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THE
MUSIC TRADE
RENEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
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important feature of this publication is a complete sec-
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NEW YORK, JANUARY 22, 1910
EDITORIAL
A
NUMBER of advertisements put forth by various retail piano
concerns throughout the country indicate that the January
bargain offerings are now in evidence.
Merchants in all lines seem to think that it is impossible to get
the people to come in to the various stores in January without a
brass band and various other accompaniments.
It may be true that extra inducements are necessary to bring
out the people, but it seems as if the present idea of slaughtering
prices indiscriminately is not a safe one.
When a dealer advertises a piano worth $450 for $225 does it
not look as if he were carrying price cutting to an extreme point?
Surely no one could believe that if a piano was actually worth
$450 that the dealer could afford to sell it for $225.
Men would know at once that he had not reached the point
where his profits wore entirely eliminated.
It may be well enough for merchants in certain lines to sell
goods which are going out of style at cost or below cost, but people
of intelligence know that pianos do not depreciate in such a manner,
therefore the bait offered by such an announcement as we have
quoted above is carrying the point a little too far and it is culti-
vating the idea in the minds of the public that there is no real basis
of piano values, for when a customer is offered a piano at a price
there is no guarantee that the price is anywhere near the right one
and statements of such alarming reductions do not smack of good
merchandising.
The announcements are too sensational to belong to a settled
trade.
•No, it is not good business to cultivate the impression in the
minds of, the purchasing public that piano prices are not right.
Again we notice that the system of guessing contests is having
a good swing at this time once more.
Well, after the guessing contests what then ?
When business is forced up to a certain point through methods
REVIEW
which are sensational and are not sound the question is what will
men do to hold trade up when these temporary props are removed
and they cannot last forever.
It is pretty difficult to tell just where the guessing contest and
coupon plan is going to leave the piano trade of the future.
SUBSCRIBER w r riting to The Review from an Eastern city
says that he does not look for a big trade in his line during
the present year owing to the fact that the increased cost in living
makes it impossible for many people to purchase pianos.
There is no question but that the rising tide in living cost is
affecting all lines of trade, but how are we going to stop it?
That is the question.
A lot of brilliant minds have been discussing this matter.
Eight well-known American economists have favored the pub-
lic with their explanations of the present soaring prices. As is
usual among experts of the economical faculty, there is considerable
difference of opinion and further proof thus afforded that their
science, despite all the effort expended on it, is not yet an exact one.
Yet from the eight explanations a greater concurrence of view
can be extracted than is common. Five mention the increase in
the world's gold supply as the chief or a chief cause of the rise.
It is needless to say that Prof. Irving Fisher, of Yale, is the most
pronounced advocate of the gold theory. For several years, on
every available occasion, he sounded the tocsin of alarm, pointing
out that if there was not found a way to lessen the flow of golden
treasure from the mines that the world would soon face a grave
crisis. Agreeing with him, although less emphatic and allowing for
other causes, are Prof. Frank Taussig, of Harvard; Prof. Frank
J. Goodnow, of Columbia; Prof. Davis R. Dewey, of the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, and Prof. J. R. Kennedy, of the
University of Illinois. On the other hand, Prof. Simon N. Patten
denies that the increased gold supply has had any appreciable influ-
ence, while Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin, of the University of Chi-
cago, lays the chief blame on the trusts, and Prof. John B. Clark,
of Columbia, on the exhaustion of natural resources.
There is a common note of hopelessness. Prof. Fisher sees no
relief in sight unless a way is found to boost interest rates more
quickly and thus apply a brake to the overstimulus that rising prices
give to industry. Prof. Taussig says that "it is inevitable that
prices should advance." Prof. Goodnow sees no relief except
Argentina comes to the world's assistance with new food supplies.
"Higher yet," says Prof. Dewey, and Prof. Kennedy is similarly
discouraging. Prof. Laughlin predicts "still higher prices for all
commodities," Prof. Clark sees "no immediate relief for the high
prices," and Prof. Patten says the same. The eight economists are
thus a unit on the proposition that things are to grow worse before
they grow better for the man whose expenses are increasing faster
than his wages or his salary.
Yet some progress is made when there is general perception of
the fact that the gold supply of the world has relation to the price
average. In many industries, to secure stability, the principle of
regulating production is necessary. Is it possible, to keep average
prices from sliding first up and then down, that there must be con-
trol of gold production with only a stipulated number of ounces
allowed to be mined each year? If the gold theorists are right, and
the yellow metal comes in greater volume, there would seem to be
no other way to hold the balance true between debtor and creditor
except to alter the weights of gold coin or introduce some multiple
standard of value.
T
HERE are but few piano manufacturing institutions in this
country which are doing an appreciable business in South
America.
All of the trade which comes from those countries at the present
time is sporadic.
Tt is a piano here and there and the total does not figure very
much.
Tn this connection it may be interesting to review briefly some
trade statistics, showing jn.st how our trade balance stands with
Latin America.
From a preliminary statement issued by the Treasury Depart-
ment we learn that final reports will show that trade between the
United States and South America in HJOO, was greater than in anv
year preceding. The total volume of this commerce is estimated at