Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
tremely limited, and as a result some manufacturers have been
caused considerable delay in their shipments, through their inability
to procure promptly the necessary supplies.
ROM present indications it would appear that the New York
contingent at the Chicago Convention would not only be
large, but would be particularly representative of the industry. The
Chicago special will contain a lot of good fellows who will go out
to root for good old Gotham as the. next Convention camping-
ground.
successors enjoy the fruits of their developed efforts. Europeans
do not understand the boundless opportunities which this country
affords for temperate, ambitious workmen, and do not understand
that an American workman does not believe in, nor does he desire
paternalism. Alfred Dolge was one of the men who had worked
up from' the beiich and was a workman at heart, and he implanted
a system in the great factory machine which he created, which gave
each workman a share of the profits of the business which they
were instrumental in creating. Other men have followed Dolge
along similar lines. But the men themselves have never taken
kindly to these plans. The National Cash Register Company, of
Dayton, Ohio, is a notable example where the workmen resented
paternalism. The facts are, the men who wish to lay down certain
rules for the workmen to follow*to protect their own interests, and
to insure them the promise of a pension in their old age, are usually
disappointed in the manner in which the workmen accept these
kindly and well meaning intentions. The men usually feel that this
is an interference with their rights and liberty—it is paternalism,
and they resent it.
E
T
T
HE Exposition fever shows no signs of abatement in this coun-
try. There is the Alaska-Yukon Exposition in 1909 and now
New Orleans is taking up the cudgels for 1915 for a big show in
which to commemorate the completion of the Panama Canal.
Naturally piano men of New Orleans are boomers of this proposi-
tion and Philip Werlein and William N. Grunewald have been
appointed on the Preliminary Committee by the Mayor of the
Crescent City.
F
MPLOYERS have had at various times to pay large sums of
money to settle legal claims which have % been brought against
them for physical injury done to their men while making their
rounds about factor)- premises. A great many of these claims have
not been just ones, for there is no good reason why an employer
should be forced to pay for the carelessness of a workman. It may
be said that there should be no open elevator shafts, but a man
should show ordinary intelligence and not walk into an opening of
this character. He should also learn that when fingers get in the
way of active machinery the fingers are pretty sure to come off, and
the machinery will still continue to make the required number of
revolutions to the minute. There are a great many of these claims
which are brought against employers that have their origin in
blackmailing desires. There are always plenty of lawyers ready to
take cases on the commission basis, and through causes which they
can in no wise control, manufacturers have been mulcted for large
sums. The best way to adjust the entire matter is to pay premiums
in reliable insurance companies, which are incorporated for the pur-
pose of carrying these accident risks, and count it as so much annual
expense to the business. Employers who have taken out policies
in some of these insurance companies have found that they have
been saved many dollars in the end, besides a lot of annoyance and
loss of time.
D
URING the past two weeks quite a number of important
changes have been made in the manufacturing department
of the trade and the finger of rumor points to some more moves of
considerable moment. These are not quite ripe for publication.
I
N America we have been accustomed to observe among students
of economics a pronounced desire to fly from well-known evils
at home and seek methods which apparently work well abroad.
The elaborate treatises of our professors, the writings of reformers,
and all journalists on the wing, express admiration for the well
regulated systems throughout Europe. From the municipal plants
for supplying gas and electricity to the great government systems
and railroads, from the vast machinery for the care of the injured,
to the plans for the sake of the individual workman, all are held
up for our admiration and adoption. Under the plausible guise of
elaborate and carefully regulated institutions there is a pronounced
drift toward socialism, which is in marked antagonism to the spirit
of our own institutions. Americans ofttimes display carelessness
and abuse which is shocking to Europeans, who do not understand
our sanguine temperament and cannot share our confidence that
there must always be a steady improvement.
UR critics abroad see in us but two classes, multimillionaires
and paupers; the former they believe to be the ruling class
with no sense of responsibility and intent only upon the piling up
of additional millions. They do not realize how high the standard
of living is with the great mass of our workers, nor what hopes of
success are fostered by the humblest member in every walk of life.
Take in our own industry. The old time piano manufacturers were
workmen. It is true they possessed much more ability than the
average workman, but they learned their trade at the bench. They
used their opportunities and made the best of them, and to-day their
O
HE tendency to place the State in control of affairs in Europe
is evidenced in the paternalism of the railroads, telegraph,
telephone, of savings banks, of workmen's insurance companies
against accidents in providing for the old age of the workman. In
the latter case the State interferes between the two contracting
parties and compels both to assume certain financial obligations
for the good of the workman. The whole legislative power, elabo-
rate though it be, is based upon the conviction that the workman is
not able to care for himself—he is improvident and therefore a
certain sum per month must be withheld fromiiis wages in order to
create a fund for his old age. He must contribute at regular in-
tervals in order that the unfortunate workmen may be taken care
of during sickness and recovery. The contributions are compulsory
and he has no voice in the determination of their amounts, or in
their administration, the whole proceeding being based upon the
conviction that the individual ' workman needs some one to play
Providence for him, and that there is no hope that he will ever be
able to stand on his own feet. That self-reliance which comes from
constant exercise of a man's powers to shape his own affairs—
independent thought—which is most desirable of all qualities in a
man, is lacking.
T
HE manufacturing forces in Europe seem to have got to-
gether to establish the right of the State to withhold from
the wage-earner a part of his remuneration which they propose to
apply to a specific purpose. In other words, the state assumes
that a workman must be taken care of and proposes to force them
to follow 7 certain lines which the government may lay down in the
distribution of a portion of the workmen's wages. If a workman
is injured while at work it does not rest with the courts to decide
the responsibility for the injury, nor to determine the damages, but
the Labor Department, a special organization, interferes, and the
State settles how much a workingman must set aside from his
earnings to provide for his old age. American employers who
have adopted a system which has meant a certain form of paternal-
ism will admit that it is not just what the American workman
desires. He desires his pay for the work which he delivers. He
desires it at the time the work is completed and he does not want
an employer to hold back a portion of his wages to apply on some
elaborate pension fund which his employer may have developed as
a fad. While these plans may obtain firm footing abroad, they
never will be accepted by American workmen in our times.
I
T is surprising when we scan the record of piano manufacturing
for the past two or three years how thoroughly some of the
firms have come to the front as great producing factors. Certainly
the rise of some of our modern piano manufacturers must stimulate
others who have lacked sufficient enterprise to forge ahead and
secure rich profits from the good times which we have been passing
through for a number of years. There are new factors coming in
the business all the time and it behooves every man engaged in
piano manufacturing to look well to his laurels, else some ag-
gressive competing force may crowd him into the background. It's
a pretty lively age and the business institution which gives evidence
of the greatest progression is the one which will win out in the race
for patronage.