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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Small goods manufacturers have thrived here, and music publishers
as well. It will be seen that lists of each trade will be found in this
issue, which will be preserved as a reference volume on account of
the condensed information which it contains regarding the music
trade of this city.
I
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
G»o. B. KBTJ.BB,
W. H. DYKES,
P. H. THOMPSON.
J . HATDEN CLARENDON.
I* B. BOWERS, B. BRITTAIN WILSON, WM. B. W H I T E , L. J. CHAMBBRLIN, A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
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ADOLF BDSTBN.
SAN FRANCISCO:
CHAS. N. VAN BURBN.
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CINCINNATI, O.: NINA PUGH-SMITH.
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LONDON. ENGLAND:
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W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Pott Ojfiee *s Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (Including postage). United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
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ADVERTISEMENTS. $2.00 per Inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
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REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
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^ _
Directory ol P i u w
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
'
;
~
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
MannUtlureri
f o r d e a i e r s and others.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prim
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition 1902
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal.. .St Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. . . .Lewls-Ciark Exposition, 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 6RAMERCY
Connecting all Department*.
Cable address: "Elblll New York."
NEW YORK,
NOVEMBER 30, 1907
EDITORIAL
HIS issue of The Review is rather unique in some respects, as
it emphasizes the music trade industry of a single city.
Sometimes we get into the habit of speaking of the resources of a
particular town without the slightest thought as to how extensive
and varied these resources may be. It is, therefore, we believe a
matter of interest to our subscribers in every city and hamlet to
show in a condensed form what New York possesses in the way
of music trade resources. The industry, of course, is not young
here, for it is a far cry from the time when the old Dutch burghers
sat around Bowling Green smoking their long pipes and drinking
their schnapps to the time when the Manhattan skyscrapers cast
their shadows over this island, and during all the intervening years
Gotham has been an enormous market for musical instruments of
all kinds.
John Jacob Astor recognized the fact that there was. money in
pianos and it was his custom to bring over quite a number from
London which he sold at a good round price in order to cut down
his expenses in handling furs. Others followed after a while, and
soon there were a number of establishments, shops they were called,
in old New York where musical instruments could be purchased.
The papers in those early days contained a number of advertise-
ments of the houses where musical instruments could be purchased.
T
FTER the close of the Civil War, New York began to boom
as a piano manufacturing center, and as the great West de-
A
veloped the demand for these products became more and more
accentuated. It has been impossible in a single number to present
illustrations of all the piano factories. Many of the views shown
in this number were taken by The Review photographer for illus-
tration in this issue and enough pictures will be seen to impress
everyone with the fact that New York has excellent resources as a
music trade city.
Then, too, New York has been from the start, headquarters
of the supply industry. Great houses supplying piano hardware,
piano actions, piano felts and everything which enters into the con-
struction of pianos make their business home in New York City.
T is our intention within the near future to present extended
descriptive articles showing the wonderful development ai the
music trade in Chicago and Boston, and other manufacturing points.
This trade as a whole is larger than many people imagine, and
when we see such a splendid grouping in a single issue of repre-
sentative concerns of a single city we can have a greater respect for
the industry. The plainer the facts are set forth the more advan-
tage to the members who are engaging in retailing special products.
The greater the knowledge the greater the selling force.
T
HIS is the time when business men are desirous of having the
fullest information in regard to the financial and commercial
conditions which prevail throughout the country. The communi-
cations therefore which we have received from many leading piano
dealers bear directly on this subject and appear in another section
of this paper. It will be seen by a careful perusal of the letters
which we have printed that the condition of the trade throughout
the country is optimistic and the feeling of depression is to a large
extent becoming eliminated. The situation as expressed by some
of our correspondents is well worth perusing. The present trade
problem is such as to command the most careful consideration by
all men. It is universally agreed that the disturbance is primarily '
and essentially financial rather than commercial. Whether it is to
be credited mainly to Wall Street, to the defects in our banking
system, which should have been long ago corrected, or to other un-
toward influences, there is no doubt that the trouble results from
the disappearance of money from circulation, causing a scarcity
which is embarrassing to all'merchants and manufacturers, and to
none more than those who are obliged to meet payrolls which call
for the prompt and regular outlay of large sums of money.
I
T is gratifying to note that there is a substantial agreement
among our correspondents that the financial skies are clearing
all the while and the settled conviction that there will be no return
of the bad conditions of last month. The efforts of the great bank-
ers of the country supplemented so efficiently by the Treasury De-
partment, and the good sense, the sober second thought of the
American people, who begin to realize that they were stampeded
with a needless fright, have already contributed to the return of
confidence in the soundness of our monetary institutions and to a
recognition of the great prosperity of the country furnishing ground
for a hopeful view of the outcome.
T
HERE is an interesting condition in connection with the recent
panic which shows how closely the entire country is knit
together. The trouble developed in New York, which is the center
of finance and trade, and with which all parts of the country have
the closest relation. It was not long before its influence was felt
in the West and South and in the great States that skirt the
Pacific. We are thus reminded not simply that the whole country
shares the prosperity or adversity of each section, but of the more
important fact that the existing disturbance is the result
of conditions which prevail in every section. The malady is not
local, but general. The disturbance is naturally most emphasized
in the great centers, but reaches to every State and hamlet. The
farmers who cannot sell their grain and the planters who held
their cotton too long are companions in misfortune with the hold-
ers of depreciated securities, the manufacturers who are discharging
workmen and the railroads which are obliged to postpone better-
ments. The unity of the country in its business relations has been
emphasized in an impressive manner. In a similar way it is to be
hoped that there will soon be a united restoration of confidence
and a gradual return of normal business conditions and a renewed
prosperity in every section.
T
HERE is, however, the recognition also of the fact that the
country is at present experiencing a reaction from the ex-
treme activity which has characterized business and is suffering
the penalty of a long continued prosperity. There has been under
the stimulus of great crops a sustained and growing volume of trade