Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
accurate knowledge as to the physical make-up of man at a leading
college or university, and a salesman whose life is centered upon the
sale of an instrument of such a complicated make-up as a piano
should know something more about his subject than a mere super-
ficial knowledge.
W
HY is such and such a piano better than another ? Why, we
have seen salesmen who could not tell how many white
keys there were in a piano. How could their arguments impress a
customer who asked such a question, when the salesman fell down
immediately without answering the query properly?
Salesmanship is a gamy battle. It is full of tremendous opportu-
nities, and when you throw your hat into the selling ring and bolt
over the ropes to show what stuff you are made of, you should be
prepared by good training. You may say, perhaps, that books are
hard to obtain in this industry which tell all of the things which we
have casually mentioned. Perhaps they were until recently, but this
institution has ready a book entitled "The Theory and Practice of
Pianoforte Building" which gives the most exhaustive and accu-
rate information covering every department of piano construction.
We have also a standard work on tuning which many salesmen have
found useful. Such volumes as we have put forth should be found
in the hands of every salesman who can learn to talk instruments
more intelligently through the knowledge gained by a persual of
these works which we mention.
W
E may add in this connection that The Review produces
monthly more work of a technical nature directly relating to
the pianoforte and piano-players and interior mechanism of each
than all the other publications in this trade. Some make boastful
statements as to what they know about a piano. We never have had
time to make any statements, as we are interested in producing, and
the fact that we are turning out technical work of conceded value
gives The Review a standing entirely its own. We have men con-
nected with this newspaper institution who are musicians, who are
practical men, who are journalists, and who know every depart-
ment to which they are especially assigned.
The result of this combination of varied talent is seen in the
weekly publication which we produce, and in the special volumes
which from time to time are sent out from the office of this institution
with the endorsement of The Review.
I
T is our belief that a trade publication should be building up
rather than tearing down, and we believe that the only way that
one can prosper in any line is to learn the innermost principles of the
business upon which one depends. No success can be long main-
tained unless it is founded on a correct knowledge of the principles of
the business with which one is allied.
A salesman may win ephemeral success, but it is the fellow who
understands the business thoroughly who stays "put/' to Roosevelt-
ize. There are plenty of brilliant men who now and then flash
across the trade, political and financial horizon like a comet, but they
don't linger long. It is the staying qualities that count, and it is
well to avoid sporadic or wandering argument, however brilliant.
The argument that counts is the argument that leads like a light
unerringly to the open rather than a pyrotechnical exhibition which
is blindingly illuminating for a moment, and then dies out in dark-
ness. Conversational skyrockets may direct the wanderer's atten-
tion, but they will not plant his feet in the path where he delights to
tread.
I
T is believed that there will be a general advance in insurance
rates. This will be certainly a very unpopular move, for an
analysis of the statements of many of the large companies shows
that they have been paying to their stockholders unjustifiably large
dividends instead of applying a reasonable proportion of their earn-
ings to build up a surplus to take care of just such a conflagration as
happened to San Francisco. Some of the companies have managed
to pay during the past ten years as high as thirty-four per cent,
annually to their stockholders. Plainly, the earnings of those com-
panies were diverted from their proper place as a surplus, to stock-
holders' pockets, and it is manifestly unfair for them now to expect
the policy-holders to build them up a new surplus from increased
premium rates.
T
H E public sentiment will not sustain the insurance companies
in making increase at this time, unless they can show they
have adopted a proper policy in the distribution of their earnings in
the past. Take the case of the Chicago insurance concern which
preferred to go into liquidation rather than to meet its San Francisco
obligation. For many years this company had been paying rich divi-
dends to stockholders, nearly all of whom were millionaires, and the
moment a severe strain comes payment to the insured is refused and
the company goes to the wall.
That sort of thing is not encouraging, or inspiring as to the
higher ideals held by some of our insurance magnates, and we be-
lieve in view of these conditions that it will pay every piano con-
cern to exercise extreme care in placing new insurance, and to select
companies only of national standing, and to be sure that they are
solid in every way. Premium rates on piano factories are high now,
and to raise them would be to impose a heavier burden upon the
piano manufacturer.
R
ECENTLY a good many prominent buyers from San Francisco
have been in New York, where they have placed orders for
prompt delivery. Reports from these visitors, and from our own
special communications from San Francisco, show that the merchants
in all lines in the stricken city are doing wonders in the way of
starting up again. The San Francisco men, undaunted by a series
of frightful disasters which have overtaken them, are going
ahead at a surprising rate to accomplish great ends. The news of
our own trade has been faithfully told in each issue of The Review
since the calamity occurred. Pianos and musical merchandise have
been going forward to San Francisco and to points nearby where
they have been shipped at the order of San Francisco merchants who
propose to work the outlying territory with extreme vigor.
I
N these days of graft and exaggerated reports of graft it some-
times seems as if the business methods were crooked and all
men dishonest. Such a conclusion, however, would be hasty and
unwarranted, and the men with the muck rakes are trying to take
a lot of good, healthy soil along with the muck. The revelations of
moral obliquity on the part of men in high positions should not in
the least destroy confidence, for the moral sense of this nation re-
volts against all dishonesty, and the great mass of business is trans-
acted on a perfectly straight scale—the basis of honesty.
Think for a moment of the place and potency of credit in the
modern business world. The life blood of the modern-business is
not gold, it is credit. Nearly ninety-four per cent of all the busi-
ness transactions are carried out through credit, so without credit
enterprises would halt. Credit builds the biggest railroads, manu-
factures and moves merchandise, sustains nations and makes civili-
zations. The whole system of modern business is built upon credit,
then credit itself must work upon a firm foundation or the entire
structure will tumble to ruin; and the real basis of credit is char-
acter, for every transaction accomplished by credit is based upon
confidence in the integrity of some one.
E
VERY year, in a number of States, crank legislation which
seriously threatens the interests of merchants who sell on
the installment plan is in evidence. Most of these bills are hold-up
bills, and are blackmailing schemes, pure and simple. In order
to fight them, however, some kind of an organization is necessary,
and the expenditure of some money is also required. But as a
matter of fact few bills have been placed upon the statutes which
have seriously menaced the interests of merchants in any line.
S
OME resolutions passed hastily by organizations are meaning-
less, because there is no particular spirit behind them which is
in sympathy with their general adoption ; but never before the Wash-
ington convention has a trade organization found it necessary to pass
resolutions "requesting" the editor of a trade publication to discon-
tinue a series of ''unhealthy" articles on an associate. These reso-
lutions which were passed unanimously amid unbounded enthusiasm
fairly represent trade sentiment toward the offending section of the
trade press. Then, too, there was directness and straightforward-
ness, which is commendable, for, in former days, resolutions were
passed condemning the trade press in a general form. This year
these are specific, therefore the resolutions cannot be referred to
as colorless or mouthfilling.