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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPUXANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportoiial Stall:
GLAD. HENDERSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
H. E. JAMASON
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
BOSTON OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Main 6950.
PHILADELPHIA:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
C. CHACE, .
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
W M . B. WHITE,
L. E. BOWERS.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 37 South Wabash Ave.
Telephone, Central 414.
Room 806.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ADOLF EDSTEN.
ST. LOUIS:
CLYDE JENNINGS
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First St.
DETROIT, MICH.: MORRIS J. WHITE.
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTERS.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
INDIANAPOLIS, 1ND.: STANLEY H. SMITH.
MILWAUKEE", W I S . : L. E. MBYER.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth 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; Canada,
$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 forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
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* Plan A 9ni1
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
"IldllU allU
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu
1W»1191*tni4>ntc
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
U C p d l UDX1I13. health with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable tecnical 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, 1903
Diploma. ... .Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. . L.ewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES NUMBERS 5982-S983 MADISON SQUARE
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address " "ElbtlL N e w York."
NEW YORK, MAY 18, 1912.
EDITORIAL
F
OR thirty years at irregular intervals trade indignation against
dishonest journalism has been made manifest, but at no time
has there been sufficient co-operation to remove the worst blot which
ever defaced any industry.
Men have shrugged their shoulders and some have said that
it was better to pay tribute than to be held up to abuse and ridicule.
Therefore, some have gone on paying tribute year after year
while impure journalism has steadily fattened.
It seems absurd that such conditions should have existed and
it is to a large degree a reflection upon the industry itself, for
how any set of men could have tolerated and supported an enter-
prise the chief aim of which was to abuse manufacturers is beyond
the conception of ordinary individuals.
Fear—of course, fear—and that comes in largely in most of
our lives.
Dishonest journalism has waxed rich upon the fears of men
and it has exerted a debasing influence far beyond that which is
credited by most men. It has aided more dishonorable methods
in this trade than any other single influence.
It has helped to sustain some of the conditions which to a
degree have demoralized the industry.
It has checked and thwarted the growth of decent journalism.
It has made it impossible for a respectable journalist to criti-
cise—that is to criticise fairly and independently.
And why?
Simply because an honest criticism in which the name of a
manufacturer and his products might be used would at once cause
the editor of that publication to be placed under a ban of suspicion.
His intentions would be questioned, so that it will be admitted
that dishonest journalism has not only retarded the growth of the
industry, but as well it has crippled the influence of decent jour-
nalism.
These facts are not new—they are known to men of the piano
trade and have been known for many years,
Then why repeat them?
REVIEW
Simply because now and then it is well that the line of de-
marcation should be observed between decent journalism and hold-
up journalism.
We have always believed that the manufacturers held the key
in their own hands, for just as soon as patronage is withdrawn
from a corrupt trade newspaper it will- be forced to quit business,
and the manufacturers who are the advertisers always have con-
trol of the base of supplies.
They themselves have never felt perhaps how deeply laden
with trickery and deceit have been all the motives—all the actions
of holdup journalists.
They have never figured that when they permitted the repre-
sentatives of the dishonest journalist to enter their offices that they
were admitting vipers into their business household—vipers whose
sting would be made manifest ere long.
They did not know that these same contemptible wretches
have been tale bearers—have been creators of feuds and jealousies
—that they have fomented strife and trouble between manufac-
turers with their lying tongues—have brought about more mis-
understandings in this industry than any other single influence.
All of these things are true, however, and can be easily proven.
For many years we have won, through our policy, the enmity
of holdup journalists.
We are proud of that fact and we are glad that it has brought
down upon us the undying hatred of a class of vermin who profit
by the weaknesses of men.
Yet through this all we have never found it necessary to pol-
lute the columns of this publication with the names of the offenders.
We have fought rather a principle than an individual and we
shall continue along these same lines until the close of the chapter—
until these men have been swept out from every decent business
place and they will be swept out, and the wonder grows many times
that they have not been forcibly ejected with the aid of a good
substantial kick from the sanctum of business men for their very
presence in the office of a respectable business man is an insult to
the proprietor.
However, all a newspaper can do is to point the way.
It is up to the manufacturers—the advertisers themselves—to
act, and just so long as there exists a sufficient number of men
who will pay tribute to holdup journalism to make it worth while,
just so long that pernicious form of journalism will exist.
It is up to the advertisers as to the kind of journalism which
they will support.
A
T the convention of the National Piano Manufacturers Asso-
ciation, which opens in Atlantic City this morning, a number
of important matters will come up for consideration. Action will
be taken on the Oldfield Bill to codify, revise and amend the laws
relating to patents, which is so strongly opposed by player-piano
and talking machine manufacturers and the trade generally; the
matter of questionable advertising and the attitude of a disreputable
trade paper will be discussed, and it is hoped that the matter of
credits will also receive proper consideration.
There are some other trades as elastic in their terms as the
piano industry, but it is noteworthy that in every line manufactur-
ers are getting their houses in order, and credits are receiving closer
surveillance. Representative associations in the silk and jewelry
trade are successfully reducing the present credits allowed on trans-
actions between manufacturers and retail merchants, and in prac-
tically every branch of business the entire system of credits is
undergoing a.change for the better.
The long-time credit system which has prevailed in the piano
trade has done much to make piano merchants careless in the mat-
ter of maintaining retail prices. People receiving such considera-
tion are apt to sell pianos on terms that are unbusinesslike, and
which may help ultimately in injuring not only the parties practis-
ing them, but their competitors, and it is unfair that the man who
pays his bills promptly should be brought into contact with sucii
ruinous competition.
Reports from those having charge of the Convention of the
National Piano Merchants Association, which opens at Atlantic
City on Monday next, indicate a large attendance. The absence
of a trade exhibition, which has been a feature of Convention
week for the past two years, should result in the members of
the association concentrating to good purpose on the various