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THE:
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
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YORK,
DECEMBER
12, 1908
EDITORIAL
T
HERE has been an unmistakable slump in retail trade during
the past two weeks. The slowness in the retail department
of the industry has been reflected in the manufacturing 1 side, and
where the makers of pianos expected a deluge of hurried orders at
this time of the year for holiday trade, there has been a very ma-
terial slowing up.
It is difficult to understand the existence of such conditions in
the business world, for every one had anticipated the holiday trade
would develop snap and ginger. They had figured that with the
dealers' stocks very low over the country, there would be an unusual
pressure made upon the creative end of the business for holiday
orders.
This belief was but the natural outcome of our business en-
vironment, but like many other things in this world, great disap-
pointment has been suffered by lack of the materialization of orders.
Holiday trade for 1908 will not be as good as was anticipated.
There is no denying that fact, and we may as well express the truth
regarding business conditions, and not attempt to deceive ourselves
by any false declaration.
Of course, there are some sections of the country which are
specially favored, but applying the statement broadly, holiday trade,
up to the present time has not been what was expected by the
manufacturers, and unless there is an unusual rush for orders
within the immediate future the dealers' trade will sag off very
materially. We are drawing too close to Christmas now to expect
many more orders which are intended for long shipment.
There is one comforting thing, how y ever, about the whole situa-
tion : That is, if the sales are not made during holiday time, there
will be more prospects with which to begin the new year.
T
mand for the products of the Occident, and China now will naturally
lean towards the big Republic across the seas.
America's material interests in Asia and her territorial posses-
sions in the Pacific are effectually safeguarded, now that Japan has
been forced to renounce a policy that threatened the independence,
political, as well as commercial, of China and made a war over the
Philippines an eventuality to be expected ; but now, with the great
diplomatic success scored by Root, the "open door" in the East will
swing easily and should permit the easy passage of many millions
of dollars worth of American products annually.
There is no doubt but that American commercial activity in the
East will now increase at a rapid pace, and according to many com-
mercial students, China is the predestined outlet for the products
of American industry, and to-day forms the greatest field for the
exercise of American business initiative.
We have, indeed, been going some within the past two years,
and with our foreign policy clearly defined, the growth during the
next five years should far outstrip any past record for a similar
period.
W. LIONEL, STURDY, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
NEW
REVIEW
HAT our trade in the Orient will develop enormously is con-
ceded by business men who are familiar with the trade possi-
bilities in those far Eastern lands.
With an awakening China, there will come a tremendous de-
T
HE trade which we have with non-contiguous territory, over
which the flag floats, is also growing at an enormous pace.
It is estimated, according to the government reports, that our export
and import trade with Porto Rico will amount to nearly fifty
millions during the present year.
Surely, that shows expansion when compared with the six or
eight millions which we had before the American occupation and
the surface has hardly been scratched.
All of this foreign trade helps every industry, and while the
outlet for pianos an:l musical instruments will not be extraordinarily
large in Ch.'na, presumably in the near future, yet there is a big
demand for the smaller instruments, including talking machines;
in fact, the talking machine to-day is doing more to advertise this
country than almost any other American force in China.
Then, too, in figuring trade, we must understand that the globe-
girdling trip of the American Navy is also a powerful factor in
stimulating trade. Already, beneficial effects have been noted, and
an important house in Yokohama, Japan, which is a large purchaser
of music trade supplies, sent a communication last month to the
American Felt Company of this city, in which the following state-
ment appeared:
"Permit us to state that all Americans arc writing home that
this visit of the fleet has done more to improve friendly conditions
here than the total expense attached to the fleet costs for the entire
journey. The men were given the greatest reception possible by
the people, and the Navy was given a good lesson as to what the
States are able to put up. Therefore, while we are compelled to
admit that the Japanese Navy was willing and even anxious to cross
swords with America, no matter what the reason, they feel differ-
ently now. This visit has been the greatest move politically ever
made by the government for the people, and the betterment of
future conditions commercially."
That is the way a great music trade concern in the East views
one of the recent moves made by the government.
T
H E trend of the times is to be more exact in everything, lousi-
ness institutions which succeeded years ago on loose slipshod
methods cannot exist along similar lines to-day. System is de-
manded in every subdivision of life, and regulations that are not
rigidly observed, are far more demoralizing to a business than no
regulations at all. Even small enterprises to-day work with a sys-
tem which was not in evidence a few years ago.
A manager of a New York establishment, and not a very large
one, has recently insisted on every employe being present at nine
o'clock—not nine-one or nine-ten, but precisely at nine. He says
that any employe who arrives late, except in extreme instances, is
discharged.
Excuses are interesting, if true, but unconvincing. If the train
was late, he said they should have taken an early one. If the clerk
is ill he gets someone in better health. In other words, he says he
is not regulating his business by train schedule, weather bureaus
or hospitals, but he proposes to maintain the efficiency of his busi-
ness staff. This is cold blooded, it is true, but it maintains the
efficiency of the staff and saves time and money of the firm, and
the manager says that is what he is paid to do.