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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
country may well regard when the balance falls low. It is true
that a more rapid increase in imports than exports may connote a
rapid increase in wealth. But it is also true that it may indicate
over-action and a depletion of necessary supplies of liquid capital.
A certain school of economists may say that the balance of trade
doesn't matter, but the hard-headed man of business not only thinks
but knows from experience that it does matter. Superficially the
January trade figures, like those of the preceding six months, sug-
gest that we are buying too much and selling too little—that per-
haps the American level of prices is out of joint with the prices
of the remainder of the world, and that there is need of readjust-
ment.
Y
ET looked at in detail the figures are not as portentous as they
are in the gross. For familiar reasons, when it appears that
the enlarged import volume is chiefly in non-competitive articles or
in raw materials, it is less significant than when the increase is in
articles the supply of which is not determined by natural causes
and as to which there is competing production. Examined from
this point of view it is possible to derive some reassurance when
scrutinizing the present import movement. The item as to which
there is the largest increase of imports is the one of hides and
skins—the raw material of the leather manufacturing industry.
During 1909 the hide imports were $103,000,000, against $57,000,-
000 for the same month in 1908. The next largest increase is in
rubber, another raw material. Imports increased from $44,000,000
to $79,000,000. The third largest increase is in unmanufactured
wool, $32,000,000, and the fourth in diamonds, a non-competitive
luxury, $24,000,000. Other large increases are in coffee, $15,000,-
000; art works, $14,000,000. and in cotton laces, $8,000,000. Speak-
ing broadly it thus does not appear that the imports mean the dis-
placement of goods of American manufacture except to the extent
that a person who has bought one thing is less likely to buy another.
The diamond item and the art work item, however, are strongly
suggestive of extravagance in expenditure. That thirty-six million
dollars worth of diamonds have been sold in America in a year
is amazing.
G
LANCING at the export figures it appears that the greatest
fall off was in wheat—a decline of $42,000,000, or nearly 50
per cent., in 1909. Despite the high price for cotton per pound
cotton exports decreased $23,000,000 in value. Provisions and
meats also show a large falling off, although prices are higher. We
may not yet be economizing, but Europe plainly is. We can hardly
expect any considerable enlargement in the foreign demand unless
prices come down, and this, of course, will largely depend on the
size of the season's crops. No boycott of American goods is going
on—it is a case of the foreigner not feeling that he can afford
them. The drop in the foreign demand is calculated to bring hope
to the American consumer, and points to a lower level of prices
for staples this fall than now.
W
E have received an advertisement of a well-known piano
house whose name we will not mention, but accompanying
this advertisement is a note from a local dealer who states: "It is
plain that this concern needs the help of dealers in the marketing
of their product. What an ungrateful lot they are to use such
arguments as these to discredit the dealer."
The advertisement after extolling a particular piano in terms
of the highest praise contains the following sentence: "We are
offering you an opportunity to purchase a strictly high grade piano
•—the world's finest piano—for less money than a dealer could buy
them by the carload."
It would seem to us that the dealer is perfectly correct in his
statement, and, how any set of business men can hope to sell the
dealer and then turn about in their advertising and strike back at
him is a line of reasoning which we are not quite able to fathom.
Men who adopt this form of advertising should know full well
that these public announcements are scattered through various chan-
nels throughout the land and such lines of publicity will be sure
to have an effect upon the business of the house putting it forth
later on.
There is no other way as we view it.
Dealers will certainly not enthuse over the product of a house
which states that it can sell pianos for less money than the dealer
could buy them by the carload.
Where does the dealer come in on such a proposition?
The advertiser controls the source of supplies and he can
make his own prices.
What incentive is there to the dealer to push a piano under such
conditions?
The feeling which such advertisements arouse would embitter
the retail trade against the instruments put forth by manufacturers
under such exploitation.
If we were asked to express an opinion we should say that there
could be but one sequel to such a course if persisted in.
The manufacturer will be compelled to dispose of his product
through his own branches, for the dealers will not be inclined to en-
thuse over a house which deliberately stabs them.
IN LIGHTER VEIN
ILLUSORY.—The tallest fhaft in the cemetery isn't going to take a
man any nearer heaven.
HER GUESS.—Hubby—There's another chap committed suicide be-
cause his home was unhappy.
Wifey—I daresay it will be happier now.
DELAY.—"I'll be ready in a minute," she said to her husband.
"You needn't hurry now," he called up some time later, "I find that
I shall have to shave again."—Detroit Free Press.
ABLE TO GO IT ALONE.—The Lawyer (who is drafting Mr.
Snarler's last will and testament)—Oh, but if I may make a suggestion,
don't you
Mr. Snarler—Hang it all, who's dying, you or me, eh?
A "COOK" TOURIST.—Mrs. Robinson—And were you up the Rhine?
Mrs. De Jones (just returned from a Continental trip)—I should
think so; right to the very top. What a splendid view there is from
the summit!
TAXING THE LANGUAGE.—Daughter—Mamma, can't I have a
little money for shopping this morning?
Mrs. Malaprop—No, dear; there's the taxes to pay, and I expect the
taxidermist around any moment.—Boston Transcript.
GENTLEMANLY CROOK.—Mr. Prosperous—A great, big, able-bodied
man like you ought to be ashamed to ask a stranger for money.
Meandering Mike—1 know I ought; but, mister, I'm too kind-hearted
to tap you on de head and take it away from you.
A MIX-UP.—"Couple of fine girls, ain't they? One of 'em is a fine
singer, and the other one can cook."
"Yes, old man. But there's a tragedy in your home. The one who
sings thinks she can cook, and the one who cooks thinks she can sing."
A DILEMMA.—Mr. Crimsonbeak—A hunter in Newfoundland who
has lost his bearings, or finds himself in a fog, has no difficulty in finding
the way, as, owing to the constant west winds, the tops of all the trees
point east."
Mrs. Crimsonbeak—But suppose he doe-n't want to go east?"—
Yonkers Statesman.
SYNONYMOUS.—"Pardon me," said the young man from New York,
"but may I inquire what kind of a dog that is?"
"Certainly," replied the Boston maid. "He is an expectorator."
"Indeed!" exclaimed the y. m. "I don't think I ever heard of the
breed."
"No doubt," rejoined the fair owner, coldly. "He is what you would
call a Spitz."
NOT IF HE COULD HELP IT.—"Young man," inquired her father,
sternly, "will you give her a home like the one she has been used to?"
"No," replied the truthful suitor; "for there will be no grumpy father
to come home and make everyone miserable by his kicking over trifles
and swearing at matters in general. There will be no mother to scold
her from morning to night for wasting time merely because she wants
to be neat.
"There will be no big brother to abuse her for not doing half of his
work, and no little brother to make enough noiSe to drive her crazy when
her head aches. There won't be any younger sister to insist on reading
?ome trashy novel while she does all the work.
"She will not have with me a home like she has been used to, not If
I can help it!"