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THE
MU5IC TIJADE
VOL.
L I V . N o . 9. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, March 2,1912
SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS.
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Methods Which Taint
C A N N I N G the piano advertisements for the past six months one must be forced to admit that men
are endeavoring to discover some unique way to drag the public into their stores, nor can it be
said that the methods pursued by some are truthful, businesslike or even fair.
There is too much deceit and misrepresentation in some of the publicity forms adopted so
that they have the tendency to befog with doubt and suspicion the entire piano.atmosphere.
Methods which bring the business into disrepute must affect piano selling of to-day as well as of the
future, and as sure as fate some of the men are forcing the piano business down to a low level, instead of
using their energies to place it on a higher plane.
~~^
They sacrifice sound business principles for unethical and dishonest methods.
What will be the result ultimately?
Just the same ending that would have happened if the puzzle contest scheme had been permitted to con-
tinue without being stopped by federal authorities and public opinion.
it is surprising how hungry some men are for the profits of to-day and how willing they are to sacri-
fice upright mercantile principles and a trade future to win business.
Certainly they are sowing the seeds of moral disorder which will produce an unhealthy crop later on.
The question is, is the business being forced down to a lower plane, and are we ultimately going to
land away down or will we succeed in climbing out of the mire and finally land on a stable foundation?
It is pretty difficult to answer the question, for no one can deny the fact that in some instances deceit
and misrepresentation triumph temporarily to the detriment of honorable business methods, but still I
believe that right must ultimately win out.
We have had many conditions in the piano industry which have had the tendency to throttle and re-
tard its onward growth, and I consider that hold-up journalism may be rightly credited with more damage
to the industry than any other single influence which has been obtruded upon the trade stage for the past
thirty years. In making that assertion, I am not overestimating the power of darkness. Let me illustrate.
Men quite naturally look to the journalistic exponents of an industry to be uplifting, educational and
instructive, and they should be, but when men turn to pages that are reeking with bitter personal abuse—
to pages which show that the articles were inspired with but one object in view—to extort money from
reluctant advertisers, they begin to feel that these base methods must pay, and naturally they figure
that if they pay in one business they should pay in another, and they, having had their mental instincts
dulled by the influence of the degraded journalistic misfits, adopt any methods to win business. But we
see now it is gradually working out in trade journalism, for no one can deny that to-day hold-up journal-
ism is in desperate straits. W r o n g cannot sit forever on the throne while right is on the scaffold.
The men who have been engaged in attacking non-advertisers are now running amuck between ranks
of men fully charged with righteous indignation, and who are dealing them some pretty strong kicks and
cuffs.
Where will it all end?
I do not know, but I know where it should end, and it looks as if the misfits, with the pirate flag
hoisted, were headed straight to that point at the present time, and traveling at an accelerated pace at that.
It will take a miracle to save the piratical craft from a clean smash on the rocks, and the age of mir-
acles passed some time ago.
It looks to the man on the outside as if hold-up journalism would not much longer roar out its ulti-
matums to the piano industry.
But all evils will exist just as long as men submit to them and encourage them by patronage, but by
and by there comes a time when indignation rises and reforms are accomplished.
It would seem as if the tide was rising a bit just at the present time, and the storm clouds are hover-
ing, and it looks like thick weather.
<
Well, let it come, and if the bones of the pirtites whiten the beach, it will be a lesson to those who
follow. And off the dangerous shoals hovers the pirate ship with the journalistic misfits aboard, with
everybody, from the captain down, panic-stricken,' shivering with fear, awaiting the awful hour when the
crash comes.
S