Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE:
MUSIC TRADE:
UncLerTflE
While we in this country are discussing the ad-
visability of establishing technical schools for piano
makers and workers in other fields, and admitting
that it would prove a wise course, the Germans
get busy, establish the schools and get practical re-
sults. When we send a man fresh from sales vic-
tories in the States to South American countries
to sell goods, there to learn that a knowledge of
Spanish and the local methods of conducting busi-
ness are essential, our German friends send young
men down there to study the conditions at first
hand and stand pat on the selling campaign until
the time is ripe and they understand the field. An
instance of this progresive, withal cautious, spirit
that we might well emulate was afforded recently
in the case of a young man thoroughly drilled in
piano making in a German factory who passed
through New York en route to a South American
city to do repair work for the German concern's
branch house in that city. While in New York the
young man, at the expense oi his employers, re-
instance'of this progressive, withal cautious, spirit
ing the American forms of pneumatic player ac-
tions at first hand in the local factories. The
knowledge thus gained during his stay in New
York, coupled with the thorough knowledge of
piano construction received in his native country,
will prove invaluable to the repairman in his new-
field. To insure permanent interest in the work
the German had a contract calling for four years'
service at good pay, much better than that received
by the average American repairman, and with a
guaranteed increase in salary each year of the four
and a bonus at the end of that time. With the
prospect of steadily increasing remuneration and
his knowledge of the local conditions at the end
of the four years his chances are very much in
favor of that particular repairman remaining in
South America as a member of the great army of
Germans on the firing line of the export trade.
Those people who regard the idle freight "car
figures as one of the best barometers of business
activity, will find encouragement in the latest state-
ment for the two weeks ended with July 29. There
was a decrease in the number of cars side-tracked
on that date, as compared with two weeks earlier,
of nearly 15,000 cars. To a large extent the move-
ment of the car surpluses is independent of the
ordinary conditions of trade, being more a matter
of season, although a careful analysis will show a
close relation between the figures for correspond-
ing periods and the state of domestic business
at those times. As a rule, however, it is hard
to determine the condition of business activity
from the increase or decrease in the number of
. freight cars not in demand, for the reason that
local considerations usually operate to make the
need of cars fluctuate out of line with the general
state of trade. Such a condition is reflected in
the latest statement, for whereas the number of
idle cars for the whole country decrease nearly
9 per cent., there was an increase on the lines in
New England, where the • mills have not been
running on their usual summer time.
Perhaps the greatest enemies of success and
happiness are worry, anxiety and fear. Indeed,
these are the great enemies of the human race.
The writer speaks from experience, for he was
brought up to think that worrying and anxiety
were as essential to success as energy and ambi-
tion. He looked upon the young man or woman
who did not worry, who felt no anxious care about
the future, as lacking the necessary equipment tor
a successful life. A large proportion of the un-
happiness of life is caused by worry. Half the
incomes of our physicians are derived from wor-
rying patients, whose nervous and functional dis-
eases, imagined or real, can be traced to the re-
REVIEW
TALL TOWER
action from the worrying habit. Thousands of
those people, in answering the questions of the
physician who tries to find out the cause of their
illness, say that they have been worrying a great
deal lately about business or family troubles, or
that they have been passing through trying ordeals
of one kind or another. It is now a well-estab-
lished fact that every brain and nerve cell, in fact
every cell in the bod-y, reflects the state of the
mind, and we are glad or sad, depressed or joy-
ous, in harmony or discord, according to the
condition of the mind. Worry, therefore, not
only impairs the mental faculties, but it also de-
stroys or undermines physical power. The canker-
ing, corroding, worrying habit of brooding over
troubles, real or imaginary, cheats a large part of
the human race out of almost everything that is
worth living for. If those who have allowed them-
selves to become the slaves of worry do not make
a resolute effort to eliminate the friction of use-
less anxiety from their makeup, their mental and
moral machinery is doomed.
*
*
*
Foresight and forethought are, of course, nec-
essary to the planning of a successful life, but we
must learn to distinguish between foresight, fore-
thought, and the grinding anxiety and fear which
paralyze the energies and sap the vital forces.
Unfortunately, however, in the feverish haste of
American life, the worrying habit has become a
national infirmity; it has developed into a disease
peculiar to the restless, active temperament of our
people. Our ancestors were anxious when they
landed on these shores; our earliest social life was
developed under fear of the Indian, in anxiety
for the morrow, amid all the cares incidental to
the rooting of a people in a strange land sur-
rounded by enemies; and their descendants of to-
day, in a peaceful and prosperous country, seem to
have inherited that anxious spirit of caring for
the future which robs the present of its joys. Yet
of all the foolish, useless and unprofitable things
in the scheme of living, worrying is the most fool-
ish and useless. Nothing is gained by it, and
everything is lost. It is impossible to do the best
work in an atmosphere vibrating with anxiety and
friction. We will find it true, as a general rule,
that the most successful men and women are free
from worry. They have learned to convert all
the force and energy they can generate into use-
ful work instead of dissipating a large portion
of it in anxiously preparing to meet troubles that
never come. Let the piano man, then, who wishes
to contribute in the largest way to the sum of
human happiness, who wishes to set the highest
example of right living, who desires to attain
the noblest and most useful manhood—let him
firmly resolve that he will never become a victim
of the worrying habit.
time when a good instrument is really required
and is the best investment. Then, too, the ex-
pense of putting a square piano into really salable
shape hardly leaves enough over actual cost to
pay for the salesman's time in selling it. On
the other hand the presentation of old squares to
either private or public institutions has an adver-
tising value that cannot be overlooked, if the,
matter is handled properly. In giving away of
pianos, even old squares, is such a fare occurrence
that even the most careful editor can see in the
fact an item of news for his paper. If the an-
nouncement of the gift is made sufficiently in ad-
vance of the actual date of distribution, the vol-
ume of newspaper notices can be made large in-
deed. This sort of publicity—the complimentary
notices in the reading colums of papers—is the
most valuable that can be obtained, and if care-
fully managed, should be as productive in actual
results as many times as the space used for
straight advertising. If the recipients of the
gifts are carefully chosen in advance the senti-
mental value of the proposition is a great factor.
There is a large proportion of people who are
very glad to deal with concerns which show chari-
table inclinations, and the friends of the recipients
soon make up their minds where they are going to
place their piano business when ready. A few free
squares carefully distributed offer a proposition
that should appeal to the piano merchant. It
is a question of live advertising or dead storage,
and the latter is a costly matter.
Trade of the United States with its non-con-
tiguous territories in the fiscal year which ended
with last month will exceed $'J(III,II(IO,IIO(|, against less
than $100,000,000 in 1904. In this trade merchan-
dise received in the United States slightly exceeds
in value that sent to the territories in question,
though shipments from the United States show
the larger and more rapid growth. The sales of
musical instruments to non-contiguous territory has
shown comparatively but a small increase. This
is due largely to the indifference manifested by
manufacturers in cultivating the markets which
are in the hands of the French and Germans. In
1903, the earliest year for which complete records
are available, the shipments from the United States
to the territories under discussion—Alaska, Porto
Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines—aggregated
$36,000,000; in 1910. $83,000,000, and in 1911 seem
likely to be $9<>,OOII,IMI(>, a {Jain of $1)0,000,000. or
nearly 170 per cent. Inward shipments from the
territories were $50,000,000 in 1903, $108,000,000 in
1910, and at the rate of $107,000,000 in the ten
months of 1911, a gain of $48,000,000, or 80 per
cent over 1903. The largest gain in outward
trade with the non-contiguous territories was in
shipments to Porto Rico.
•S « *.
A new use for the talking machine in the piano
The policy of C. J. Heppe & Son, Philadelphia, business has been discovered by a piano house in
in presenting the many square pianos secured by
the West, which has added materially to the suc-
them in the course of their business to various cess of several special sales through the medium
educational and charitable institutions in and about of concerts on that instrument. In this particu-
their city has become known throughout the coun- lar instance, a Victrola was used, and conceiLs
try, and in some instances well-known piano were announced in advance. As the sales were
houses have followed their example in a tentative held in comparatively small towns, large audiences
way. The value of even a good square piano were attracted by the chance to hear good talking
to-day hardly makes it worth while to give up machine music free, and while still in good humor
space for its storage. The price of many up- at the close of the concert, the salesmen of the
rights, especially second-hand instruments, is so piano house took the opportunity to apprcmen
low that the few dollars saved in buying a square
those gathered together, regarding the special
piano only appeals to those in very poor circum- prices offered in connection with their line of
stances or the members of "genus tightwad." The pianos. It is reported that good sized sales were
old argument presented by many prospective buy- made at the close of every concert, and the talking
ers to the effect that they want a cheap square machine music so appealed to several members of
piano upon which children may learn the rudiments the audiences that while they did not buy pianos,
of playing, is readily broken down by the live they placed orders for talking machine outfits. All
salesman who can offer the counter argument thai
of which goes to show that the man who thinks
at the beginning of a musical education is just the invariably "wins out."