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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff :
GLAD. HENDERSON, EUGENE C. MAYER, H. E. JAMASON, B. BHITTAIN WILSON, W. H. DYKES,
A. J. NICKLIN,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
W M . B. WHITE,
L. E. BOWESS.
BOSTON OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON 824 Washington St.
Telephone, Main 6950.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
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Telephone, Central 414.
Room 806.
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ADOLF EDSTEN.
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Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
hnteted at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
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in other than currency foims, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Music Section
An important feature of this publication is a complete sec-
tion devoted to the interests of music publishers and dealers.
PlaVPP UnA
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
I lajCl dUU
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, reg-
T w h n i r s i l Fiona r t m o n t c
ulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
l e U U I l U U IfCpdl l l l i e i l l ! ) . d e a l t w i t h j wi fi b e f o u n J i n 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
old Medal
Lewis Clark Exposition, 1905
Gol
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address : "Elbill, N e w York."
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 9 , 1911
EDITORIAL
H P HERE has been of late a decided change for the better in ad-
-L vertising.
Objectionable matter is not accepted by publishers with the
same avidity as of yore and a peculiar influence has developed re-
cently in trade journalism.
It was only the other day that a piano manufacturer remarked
that he declined to go into a paper wherein there were advertise-
ments of men who had paid tribute money to the hold-up editor.
He said that if good advertisers objected to.being placed along-
side of some quack medicines that he objected to having his card
placed in juxtaposition to that of the men who had paid hush money.
7 2 said the inference might be placed upon his action that he
also had contributed to dishonest journalism.
That is a new theory, but why should it not follow in trade
journalism as well as in anything else?
Every man is known by the company he keeps and why should
not a man have positive views as to his advertising company?
There is a decided reformation in the newspapers as a whole
and shady advertising is now rejected by many publications.
Concealed advertising at any price is no longer popular with
daily newspaper publishers, and even the country weekly editors
who were formerly supposed to publish anything that was not posi-
tively immoral, provided it was paid for at the usual rates, are
putting up the bars against it. The newspaper conscience has been
quickened. To masquerade under false colors is no longer consid-
ered permissible.
The conviction has been growing for some time that the own-
ers of newspaper properties while conducting them as commercial
enterprises, nevertheless sustain toward the public a moral responsi-
REVIEW
bility that cannot be evaded. Editors are more careful than for-
merly as to what they print. Their readers look to them for reliable
news, for intelligent and unbiased opinions upon public questions,
and for leadership and support in reform movements. If they de-
ceive them, then how can they expect to retain the respect or support
of the community ? They cannot, and they know it.
To allow consciousless rascals to use their columns to rob the
men and women who trust them is about as honorable as it would
be to invite friends to your house and then send word to a gang of
burglars to come and steal their jewelry and pocketbooks while
they were asleep.
From the above it must not be concluded that concealed adver-
tising is always vicious, because it is not. Under any circumstances,
however, it is deceptive and should not be admitted to any news-
paper.
I
F the great lawyers and the great judges and the great politicians
cannot figure out just what the Anti-Trust law means, how is
the average citizen able to voice even an opinion regarding it?
Whether it is a good thing to split up the great organization
is a matter of opinion.
It seems like forcing a department store to separate its necktie
counter from its shoe department—its lace department from the
grocery department, and put a different firm label on each.
It is impossible to turn back the hands of the clock and revert
to a disjointed competition which the world has outgrown.
There is still opportunity for the small dealer and the small
manufacturer to instill intelligence and pay close personal attention
to business to offset capital and the larger operations.
There is one way in which any Trust has been able to drive
the small dealer and manufacturer out of business—that is, by tem-
porarily underselling him in his own local market—selling under
cost until he was compelled to capitulate.
The Standard Oil Co. in the old days used this weapon to sup-
press competitors.
W
HEN discussion of the proposed reciprocity agreement was
at its height, the attempt was made to create a scare in
this country over the growth of Canada. That country, we
were told, was going to swamp the productions of our Northwest.
And now we have the result of the Canadian census of 1911, to
teach us what the growth of Canada amounts to, and to satirize
our alarms.
The population of Canada in 1911 is 7,081,869. This is not
only two millions less than the population of New York State alone,
but it is over a million less than the population of the two Western
States of Illinois and Indiana, lying side by side. It is less than
the population of Illinois and Wisconsin. It exceeds the population
of our six New England States by only half a million.
The population of all the prairie provinces taken together, and
reaching from Ontario to the Rockies and northward to the North
Pole, is a million less than that of our Northwestern State of Min-
nesota. The population of that whole vast region is about the same
as our two exclusively agricultural States of North and South
Dakota.
Canada has been growing smaller, relatively to the United
States, for a hundred years. The disparity is increasing, not dimin-
ishing.
Canada can never be thought as a dangerous rival to this
Republic.
Her growth is slow and, now that she has turned a cold
shoulder to us, it will probably be many years before we will
attempt other commercial treaties with that nation.
So far as the music trade is concerned, it only affects it in-
directly, anyway, because the number of pianos which we ship
across the border annually are relatively unimportant when con-
sidered with the American output.
But there are opportunities in Southern countries which are
constantly opening for American products, among which are pianos.
S
ALESMEN must be competitors, but credit men should all be
partners. Credit men should not even try to stand alone. To
paraphrase a little: They should share each other's woes, each
other's burdens bear, and each should always be ready to help the
other swear.