Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE: MUSIC TRADE
Unftef.
I
T must be apparent to all who have noted the recent court
decisions that name piracy in the piano trade is not going
to be easy to accomplish in the future. Piano names have great
value, but that value is materially lessened when there are two
or three of similar names in the field. The public is apt to be
misled and great confusion caused by the use of similar names.
The single name is fixed in the public mind and the people who
possess pianos only recall the single name, which appears on
the fall board. They know whether it is a Steinway, Chicker-
ing or Knabe, but they could not tell anything beyond that re-
garding prefixes or suffixes. The single name is fixed and it is
obvious that the courts propose to safeguard those names with
all necessary protection so that piano purchasers will not be
misled.
•6
P
H
*
IANO manufacturers, as well as makers of fine furniture,
have long since realized that the growing scarcity of ma-
hogany, Circassian walnut and other of the finer woods, and
the steady ris£ in prices, until they have almost become pro-
hibitive, will shortly place them in a position where they will
have to introduce and use other woods for fine case and cabi-
net work. The diminishing supply and increasing cost of fine
woods, mahogany especially, is due chiefly to the fact that the
accessible supply of this has been exhausted and it is now
necessary for the cutters to go far into the interior for suitable
trees. The increased cost of transportation and the difficulties
met with in getting the logs to market not only increase the
final price but serve to cut down the shipments materially.
In view of the above situation it is particularly interesting
to note that George D. Rose, who passed through New York
last week on his way to take charge of the piano factory of
Beale & Co., Sydney, Australia, is enthusiastic over the pros-
pects for marketing several varieties of hardwoods found in that
country. Mr. R se had with him several samples of veneers
made from Australian woods, and the finish of which, developed
without the use of stains, places the woods in a class with the
finer grades of mahogany and Circassian walnut. The Aus-
tralian woods are close grained, beautifully figured and can be
finished quite as attractively as the woods now in use. The
most interesting fact, however, is that the woods are to be
found within a short distance of the coast and can be placed
aboard ship at small expense. The available supply of Aus-
tralian hardwood is such as tends to encourage the develop-
ment of that portion of the Commonwealth's resources, and the
expressed belief of Mr. Rose to the effect that there would soon
be much Australian hardwood imported into this country for
the purpose of furnishing veneers for pianos and furniture is
something more than a mere dream. The woods are suf-
ficiently attractive to appeal to the public and the main ques-
tion is price and quality standard.
•t m. *
ENEER men and piano manufacturers who had the privi-
lege of examining these samples in the possession of Mr.
Rose were very enthusiastic, and if it is possible to supply the
trade with veneers of similar character it goes without saying
that, our veneer men will give more attention to the hardwoods
of Australia than heretofore. Meanwhile, in veneers as in other
supplies, manufacturers or jobbers hesitate going out of the
beaten path, and unless the woods are supplied to the regular
markets which veneer men generally attend it is difficult to in-
sure a staple trade. To make a trip from New York to Aus-
tralia just to buy woods may be profitable, but busy men pre-
fer to attend the regular market centers where they have a
larger selection of woods from all parts of the world to choose
from. A few years ago we heard much about the rare hard-
woods of the Philippines, and some woods were specially men-
tioned as likely to supersede mahogany and other veneers now
in favor, but n©thing practically has been done in this market.
V
REVIEW
TOWER,
With the scarcity of mahogany and the increasing price there-
for it is not at all unlikely that some of the larger lumber
houses in the United States will pay closer attention to such
points as Australia and the Philippines for the purpose of se-
curing and placing for sale in the regular markets those fine
woods which cannot fail to interest manufacturers of pianos and
fine furniture. For it is safe to say that there are few countries
where finely figured woods are more appreciated than in the
United States.
•t * *e
VERY important decision of interest to every piano house
employing outside movers for handling their deliveries,
was recently handed down by the Supreme Court of the State
of New York in a suit brought by a woman against a New York
piano house for $10,000 damages for an alleged assault com-
mitted by movers who were repossessing an instrument. The
court held, with the attorneys of the piano house, that as the
movers were simply hired to do certain work and were not
regular employes of the piano house, the piano concern should
not be liable for damages and action should be brought against
the movers themselves. It would seem that the decision re-
ferred to offers a valuable precedent, for there are numerous
occasions where movers cause damage to person or property, in-
tentionally or unintentionally, and a court ruling placing the
responsibility in the matter is to be welcomed.
H * *t
NE little word is changing the business of the world. The
late recognition of what it stands for is well stated in the
following by E. St. Elmo Lewis, a widely known publicity and
business expert: "The New York Central is talking in a new
way about a little seven-letter word. The Bell Telephone Co.
is talking about the same* word. The Roosevelt doctrine of
conservation can be boiled down to the same little word. It
is the word 'Service' that is remaking the business world. It
is the final distillation of experience; the essence of hard, cold,
dry-as-dust facts and figures out of the mine of real life. You
can hire all your smooth salesmen—they can get orders—but
you have to make good. You can hire your factory managers,
wh^ can do wonderful stunts in production, but the product
has to make good. You can cut prices and give long terms of
premiums, but you have to make good with the fellow who buys.
The day of Mr. Clever Bluff is getting colder. The day of the
organizer and of the student in business is dawning with a cheer-
ful sun. The science of business service is coming into its own.
The customer is no longer exploited as a fool who has come to
be plucked. 'Caveat emptor' (Let the buyer beware) doesn't
look as well as it did; and there is a newer and plainer motto
being placed over the doorways of the up-to-the-hour house:
'He profits most who serves best,' for now it is the seller who
deserves the buyer."
* * *
A REFLECTION of the activity in the manufacturing and in-
x V ventive worlds is apparent in the growing business transacted
by the Patent Office at Washington, D. C. There were received in
the last fiscal year 65,154 applications for mechanical patents, 1,315
applications for designs, 206 applications for reissues, 6,857 appli-
cations for trade-marks, 879 applications for labels and 266
applications for prints. There were 34,428 patents granted, includ-
ing reissues and designs, and 3,791 trade-marks, 576 labels and 181
prints were registered. The number of patents that expired was
22,546. The number of allowed applications which were by opera-
tion of law forfeited for non-payment of the final fees was 7,098.
The total receipts of the office were $1,987,778.58; the total expendi-
tures were $1,957,001.85, and the net surplus of receipts over
expenditures was $30,776.73. The total net surplus for all years
of receipts over expenditures of all kinds (including salaries of the
force) is now $7,029,004.37. This surplus covered into the
Treasury represents the net earnings of the bureau, and it has all
been paid by the inventors.
A
O