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THE IVIUS1C TRADE
W
E are glad to see that the piano manufacturers will discuss
among other things, at the Chicago Convention, the neces-
sity of establishing retail prices at which all pianos shall be offered
to the public. That is a question of never ending interest, because
it is one upon which the future of the industry rests.
We have contended for years that the only true solution of this
problem is for the manufacturers themselves to name the prices at
which their pianos may be purchased at retail. Such a move would
settle at once the true status of all of the special brands of instru-
ments, because they would then be outside the recognized line of
piano legitimacy.
It would therefore do away with the disturbing competition
which comes through the sale of instruments which have no defi-
nite origin. Almost weekly communications are addressed to this
publication from dealers throughout the country, protesting against
special brand pianos which are exploited locally under many names.
H
ERE is a recent illustration showing the evil of a special
brand competition: Out in Mason City, la., the trade has
been demoralized recently, by the dumping upon that city of some
carloads of pianos, shipped direct from some Eastern factory in
which special brands are created. These instruments bear the name
of a La Crosse, Wis., dealer, and were advertised in such a manner
that the people were led to believe that he had his own factory in
La Crosse. The advertisements were of the flamboyant type and
proclaimed that the pianos were "used and endorsed by the world's
greatest artists," with, of course, "a big saving to the people." These
"world-renowned pianos" were nothing more nor less than plain,
ordinary, everyday special brands, sometimes called in the vernacu-
lar "stencil pianos."
/ <
T *HESE "$400 or $500 pianos" were offered at "a big saving"
JL to hungry purchasers. The dumping of such pianos upon
any community would be impossible if manufacturers would estab-
lish prices upon all legitimate products. The manufacturers them-
selves hold the key to the situation. They can define with accuracy
the position of every piano in this country and do away absolutely
with the demoralizing effects of special brand competition.
If every legitimate piano was listed in a booklet issued under
the auspices of the Piano Manufacturers' National Association, such
misrepresentation as we named would be impossible, and trade
demoralization in any local points from such causes would not
exist.
W
E have talked with a great many dealers concerning this
price plan, and they have expressed themselves as heartily
in favor of it, in fact, many believe, with The Review, that it is the
one vital question before the trade to-day. It dwarfs all others.
The matter of one price is subordinate to it, because it is useless
for any dealer to continue one price unless that price is the right
one, and is maintained nationally. Who can better fix the value
of the instruments to the retail purchasers than the men who make
them? The plan would do away entirely with piano misrepresenta-
tion and fraud, and would clarify the trade atmosphere so that this
trade would assume its proper position among the great industries
of this country.
SUBSCRIBER writes: "I was very much interested in your
editorial comments last week upon the cost of inventions
during the past half century. It seems to me to be an interesting
subject, and possibly you could bring out some more points which
I am sure would interest your readers."
The subject is one practically without limit, and this week one
old-time music trade inventor, in. calling upon The Review, re-
marked that he had been engaged in lawsuits over patent rights
over mechanical devices for piano and organ playing for over
twenty years, and that he had swallowed up a fortune in legal
battles.
Patent litigation has called for the expenditure of enormous
sums. Not one of the great, fundamental inventions in the music
trade, the player, the organ or the talking machine trade, has
escaped this outlay for the enforcement or defense of its rights
under patents. But, disregarding individual cases and applying
the same percentages and ratios of expenditure for this item as are
?iven for preliminary development, we have for the country in all
lines a total of two billions and a half of dollars for this additional
debit. Of course, all patents have not been litigated; but certainly,
A
REVIEW
at least, one-half of all granted here or abroad, have called for
some expenditure on this account or,-at least, for legal advice, and
it cannot be far from the truth that, taken together, they have
averaged $1,000 in each instance, and that the total of this ex-
penditure aggregates at least one and one-half billions of dollars.
The final item should cover the losses suffered by investors
in patents whose money has gone, not into the development or
actual exploitation of inventions, but into the pockets of promoters
and schemers for worthless title interests in the patents themselves,
or for the inflated stocks of corporations holding the patents. It is
more probable than not that this item of lost capital put into patents
which have proved chimerical or been abandoned for other reasons,
amounts to not less than three billions of dollars.
When the items of this great debit against our golden age are
added up, they give a grand total of nearly fifteen billions of dollars
and, adding interest at 6 per cent, per annum for a term of thirty
years, as nearly all this vast sum has been expended for the pur-
poses stated during the past sixty years,, we have a final total of
debit to the account of modern invention of almost forty-five billions
of dollars. This almost inconceivable sum is greater than the
national debts of all the countries of the world.
A
SERIOUS contemplation of the above facts naturally sug-
gests the question: Have the successful inventions of our
golden age in and of themselves yielded to their inventors and own-
ers an actual money-profit adequate to offset this colossal debit and
show a balance on the right side of the world's great ledger ?
We know of one concern in an allied industry which pays out
in litigation over $100,000 annually, but legal expenses are only one
point. There are the expenditures involved in the preliminary or
embryo stage of an invention or discovery, and necessary to demon-
strate or at least indicate its probable practicability and worthiness
to be made the subject of an application for a patent.
Then there is the cost of thoroughly and practically developing
the invention and getting it into final condition for commercial or
public usage. Further than this are the disbursements for legal
advice, in very many instances, concerning the scope and validity
of the patent, and the still greater fees and expenses connected with
litigation in court to enforce, defend or maintain the patent right.
And, further again, is the capital drawn into partnerships or corpo-
rations formed for the purpose of exploiting and selling the patented
thing in the markets of the world, a large part of which is lost
through the failure of the invention to meet the popular demand.-
The total for these is close to two and one-half billions of dollars;
and this total is probably below rather than above the true sum.
Another item comprises the expenditures involved in this pre-
liminary development of those inventions which fail of satisfactory
demonstration, and consequently never appear as subjects of appli-
cations for patents. There can be no absolute accuracy in esti-
mating the exact number of these cases, but they have occurred
over and over again and are witnessed daily. That they almost, if
not quite, equal those which have proved practical there can be
little doubt. But if they are set down as only one-half such num-
ber, these abandoned efforts will add at least another billion and a
quarter of dollars to our debit.
It is one thing to invent, but quite another to make money out
of the invention.
F
ROM the many papers which have reached us containing ad-
vertisements of music trade men in various cities it is obvious
that a good publicity campaign is being carried on. In New York
recently the Aeolian Co. have been conducting a big sale at Aeolian
Hall, and the papers have contained full page advertisements of
various specialties offered.
This tremendous piano publicity has had the effect to stimu-
late trade locally. Papers going forth by the millions, containing
big advertisements of any particular product sets the general public
to thinking, and when a man sees pianos flaunted before his eyes in
every paper that he picks up, his mind naturally is attracted to
them, and pianos are discussed in the home circle and such big
advertising as the Aeolian Co. have been doing recently must have
had a beneficial effect on not only the trade of this great institution,
but upon the music trade of New York and vicinity.
The same conditions are noted when Wanamaker starts in on
a general piano advertising campaign. There are immediately
many callers on Fifth avenue whose interests are aroused when the
Wanamaker advertisements are put forth.