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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
heavily upon those who conduct great and complicated business
affairs.
T
HE ordinary manual laborer who underestimates the strain
under which his employer labors is often unjust. The aver-
age man who looks with jealous eyes upon those who have moved
a little higher up in the official, financial or social scale only sees
one side of the picture. If he could see the reverse side perhaps he
would not think that the man had such a "soft snap" after all. The
strain of continuing a business under trying times—the question of
obtaining credit and giving credit—the matter of trusting goods
out on long time and looking after collections; all of these things
come to the man higher up, but the men lower down, the clerks and
salesmen, do not sufficiently understand what pressure is brought
to bear upon the brain of the directing force of the business. It
may be that collections are extremely slow, and that there are large
payments to be met, still the man higher up has to "wear the smile
that won't come off," and he is frequently compelled to wear a mask
which conceals most effectually his inner feelings.
S a matter of fact, some of these positions which we are prone
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to class as "soft snaps," do not, upon closer acquaintance,
measure up the name in all respects. As far as we are able to
determine, men in this trade are paid very well for what they
accomplish. They are paid much better than in many other indus-
tries and there are few indeed where better returns are made for
the expenditure of either brawn or gray matter than in the music
trade industry, only the fellow lower down does not know all of the
things which are part and parcel of the lives of those higher up.
T
HERE are few business establishments which are large enough
to have special departmental chiefs, to whom good salaries are
paid, to relieve the directing head of the many annoying details
incident to the conducting of a large business enterprise. There-
fore, someone has to bear all of those details—carry the threads with
them day and night, and it is the chief who does this. Competition
is so keen that the closest attention to business is demanded, and the
man who neglects in the slightest his business, usually finds it means
a strong fight to regain a lost position. It is a question of whether
the brains of some of the men lower down in the scale of life would
stand the strain and the wear and tear incident to the directing of a
business. It is in the directing where true merit counts. It is quite
easy to criticize, but it is quite a different thing to create. There
are usually excellent reasons why some men have climbed steadily
up the ladder. They have not won their positions easily, but
through long days of labor and nights devoid of ease, they have
striven to gain a few points ahead on the road to fortune. No, it
is not all gold that glitters, and not all places of authority are the
"soft snaps" which they seem to be to an outsider.
/""CREDITS are going to be scanned closer all the time, and it's
V_^ right that they should be. The man who meets his business
obligations as they mature should not be forced to compete with
the man who does not, nor never intends to, and the quicker con-
cerns who have no regard for their financial obligations are elimi-
nated from any industry the better it will be for the trade. Any
concern that can gain a certain amount of credit and then put out
goods for less than they cost the man who pays his bills, in order
to raise money to keep up the delusion, should be cut out and
the quicker the better it will be for the industry. How can a piano
manufacturer who pays his bills meet prices made by organizations
which do not pay their maturing obligations and place out goods
at prices which legitimate competitors cannot meet. The sooner
these matters are thoroughly understood by the entire trade the
better it will be for all.
SUBSCRIBER in Harrisburg, Pa., encloses a number of
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advertisements put out by a concern in that city that has
been indulging in a "rebuilding sale," and requests us to criticize
this form of advertising, adding: "Your advice upon this subject
would be read with great interest in this section." In the flamboyant
advertisements in which alluring offers are made, it is stated, "best
known makes, including dickering, Everett, Hardman, Kimball,
Poole, Sterling, Vough, Harrington, Huntington and many others."
Surely that is a tempting array of names to interest prospective
piano purchasers. Then prices are quoted and illustrations of
pianos are shown such as "was $225, now $100"; "was $275, now
$150"; "was $500, now $315," etc. In other words, there is such
a wide difference between the "was" and "now" prices that the
average reader of the advertisement would be led to believe that
there is a Monte Cristo fortune in the piano business. He would
reason that if a piano man can mark a piano from $225 down to
$100, the bottom is not nearly reached, because he will reason that
no merchant engaged in a legitimate business is willing to sell
goods for less than cost, and naturally the inference would be that
the piano costs considerably less than the $100—it may be $75, or
it may be $60, and so in the higher grades; if a piano "was
$500" and is "now $315," the question is, what is its real worth?
Is it $315 or is it $275, or even $200? These instruments are
offered on "your own terms" plan of selling. Now, then, if pur-
chasers can buy a piano for $100 and take three or four years to
pay for it, it is a question of fine figuring where the dealer is coming
out on such a sale. It seems to us th|.t dealers are injuring their
own business future by advertising in such a manner as we have
quoted above. Every dealer should be interested in maintaining a
trade stability and should not contribute to the undermining of the
industry itself. Advertising which has a tendency to effect public
confidence in piano values is bound to have a reactionary effect upon
the entire business.
I
T is gratifying to receive the many kind comments which come
in to us weekly from our subscribers in various parts of the
country. Departmentized as this publication is, it appeals to every
division of the trade. Thousands of copies are sent forth weekly in
all sections of the country, and reach every variety of men, from
the tuners and small goods men to the great retail piano institu-
tions. Here are some excerpts taken at random from many letters
received from men who read trade publications and understand
fully the difference between them. F. E. Leonard, Winchester,
X. H., says: "I do tuning for two concerns that take The Review.
It is all right, and there is no mistake that your editorials are worth
the price of the whole paper."
F. D. Lockwood, Americus, Ga., says: "I am a regular sub-
scriber, and I appreciate the fact that your editorials and technical
departments are almost invaluable to me and my men. Besides,
your journal is very interesting throughout."
A. L. Bruner, of Rock Island, 111., says: "I think The Review-
is a fine paper, and one which every tuner, business man, music
dealer and salesman ought to read. The editorial department is well
worth the price of the paper alone."
Horace W. Willson, general trade representative of the Amer-
ican Steel & Wire Co.: "I believe that every man interested in
music trade affairs should read the editorials in The Review. They
are instructive and of great value to every department of trade."
We have on our books as many as ten subscriptions from a
single business institution, showing that the heads of great enter-
prises view this publication as a helpful force to their particular
enterprises. Week by week we receive many evidences of the care
with which the paper is read, and the use which thousands of
readers are making of each issue..
Such letters as these, received from all lines of men—dealers,
managers, tuners and salesmen, all of whom are subscribers, show
the tremendous power which a journal like The Review wields in
every section of the country. We believe in the old fashioned jour-
nalistic principles wherein the editorial policy of the paper is its
dominant feature, and it is pleasing to know that our policies are
better understood and better appreciated to-day than ever before.
T
HE South is to-day suffering from shortage in the labor market,
and what may be taken as a sign of prosperity is the fact
that recruiting for the United States Army was never as slow as
at the present time. This may be in part due to the fact that higher
character is now required in the men who wear Uncle Sam's uni-
form; but it is also attributable to the raising of the standard of
wages in civil occupations, and to the exceptionally general em-
ployment of labor. In other words, with the Army, as with indus-
trial concerns, there is a shortage of desirable help.
Labor is generally employed at generously remunerative prices,
and the question which is agitating employers to-day more than
all others is, when will the highest level be reached? If apprecia-
tion is steadily going on (hire must be a complete rearrangement
of prices.