Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
TOWER,
NE of our prominent financiers has lately been discoursing
on the difficulty of securing men of ability to fill $ 10,000
positions, and in this connection gives some of the reasons why
the majority of men who think thev are worth even more are
unable to fill the requirements. This is a condition which un-
fortunately prevails in every industry. We find it in the piano
trade just as well as in the financial world. A man is cheap at
any salary provided he has initiative—the ability to organize, to
develop plans along new and profitable lines, to so conduct busi-
ness as to make a profit for his employers. It matters little
whether he is a road man, an ordinary salesman, a manager of
a retail or wholesale department in the piano business, whether
$5,000 or $10,000 a year is paid, the man who can achieve actual
results is in demand. There are some salesmen, and they are
to be found in both wholesale and retail fields, who imagine
they are worth a much larger salary than they are receiving.
They are desirous of securing the money without realizing the
responsibility attached to their position—without appreciating
the ability, energy and mental equipment that is necessary to
fill their position with satisfaction. In business the employment
of men and the payment of salaries are considered investments,
and those who receive compensation must not only earn the
money, but must pay a profit to the party giving it; otherwise
a business loss ensues.
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S a matter of fact many of our salesmen are not properly
equipping themselves for these "big jobs." When they
do happen to "come their way" they realize how inadequately
prepared they are for the responsibilities involved, and after a
short trial they step down and out. In this industry, and, in
fact, in every business throughout the country, there are oppor-
tunities for men of ability, men who can practically demonstrate
their talent for getting business. But they must be up to the
mark in experience and ability. They must be able to "deliver
the goods," so to speak, and this calls for something more than
one's own opinion of one's self, but an opinion that must be
tried out and demonstrated by practical experience. It is anoma-
lous but true that the expensive piano is the cheapest piano,
because of its durability and musical worth, and so is the ex-
pensive man—the man of ability—the cheapest man for a busi-
ness, because if he is made of the right metal he is able to plough
new ground and create a harvest of opportunities that will pay
a handsome profit on the salary invested.
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N last Sunday's World Theodore A. Vail, president of the
American Telephone and Telegraph Co., was in evidence
with some views along the foregoing lines, some quotations
from which are timely. Briefly put, he said: "There are no men
as scarce to-day as those who can fill the high-salaried positions.
I have from twenty to thirty positions open right now that I
would gladly pay from ten to twenty-five thousand dollars per
year. The great hindrance to those who might to-day occupy
the big places is the. continued cry of 'Where do I come in?'
The man who creates big situations in business does not need to
ask: 'Where do I come in?' He lands with both feet. The
one requisite to get a high-salaried position is to do his lower
job better than anyone. There are plenty of vacancies higher
up. The man on the firing line will not seek the $10,000 job,
but.the $io,coo job will seek him. It is not the man who has
had the longest service in an enterprise that can reach the high
places; it is his lack of interest to create better conditions in the
business. The low-salaried man remains so, in the majority of
cases, because he does not measure up to his full capacity. He
is satisfied to let well enough alone. The man who is equipped
with a sense of analysis and who can rightly measure the
strength and weakness of the business at hand has the foremost
faculty for commanding the high places. My eleventh com-
mandment in business is to understand what you have to do—
and do it."
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HE question of fraudulent advertising in the different States
is not the only question whi ch is now attracting the attention
of legislators, but the injury done to regular merchants by irre-
sponsible transient dealers is also being given close consideration.
One of the latest States to fall in line in this connection is Missouri,
and hereafter itinerant vendors must deposit with the Secretary of
State the sum of $500 and file application for a State license cost-
ing $25 additional, apart from any county or local fees that may be
required. The transient dealer must in his application declare in
writing, under oath, whether he is making application for a license
as principal or as agent. The names and residences of the owners
of the goods must be given, also from whom the goods were bought.
He must include all the facts relating to the reasons for, character
of his sales, and advertising, and such details as will insure the
location and identity of all the goods he proposes to sell. These
stringent requirements will go far to rid Missouri of the unscrupu-
lous "fly by night dealer," and the efforts made in Missouri in this
connection are well worthy simulation in other States provided
retail merchants agitate the matter so as to bring public opinion to
bear on the passage of a workable law of this kind. The "fly by
night dealer" is not as numerous in the piano trade as in other lines,
but he is there just the same. It is hardly fair to a merchant pay-
ing rent, taxes and other fixed charges to do business, to have some-
body come into the town, rent a store temporarily and self pianos
or other instruments at cut prices, and to accompany such sales
with a character of advertising that is not only untrue but has a
tendency to undermine the confidence of the public in the local
dealer.
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NE of the primary requisites for success in advertising at the
present day is persistence, and though there has been much
said and written on the subject, there are still many advertisers who
believe that one advertisement should be sufficient to move all the
stock on hand. The worst feature of the whole business is that
some advertising solicitors actually promise results from one inser-
tion simply for the sake of landing the business, regardless of the
fact that their statements are false and misleading. In this con-
nection the following article by William C. Freeman, advertising
manager of the Evening Mail, New York, and a recognized author-
ity on the subject, is of especial interest, particularly as it is
founded upon actual fact. Mr. Freeman says: "The advertising
solicitor who promises big returns to a single insertion—the 'one-
time man'—is a real menace to the advertising business. A great
many of these 'one-time' solicitors are over-zealous. In order to
make good (as they wrongly feel) they induce a man who has never
advertised to 'try just this one time—it is sure to pay.' This is
unfair, both to the advertiser and to the newspaper. While it is
true that a single insertion has sometimes proved that advertising
is of great value to a business, yet the commonest kind of common
sense should reject the proposition. It is the constant appearance
of advertising—the regular two-or-three-times-a-week or every-day
announcement, always telling the people some fact they should
know about the business—that makes an advertising campaign suc-
cessful. If the 'one-time' solicitor would exhibit as much zeal in
developing accounts on right lines as he does in making all sorts
of promises to get one-time insertions he would get more business
in the end and more advertising would stick to the publication which
he represented. The progress made in advertising in recent years
is due almost wholly to the good sense of the representatives of
publications who have frankly told would-be advertisers that they
must follow a certain fixed plan in advertising in order to get
results. Single insertion advertising and spasmodic advertising is
really waste of money. It is the constant sticking to it that familiar-
izes the people with any business and that influences their trade."
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