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THE MUSIC TRADE
having perhaps made more inventions than any living man, but no
one ever heard Edison claim that he knew it all. The bigger the
man, the more humble-minded he is concerning his learning, whether
it be in professional or in business lines.
Isaac Newton, who made a colossal contribution to the sum of
human knowledge by the discovery of the law of gravitation, said:
"When I consider how little 1 know, 1 feel like a boy walking on
the strand of a limitless ocean, who, ever and anon, picks up a grain
of sand. 1 have picked up only a few atoms of human knowledge,
after all." We should never stop learning, for education doesn't
stop at our graduating essays, for no man can learn it all, and it is
pretty safe to say that no point has ever been reached in busi-
ness or invention from which it is not possible to make sonic advance.
REVIEW
officially identified. All such work is detrimental to the best interests
of the trade.
Look which way we may, there appears to be plenty of what
we colloquially term graft, but we are not in a position to answer
the query of our friend in a correct manner. Our time is so largely
taken up attending" to the regular duties incident to a healthy
trade publication that we are unable to state accurately whether
graft is increasing or decreasing. That is one of the departments
where statistics are not available.
R
ECENT conviction on charges of perjury of three bankrupts
who had concealed their property in order to defraud their
creditors was a most important step in the direction of cleaner
business methods.
For many years dishonest men have been able to defraud their
F the pianos of years ago were perfect in every detail, what was
creditors in the most flagrant manner, and yet with entire immunity.
the use of spending any more time in endeavoring to develop
The music trade has not been free from instances of this kind,
acoustical qualities. Why not have taken the undeveloped piano
and it seems in some cases as if trade leniency had been extended
of fifty years ago and made it the standard piano for all time ? We
to men whose stocks vanished in a night.
had progressive men in the industry who were not satisfied with the
It has been the practice for some dishonest men to have the
point reached by inventors in those days. They sought to advance,
stocks passd over to some outside party, and neither seller nor
and, what is more, and better still, they succeeded, and as a result
receiver has suffered the slightest penalty.
we have the splendidly developed instrument of to-day. And w r e are
It is good for the business interests of the country that that
not halting, for in no way has the tonal development of the piano
state of affairs has come to an end, and it will receive the hearty
been better illustrated than in the development of the small grand
approval of all business men. This change is due primarily to the
as a musical instrument which is graceful in outline and satisfactory
operation of the national bankruptcy act, and as reported in a former
in tone quality.
issue of The Review, Judge Holt is one of the federal judges who
figured that there was much fraud which should be unearthed and
OME of the more timid now and then fear that we are not
stopped. It is to be hoped that his example will be followed by
educating piano-makers any more; that because men are
other judges in various jurisdictions. Certainly such examples do
trained in special departments that there will be no more piano-
much to clarify the business atmosphere.
makers of the old school. Possibly not; but there will be plenty of
the new school, for development never ceases.
T would seem from personal indications that the new year will
It was not necessary to have scores of factories producing piano
be fairly rich in litigation. There are a number of important
players in order to develop mechanical minds able to produce results
matters affecting large interests now before the courts. It is said,
along player lines. The spirit of the age is inventive and progres-
too, on excellent authority, that others will materialize within the
sive, and when it is time to stop learning it is time to stop living,
near future so that the records may be watched with more than
and complete satisfaction invariably means retrogression. Shake-
ordinary interest. There are several suits, the result of which will
speare said it pretty well in "As You Like It": "And so from hour
affect materially many interests, and considerable attention is now
to hour we ripe and ripe, and then from hour to hour we rot and
being centered on trade paper litigation.
rot." We have got to keep busy with the ripening process, for as
HE power to please is an asset which is cumulative in its
soon as we let up on it the other process sets in. No doubt about
results, for what can be more valuable than a personality
that. The rule applies with equal truth to all trades and professions.
which attracts and never repels. It is valuable not only in business,
but in every sphere of life, and it is that asset which makes states-
READER of The Review asks: "Do you think that graft is
men and politicians. It brings clients to the lawyer, and patients
on the increase in this industry?"
to the physician, and business to the merchant. Some men attract
Frankly, we do not know. There are all sorts of stories con-
business
customers as naturally as magnets attract particles of
cerning commission graft, professional graft, varnish graft, track-
steel.
Everything
seems to point their way for the same reason
paper graft and plain, ordinary, every-day graft.
that
steel
particles
point towards the magnet, because they are
There may be considerable truth in the easily spread rumors
attracted.
Such
men
are business magnets—business bends towards
floating about, but we have never had the desire or inclination to
them,
even
when
they
do not apparently make much effort to get
trace any of them up. We are not engaged in the Sherlock Holmes
it
as
the
less
successful
man. Their friends sometimes call them
business. Graft has become a science and a profession, and we pro-
lucky
dogs,
but
if
we
analyze
these men closely we will find that
test only at its crudest working. It has become a part of our national
they
have
attractive
qualities;
and
usually they have perseverance,
system, and it may have to be handled like the temperance question
because
luck
is
another
name
for
hard
work.
where prohibition fails to prohibit. Graft has reached a dignity
I
S
I
T
A
where we admit almost its respectability in some of its forms, but
protest against it in others.
B
IG men, with princely incomes, high in the councils of the state
and the nation, have shown by the investigation in New York
that they suffered no compunction of conscience in accepting graft—
until found out. Graft assumes a hideous form when it is used
against us, but we protest only when we feel a sense of personal
injustice. Graft in all forms should be wiped off the earth. We
confess to feeling overpowered by the colossal yet insidious growth
of the system. We turn with disgust from a waiter's tip, but look
with envy at the president of a life insurance company. If there
were no bribers certainly there could be no bribe-takers, and if some
salesmen were not paid to sell certain pianos by an inducement
of so much per piano, probably they would not evince such lively
interest in tJiose particular products.
O
F course, it is desirable to eliminate all kinds of graft—and the
Lord knows there are varieties enough. There is a kind of
graft where men receive commissions for selling certain pianos when
they are drawing regular salaries from the firm with which thev are
A
WELL known piano merchant of the West, while recently
calling upon The Review, remarked that he formed the
idea when he was a salesman that if he ever became a proprietor he
should never fail to keep in touch with the boys on the floor, t i e
said that when he became the head of a business he followed this
rule religiously, and it had resulted in being a tremendous help to
him in building up his business.
There is no question but that it pays to keep in touch with the
men who sell the instruments. It not only keeps the salesmen
interested in their work, to "know that the eye of the chief is on
them," but it makes them loyal to the interests of their firm. Tt
gives them, too, the advantage of possessing every pointer obtain-
able through the far-reaching sources of information which uatit-
rallv come to the fountain-head of the business.
I
T is definitely settled that we arc to have a trade exposition next
spring in Washington during Convention week. The result
of the business sessions held in this city during the present week re-
sulted in a favorable consideration of the exposition question. And
now that we are to have an exposition, let us all get together and
use every energy to make it a brilliant success from every standpoint.