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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
MEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
REVIEW
A land in which, as it seems, the bounty of heaven can never
fail, and which is constantly enriched in every material respect,
should not .fail to realize its mission to increase the welfare and
happiness not only of everyone'of its citizens, but of the people of
all the world.
Chances for piano business! Why, bless you, there is enough
for all. But it will not come without asking.
Orders will not drop like ripe apples from the tree. Oh, no!
It will require work—-and remember, orders for stock delayed
too long may mean loss of sales later on.
J . B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff :
GLAD HENDEKSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
C. CHACB,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
WM. B. WHITE,
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Main 6950.
PHILADELPHIA:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
L. E. BOWERS.
E. P. VAN HARLINCEN, 87 South Wabash Ave.
ALBERT G. BRENTON, Assistant.
Room 806. Telephone, Central 414
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EDSTEN.
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, IND.: STANLEY H. SMITH.
MILWAUKEE. WIS.: L. E. MEYER.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Enttted at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada,
$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-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
p
dealth with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning which
will be cheerfully given upon request.
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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 S9S2-S983 MADISON SQUARE
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address" "ElblU. New York."
NEW YORK,
SEPTEMBER 2 1 , 1912.
EDITORIAL
T
HE piano merchant who does not make progressive moves this
fall is missing golden opportunities. More musical instru-
ments should be sold this fall than during any previous fall season
since time began.
Why?
More people to buy.
More money to pay.
More value to crops.
Just listen and then think it over.
This richly blessed nation will undoubtedly gather a larger
total harvest of all crops this year than it has ever reaped before.
The Department of Agriculture's estimate of corn is for a crop
of 2,995,000,000 bushels, which exceeds the previous highest census
record of 2,927,416,091 in 1906.
The Department of Agriculture's record of the 1910 crop was
3,125,713,000 bushels, but that was not sustained by the census
report.
Undoubtedly the present year's crop will exceed 3,000,000,000
bushels when the harvest is really in.
The estimate of the wheat crop, 690,000,000 bushels, falls a
little below several other years, but not much below the record crop
of 748,460,218 in 1901. Here again the full returns from the
harvest will increase the figures, for the gain is 1 all in the spring
wheat.
The smaller crops—oats, hay, barley, potatoes and the rest—
are nearly all "bumpers." Cotton is less than the record of 1911,
but larger than the average.
The biggest crop all around in the history of the country, or
in the history of any country; an astonishment to the world, and
an event in history. Business springs up under it like a giant re-
freshed. Not only does it sustain our commercial hopes and mag-
nify our prosperity, but it strengthens the faith of the people in
their leadership of the world in all particulars,
FORCEFUL, argumentative and convincing "brief" against
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the enactment of legislation that contemplates interference
with the manufacturer's right to regulate the prices at which his
goods may be sold, is the little volume entitled, "Price-Cutting—A
Restraint of Trade," written by Eldridge R. Johnson, president of
the Victor Talking Machine Co., and reproduced for the benefit
of Review readers in another part of this publication. It is in-
teresting alike to piano manufacturers and merchants as to those
handling talking machines, and the smaller musical instruments.
The subject is handled in the broadest possible spirit, and
shows how the suggested amendment to the present patent law
would work a distinct injury to the best interests of the manufac-
turers of this country.
Mr. Johnson refers to the evils of price-cutting in a graphic
way, and says: "Price-cutting is generally confused with com-
petition and, while it may be so classed, there is a very great and
important difference, as many forms of price-cutting are unques-
tionably unhealthy competition. It benefits no one save a class of
price-cutters who could very well be dispensed with, for they live
and grow rich by breakings into and diverting to themselves the
good-will of a trade that others have created. They never build
up a business, but invariably appropriate that which some one else
has created. The foundation on which their business stands is not
constructive, but destructive and monopolistic. They sell at less
than an ordinary percentage of profit if, by so doing, the trade that
is going to many others can be diverted to themselves. This is the
whole story. There would, of course, be a public gain in this were
it done fairly and in good faith, but more than often it is not done
fairly, or even decently, and is but the means to an end that has
aroused so much indignation in this country—monopoly. There
are many legitimate occasions to reduce prices, but such occasions
are temporary and have no relation to professional price-cutting."
The president of the Victor Talking Machine Co. is entirely in
accord with the arguments presented time and time again in The
Review, that manufacturers should have the right to regulate the »
prices at which their goods are retailed in any case, whether they
are patented or not, and adds: "If they are denied this right, the
quality of goods in general must deteriorate. There is no possible
help for it, unless humanity in general can be cured of selfishness."
The argument is enforced by several illustrations showing how the
"cut-price" versus the "fixed-price" campaign develops.
Mr. Johnson is a keen student of trade and economic conditions
and he presents such a masterly array of facts against the passage
of the suggested amendment to the present patent law that no one
free of prejudice can avoid being impressed. The appearance of
this volume should act as a stimulus to a more earnest campaign
during the present recess of Congress, against the effort being made
to undermine price stability so that there may be a more determined
and cohesive opposition on the part of the manufacturers and mer-
chants of this country to the passage of the Oldfield Bill.
CCOMPANYING this booklet was a letter from the Victor
Talking Machine Co., which treats of the patent reform
issue in a most illuminative way as follows:
A number of new bills, most dangerous to general business
interests, have been introduced in Congress. The purposes of these
bills are to prevent the regulation of prices by manufacturers either
through the patent laws or any other method whatsoever. They
are based on the erroneous theory that the manufacturer has no
rights, interest or responsibility in goods after they leave the hands
of the original producer. These bills are aimed at the so-called
trust monopolies. No doubt their authors are acting in good faith,
but they do not understand the true situation. These bills will not
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