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MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
soicl was correct he did not see how the institution could produce
pianos at such a price. Is it not a fact that there are to-day in the
trade some institutions which have not counted the actual cost
which should be charged up against every instrument produced in
their factory?
Some years ago a well-known piano manufacturer who built
up a large business refused to listen to any suggestions as to the
benefit of systematic factory records. He used to affirm that they
would be useless to him, and that he carried all the information in
his head, and to put these records on paper would be simply throw-
ing away so much money. He was trained in the old school, and
won a good sized fortune because he always asked a long price for
his pianos.
UT the question is, are such methods practicable to-day? The
old school may have been all right in its day, but the present
age, with its keen competition, demands that there be records of
everything which enters into the cost of instruments, and it also
demands that expenses be kept down to the lowest possible mini-
mum. Examples of failures in business are frequently encountered
which are due largely to the fact that the business was run on the
haphazard plan, and not on the systematic basis which would have
saved it. In many cases it has proved that through a lack of a
reasonable cost system the factory burden has been twice as heavy
as it should have been. A system of cost records devised by a
specialist who is familiar with each department is absolute pro-
tection against loss in this way.
The same might apply with equal justice to the retail depart-
ment of the trade, for there are still many dealers who fail to ap-
preciate the actual selling cost of pianos, and they wonder why each
year they are not growing richer.
Perhaps the reason for this might be found if exploration were
made into the selling cost of pianos. There should be no generali-
zation in these days of close competition. There should be an
accurate knowledge, even down to the minutest detail of everything
which enters into a piano, the cost of producing and the cost of
selling as well. Perhaps to the lack of accurate information along
these lines may be credited many failures which have occurred from
time to time in this industry.
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READER of this paper writes: "I was much interested in
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a recent editorial appearing in The Review regarding graft
in the varnish department of piano factories. I believe that this
question of graft has permeated this trade to a larger extent than
many think or believe, and if what my salesmen tell me is correct,
there are some people who pay piano managers a certain per cent,
on all instruments of certain make which they sell. I believe The
Review has touched upon this question at various times, am I not
correct?"
We have had from time to time considerable to say regarding
graft in all departments of trade, and there was a time when a
notorious music trade editor used to obtain graft from salesmen by
securing them positions, and then labored with them to use their
influence to get in certain pianos in stock—in fact, it was graft all
along the line.
I
T is a fact that when the buyer or a man intimately associated
with the contract department of any-firm is looking for a good
thing he usually gets it, and it is to be regretted that grafting- in
transactions of business finds its way through the purchasing de-
partment. But, on the other hand, it is indeed gratifying to know
that the piano salesmen as a class are comparatively free from the
taint of graft, and at most there are a few instances where money
has been paid to influence a salesman to push forward a particular
piano. If this obtained in a large degree, the real values of pianos
would not be considered at all. It would simply be a question,
which manufacturer, through his representative, would pay the
salesman the most money for pushing a special product. It would
mean the degradation of business, and actual values would be no
longer considered.
HERE is 1 , however, in this State an anti-bribe law, so that
when anything in the nature of a bribe is offered by a sales-
man and accepted by any buyer, both are culpable, and amenable to
the law. The object of this law is to eliminate bribing of all kinds.
There is. after all, little difference between grafting that attacks
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the pocketbook of the unsuspecting and a personal attack upon the
same pocketbook. Dishonesty assumes many guises, among them
those of assumed responsibility and rectitude. But from the ethical
standpoint the highway robber and the salesman who grafts are
equally culpable, and when grafting goes into the retail selling
force it principally means making many discreditable deals for the
house. And it is said that this custom is prevalent in many lines
of trade.
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RADE papers which adopt sensational or yellow journal meth-
ods do not usually succeed in accomplishing anything save
an annihilation of that confidence which every trade should repose
in its journalistic exponents. Business men do not read with
pleasure sensational articles in the columns of trade papers. They
get quite surfeited with the seamy side of life by the extravagant
and lurid showing made in the daily papers, and they turn to the
trade journals with the hope that everything which relates to the
sensational side should be carefully eliminated from them. It has
been the practice of this publication for years to carefully eschew
turning on the light of publicity on the private lives of individuals
connected with the industry. We leave all of that kind of enter-
prise for the sensational publications, for across the threshold of
a man's private life we always draw the dead line. Trade jour-
nals chronicle business activity, they tell of the working side of life,
of what advance is being made in the industrial world, and what
progress is accomplished in all lines closely identified with in-
dustry, leaving for the daily papers to wash in plain view of their
readers the soiled linen of the divorce courts. Good judgment
should at all times be used in the conduct of a trade paper for, by
a too previous announcement of business plans irreparable injury
may result and thus harm an industry which it is supposed to sup-
port in a straightforward manner.
The trade paper field is entirely different from the daily news-
paper field. Men connected with trade journalism are brought in
close contact with their readers, thousands of whom they know
personally, and it is therefore evident that in dealing even with
trade matters much discretion should be displayed at all times.
I
T is to be regretted that some of the trade journals have gone
out of their way to hit at Capt. Dresscl personally, who man-
aged the recent music trade show at the Madison Square Garden,
and to state that the affair was a failure in every way.
Capt. Dressel mapped out an entirely new plan and launched
an innovation in this trade. He did not expect to score a tre-
mendous success this year, but the fact that he labored hard, hon-
estly and faithfully, and lived up to every statement made by him
to the letter, should have won for him something more than abuse
at the hands of the music trade press. And it might be said in
this connection a proposition was made by some of the trade paper
men to boom the show provided they were paid large sums of money
for so doing.
Furthermore, the show was far from a failure, and per-
haps the best proof of this statement is afforded in the fact that
nearly all of the exhibitors who were there this year have taken
larger space for next year's exhibit. Many of them, as stated in
previous issues of The Review, have expressed to us their entire
satisfaction with the results achieved, and they are going in next
year to support the move more enthusiastically than ever.
We have no interest in this matter directly or indirectly, save
an interest which we feel in anything which assists the music trade
industry. It is far better to build up than to tear down, and when
a man commences sincere and honest work in behalf of an enter-
prise, the success of which can only mean good for the trade, the
move should be supported rather than condemned.
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I
T is very easy at times to sell a man what he wants, but what
percentage of men who enter a piano store really know what
they want ? The purchasers and piano hunters saunter around from
place to place to get all the information they can, and it requires
downright genius on the part of salesmen to close with wareroom
visitors who really have no definite idea as to what they desire
and haven't actually concluded that they want anything.
In no way is salesmanship ability better emphasized than in
selling people that which they do not wish. To cause a sale under
such conditions requires tact and perseverance.