Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE: MUSIC TRADE
ANTIDOTES TO DEPRESSION
Furnished by the Gathering of One Thousand
Buyers in New York Recently—The New
York Times Descants on the Prosperity Con-
vention—The Time Not Only to Talk Con-
fidence but to Act Confidence—Some Point-
ers for the Southern Cotton Growers' Asso-
ciation—Crop Shouldn't be Shortened.
The New York Times for some months past
has been ^carrying on an excellent campaign for
the restoration of confidence and sound business
health, and it has repeatedly printed facts which
must impress the readers that the country is
sound and that all it needs is confidence to re-
store normal conditions. On Tuesday the Times
again published a good editorial, which we print
herewith and commend it to our readers' con-
sideration:
-
"When times were better nobody thought of
meeting and resolving about how well off we
were. It was in that season of overconfidence
that was born the overidealism from which it is
necessary to recover before profits and wages
can return to their old basis. Business is not
bludgeoned except when it seems so strong that
it can endure anything. One of the best anti-
dotes to depression is furnished by the informal
convention of 1,000 buyers now in New York.
Their buoyant views of affairs in their home
towns make good reading. It denotes the pros-
perity which comes from demand, that is to say,
which is wholesome from the bottom up. If we
had activity in manufacturing and merchandis-
ing which starts from the top in anticipation of
wants which may not exist, we should be pre-
paring ourselves for a speculative disappointment
such as now afflicts Wall Street. But when a
thousand buyers are in market, declaring that
their customers need the goods, and have the
cash and courage to take them, we are witness-
ing a sound and encouraging development in an
obscure situation. Their purchases are the best
hope for busy factories. In other depressions
the most heartbreaking feature was the shelves
stocked with high-priced goods, which had to be
worked off before new goods were wanted or
could be taken. There is no such present ob-
stacle to activity of trade.
"A more formal prosperity convention is the
one at Baltimore, which is to last four days, be-
ginning with yesterday. President Roosevelt i i
to send a letter, as seems no more than might
be expected from him. Also the Governor of
Maryland and the Mayor of Baltimore are to
make speeches. 'The purpose of the convention
is to 'restore confidence by showing favorable
business conditions in the sections from which
the delegates come.'
"In jthe first place we would c6mmend to the
Baltimore boomers that they imitate the example
of the buyers who are here. They do not merely
talk confidence—they act confidence, and acts
speak louder than words. In the next place
this convention of Southerners has a special duty.
Nowhere has overreform worked greater ravages
with effects so unmistakable. Nowhere has the
legislation been more severe, and nowhere have
the railways suffered more. If the^ Baltimore
convention should counsel a change it would help
on a reaction which has already made great
progress. In the next place counsel might welt
be given at this season to the Southern Cotton
Growers' Association and like bodies. They have
resolved that unless cotton brought 15 cents
they would reduce acreage by a-quarter. There
is no prospect that cotton will bring that price,
and it would be something like a calamity if the
coming crop should be shortened to make a mar-
ket for the 'olcT crop. It is even truer of crops
that! of manufactured goods that the best stimu-
lant of the market is demand. The world needs
all the cotton it can get, and the South can,
supply an. almost unlimited quantity. The yield
might be doubled. The profit per bale might be
less, but the total profit should be larger.
"Nor should this counsel at this season be
limited to the South. We should have been
much worse off if last year's crops had not been
REVIEW
abundant. Recovery will be much assisted if this
year's crops in general be ample. Prosperity con-
ventions can do nothing more stimulating than
to promote liberal planting and good cultivation.
The season at the North is a little later, so that
the Baltimore convention has an excellent oppor-
tunity to set the example of doing something
more than make prosperity speeches. Counsel
with a point to it will serve the best use."
OUR FOREIGN^CUSTOMERS.
Pianos and Other Musical Instruments Shipped
Abroad from the Port of New York for the
Week Just Ended—An Interesting Array of
Musical Specialties for Foreign Countries.
(Special to The Review.)
Washington, D. C, Feb. 29, 1908.
The following were the exports of musical in-
struments and kindred lines from the port of
IN THEIR NEW QUARTERS.
New York for the week just ended:
Amsterdam.—36 cases organs and material,
The Smith & Nixon Co. Occupying One of the
$1,038.
Handsomest Buildings in Louisville—Splen-
Bombay.—2 cases organs and material, $146;
didly Equipped in Every Way.
11 pkgs. talking machines, $240.
Brussels.—2 cases piano players and material,
The Smith & Nixon Co., Louisville, Ky., moved
$100.
into their new quarters on Fourth avenue last
Buenos Ayres.—28 pianos and material, $3,196;
week and the general public took much interest
39
pkgs. talking machines and material, $485.
in the important event. The new store is one
Callao—37 cases talking machines and mate-
of the handsomest in the South devoted to the
sale of pianos and is located on the same ground rial, $1,100.
Colon.—7 pkgs. talking machines and mate-
as the old building of the firm, which was de-
rial,
$272; 1 case pianos and material, $200.
stroyed by fire last spring.
Glasgow.—1
case pianos and material, $400.
The company have leased all four floors of the
Guayaquil.—3
pkgs. talking machines and ma-
building for twenty years and have arranged the
terial,
$159.
third and fourth floors as a conservatory of
Hamburg.—4 cases piano players and material,
music, with large recital hall and a number of
$400.
teachers' studios. The first or store floor occu-
Havre.—24 pkgs. talking machines and mate-
pied by the Smith & Nixon Co., is lighted by
rial,
$209; 1 case piano material, $245; 4 cases
immense windows sixty feet in the clear, which
are the largest in the city. A handsome im- piano players, $456.
Havana.—2 cases music, $150; 2 cases pianos,
ported glass and iron canopy extends out over
the sidewalk and is sixty feet in diameter, being $172; 14 pkgs. talking machines and material,
$1,5-45.
the largest in the South.
Kingston.—3 packages talking machines and
•The second floor is reached from the first by
material,
$148.
a handsome solid mahogany staircase and con-
I imon.—13 pkgs. talking machines and ma-
tains a number of separate rooms for displaying
terial, $280.
.pianos and player pianos. The handsomest of
l a Libertad.—3 cases organs, $200.
those rooms is the Steinway Art Room, finished
Liverpool.—16 cases organs, $1,577.
in mahogany and stained glass, with beautifully
London.—2 cases music goods, $313; 5 pkgs.
decorated frieze and ceiling and hung with Japa-
nese silk tapestries. The Smith & Nixon Co.'s talking machines and material, $150; 3 cases
organs and material, $123.
building is truly a palace of music.
Melbourne.—39 cases organs and material,
$2,524; 4 cases pianos and material, $413; 1 case
MUSICAL FURNITURE MOVERS.
musical instruments, $152; 2 cases pianos and
material, $1,314; 3 cases organs and material,
A Discovery Made the Other Day Which Goes $175.
to Show That Some of the Men Who Move
Montevideo.—1 case music, $159; 28 cases
Pianos Know How to Play Them.
pianos and material, $3,195; 39 pkgs. talking ma-
chines and material, $485.
Two young women were p?;ssing the Seventh Regi-
Para.—2 pkgs. talking machines and material,
ment Armory the other day when their attention $102; 2 pkgs. talking machines and material,
was drawn to a popular waltz from a Broadway $100; 2 cases pianos, $225.
show being played on a piano. They looked
Progresso.—14 pkgs. talking machines and ma-
about to see where the music came from.
terial, $155.
The armory doors and windows were closed.
Rosario.—2 cases pianos and material, $1,585;
The. Hahnemann Hospital was too far away. So 64 pkgs. talking machines and material, $8,041.
were the houses on the opposite side of Park
Rio de Janeiro—5 pkgs. talking machines and
avenue. The young women were puzzled until material, $606; 2 cases pianos and material, $125;
one of them looked at a furniture van going up 26 pkgs. talking machines and material, $880;
the avenue with a small load.
4 cases pianos and material, $235; 6 pkgs. talking
A part of the load was an upright piano, and machines and material, $815.
the driver's helper in jumper and overalls was
Surinam.—3 pkgs. talking machines and ma-
sitting in front of the instrument playing like terial, $160.
an expert.
Sydney.—16 piano players and material,
"Well, did you ever?" exclaimed the young $4,800.
woman who discovered the musician.
Southampton.—2 cases music, $115; 7 cases
piano material, $4,525; 2 cases piano players,
DEATH OF GEORGE W. EVANS.
$255.
Tampico.—1 case music $100; 7 cases pianos
George W. Evans, a well-known piano sales- and material, $1,074.
man, who for the past six years had been with
Trinidad—8 pkgs. talking machines and ma-
the Packard Co., Ft. Wayne, Ind., died at his terial, $111.
home in Elkhart, Ind., recently, from throat
Valparaiso.—4 cases piano players and ma-
trouble which had developed for over two years. terial, $1,060.
During his twenty-five years of piano selling,
Mr.. Evans made many warm friends. He is sur-
TAKE SMITH, BARNES & STOHBER LINE.
vived by a widow and two sons.
Denton, Cottier & Daniels, the prominent piano
Piano dealers of Indianapolis, Ind., are hope- house of Buffalo, N. Y., have taken the agency
ful that considerable business will result from in that city for the entire line of the Smith,
the convention of the Northern Indiana Teach- Barnes & Strohber Co., and they will soon place
ers' Association to be held in that city at an in stock a large shipment of Smith & Barnes,
early date. It is believed that the subject of Strohber, Hoffman and Willard pianos. J. H.
musical instruction in the public schools and Ludden, traveler for the Smith, Barnes & Stroh-
best means of obtaining pianos suitable to the ber Co., closed the deal.
work will be brought up before the delegates for
The New York and Western Piano Co., Salt
lengthy discussion and that some sales may be
Lake City, Utah, have moved to 7 Main street.
influenced thereby.