Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
HYKW
fflJJIC TIRADE
VOL.
L. N o . 2 3 .
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave., New York, June 4,1910
10 CENTS.
$ 8E OSS>ERVEA C R E
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O M P E T I T I O N , if it is of the right kind, is stimulating, but when competition consists of price
cutting and abuse it is depressing.
We need the competition which means aggressiveness in the conduct of business and pro-
gressiveness in methods.
Competition, where good service and high quality of products are offered, enter into trade argu-
ments.
The ambition to increase the volume of business is commendable, but the methods to accomplish
the desired end should be strictly honest and above criticism.
Price cutting and continued violation of trade ethics may temporarily increase trade, but the final
results will be demoralization.
Tn the strife for trade it must be borne in mind that money can only be made by sustaining values,
and values cannot be maintained if no backbone be exhibited.
A man who attempts to build his business by adopting abusive methods and permits his sales-
men to "knock" certain instruments with which he is competing is following the wrong road, and in the
end the men who adopt these methods will suffer, fn the meanwhile unfair "knocking" has the tend-
ency to discredit merchants adopting such methods in the estimation of the public.
Good, old-fashioned common sense seems to be quite a rarity in some localities nowadays, but if
men adhered to the fundamental principles which teach the necessity of being frank and honest, they
could secure much better results.
The competition which brings into play high qualities is bound to eliminate the "knocker," and the
quicker he is cut off from mankind the better.
.
When a salesman can present no more forceful argument to a prospective customer than state-
ments which embody "knocks" against a competitor—abuse of instruments—his usefulness has ended.
He has missed his calling, and certainly he has no place in the trade, which should demand from the men
who present arguments to the purchasing public, clean-cut, honest statements.
No condition, no matter how trying, justifies "knocking."
It is astounding sometimes to find men who are almost innocent of any knowledge of the business
in which they are engaged, but they show at once evidence of having graduated from the "knocking"
school.
That's the kind of an institution where the certificate issued for membership should bring discredit
upon the holder.
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