Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1911 Vol. 53 N. 22

Page 4 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorial Stall:
GLAD. HENDERSON, EUGENE C. MAYER, H. E. JAMASON B. BRITTAIN WILSON, W. H. DYKES,
A. J. NICKLIN,
AUGUST J. '1'IMPE,
W M . B. WHITE,
L. E. BOWERS.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 37 South Wabash Ave.
Telephone, Central 414.
Telephone, Main 6950.
Room 806.
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS a n d ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
BOSTON OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 824 Washington St.
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EDSTEN.
SAN FRANCISCO:
CLYDE JENNJNGS.
S. H. GRAY, 88 First Street.
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTERS.
BALTIMORE, MD.i A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
VV. LIONEL STURDY, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Can-
ada, $3.50; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.50 per inch, single column, per insertion.
On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $75.00.
REMITTANCES,
in other than currency fontis, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
^ n important feature of this publication is a complete ser-
tion devoted to the interests of music publishers and dealers.
HllA
allU
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, reg-
tc
ulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
l e U l l l l l d l V e p d n i l r c l l l S . d e a l t with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. ...Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address: "Elbill, New York."
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 2 , 1911
EDITORIAL
R
EPORTS regarding trade conditions throughout the country
continue to be most satisfactory. There are no signs of
recession from the recent improvement reported by Review corre-
spondents. The turn over of merchandise of last week, as noted
by the total of bank clearings, appears to exceed that for the same
period last year, and even that of 1909.
Piano merchants, like other business men, have not been carry-
ing surplus stock, and in fact are not now stocking very far ahead,
hence the fact that they are now ordering liberally indicates that
buyers of and inquiries for pianos are much in evidence.
Despite the present trend it is not expected that there is going to
be any radical change from the conservative course that has been
pursued in all lines of trade for the past twelve months. The
cautious or waiting policy prevails. This will undoubtedly continue
until the political situation clears.
Everyone admits that there is a good undertone to trade and
that the fundamental conditions are sound, still people have in
mind the fact that within a few weeks Congress will assemble and
there is always danger of politicians making trouble. A great deal
of this fear, however, is discounted, and business men are not look-
ing for any legislation of a revolutionary character. In a broad
way people seem to have become more or less calloused as to the
political disturbances. They feel as if conditions could not very
well be worse and that, therefore, any change must be for the better.
A notable feature of the trade this fall is the call for player-
pianos. There is a marked increase in the demand as compared
with the same period of last year, and it now looks as if the total
output of player-pianos for the year will assume proportions far
in excess of that predicted at the opening of 1911,
REVIEW
A
NATION-WIDE canvass of business men to learn their atti-
tude toward the Sherman law and President Taft's policy of
wholesale prosecutions under its provisions is being inaugurated by
the New York Board of Trade and Transportation. If sentiment
is generally against it and the President's policy, as the officials of
the board believe it is, a campaign will be undertaken for the repeal
or amendmenUof the Sherman law and the substitution of a statute
which will make legally possible the conduct of business in line with
the tenets of modern economics.
Two years ago the Board of Trade and Transportation ap-
pointed a committee to learn the effects on business of the Sherman
law, but it was then decided to wait until the Supreme Court had
made an interpretation of the statute in the Standard Oil and Ameri-
can Tobacco cases.
A quorum of the twelve members of the committee got to-
gether in executive session last Friday and decided to push their
canvass. Although the meeting was secret it is understood that the
sentiment of the committee was strongly against the Sherman law
and President Taft's announced intention of continuing prosecutions.
It was decided that the Sherman law should be amended or repealed.
The committee of the Board of Trade and Transportation was
selected chiefly with the idea of having it representative of the
average business sentiment of the country rather than that of the big
interests. This is evident from the makeup of the committee, which
is headed by Charles H. Steinway, of Steinway & Sons, representing
the piano trade; Charles U. Carpenter, chairman, Fireproof Furni-
ture and Construction Co.; Charles A. Moore, president Manning,
Maxwell & Moore; Philip T. Dodge, president Mergenthaler Lino-
type Co.; Edward Meyer, vice-president Russell & Erwin Manu-
facturing Co.; Joseph W. Lantry, president William H. Jackson Co.;
George C. Boldt, president Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Co.; William
McCarroll, Public Service Commission; Emil Kohler, American
Encaustic Tiling Co.; Charles A. Schieren, of Charles A. Schieren
& Co.; Charles Rohe, of Rohe & Bro., and Frank Brainard, of Brain-
ard Bros., president Board of Trade and Transportation.
It has not yet been decided what method will be adopted to
gather the opinions of the business community at large, but the com-
mittee may formulate a set of questions which will also draw out the
average opinion of what form new statutes relating to business
should take.
Another possibility is that carefully drawn up resolutions ex-
pressing the ideas of the New York Board of Trade and Transpor-
tation will be adopted and circulated for the concurrence of other
bodies of business men all over the country.
The committee believes that their views are those generally held
by the average manufacturer and merchant, and if such proves to be
the case they will endeavor to bring the pressure of the country's
entire business interests, as represented by organized bodies of busi-
ness iren all over the country, to bear on the Administration. In
order to adopt a course which will be as nearly unanimous as possible
a meeting of the committee has been called for December 4.
A
CCORDING to the bulletin of the United States Trade-mark
Association a recent proceeding in the Japanese Patent
Office is of special interest to owners of trade-marks in the United
States—it will, indeed, give them quite a new idea of conditions
in Japan. The proceeding in question had to do with the cancella-
tion of a mark that was claimed to be an infringement upon a
well-known American mark. The mark of the American firm
had been registered in the United States Patent Office in the year
1896, but was never registered in Japan. Tn 1902 the defendant,
a Japanese, registered in Japan a mark similar in all respects to
that of the American firm and for the same class of goods. The
registration was canceled upon the application of the American
firm, and an appeal was taken by the Japanese, the result of which
was an affirmance of the decree of cancellation. The proceeding
was decided under the provision of the present trade-mark law of
Japan, forbidding'the registration of marks identical with or
similar to other marks well known to the public. The American
firm submitted in evidence of the widespread public knowledge of
their trade-mark various documents showing the extent of the
business carried on by them in Japan from 1896 to the present time.
They maintained that it was absurd to believe that anyone could
have exactly copied their mark as a mere accident and without
being familiar with it. The court approved of this view.

Page 5 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Most Valuable Space in the Store.
There are Plenty of Merchants Everywhere Who Permit the Choicest Space in Their Stores to Go to
Waste—They Do Not Fully Appreciate the Value of a Good Window Display—Special Depart-
ments Organized By Manufacturers Which Have Educated Retailers to the Point of Getting Better
Results From Their Window Display Than Ever Before—Some National Dealers Like The
Victor Talking Machine Co. Who Have Lead the Way—How Some Dealers Dress Up Their
Windows —The Piano Merchants Have Much to Learn Along the Lines of Window Show—It Is
True That There Are Not the Opportunities for Variety Which May Be Found in Other Trades
But Still Some Attractive Displays Can Be Made If Intelligent Effort Is Placed Upon the Develop-
ment of Window Show—Special Decorative Scheme Which Will Attract the Passers-by Can Be
Easily Arranged By the Piano Merchant, Thus Making the Window a Powerful Trade Promoter.
T
H E value of a good window display is not fully appreciated by
a large majority of piano merchants of this country.
If we started on the East Coast and traveled to the Pacific visit-
ing various sizeable towns we should find that perhaps in each large
town there would be at least one piano man who appreciates the
value of window display, but the great majority have not as yet
given this subject the attention which it deserves, and consequently
are wasting a vast amount of valuable window space—the best space
in their stores.
It would cost them nothing to get the advertising which would
come to them from a good window display, but they do not appre-
ciate just what this means.
Charles W. Hurd, writing in Printers' Ink along these lines,
says : "A few manufacturers—probably not more than six or seven in
the whole country—have discovered a veritable gold mine in work-
ing up ivindow displays for their dealers.
"They struck a lead in the perception that real selling thought
can be put into window-copy, as well as into copy for the newspapers
or magazines. It also dawned on them that variety is the spice of
window display, and then followed the conclusion that depending
on occasional and one-idea cut-outs and window trims to do the
work alone and unaided is equivalent to sending a boy on a man's
errand, and throwing away golden opportunity.
"Each of these manufacturers has therefore organized a perma-
nent window display department to work all the time and provide
a fresh and continuous stream of ideas and suggestions to the dealer
for making his windows pay, making them pay both dealer and
manufacturer, and pay right up to the maximum.
"These departments are now regarded as indispensable, and it
is beginning to be realized that this matter of window display, one
of the most direct forms of advertising, is susceptible of great and
almost limitless expansion. And there is good prospect that the
pioneers will be able to enjoy the full fruits of their discovery for a
long time to come, because there is room enough for many more.
and it is still free soil.
"The first demonstration was made by the Victor Talking Ma
chine Co., which started such a department two or three years ago
and put in a high-salaried expert in charge. Then followed the
Edison Phonograph Co., the Wire Goods Co. of Massachusetts,
Swift & Co., the Chicago packers, and Grosset & Dunlap, of New
York, with possibly others not reported.
"Other national advertisers are only waiting, no doubt, to be
convinced that the principle can be applied to their own lines of
business, and there is little doubt that it can.
"Take, for instance, Grosset & Dunlap, the largest house in its
field, which is the publishing of reprints of popular fiction at popular
prices.
' " " ' " " •
"There is no close comparison between the marketing of
books and the merchandising of talking machines; they are done in
different ways; but they both fall under the same laws when they
are being done through window display, just as all lines come to-
gether in the democracy of the newspaper or magazine pages.
"The typical dealer window at present may be this: A pile
of books, a row of titles, a flare of bright-colored paper covers—
attention-getting and interesting, no doubt, but hardly compelling.
"But introduce at vacation time, as the dealers did at Grosset &
Dunlap's suggestion, a suit-case, tennis racket, pipe and pouch or
lady's veil; open a book and lay it face down on a table—there's
the story.
"Now, when you put up a card, 'What good stories are you
going to take away with you this week to fill up the idle moments?'
and advertise the books and display in the daily newspaper, the deed
is as good as done. More of those books are going to be sold—
more of the books zverc sold—than under the old hit-or-miss, one-
boy-power window trim plan.
"That is the way Grosset & Dunlap thought the dealers would
see it, and the way they did see it.
"In October the same dealers will be dressing their windows
with pumpkins and cornstalks tipped with the ripe golden ears and
putting in cards prepared by the publishers which will remind the
public that there is also a 'harvest time in the fiction field.'
"That is the idea as it has been developed so far. It appeals
to the dealer because it is a system, a periodical lifting of the deal-
ers' burden of 'getting up ideas' for window display, and it affects
him with a cumulative force second only to that exerted by the sales
which it stimulates and produces.
"What all this means to the manufacturer who is ceaselessly
seeking outlets for his goods and spending small fortunes on each
and every effective form of publicity known to him may be further
illustrated by a recent episode.
"A big department store out in Topeka decided to open up a
book department. It bought a stock of books from a jobber, among
them a lot of Grosset & Dunlap books, and then a Grosset & Dunlap
salesman came along and loaded the store up with a lot more. It
was not a very large order, but the department store manager got
nervous when he began to look them over.
" 'Why,'.he exclaimed, 'we can't turn these over in six months?
and forthwith wrote to the publishers, asking them to cancel half
the order.
"When the publishers' sales manager got the letter, he called
the advertising manager in.
" 'Can't you hand them something in the line of window dis-
play a little out of the ordinary, linked up with local advertising?
Something that will start the goods quick?" he asked, and getting
an optimistic response, turned around and sent the Topeka people
an answer like this:
" 'We thoroughly realize that our interests and your interests
are identical and we want the opportunity to show you how our
dealers in other places dispose of their stocks—to demonstrate that
you, too, may do so at a good profit. It will not cost you a cent.
" 'When you have tried the idea out, we are sure you will be
glad to repeat as often as possible and carry the suggestions over
into your other lines, too. We are positive that the goods will move
rapidly.
" 'Our advertising manager will write you in a few days, put-
ting the plan before you and you will then be able to act with a full
understanding of what it is possible to do.'
"This letter restored confidence in Topeka. In a few days the
advertising man wrote also. He had prepared plans for several
(Continued on page 7.)

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