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THE:
MUSIC
TRADE:
Wl\W
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
GLAD. HENDERSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
H. E. JAMASON,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
C. CHACE,
B. BKITTAIN WILSON,
WM. B. WHITE,
L. E. BOWERS.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Main 6950.
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Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
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Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition. 1901
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982-5983 MADISON SQUARE
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address •• "ElbllL N e w York."
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER
7, 1912.
EDITORIAL
W
HAT a sad commentary upon conditions in a particular
industry when a leading manufacturer advertises that he
will pay a large sum of money for information which will lead up
to the conviction of anyone using abusive matter for sales killing
purposes which has been published in a trade publication.
We have always contended that holdup journalism could only
exist through the aid given it by advertisers and we may add in
this connection that some time ago we asked that information be
supplied us concerning the sales killing use of any abusive matter
appearing in a characterless sheet against any particular manufac-
turer.
We have contended that the strength of the holdup forces in
trade journalism has been through the existence of fear on the part
of advertisers that possible damage will be done their wares by
competing forces exhibiting them as a deterring force in sales-
making.
We have held that the number of dealers or salesmen who
would stoop to such low, villainous practices is small and infini-
tesimal, and that where there was one man who would use an
abusive article, a thousand, if that number read the abusive sheet,
would consider the condemnatory article a compliment to the
product and to the house which was held up to ridicule and abuse.
We may say that notwithstanding the fact that we asked for
this information not one single case came to our notice and a great
number of readers wrote stating that never in their vicinity have
they met competition which would resort to such low practices.
Tt is good to know this because it draws the sting from the
journalistic thugs, and if we can base any predictions upon present
indications it would seem that a total annihilation of the journalis-
tic forces which have so long polluted the industry will take place
in the very near future.
The amazing part is how men have stood for low. villainous
abuse for such a time indeed. Tt is almost beyond human compre-
hension.
REVIEW
It may be explained in one word—fear—but at last these men,
emboldened by their successes of the past, have made just a few
moves too many.
They have been caught and are now in a position from which
it will be very difficult to extricate themselves.
These human cuttlefish will try to throw out the inky sub-
stance to disconcert their pursuers, but they can easiiy be located.
T
HE fall certainly is opening up in good shape for business
everywhere.
With crops worth more than ten billions as a basis for busi-
ness, it would seem as if the average manufacturer and merchant
should go ahead and make his business plans with the reasonable
belief that conditions would warrant taking fair chances.
Factories all over the country are busy and the call is every-
where for more workmen.
In Massachusetts the factories while not suffering are never-
theless feeling the drain upon their working forces occasioned by
those who are engaged in the expansion of manufacturing facilities
and building and public service construction.
In Pennsylvania the product of the steel mills is sold far ahead
and from the West there is coming a large demand for men to
assist in the harvesting of unusual crops.
Truly it may be said that anyone who wants work need not
worry about finding anything to do.
No pessimistic business situation prevails, as was the case in
1907 and 1908, when sad-eyed men had to be turned away from one
business house after another. No work was the answer to their
appeals and those who had to turn a deaf ear did so with heavy
hearts and hated their job.
To-day the business skies are bright.
There will be a big demand for money from the interior to
harvest and finance the bumper crops.
Ten billion dollar crops for 1912 against eight and one-half
billion in 1911 means a pretty substantial increase.
Agriculture is the very backbone of our national welfare and
a country that can harvest a crop worth such a vast sum as we
have indicated is pretty well able to take care of three or four hun-
dred thousand pianos annually.
Of course it is, to say nothing of player-pianos and musical
instruments and a few other things.
S
ELLING goods right is an art and should so rank.
"The man who learns from yesterday profits to-morrow,"
5-o runs the proverb. This is especially applicable to the salesman
who watches the weak spots in his adversary's armor and attacks
them with shafts of judgment. In other words, the salesman who
keeps his eyes open may profit by the many lessons that intelligent
observation teaches.
For example, a keen salesman noticed that in the lobby of the
hotels each morning were congregated many salesmen, waiting for
the hour of 9 to arrive before commencing to call on their trade.
For years it has been the custom to start the day at that hour, taking
it for granted that buyers are not in their offices before that time.
This man, however, made it his business to ascertain the time
each of the buyers upon whom he called arrived at his place of
business, compiling a list for every town he visited. He soon found
that the men who arrived at 9 were in the minority. On his' next
trip he knew that the buyer of the Jones store arrived at 8:15, so
at 8:2o he called at the store in question, while the many men who
were to call on this buyer were yet sleeping. This plan worked out
in practice so well that he took notes during the next trip of the
usual luncheon time of his men. He also went out of his way to
learn when the different buyers went on vacation periods and out-
of-town buying trips.
It is needless to dwell on the value of this information. Is not
the advantage of the use of a little "gray matter" made clear by this
particular case? No lost motion, no calling after other men had
called and no wasted time calling when the buyer was away from
business. This incident only goes to show that the man who blazes
new paths in the woods of salesmanship will find the going profit-
able.
Another man 'phones from town to town a day ahead of his
calling, and while this plan is patterned after the old-style advance
postal cards, which as a rule get no further than the waste basket,