Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REMFW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorial Stall:
W. II. DYKES.
F. II. THOMPSON,
J. IIAYDBN CLARENDON,
B. BUITTAIN WILSON.
L. J. OIIAMBERLIN,
A. J. NICKLIN.
GEO. B. KKI-LER,
L. E. BOWERS,
CHICAGO OFFICE:
B. P. VAN IIARLINGEN, 195-197 Wabash Ave.
TEi.EriioNES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8643.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
BOSTON OFFICE:
KRNEST I.. WAITT, 100 Boylston St.
PHILADELPHIA:
K. W. KAUFFMA.N.
ADOLF KDSTKN.
CHAS. N. VAN BURBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. II. GRAY, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI,©.: NINA PUGH-SMITH.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON, ENGLAND: (!!i Kasinghall 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;
CaniHlM. .f :?.. r >0 : 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
Trading matter. $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
l.yman Bill.
Music Publishers'
An interesting feature of this publication is a special depart-
Department >• V ment devoted exclusively to the world of music publishing.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Crand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal. ...St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. . . .Lewis Clark Exposition, 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable a d d r e s s : "Elbill, New York."
NEW
YORK,
APRIL
25, 1 9 0 8
EDITORIAL
I
N a communication recently addressed to this publication by a
piano manufacturer, whose product has an excellent reputation
throughout the entire country, appears the following: "I am con-
vinced that notwithstanding the strenuous efforts to uproot it, graft
still obtains in certain departments of the retail trade,. I am posi-
tive that some few salesmen are being paid by traveling representa-
tives of some piano houses money for selling their instruments.
I have been interested in some of the editorials presented in The
Review in which these practices have been denounced in the most
positive terms. I have also been interested in the action taken by
the Travelers' National Association, but I feel that in spite of all
the good work which has been put forth the evil is not entirely
stamped out, and as long as it exists, even in a minor way, it is a
serious menace to the industry. Serious because it demoralizes
settled conditions, and makes the salesmen bribe takers. Serious,
because if this plan were to obtain instruments would not be sold
on their merits, but according to the dollars the salesmen received
as bribes in selling them. Serious, because it would reduce piano
selling dow r n to a basis of bidding against each other for the favors
of salesmen. I hope The Review will continue its work. I hope
you will give us some more strong editorials along the lines which
you have previously laid down. Such work is bound to be helpful.
It cannot be otherwise. Give us some more 1 of your straight from
the shoulder talk. It will do good. Show the salesmen up in
their true light and show how ungrateful and traitorous they are
when they receive bribes on pianos which they sell."
T
HE subject of bribe taking is a grievous one and one which
should be agitated by trade papers because, as our friend
has stated, it is of vital importance to the industry, and if indulged
in to a great extent would eliminate the question of merit in the
sale of instruments. It would, under the bribe giving regime, be-
come a mere question of representatives bidding against each other,
and the salesman would sell his influence to the highest bidder.
There is, however, a reverse side to the medal, and when we come
right down to the subject and divest it of all superficialities we
cannot find it in our heart to condemn the salesman without em-
REVIEW
ploying just as strong language in expressing our opinion of the
bribe giver.
It should be understood that salesmen in some cases draw ex-
tremely modest salaries and a few additional dollars look very
large to them, particularly when they can satisfy their own con-
science that they arc doing business for their etnifloycr and are not
being overpaid for it at that. The man who is the real author of
this most despicable system is the bribe giver. He tempts the sales-
man and he is creating a demand for his instruments by bribing
the man to whom a few extra dollars per week means many extra
comforts. The punishment and condemnation should be meted out
to the bribe giver for stultifying the conscience of a salesman to
such a degree that he will run the risk of loss of position for the
small compensation given for unprofessional services.
The representative who visits retail piano establishments and
is forced to adopt such methods of unfair competition should change
his line. He should take up something in which he can succeed
without descending to the depths, prostituting the decency of men
who, barring this lapse from rectitude, have been honest men. The
punishment naturally follows discovery as the salesmen find them-
selves business pariahs, when their fall from grace has become pub-
lic property, but the punishment produced and the humiliation
should be transferred to the shoulders of the briber as the first
cause, for although it is quite proper to say an honest man would
be honest under all conditions, yet how do we know that axiom is
true until it has been proven?
W
E concede that salesmen should not take bribes, but we insist
that the first law should be that the wholesale representa-
tives should not offer bribes to salesmen for selling their instru-
ments. In this case the tempter is the one who should be blamed
more than the tempted. We do not mean that all the blame should
be removed from the shoulders of the salesman who accepts the
bribe, but the man who offers it is a much worse enemy to trade
interests than the man who accepts it. l!e is the breeder of the
trouble, while the other man is simply the beneficiary under a mis-
chievous, dishonest, bribe giving system. The salesman who ac-
cepts the bribe is also guilty, and he is betraying the confidence of
his employer. Naturally his energies are placed not on the in-
struments which afford his employer the best margins, but upon
those instruments which yield him the most graft.
In New York State, however, it is extremely dangerous under"
the existing law to give or accept a bribe for selling merchandise.
It has been tested in the courts here and recent judicial decisions
have been rendered to the effect that a merchant cannot be com-
pelled to pay for merchandise on which it had been proven that his
salesman had received a commission from the seller. There are
few indeed in any line who care to take a risk in this State, but graft
is not confined to the retail trade in this or any other line. It ex-
tends to factory products and all kinds of things. So great has
become the evil that laws have been framed which, so far as New
York State is concerned, makes it exceedingly dangerous for the
bribe giver to carry on his nefarious and business undermining
practices.
A
GOOD trade newspaper does not lend itself to creating strife
or jealousy between members of a corporation. It is only"
the low down trickster who parades under a journalistic title who
endeavors to foment trouble between men who are bound closely
together in a business way, with the hope that through engendering
a feeling of jealousy the sandbagger may win out with his plunder
schemes. But this brutal method will not win to-day. A good
newspaper is run on business principles and should make money
and prosper like any other business, but its conductors should not
endeavor to make money through holdup methods. The modern
trade paper has a field of its own and its special mission is to build
up trade and not prey upon the weaknesses of individuals in a
special industry. The trade paper is the medium between the manu-
facturer and dealer. It is the one powerful force that creates the
demand with the retailers. Notwithstanding its restricted circula-
tion it gets closer to the people who are interested in a special
industry than any other kind of publication. It is a paper that the
retailer reads as the devotee reads his Bible. But the paper which
is read and has standing is the paper that holds steadfastly to high
ideals and to honorable conduct in the direction of its news and
editorial departments. The. time has gone by when blackmailing