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THE
MUSIC TRADE
local merchants say that the department stores sell for cash, whereas
they are expected to carry customers from thirty to ninety days. If
the customer of the department store, they say, will add the cost
of transportation to the cost of the goods it will be found that little
or no savings are made. That is the country merchant's side of
the story. The mail-order habit is strongest with the women who
arc the real friends of catalog houses. It is possible to buy
almost anything through the mail, and catalog houses are likely
to cause, even more so than up to the present time, a most decided
revolution in the methods of small town merchants. It means
fewer stores and better ones; more live merchants and fewer old
fashioned ones who insist that the trade of the people who live in
the country about them is theirs by right of inheritance."
It is absolutely no use for the country merchant to get wrathy
and complain bitterly. The people are going to continue to pat-
ronize the goad advertiser no matter whether he be on the next
corner or in New York or Chicago.
Now these country merchants say that department stores sell
for cash while they are expected to give credit. The country mer-
chant is not expected to give credit unless he started on a credit
basis, and if he has it is his o'wn fault. If he sees that he is wrong
the thing for him to do is to about face and get himself on a cash
basis and start over. If people would pay cash in Chicago, New
York or Boston they would as a rule rather spend it in their own
town than to send it away. The only way to meet competition is
to meet it, and there is no use for the country merchant sitting
around on three-legged stools or store counters and complaining
of city competition. They have to let people know that they carry
stocks and can sell the right goods at the right kind of prices. Fight
advertising with advertising. Tell them what the situation is and
give them straight facts day after day. This applies with equal
force to the small piano merchant as to the general store merchant.
T
HERE is a bill now before Congress to suppress fraud and
misrepresentation in advertising which is certainly desirable,
but this bill makes the publishers of newspapers and periodicals re-
sponsible for what advertisers say in their columns. It is ridiculous
for a sane man to spend time arguing over such a law, which if
passed never could be enforced. Is it to be expected that every
time a merchant brings or sends an advertisement the publisher
shall go to his store and make a personal examination of the goods
offered for sale or see that they are just as represented? Must the
publisher when a bank or railroad insurance or industrial company
offers him an advertisement of stock or bonds go to the expense of
making an examination of the financial condition of the concern
before he can print the advertisement? What a ridiculous proposi-
tion. If such a law were passed and enforced it would place such
a burden of financial responsibility on the publisher that he would
be compelled to enormously increase his advertising rates.
A music trade publisher might be called upon to thrown out cer-
tain advertisements of manufacturers of commercial pianos on the
ground that they misrepresented by stating in their advertisements
that their instruments were high grade. More trouble and plenty
of it. This country indeed has been cursed with a lot of crank
legislation, but this is the limit. As a matter of fact most publish-
ers will not admit to their columns that which on the very face is
fraudulent. They even go further and reject any proposition that
they have reason to suspect may be misleading.. They endeavor to
protect their readers and at no time in the history of journalism has
a higher standard of commercial and moral integrity prevailed than
at the present.
Legislation cannot and will not improve the situation so far as
the publishers are concerned and think of Caudrey, the author of
the proposed measure, taking up the time of Congress by presenting
such a bill! There are plenty of things which our National Legis-
lature can grasp intelligently without devoting its time to such
crank legislation as this.
The small piano man has a good opportunity to meet his larger
competitor in the great city, but he cannot meet competition
by sitting down and finding fault with his present condition. The
way to meet competition is to meet it, and it cannot be met suc-
cessfully wihout an active progressive policy on the part of the
merchant in the smaller town.
These are not the times when one's business light should be,
hidden under the bushel of indifference.
REVIEW
Recollect you can't go down without dragging someone else with you.
Never ignore the presence of a customer, no matter how shabbily
dressed.
The road to success is not short and it is not easy, but it is well
worth the travel.
Every man thinks he is strong enough not to fall down where others
have fallen, but is he?
It pays to think before speaking, because the better you say a thing
the longer it will be remembered.
Business is getting better. Of course it is, and the betterment is
created in a great degree by trade optimism.
It never pays to lose one's temper when things go wrong. There
is no sense in cursing about having spilt the milk.
Salesmen have no idea of the additional sales which could be made
if people's attention was «ystemattcally called to things they do not come
in to buy.
" :
"The evidence shows, Mrs. Mulcahey, that you threw a stone at
Policeman Casey." "It shows more than that, yer honor. It shows that
Oi hit him."
,r ;
SEEMS LIKELY.—Bill: "I see in a favorable wind a fox can scent
a man at a distance of one-quarter of a mile."
Jill: "Of course, he could scent him farther if the man happened
to be in an automobile."
The hold-up music trade editor and all of his associates should be
refused admittance into reputable music trade establishments. The ver-
min who attack the reputation of honorable men in their alleged trade
newspapers should not be tolerated in the offices of business men.
HIS STEADY JOB.—Bigley: "You don't believe In a college educa-
tion, then?"
Jigley: "No, it unfits a man for everything except to sit around
croaking about how much more intelligently he could enjoy wealth than
the average man does."
A HINT TO BURBANK.—The Storekeeper (of Plainfleld)—I see as
how they're makin' pianners now-days with them there mechanercal play-
ers right inside 'em.
Farmer Grayson—Well! Well! Looks like the forerunner uv the
cow that'll do her own cream-separatin', b'gosht
WHY HE MOURNED.—O'Flannagan came home one night with a
deep band of black crape around his hat.
"Why, Mike!" exclaimed his wife. "What are ye wearin' that
mournful thing for?"
"I'm wearin' it for yer first husband," replied Mike, firmly. "I'm
sorry he's dead."
FORGOT HIS LINES.—"He understands everything we say to him,"
said the proud young mother, exhibiting the baby. "Darling, tell the
p'itty lady, won't you, who smokes that big meerschaum pipe on the
mantelpiece?"
"Mam-ma!" piped baby.
"Sometimes he gets his answers a little mixed," explained the proud
young mother.
NECESSITY A HARSH MASTER.—When the artist had finished his
scenic sketch of the stretch of woods skirting the suburban road, he
looked up and beheld a serious-faced Irishman, whom he had previously
noticed digging in a trench by the roadside, gazing queerly at his canvas.
"Well," said the artist familiarly, "do you suppose you could make a
picture like that?"
The Irishman mopped his forehead a moment, and, with a deep sigh,
answered:
"Sure; a mon c'n do annything if he's driv to ut!"
FOR LACK OF A NEWSPAPER.—A quiet and retiring citizen occu-
pied a seat near the door of a crowded car when a masterful, stout
woman entered.
Having no newspaper behind which to hide he was fixed and subju-
gated by her glittering eye. He rose and offered his place to her. Seat-
ing herself—without thanking him—she- exclaimed in tones that reached
to the farthest end of the car:
"What do you want to stand up there for? Come here and sit on
my lap."
"Madam," gasped the man, as his face became scarlet, "I beg your
pardon, I—I
"
"What do you mean?" shrieked the woman. "You know very well I
was speaking to my niece there behind you,"