Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1912 Vol. 54 N. 7

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
GLAD. HENDMSON, EUGXNS C. MATE*, H. E. JAUASON, 8. BRITTAIN WILSON. W. H. DYKES,
A. J. NICKLIM,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
WM. B. WHITE,
L. E. BOWESS.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. VAW HAKLINGBN, 87 South Wabash Ave.
JOHH H. WILSON. 824 Washington St
Telephone, Central 414.
Telephone, Main 6950.
Room 806.
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
BOSTON OFFICE:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EDSTEN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First Street.
CLYDE JENNINGS
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTEK.
BALTIMORE; M D . J A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON. ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Enttttd at the New York Post Of/ice as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Can
ada. $8.60; 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.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques
t j o n g o f a technical nature relating to the tuning, reg-
ulating and repairing of pianos and player-piano* are
p
d e a J t w i t h > wj fi b e f 0Un< r m another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Piann anil
-riailV
ailU
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal. . .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma Pan-American Exposition, l»01 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal
Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address " "ElbllL New York."
NEW YORK. FEBRUARY 17, 1912.
EDITORIAL
F
OR some time past our present quarters have been inadequate
for our business requirements, and it has been impossible to
secure the additional space in this building so necessary to the
growing needs of this trade newspaper institution.
We, therefore, have been carefully looking about in search
of a new location which should meet with all our requirements,
and we have now leased a space two and one-half times the size
of our present quarters at No. 373 Fourth avenue.
This is a new twelve-story fireproof building designed by
Carrere & Hastings, the architects of the New York Public Library.
The building is of the very latest type of steel construction, with
concrete floors and every modern equipment and appointment. It
is located on the east side of Fourth avenue between Twenty-sixth
and Twenty-seventh streets, in the heart of the most rapidly de-
veloping high class office and mercantile district in New York.
Surface lines north and south pass the door. The station of the
Fourth Avenue Subway is at Twenty-eighth street—crosstown cars
at Twenty-third and Twenty-eighth streets—the Pennsylvania
Railroad Terminal, Grand Central and McAdoo tunnels in close
proximity.
* W " w \
It is in the heart of the new publishing district, for within
the past eight years the publishers and advertising agencies of New
York have centered in the district extending from Eighteenth street
to Thirtieth street, and without quesion this will be the publishers'
zone for many years to come.
Our new quarters will possess many advantages over our
present ones, and they are now being fitted up for our occupancy.
The definite date of our removal will be announced later.
REVIEW
for their managers, and the prophets got busy with dire predictions.
Rut the times change and so do the people. This season the pen-
dulum has swung again and evidence of the most convincing kind
exists that the piano recital is among the most popular and profit-
able forms of entertainment. Despite a greater competition in the
musical field in New York such artists as Bauer, De Pachmann,
Lhevinne, Bachaus, Goodson, Hofmann, Zeisler, Shattuck, Ariani,
Consolo, and others, have attracted immense audiences to their re-
citals, while at symphony concerts and Metropolitan Opera con-
certs they have been the principal features of attraction, and
actually outnumbered violinists and vocalists—an unprecedented
condition of affairs.
T
HE piano recital and the individuality of the artists are popular
to-day because of an increased knowledge and appreciation
of good music. In no country in the world is more progress being
made musically than in the United States. This is not a personal
opinion but the consensus of the views of visiting musicians. A
factor of no mean importance in this connection is the player-piano.
It is interesting thousands not only in good music but in its inter-
pretation. There are few homes possessing player-pianos where the
concertos and the smaller classical numbers played by piano virtuosi
are not in the library, and it is always interesting to these people
to learn how the great pianists "read" these compositions—wherein
their conception differs from Hofmann, Bachaus, De Pachmann,
Bauer, or other eminent lights in the pianistic firmament. Thanks
to the player-piano a new world has been opened to thousands of
people musically inclined, but without technique or ability to satisfy
their desires, to play the great works of the masters in music—
and to give them an expression and coloring that enables them to
stand out as distinctive. Even those who see merit and charm in
the popular composition of the day in time are attracted from the
fugitive to the standard musical works—a process of evolution in
musical taste that tells the story of the increasing appreciation of
the piano recital in the affections of concert-goers this season.
C
ONDITIONS in New York are being duplicated throughout
the country and it is safe to say that not in many years have
distinguished pianists enjoyed such a degree of popularity in all the
leading cities of the United States. The pianos by means of which
the great masters of the keyboard introduced themselves to public
favor must also have won a share of the prestige and popularity
associated with the artists, provided local piano merchants, repre-
sentatives of these pianos, took occasion to bring the instruments
and the players to the notice of the local public by adequate and
timely publicity. It is not yet too late to emphasize the value of
such co-operative work, for the concert tours of many of the pian-
ists will not have run their course for the next six weeks or two
months.
I
T will be found by referrino- to an announcement in another
part of this paper that we have commenced p new series of
prize articles. This pfan, inaugurated bv The Review last Novem-
ber, has demonstrated its usefulness in mativ wavs.
We have produced a line of essavs which have been closely
read and we have been able to present a varietv of views from
practical men upon products which are of every day interest to men
engaged in piano manufacturing and selling.
The previous subjects have covered a wide ranee, but the
new list, it will be seen, strikes just as closelv to the principles in-
volved in piano selling as those which have already been presented.
The plan of offerincr a cash prize creates at once an enthusiasm,
and the plan has worked out successfully from every viewpoint.
Tt is not intended to give anv reader a difficult task to per-
form, for in order to win a prize he need not write but 250 words.
Tt is not a long drawn out essay, but rather some clean-cut practical
ideas succinctly presented.
Each week the prizes will be awarded and the name of the
winner announced as heretofore. The Review cash prize cam-
paign is. therefore, continued, and full particulars will be found
on a neighboring page.
Every reader of The Review can compete for the prizes offered,
FEW veirs ?ero t^e decline i" norniarifv of the m'ano for re- for there are no restrictions whatsoever placed upon our reading
cital purposes was the subiect of much comment. Famous
contingent.
.
i
artists fajlecj to draw sufficiently large audiences to make money
The race is simply free for all.
A
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Credit Requirements of Foreign Countries.
While the Granting of Accommodation is an Imperative Essential in Developing Foreign Trade, Yet
There Are a Number of Things Which the Credit Manager Must Know Before He
Can Intelligently Pass Upon Credit Applications From Abroad.
I
T is the constant cry of agents and buyers in foreign countries
that American manufacturers will not accommodate them-
selves in the question of credit terms to the requirements of foreign
customers, and thus through their alleged supineness lose a great
deal of business which goes to their shrewder and more reasonable
rivals in Germany and Great Britain. On the other hand, there
are numerous credit men in the United States who are confronted
with bad foreign accounts ranging from small lots trustfully
shipped to some importer in Amsterdam, Constantinople or Bogota
to large items in which the transaction is represented by at least
four figures on the wrong side of the ledger.
Some manufacturers who are beginners in the export trade
appear to be so elated over the receipt of a foreign order that they
fill it unquestionably, look for settlement hopefully and frequently
have occasion to regard their complaisance mournfully.
They
overook the fact that they would have scrutinized an order from
a domestic customer very closely before filling it. A few expe-
riences of this description are apt to prejudice the budding ex-
porter. "No more foreign business on credit for us. Henceforth
we get cash in New York before we let the goods out of our
hands." Now cash in New York is certainly very desirable, but
you can get it only when you sell something that the foreigner
must get and can get from no one else but you. Otherwise he
will buy elsewhere. If you have a patented article of universal
use you can make your own terms, of course.
In dealing with foreign customers direct, the granting of some
form of accommodation is an absolute necessity, an imperative
essential for developing large and permanent business connections.
There are a number of things which the foreign credit manager
must know before he can intelligently act upon credit applications
from abroad. And there are many things to consider, many pit-
falls to avoid and fine discriminations to make. The granting of
credits abroad is more or less of an exact science with principles
easily understood. There is no reason why a credit man should
not familiarize himself with them.
Probably the basic principle in foreign credits which is a verit-
able truism is this: "Give no credit to a firm or concern unknown
to you without investigating the credit standing of the intending
customer." This is perhaps an application of another important
principle which should never be departed from: "Do not grant
credit favors to any foreign firm when you would not readily grant
a similar accommodation to a similarly situated concern at home."
There are now several well-equipped agencies for the obtain-
ing of credit information on firms abroad. These are probably
known to the reader and need not be specially mentioned. No
foreign customer should be kept on the books without investigat-
ing his credit standing. In this connection it may be said that
it pays to obtain credit reports from several sources. A well-
known domestic rating agency has its own offices in Cuba, Mexico
and Argentina, but depends upon allied agencies elsewhere for
reports. While these reports are, of course, conscientiously com-
piled, the credit man must analyze them before he can make proper
use of them. These reports are furnished on a blank, typewritten,
single-spaced, and contain largely the statement by the risk pro-
posed, the reporter's views and perhaps a bank's estimate of the
risk. Such a report must be stripped of unverified and unsup-
ported statements and carefully boiled down.
A much better system in reporting on foreign credit risks is
employed by certain organizations which supplement their own
correspondent's reports and the risk's own statement by the opin-
ions of bank and trade correspondents. While the reports are
sometimes criticised on. the score of brevity, they furnish views of
several trustworthy parties, and they are not obscured by cumber-
some verbiage through which a busy credit man is sometimes ex-
pected to wade.
Now a credit report by itself is not always an absolutely re-
liable guide to the credit man. There are certain sections of the
world where an importer buys but little locally and is in a position
to maintain an excellent local standing, yet his rating with foreign
manufacturers may denote slowness, fault-finding, intriguing, or
he may religiously meet his drafts and neglect his open accounts.
A bank located in the city where such a customer resides is, of
course, apt to know how he treats foreign drafts, whereas his
fellow tradesmen may be unaware of any irregularities.
Perhaps it is most convenient for a credit man to file specific
rules regarding credit favors abroad by countries, an excellent
summary made by A-. J. Wolfe is worth mentioning as combining
those important principles which underlie all foreign credit giving:
1. Obtain reliable credit information on your customer.
2. Carefully analyze your information.
3. Consult American houses from whom your customer may
buy, and be always ready to give your experience. The time has
passed when a- business house was afraid to disclose a customer's
standing. To exchange credit information on foreign customers
is always helpful, and frequently very instructive.
4. Grant no favors to small, insignificant concerns. These
should buy from wholesalers or commission houses.
5. Be very clear and definite regarding agreements, prom-
ises, conditions. A large portion of foreign credit disputes is due
to lack of definiteness in original agreements.
6. Beware of the expression "sample order." It is very fre-
quently unscrupulously used.
7. Be very cautious with firms supposed to be doing business
abroad if they have high-sounding English titles—such as U. S.
Manufacturers Agency or American Importing & Exporting Syn-
dicate. Such names in nine cases out of ten are adopted to mis-
lead American manufacturers. As a name to do business with in
Russia or Guatemala the title is surely an incumbrance, for it is
not understood by the natives.
A few years ago a number of piano manufacturers in New-
York and elesewhere had quite an unpleasant experience when
they shipped a large number of pianos to Russia on an order re-
ceived from one of these exporting and importing houses with a
very imposing title. To all appearances the order seemed good,
and being received at a time when business was rather quiet it was
looked upon as a godsend and was filled promptly. The fraud
was discovered many months later and a number of pianos were
recovered in Europe. The experience, however, is one that the
manufacturers involved will not easily forget. It emphasized
afresh that too much care cannot be exercised in looking up the
legitimacy and standing of the houses placing orders.
As a matter of fact, the safest plan of selling foreign coun-
tries to-day is through an export house of recognized standing.
This plan has been adopted by many of our large manufacturers
with decided success. In this way the local export house is re-
sponsible to the manufacturer shipping the instruments, and the
only thing necessary is that shipments should be made according
to the rules and requirements of the export house. Of course,
there are a number of piano manufacturers selling direct to deal-
ers in South America. They are retail concerns of standing, how-
ever, and are increasing their trade in American instruments. Too
much care cannot be exercised, meanwhile, in accepting and filling
orders without getting the best of information of the correct stand-
ing of those who place orders. It is a wise business safeguard,

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