Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1907 Vol. 45 N. 1

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE: MUSIC TRADE: REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPflLLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
GEO. B. KELLER,
W. H. DYKES,
F. H. THOMPSON.
BMILIE FRANCES BAUER,
L. E. BOWERS, B. BKITTAIN WILSON, WM. B. WHITE, L. J. CHAMBERLIN, A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICEf
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 195-197 Wabash Ave.
TELEPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8643.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 278A Tremont S t
PHILADELPHIA :
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
A. W. SHAW.
SAN FRANCISCO:
CHAS. N. VAN BUREN.
S. H. GRAY, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI. O.: NINA PXJGH SMITH.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON, ENGLAND:
69 Baslnghall St., E. C.
W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION. (Including postage), United States and Mexico, ?2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50 ; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Directory ot Plaao
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
_^
'
~
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
imnniicinren
f or d e a i e r s a n ( j others.
occurring from time to time all over the country, and if supplies
were cut off from the men who offer pianos carried by the local
dealers at cut rate prices they could not continue such kind of
traffic. The only suggestions we have to make to our Allentown
dealers are to find out from what sources the man obtained pianos
which he offers at ridiculous rates, or notify the secretary of the
Piano Dealers' National Association, who through the Grievance
Committee, will certainly be interested in extinguishing such per-
nicious traffic in pianos.
A certain class of men will always seek devious means of
deceiving the public by destroying their faith in the value of certain
articles in order to work in their own cheap substitutes.
The piano business has been a fruitful field for this sort of
traffic for years and in just such cases as this Allentown matter
the National Dealers' organization should be vitally interested.
Men who endeavor to undermine the faith of the public in
honest piano values should be carefully avoided by the purchasing
public. There are enough honestly priced pianos of reputation to
be secured without accepting a cheap substitute offered by a trader
who hoped to win patronage by assailing the honor of reputable
dealers.
I
N The Review of last week there appeared an interview with
Hans Hohner, American manager of the great house of
Hohner, whose factories are located at Trossingen, Germany. Mr.
Hohner had some interesting statements to relate concerning the
attitude of labor in Germany. He stated that one organization, the
Metal Workers' Association, had a membership of 350,000 and a
capital
of eight and one-half million marks. Such a membership
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
supported by a great capital gives importance to every move made
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition 1902
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Mcdal.. .St. Louis Exposition, 1901
by the organization. In Germany the workmen do not receive high
Gold Medal
Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
wages, but more is done in that country than in any other by gov-
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 1745 and 1761 GRAMERCY
ernmental and charitable agencies to ease the struggle for life, to
Cable address: "Elblll New York."
heighten the industrial efficiency, and to improve the quality of the
NEW YORK, JULY 6, 1907
workmen's citizenry. A very interesting book entitled "The Ger-
man Workman; a Study in National Efficiency," by William Liar-
butt Dawson, has just been published in this country (New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons), giving a descriptive account of this
EDITORIAL
admirable social and industrial development.
"In the first place," says Mr. Dawson, "the labor registries
are under public control and upon a great scale. In Prussia alone
HE dealers in Allcntown, Pa., are indignant at the methods
there were half a million applications for work in a single year, and
which have been adopted by a piano man located in a nearby
a quarter of a million of unemployed were transferred to the wage-
town. One of the most prominent dealers of the former city has
earning class.
mailed a copy of one of the local papers in Allentown containing 1
"The individual bureaus are co-ordinated, and a man idle in
a reading advertisement headed "Valuable Piano Information," and
one town has the jobs open in many cities placed at his considera-
signed by a dealer in Weissport. In sending the notice the Allen-
town dealer says: "We felt confident that you would see the tion. Similarly, masters in search of men are not confined to the
supply of any one neighborhood. Andther step in advance is to
injustice of such a publication for the protection of legitimate
insure the employed man against the loss of work. Upon payment
manufacturers and dealers. Some suggestions should be made
of premiums of about 10 cents a week, a benefit.of 50 cents a day
concerning same in the editorial columns of your valuable paper,
is allowed, reduced to 25 cents after twenty days. Naturally there
and we trust that you will give this matter fair consideration."
are
safeguards against abuse of this benevolence.
The advertisement in question amounts to an attack upon the
"When a man is in search of work, he finds stations all over
honesty of every reputable dealer in Allentown and quite likely
the empire where he can lodge decently, paying either in money or
has created a good deal of feeling in that locality. . The adver-
in work, without taint of charity. Eor those for whom work can-
tisement is headed by a query, "Why pay a fancy price for a piano
when you can get them at what they are worth? I am selling the not be found, colonies and relief works are started in cases of
necessity.
very same piano for $300 that is sold right in Allentown for $425.
Another make for $225 that sells in that city for $350," and all
"The extent to which the workman is helped by providing him
along the line from $75 to $150 lower than the same piano sells
with cheap and good lodgings is astonishing. German cities have
in Allentown. Then the cut rate dealer proceeds to enumerate a
attached to them areas of building-land where poor men can rent
number of reputable pianos which he offers at slaughter prices.
a two-room dwelling for less than $100 a year. If a workman
Naturally when the town of Weissport is but_ twenty miles from
wants to own his home, the attainment of'that object is made easy
Allentown it is exciting to the dealers in the latter city.
for him, the city advancing funds to charitable societies, which
undertake the administration of them. Moreover, insurance com-
NE way to meet this sort of disreputable advertising is to use panies have lent over $25,000,000 for constructing workmen's
the columns of the daily papers to repudiate the argument
homes.
made by the other party. There is nothing gained by keeping silent
"These houses are usually built in pairs, with four rooms on
and permitting a would-be destroyer of piano values and reputa-
the ground floor and five upstairs, and there is a bit of land, which
tion to come into a city and raise sheol with piano prices. The is considered "the poor man's savings-bank," because of the interest
only thing to do is to make it so warm for the invader that he
it yields in return for labor in spare hours. Such houses cost from
will retire without honors. This sort of piracy instanced above
$1,400 to $3,000. The provisions for finding homes for the home-
would be impossible if manufacturers absolutely controlled the
less are as excellent as those for finding work for the workless.
prices at which their pianos may be sold to the public.
"The extent to which care is given to patients before entering
This particular dealer could not long carry on the work which
and after leaving the German hospitals is remarkable. There are
he is doing in Pennsylvania if piano prices were fixed by the makers.
workmen's courts, and official pawnshops, where money is lent upon
We will have under the existing conditions instances of this kind
businesslike terms, but without usury. The Royal Pawn Bureau
T
O
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE! REVIEW
advanced, in 1904, $1,225,000 in sums averaging $8. Finally, when
the workman is at the end of his rope and cannot earn, the system
of poor relief is in many respects a model, especially that at Elber-
feld. Briefly, the idea is to exact a return for relief, and to ac-
company monetary assistance with personal sympathy and counsel."
T
HAT was an able address delivered by Hobart M. Cable before
the recent convention of the National Piano Manufacturers'
Association in Chicago. The speaker expressed sentiments which
are well worthy of perusal by every advertiser and every man in-
terested in musico-industrial affairs. Mr. Cable says, in good
straightforward English, trade papers are a necessity and that good
papers, honestly conducted, demand support. He makes the point
that it is not the size of the paper that fixes its place, but the ability,
integrity and cleanliness with which it is conducted. Mr. Cable
pointed out with ability that there is a difference in trade papers
and that the difference should be considered by the advertiser and
he says that a well edited, clean trade paper is of the utmost im-
portance to the industry of which it is a helpful adjunct.
It would seem after perusal of Mr. Cable's article that he was
quite familiar with the policy of The Review in dealing with mat-
ters of trade import.
A
SUBSCRIBER to The Review asked, "What do you consider
the best method of attracting trade and livening up store
during an otherwise dull season?'' We should say broadly, culti-
vate the idea in the minds of your salesmen that there is no dull
season—that there is work to be accomplished just as well in July
as in October, but that it requires a little harder emphasis placed
upon one's efforts to win results when trade is generally dull.
Business men have fallen into the habit of slowing down their ener-
gies during the summer months, and as a result trade of course
shows a tremendous falling off. Now there will be a natural
shrinkage during the heated term, but that shrinkage is frequently
greatly increased by reason of the inactivity and indifference on
the part of the salesmen and merchants. It is a good thing some-
times to advertise when others are not using the papers quite as
largely. In our opinion people are rather closer readers of papers
during the summer and they spend quite as much time in going
over advertisements as during the cooler season when they are
rushed by business. There are always ways and means of stimu-
lating trade by special forms of advertising and by making the
stores unusually attractive, and the one great essential—the one
thing which is paramount to all others—is to cultivate the belief in
the minds of the salesmen that business should be sought just as
persistently during July and August as in any other season of the
year.
T
H E R E are some men who seem over-fond of sounding a wail
of pessimism when trade conditions are sound.
Is the country confronting a period of industrial and trade
depression?
This is a question which business men are asking with con-
siderable solicitude. They are aware that the lack of spring weather
caused contraction in the sale of seasonable goods and that the
comparative stringency of money has checked new enterprises.
The contraction in sales, however, has been attended with noth-
ing more serious than extension of credits obtained against the
unsold goods, and as for the monetary stringency, in so far as it
has put a check upon highly speculative enterprise it has had a
wholesome effect.
More influential, doubtless, in creating uneasiness has been the
drastic decline that has cut one-third off values in the stock market.
For the business community has not yet cut wholly free from the
notion that "Wall street is the barometer" and that its tips and
downs anticipate corresponding movements in industrial and com-
mercial circles. As a matter of fact specific influences affecting
Wall street have in recent years altered its former relation to gen-
eral trade, but something of the old tradition survives.
Thus uncertain as to the outlook, business men as well as in-
vestors and bankers have closely followed the course of the Admin-
istration toward corporations and awaited with keen interest the
utterances of President Roosevelt bearing upon the situation. The
outlook during the past three weeks has improved and business is
now being conducted on a sounder and more conservative basis.
You heard that Mark Twain met King Edward in London? No? Yes?
Well, it is this way.
Whenever King Edward meets an American—especially when he
meets an American humorist—he wants to hear a story, a funny story.
Some there be on this side of the water who allege that King Edward
wouldn't know a funny story if it walked up to him and pulled his
whiskers, but of such is the Clan-na Gael.
Of course, the King wanted to hear Mark Twain say something laugh-
able. Mark lit one of the King's superior cigars and sprang this:
The Tale of the Two Chairs.
"Joseph H. Choate was seated in his law office
one day, when a young man entered ard in a rather
pompous manner announced:
' 'I am John Jones!'
"'Ah!' said the lawyer, 'take a chair.'
" 'Yes,' continued the young man, 'I am the son-
in-law of Gen. Smith.'
"'Indeed!' replied Mr. Choate, bowing low. 'Take
two chairs!'"
His 'Ighness was pop-eyed but game. He was just about to inquire if
Mr. Choate's caller was a Siamese twin or something on that order, don't
you know, when our beloved humorist cut loose with the following:
The Water Route to Heaven.
"A negro exhorter at a great revival in the South
shouted:
"'Come up, and jine de army ob de Lord!'
" 'Ise done jined,' replied one of the congregation.
" 'Whar'd you jine?' asked the preacher.
" 'Baptis' church.'
" 'Wy, chile,' replied the exhorter, 'yoh ain't in
de army—yoh's in de navy!' "
This one sent the King to the ropes, but he re-
turned as gamely as an old man could. Just as he had framed a question
relative to the connection between a baptism and a battleship, the merci-
less humorist handed out one that had never failed:
3)
C±r* i , ^ ^ ^
And This Old Timer, Too.
"Abe White, a Virginia darkey, was arrested on
suspicion of having stolen chickens. When he was
brought before the squire the next morning he was
asked:
" 'Abe, are you the defendant in this case?'
" 'No, sah, Yo' Honor,' replied Abe. 'Ise de man
what stoled de chickens.' "
The King started toward a push button in the wall
to summon the captain.of the guards. Twain headed
him off. His Majesty's rubicund countenance was wrinkled into lines of
perplexity. Bracing himself with a palpable effort he prepared for
the next.
Wise Little Johnny Jones.
"A school teacher was lecturing on natural history and told how the
English sparrows had been imported to kill the worms on the trees
in the parks.
" 'The sparrows,' she said, 'have become almost
as numerous as the worms were.'
"Noticing that Johnny Jones was inattentive, she
suddenly asked:
"Now, Johnny, which do you think are the worst
—the worms or the sparrows?'
" 'Don't know,' answered Johnny, 'I never had the
sparrows.' "
At the mention of English sparrows, King Edward
perceptibly brightened. He imagined he was going to hear something
that would allow him to twit Mark Twain with being a nature faker. As
the story proceeded, tears filled the royal eyes and at the wind-up he
was weeping.
"Was there not something of that kind in a song in the Mikado?" he
inquired.
Mark Twain disdained to answer, but hurried along to the fifth yarn.
- "
Djever Hear This One?
"My friend, Senator Depew, boarded a street car
one day. A politician was with him and the Senator
handed the conductor ten cents.
"A block or two further on, the conductor went
through the car again and Depew handed him an-
other dime.
" 'But I have your fares already,' protested the con-
ductor.
"I know it,' answered Depew, 'this money is for
the company.' "
"I thought Mr. Depew had told me everything," sobbed the King,
"but he never told me that. Is it true that Mr. Depew rides in a tram?"
"There was a time in New York not long ago," responded Mark,
"when they wouldn't have let him aboard a car on the Canal street cross-
town line. But here is one, Your Majesty, that I am sure will hit you
in Buckingham Palace—in other words, right where you live."
And then, pitilessly, he put another one over the plate.—N. Y. World.

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