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THE
MUSIC TRADE
Werlein and without doubt there will be an advertising value saved
which has long been going to waste.
When a piano costing thousands of dollars is used on the con-
cert platform by one of the greatest artists of our day a critical
report of the affair is made, but no mention appears of the name of
the instrument with which the artist was enabled to captivate a large
audience.
A piano capable of being used in concert work represents not
merely a commercial triumph, but an artistic one as well, and the
name of the maker is quite as worthy of mention as the creator of
an automobile or a flying machine or any other specialty of human
brains and skill.
Mr. Werlein has set a good example and it should be followed
by dealers in all sections of the country.
I
N manufacturing circles there has been a great deal of discus-
sion upon the verdict recently rendered in the celebrated Dan-
bury hatters' boycott case.
This decision naturally interests the employers of labor because
it establishes a legal condition that employers and employes must
fight out their differences along lines of fairness and not by resort-
ing to illegal methods.
As a matter of fact the Danbury verdict was largely a matter
of form since the United States Supreme Court had already passed
on the vital point in dispute, which was whether or not a secondary
boycott conducted by a labor union constituted an unlawful restraint
of trade. The Supreme Court held, in dismissing a demurrer filed
by the defendants, that if the facts alleged by the complainants, the
hat-making firm of D. E, Loewe & Co., could be established they
constituted a violation of the Sherman anti-trust law. The defend-
ing labor union contended that the successful secondary boycott
which it had been conducting was not punishable under the Sherman
law, because that law was not applicable to efforts on the part of a
labor union to interfere with the sale to outside parties of the prod-
ucts of a manufacturing concern with which the union was engaged
in hostilities. Judge Platt, of the United States District Court for
the District of Connecticut, instructed the jury that the facts of the
conspiracy to deter persons not members of the union from dealing
with the boycotted firm were too plain to be disputed and ordered
the jurors to bring in a verdict of guilty, using their judgment only
as to the amount of damages.
The hatters 1 union will take an appeal on the ground that the
verdict of $222,000, with costs, is excessive. That amount may be
reduced, but no matter what the reduction may be the important
principle will remain decided that a labor union has no special rights
under the anti-trust law and must face the legal penalties for prac-
tising intimidation and similar restraints on trade and commerce
just as any other corporation or organization must which under-
takes to use an illegal weapon like the blacklist or the secondary
boycott. One form of compulsion in restraint of trade is just as
odious as another. If a labor union and a manufacturing concern
disagree, each has a right to declare non-intercourse with the other.
The concern is entitled to discharge its employes, if contracts do not
prevent, and the employes have a right to agree not to use the
articles manufactured by the employer. The two combatants may
boycott each other directly, but they must fight it out fairly between
themselves and refrain from drawing innocent third parties unwill-
ingly into the quarrel. The boycotted concern is not entitled to con-
spire with other concerns to deprive the boycotters of employment,
or to threaten or annoy other concerns which do employ them.
Similarly, the boycotters must not use intimidation to discourage
outsiders from handling or buying the boycotted firm's products.
It is a fair law, working impartially both ways. Were blacklisting
and secondary boycotting allowed one small labor dispute might
spread so as to involve the whole country and entail loss, annoyance
and privation on millions of people in no way concerned in the dis-
pute and having no proper interest one way or another in its settle-
ment.
The anti-trust law was passed in order to protect the public
against artificial interference of all sorts with freedom of commerce.
Its prohibitions are aimed at trade and manufacturing combinations
formed to restrict output, suppress competition, intimidate middle-
men or otherwise shut the consumer out of a free market. Thev
are also logically and necessarily aimed at labor combinations which
try to accomplish the same result^ i-n carrying out a policy of private
proscription,
REVIEW
IN LIGHTER VEIN
"Mamma, is that bay rum in the bottle on your table?" "Mercy, no,
dear," she replied, "that is mucilage." "Oh!" said little Johnny, "perhaps
that's why I can't get my hat off."
HINT THAT FAILED.—Wife—A tree, you know, gets new clothes
every spring—hat, parasol, everything.
Husband—Yes, darling, and makes them all itself.—Fliegende Blatter.
UNPROFESSIONAL.—"You and your old friend Meandering Mik«
have separated," said the village constable.
"Yep," answered Plodding Pete. "He's a plagiarist. He got up early
in de morning an' went down de road tellin' me best hard luck story."
PROBABLY ON THE TEAM.—"Such ignorance is inexcusable!" ex-
claimed Aunt Hypatia. "My nephew Percival has been going to college
nearly three years, and when I asked him this morning "whether he knew
anything about Homer he said: 'Sure! A homer is a hit that's good
for four bases.' "
\
NOT HER.—The Doctor—Mrs. Murphy, you must be at your hus-
band's side constantly, as you may need to hand him something every
little while.
Mrs. Murphy—Niver, doctor! Fur be it from me to hit a man whin
he's down!—Puck.
HIS OPINION.—"Why .do* the current magazines print so much
poetry?"
"I can tell you."
"I'm listening."
"It's a scheme to force people to read the advertisements."
NEW LIGHT ON HOLMES.—Two old ladies wandering about the
Public Library building in Boston the other day entered Bates Hall and
gazed interestedly at a bust of Oliver Wendell Holmes in black bronze.
"Well," one old lady remarked very audibly to the other one. "1
never know before that Dr. Holmes was a negro."
WHEN A PRESIDENT "GETS MAD."—One moral seems to be that,
whereas a person high in public authority and sworn to execute the laws
of the land reserves the inalienable private right to get "mad clean
through," such person in such circumstances is not warranted in divert-
ing the legal machinery at his command to stretch the law to the splin-
tering point of satisfaction.—Providence Journal.
Miss Oldgirl—When papa came in the parlor last night he found me
in Charley Smart's arms.
Miss Newgirl—I guess that accounts for what he said to my father
this morning.
'
Miss Oldgirl—What did he say?
Miss Newgirl—He said Charley Smart had an old head on young
shoulders.
Dr. Blank, a professor in the University of Virginia, was on the eve
of a trip to Europe to be absent two years. In pathetic and rather har-
rowing tones he made his farewell address to the class:
"Yes, I am about to part from you. This is more than distressing to
me. Would that there was a window in my breast, my dear boys, that
you might see the innermost recesses of my heart!"
A stripling in the rear, seized with a happy thought, shouted:
"Professor, would a pain in the stomach do?"
A young man wishing to have a bit of fun at a farmer's expense
passed a few remarks about his cattle and his garden, and then said he
had set some lettuce and cabbages had grown up.
Then the farmer said:
"Oh, that's nothing. I set some carrot seeds, and what do you think
came up?"
"Don't know," replied the young man.
Farmer: "Why, old Brown's donkey, and ate the lot."
JUST WHAT HE WANTED.—He was a weary, thin and sallow-
looking American, who had never been so far west before, and when he
struck Carson City he hailed the first native he met and asked: "Can
you tell me, sir, if there are any mineral springs about here?"
"What kind of water are you looking for now?"
"Well, no kind in particular. I was told, though, that I'd find a
variety of springs out here."
"Well, stranger, I have got just what you want. A vacant lot in the
best part of the city. Finest iron springs in the country. Go and see
for yourself."
"But how do you know it's iron?" queried the Easterner.
"Well, pardner, I drove my horse through It, and he came out with
t
iron shoes on his feet. And that ain't all. I drove some pigs down there
to drink. They turned into pig-iron, and I sold them to the iron-foundry.
Just what you want, for sale, cheap, Why, halloa! What's the matter?"
^The weary Easterner had turned, abruptly and was walking off up the
Street.