for the greatest unsupplied markets
remaining on earth, We are not going to break down the barriers
to this country, so that the American continent, overrun with hordes
of Asiatics, will be unrecognizable.
W
HE future is full of tremendous opportunities offered to our
manufacturers by the needs of an awakening nation of four
hundred million souls. Our Government, too, is strenuous in its advo-
cacy of the open door in China, but trade possibilities will not ex-
tinguish the good sense of our people in keeping out an objectionable
race.
Possibly, there may be some more liberal interpretation of the
Chinese Exclusion Act, which was really intended to keep out the
Chinese coolie class. In the past it has been made to keep out as
far as possible every person of Chinese birth without reference to
his or her purpose in seeking to land on our shores. Chinese gen-
tlemen, tourists, and professional men, students and investigators,
have all been held up like coolies at our ports, subjected to indigni-
ties and finally deportation. Now, that China proposes to retaliate,
we are going to take a more liberal interpretation of our exclusion
act.
That does not necessarily mean that we are going to have "the
yellow peril" here in this country, and as far as piano factories go
on the Pacific Coast, they never have been yet a success there in a
large way. There are other "perils" which are much nearer.
T
ET ready for fall trade. See where it is possible to strengthen
your lines in every way by the addition of clean, desirable
stock, by the adoption of clean-cut business rules in every depart-
ment, and by instilling correct principles in the minds of salesmen.
It was only the other day that a college professor who is a per-
sonal friend of The Review, visited a piano wareroom to make in-
quiries regarding a. certain well-known piano. He was told that
the concern was out of business, that they had failed some years ago,
and had never been resuscitated.
The gentleman called upon us, stating that he was much sur-
prised to learn these facts. We were surprised too, to learn that a
well-known institution should permit a salesman to deal in flagrant
untruths at wholesale. This particular gentleman, after securing
correct information, purchased the piano that he desired, and as a
result, the untruthful salesman has created an enemy who will take
delight in speaking of the unreliability of his house whenever occa-
sion arises,
G
B
USINESS should be conducted on fair and honorable lines,
but there-are few cities indeed in the United States which
are entirely free from a species of abuse which amounts to black-
guardism in many cases. It is all well enough to prate about piano
ethics, but what shall we say of a concern who will permit its staff
of salesmen to deliberately lie in statements regarding rival houses?
Of course, commercial competition amounts to unrelentless
warfare—perhaps in many cases, keener than actual war, for when
Togo won, he visited the fallen admiral and told him how proud
he felt to meet such a brave and honorable foe. He sent flowers to
Admiral Rojestvensky, gave him his best nurses and the finest medi-
cal treatment, and in the same way the Japs have taken care of the
wounded Russians in the best possible manner all through the wan
UT in commercial life, it is pursue a man until he is wiped out
entirely. It is fighting tactics all the way through; that is all
right, for we admit that business is fighting, and the wise tactics
which Napoleon employed to win his battles may be used as suc-
cessfully in the daily battle for business.
Napoleon described the art of war as "always having more
forces than the enemy on the point where the enemy is attacked, or
where he attacks." Napoleon won battles, apparently, as easily with
an inferior, as with a superior force. With a hundred thousand
men he was ready to meet another general with two hundred thous-
and or even a half million men. He simply took care that his men
should be better placed and more numerous at the decisive point of
struggle. His principle was to concentrate his forces.
B
HY are not those same principles applicable to business to-
day ? There is no reason why the smaller merchant should
give way to the proverbial competitor and there is no reason why
a salesman should be abusive to gain his point. A salesman should
study the principle of concentration. It pays.
Again Napoleon said: "In all battles a moment occurs when
the bravest troops after having made the greatest efforts feel in-
clined to run. That terror proceeds from the want of confidence in
their own courage, and it only requires a slight opportunity—a pre-
tense, to restore confidence to them. The art is to give rise to the
opportunity and to invent the pretense. At Arcola, I won the bat-
tle with twenty-five horsemen. I seized a moment of lassitude, gave
every man a trumpet and gained the day with this handful."
W
SALESMAN sometimes feels his courage fail. This feeling
often comes in making the greatest effort. It often comes
also just before success. A salesman who says "I have tried fairly,
and it is no use, I can't sell a piano to that man" has reached the
point which Napoleon mentions when the brave feel like running.
The thing to do then is to stir up your courage, give yourself re-
newed confidence. The best way to do that is to take the thing that
you are trying to sell to that particular man and figure out the best
line of argument, the most convincing logic that can be used, try
it on yourself. Try and pick flaws in your own argument, then go
in, renew the attack with a determination to win, and in nine cases
out of ten you will win. Have that determination and faith, which
really count in the battle.
A
TRONG resolution is a mighty good thing, but you can't de-
pend upon resolution alone. You have got to learn and
practice correct methods and right principles, but do not practice
running down or abusing your competitors' wares. No man ever
pulled himself up into prominence to stay by pulling his neighbor
down. Things do not generally work that way. It is not good busi-
ness and eventually it reacts upon the concern adopting such methods.
S
HE terrible heat of the past week has paralyzed trade in all of
the principal cities. Of course with the mercury soaring
above the hundred mark men are not thinking about pianos; cooling
drinks come a mighty sight nearer the mark.
There has. however, one item of news developed during the
week which will set the trade tongues wagging as to the future pos-
sibilities of large business interests effecting trade in the East and
West. Well, it is a good time to discuss such matters, and predic-
tions will not affect the natural course of events. Prudent business
men do not usuallv make a change of base without first carefully
considering just what the move involves, and they are not prone to
tell their plans to an interested public,
T