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THE
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NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30, 1911
Macaulay once remarked that there was nothing
so ridiculous in all the world as the spectacle of
the British public in one of its periodical fits of
morality. We might paraphrase by saying that
there is nothing in the world so excruciatingly
funny as the spectacle of the American people in
one of their periodical fits of reformation. Our
fits of morality come, too, but they are hardly so
disgustingly pharisaical as those of the English;
though, Heaven known, they are bad enough!
But it is in our periodical reformations of every-
thing and everybody that we particularly shine as
(unconscious) humorists. There is something
amusing about the idea of a whole nation simulta-
neously jumping to the conclusion that everything
is wrong, and that some panacea, devised the even-
ing before at 5:30, is precisely and exactly the
remedy for the particular sort of "weltkrankheit"
from which we, at the time in question, suppose
ourselves to be suffering. If we contented our-
selves with the very defensible supposition that
everything, in a broad and general way, is wrong,
that everything which is wrong is a symptom of
some deep, underlying economic and social dis-
ease, then there might be something said in sup-
port. But it is exactly not this that we say, feel
and think when our periodical fits come upon us.
No, we are not satisfied with anything like that.
Or is it perhaps rather that we are unable, as a
nation, to look beyond the surface of things? Is
it perhaps that we seize upon effects and pro-
nounce them causes, simply for very incapacity to
see the difference between the vital and the inci-
dental? There is justice in the view, severe though
it seem to be. But, apart from the question of
origins, there can be no doubt whatever as to the
matter of facts. We do actually and precisely fall,
at regular intervals, into a sort of reformatory
frenzy. We announce in a stentorian way that
this time the real cure for all the evils in the
world has been found, and that the remedy is so
and so. And instantly we all go raving mad over
the idea, until the fit dies away. We are in just
such a period at present, and the results that we
are obtaining are the wonder and amusement of
the whole world.
We have now discovered that the cause of all
the trouble in the world is that people perform ac-
tions in a wasteful manner. They take too long
to perform a certain action, or require to make too
many separate and uncoordinated motions in order
to get a certain definite result. Hence, the work-
man works wastefully, the employer administers
wastefully, the buyer buys wastefully, the con-
sumer consumes wastefully, and so on all down
the line. The disease is dire, but there is a rem-
edy. . What is it? Why, simply to eliminate all
the wasteful motions. Then we shall all work,
buy, sell, make money, spend it, live and die, eco-
nomically. And all the world will be happy and
prosperous. Alt poverty will disappear, the trusts
will be good, the tariff will cease to trouble and
all will be lovelv!
But a horrid doubt assails one. Is' not the pic-
ture a little overdrawn? Is not perhaps the dis-
ease a little exaggerated? Or is it true, after all,
that the malady of the body politic is really diag-
nosed well by our Scientific Management doctors?
These reflections, as well as the previous' remarks,
are inspired by a solicitude for the welfare of our
own business. As Americans, and especially as
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
piano men, we devote a good deal of time to com-
plaining about conditions, about our employees, our
methods and our trade. And the trouble with the
present panacea r.ow so lavishly offered, is that we
may imagine it to contain the remedy for our own
troubles before we have ourselves found out exact-
ly what it is going to do for us, or even just what
it is. And therein, if anywhere, lie the seeds of
trouble and dissension. One may well be more
afraid of the remedy than of the disease than it
pretends to cure.
Manufacturers in our line of work may often
wish that they might find ways and means for
making more efficient the human machines which
they employ. But there is a vast economic as well
as physiological difference between human mecha-
nisms and the other kind, for the former have a
way of objecting to being reformed. While we are
all talking about scientific management and the
elimination of lost motion, it might be well to ask
ourselves whether the men who are directly con-
cerned are going to stand being experimented
on; whether, after all, they will endure being
asked to economize their motions to the end of
turning out greater quantities of work; whether,
in short, they at all propose to be compelled to
what they, in their blindness and lack of scientific
understanding, will call, with brutal directness,
"doing more work for the same pay." Before we
adopt in our business the theory of scientific man-
agement, it might be well for us to find out whether
there is any possible chance of its working out
well.
But what we have been discussing is what might
be called the science of efficiency. If we turn to
the art of efficiency, we have a horse of another
color. Every man has it within himself, and there
only, to make of himself what he wills. "As a
man thinketh, so is he." And it is well for us not
to confuse an experiment in applying more or less
impracticable, though theoretically correct, rules'
with psychological processes which it is within
the power of every man to apply to himself. And
in our business, it is especially needful that we do
not allow ourselves to run away with the notion
that we can apply any patent medicine to our in-
dustrial troubles. W T e need efficiency, God knows
how badly! But we can best get it through enlar-
ging the avenues through which men may come to
desire it; not at all by applying to men the ideas
that rule in the building of machines. Let us educate
men to believe in themselves, in their potentialities,
their inherent powers. When we do this, and, in
addition, give them the possibility of living reason-
ably decent lives, we shall be laying the foundations
for a more general cultivation of the art of effi-
ciency, compared with which any result obtained
by the use of theoretical scientific management
will seem childish.
That scientific management, of the true sort,
has a place in the future of our player business,
however, no one will be foolish enough to deny.
But it will come less as a matter of calculating de-
tails than of infusing a different spirit. It is not
so much the manner in which we are doing things
as the ideas which we have in doing them that we
need to correct. We need a new conception of the
player-piano as an article built for consumption
by the public. Especially do we need to get rid of
the idea that any sort of player-mechanism is a
good player mechanism so long as it works. There
has been too much of that already. We need to
begin over again by looking at the player-piano as
an instrument for the production of music, as a
means for piano playing. And to do that success-
fully, we need to know something of what piano
playing is. In short, it is a closer sympathy be-
tween the ideas of the mechanic and of the musi-
cian that we need. This' is a profound truth, the
significance of which has not always been well
understood by those who design and control our
player-mechanisms.
Given the right spirit, and the matter of details
becomes relatively small, especially during the
formative period of an industry.. In the case of
the player-piano, we have something of which
hardly the surface has been scratched. The mere
fact that some of us talk as if the player-mecha-
nism were already measurably perfected is proof
enough that a large amount of misunderstanding
has been, and is prevalent. If one were to seek
for the reasons behind such misconceptions, so
damaging to the future of the player-mechanism as
an article of commerce, one would probably find
that a narrow specialization is at the bottom of the
trouble. Specialization is a virtue to a certain
extent; beyond that point it becomes' a vice. A
special feature of the theory to which we have
been adverting lies in its insistence upon the ex-
cessive subdivision of activities in a given con-
structional process. Now, while it may be true
that the continually more minute division of labor
is a good thing in the mere mechanical parts of
player building, it is certainly not true that a nar-
rowing down of this sort is' valuable in the design-
ing room. A man who undertakes to make a good
player-mechanism will not be able to do this suc-
cessfully if he knows nothing except the mechan-
ical basis of pneumatic design. Unless he has
some sort of realization concerning the mechanism
in its future uses, unless, in fact, he realizes in a
practical way what exactly it is that the player-
mechanism is to be called on to do, he will never
make a thoroughly good player. It has been the
curse of the player business so far that the musical
side of it has been neglected.
The narrow specialist has been only too prone
always to call every man a "theorist" and a
"dreamer" who was not born under a glue pot in
a factory. The fact that a man has' done nothing
all his life long except work at player-mechanisms
doc> not necessarily assure that he will be the best
authority on the subject. But it does some-
times lead to his being ignorant and narrow-mind-
ed. And the unprejudiced observer who exam-
ines critically some player-mechanisms of to-day
cannot but believe that narrow-minded specialism
has been the dominating influence in their con-
struction. We need a broader outlook on our
problem, and we shall best get this by making up
our minds to the very simple fact that the player-
piano is after all and ultimately, intended to play
the piano. No one who does not clearly understand
what he means when he says this can possibly be
a good player designer. Some day all perhaps will
recognize this'. But at present such doctrine h
held to be radical and almost revolutionary. It
may be a strong statement, but the infusion of a
little more of the "theorist" and the "dreamer"
into the composition of our player business would
be a very good thing for everybody concerned
PLAYER-PIANO AS TEACHER.
The University of Wisconsin Install Player-
Pianos and Are Utilizing Them in a Spe-
cial Course of Musical Appreciation—An Im-
portant Move That is Worthy of Simulation
by Colleges With Musical Departments.
(Special to The Review.)
Madison, Wis., Sept. 25, 1911.
Believing that the general American public does
not appreciate good music at its true value, the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin has instituted a course in mu-
sical appreciation to which any student in the uni-
versity is admitted without previous musical knowl-
edge. The novel feature about this course is the
use of an electric piano-player, capable of the most
delicate production of musical compositions, to
demonstrate the beauty hidden in the compositions
of the great masters. Two regular university cred-
its are allowed each semester for this course. The
work consists of lectures, with illustrations on the
piano-player, in all the principles of musical struc-
ture, methods, aesthetics and criticism. The work
begins with a consideration of the simpler forms of
musical composition, such as the aria, the anthem
and the sonata, from which it then proceeds to the
analysis of larger compositions, such as sympho-
nies, operas and oratorios.
A new definition of the word "competitor": A
merchant who aids you in creating better business,
for the benefit of both.