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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
GEO. B. KELLER,
W. H. DYKES,
P. H. THOMPSON.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER,
L. E. BOWERS, B. BRITTAIN WILSON, WM. B. WHITE, L. J. CHAMBERLIN, A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
B. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 195-197 Wabash Ave.
TELEPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8643.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 278A Tremont St
PHILADELPHIA :
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
A. W. SHAW.
SAN FRANCISCO:
CHAS. N. VAN BUREN.
S. H. GRAY, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI. O.: NINA PUGII-SMITH.
BALTIMORE. MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON. ENGLAND:
69 Basinghall St., E. C.
LESS number of men connected with the music trade industry
are booked for Europe than before for quite a number of
years. There are, of course, a number who invariably take the
rest and pleasure which comes through jaunts in Europe. There
are, however, a good many who believe that trade is going to begin
early in the fall and they wish to be at the wheel of the business
craft in order to get the most out of favorable business breezes.
Talking with a well-known member of the trade the other day,
he stated: "I believe that we are going to have a splendid fall
business. It seems to me that many of the matters which have per-
plexed our people early in the season are removed from the stage
of business doubts and while crop reports are not perhaps up to
former years yet there is every indication that the yield will be fair
and that prices will be above the average, so that the farmers them-
selves will receive more for their various crops than in former years.
I am going ahead preparing stock for the fall trade. We have been
caught every year with a shortage of pianos in the early fall and I
do not propose that the same conditions will exist this year."
A
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 KUL
Directory ol Piano
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
"
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
Mmnlaetnrtri
f o l . dealers and others.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition 1902
Diploma.Pan American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal.. . S t Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 1745 and 1761 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address: "Elblll New York."
NEW YORK, JULY 27, 1907
EDITORIAL
W
ITH the coming- of midsummer and the greater or less in-
terruption of business caused by the vacation season, there
is less engrossing- attention being- given to the active marketing of
goods, and business houses are, as a rule, content to take care of
current trade without special efforts being put forth to extend that
trade. Occasionally our attention is called to large piano advertise-
ments appearing in the columns of local papers during the summer,
for there are many dealers who believe that it pays to advertise
when advertising will be noticed on account of the non-participation
of the many. Certainly extra advertising in the summer months
gets a prominent position in the columns of publications. Whether,
however, it has the same effect as it does during the period when
the buying fever is on is a subject on which many minds differ and
certainly the merchant who keeps pounding away at business in
season and out is the one who succeeds.
M
REVIEW
ANUFACTURING is keeping up fairly well during the sum-
mer. There are, however, some plants the owners of which
take advantage of the summer months to make good the wear and
tear resulting from the heavy pressure under which they may have
been operating during the busy period. Some of them, too, are
availing themselves of the opportunity of making improvements and
there are many cases in which there will be enlargements of plants
and addition of new machinery. Many of the factories have un-
executed orders on their books and there is little disposition to dis-
turb their present producing facilities. Some, however, are going
right ahead during the heated period piling up pianos so they will
have sufficient stock in reserve to meet the demands of the early
fall trade. There has been a decided improvement in the financial
market and more of an optimistic tone on the part of the trade.
The summer weather has been decidedly favorable for the crops
and induces hopeful view's in regard to the results of the harvest,
notwithstanding the fact that some sections will have to accept a
yield less that of recent exceptionally good years. There is, how-
ever, an improved feeling which denotes a greater business confi-
dence in the fall trade.
J
UST as predicted by The Review, John Wanamakef proposes
to use the Schomacker piano as a mail order instrument. His
initial advertisement clearly defines his policy regarding the Scho-
macker, and the question is: what effect will this new move by
Wanamaker have upon some of the other instruments which he
handles. One thing seems reasonably certain, and that is: decided
emphasis will be placed upon the piano owned solely by the great
merchant.
Presumably the Schomacker will be largely advertised and to-
day Mr. Wanamaker offers to sell the Schomacker to any purchaser
in any part of the country on the instalment plan with the Wana-
maker guarantee behind every piano. Thus territorial lines are
clearly eliminated and Wanamaker enters the field as a piano manu-
facturer controlling absolutely an old-established business and is a
free lance so far as territorial lines are concerned. There is a breezi-
ness and piquancy about the first advertisement of Wanamaker
which shows that he doesn't propose to enter into the business in
any half-hearted way. Presumably we shall hear more about the
Schomacker in one year under Wanamaker than we have in the
past twenty-five under the old regime.
W
ANAMAKER said in his advertisement appearing recently
in the Philadelphia papers and quoted in The Review of
last week: "And we shall make fair prices and terms to suit the
individual wants of customers at a distance just as we do for our
patrons in Philadelphia, so that if hereafter people buy Thump
Boxes, made by apprentice labor in the Eastern sweat shops, or
Stockyard pianos that are made by the mile and cut off into lengths
like sausages, in the West, it will not be for lack of opportunity to
buy real pianos that have borne the seal of satisfactory service for
sixty-nine years, and that bear also the warranty of the house of
John Wanamaker, which, like a Bank of England note, is current
in any part of the world."
Pianos of the "Thump box" variety of the East and West are
hit heavily by Wanamaker, and according to the advertisement he
does not intend that the Schomacker shall supplant any of the pianos
which he is at present exploiting. It would not be surprising if
Wanamaker develops an enormous mail order business for the
Schomacker piano, and, if he does, will not his success stimulate
others along similar lines?
This mail order business may develop into great proportions
under proper nurturing.
M
ORE of the high grade piano manufacturers are constantly
swinging into line and are publishing the figures broadcast
at which their instruments may be purchased at retail. If year by
year the number of men who believe that this policy is the real key
to the one price question will demonstrate their belief by adopting
it, it will be presumed that their action will influence others so that
after a while the whole trade will swing around to one price, and
that by the manufacturer.
R. T. Cassell, of Denver, had some good things to say in his
convention contribution which are well worthy of repeating. Mr.
Cassell stated to the dealers who were assembled at Chicago:
"When we say one price, we do not mean the kind you read
about and that some of our members boast about and advertise
about—you know the kind, where a sucking babe can buy as