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THE
REVIEW
fflJSIC TIRADE
VOL. LIV. N o . 11. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, March 16,1912 SI SINGLE
».oo COPIES. 10 CENTS
READER of The Review in the Far West draws a most depressing picture of the future of the piano
trade.
From his point of view he sees a mad scramble for business—misrepresentation rampant—the
throwing aside of all safe and sound methods and a snapping and snarling for public patronage as
the master dog seizes the patronage bone and runs away with it.
The mental picture drawn suggests a mad scuffle of dogs, the strongest brute marching off triumph-
antly with the bone in his mouth amid the yelps and snarls of the discomfited ones.
He then proceeds to give some examples of reprehensible methods adopted by certain individuals to
win trade, and he closes with this sentence: "This is an example of the whole business with few exceptions,
all of whom are in it. I could go on multiplying examples, but what's the use ?—the ravings of a man who
is fool big enough to believe in the Golden Rule—fool big enough to believe in righteousness—fool big
enough to believe that God-like character is a priceless product of the travail of all the ages compared
with which all else is vanity—the ravings of such an arrogant fool can be heard amid the tumult of the
advance of the 'fighting few' just as distinctly and with just as much result as the drone of some solitary
lost bumble bee over the Falls of Niagara."
Of course there is fraud and misrepresentation in this trade, but the piano business does not stand
alone in this—for there are other trades wherein men stray from truthful paths in order to accomplish sales.
The question is, What are the men who are vitally interested doing to bring about better conditions?
If they sit supinely by while the master dog seizes the bone, wondering why they do not get a chance
at it, then they are not doing their share in the upbuilding of public confidence.
Little is accomplished in the way of progress by sitting back and criticising men and methods.
There must be some strenuous action—some kind of united effort so that rebuttal forces may be created.
One man planned a great political reform in that great Northwestern country where my correspond-
ent resides.
He was laughed at and scoffed at, yet he hung to certain ideals until he had changed the whole po-
litical complexion of the great State of Oregon. He just hung to the fight until he seized the bone.
That is what an individual accomplished, so that it would seem to me that personal criticism amounts
to nothing; it reveals an embittered individual, but actions backed by results amount to much, and if every
man sits down and permits his competitors to carry on a campaign of fraud and deceit without himself
doing his share to educate the public mind the right way, then he is not doing his full duty either for
his own or the public good.
To make a success of any undertaking we must put a certain energy into our actions—we must direct
our affairs toward the goal to which we have aspired.
Undeniably there are many reprehensible things in the piano trade, and in many other trades for that
matter, but they are not increasing. When we commenced a campaign against the pernicious guessing
contests and coupon schemes we were laughed at—ridiculed, but where are the schemes to-day? They
are out and put out by the aroused force of public and trade opinion.
Some of my critics said that there were other evils just as bad when I first began the campaign against
the coupon guessing contest schemes, and the reply that I made was to quote the words of Lincoln when
he was urged to declare war with Mexico at the time when Louis Napoleon was trying to force upon the
Mexican people an Austrian archduke as emperor. He replied: "One war at a time, gentlemen," and I said:
"Let us handle one evil at a time. Extinguish that completely and then move on to the next." Reforms
may be accomplished, but not merely by idle criticism, for the master dog is always ready to seize the
bone, but by and by we will catch up with the master dog, then the death tussle will be on in earnest.
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