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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIFW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
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Lyman Bill.
•
Departments
conducted by an expert wherein all que»-
PI an A allU
anil
TiailU
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.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1908
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, OCTOBER 12, 1912.
EDITORIAL
in this issue of The Review, Louis F. Geissler,
E LSEWHERE
general manager of the Victor Talking Machine Co., sets
forth in vigorous and timely words the danger that would result to
the American business man from the enactment of legislation
which contemplates interference with the manufacturer's right to
regulate the prices at which his goods may be sold.
It is an able exposition of the value of the fixed price in busi-
ness as compared with the chaos that would result from reckless
price-cutting.
Mr. Geissler points out that if the Oldfield Bill ever becomes
a law the pinch of it will be felt by every soul who earns a living
in any mercantile capacity—North or South, or East or West. He
says: "Once this thing is established, it is established—and there
will be no recourse. It will mean that we must again work out our
commercial salvation by years of agonizing toil. Legislation which
will produce such chaos may be a travesty upon the purpose for
which legislative bodies were established, but there will be no com-
fort in that knowledge—no comfort in "calling names" when our
hard won commercial prosperity crumbles about our ears." He
adds further: "The prosperous times to which we are gradually
climbing will be utterly nullified by a bitter war of price-cutting
for which no general prosperity can possibly be established. The
only thing which can be promoted is the aggrandizement of some
few isolated price-cutting establishments. If that is the result of
United States legislation, then those legislators will have them-
selves brought about the very abuse which presumably they sought
to abate."
Mr. Geissler urges upon every manufacturer and upon every
merchant the necessity of getting in touch with their representa-
tives in Congress, many of whom are now candidates for re-elec-
tion, to the end that they may have a clear knowledge of the facts
bearing on this proposed legislation.
REVIEW
This article of Mr. Geissler's is a vivid presentation of the
damage that may result from the proposed amendment to the patent
law. He speaks as an authority—as a man who has given the
closest study to commercial conditions in this country—as a practi-
cal buiness man, who is the general manager of one of the largest
institutions connected with the music trade industry.
WO years ago, Edward S. Payson, of Boston, in one of his
T
eloquent addresses before piano manufacturers from all
parts of the country made an earnest plea for the training of
young men whereby they may receive a practical knowledge of
every branch of piano manufacturing to the end that they might
replace the veterans of the trade as the latter answered "the last
call." Mr. Payson closed his address with the words, "Gentlemen,
the future of the trade rests with you who are actively engaged in
it to-day. The making of the future manufacturers depends upon
your efforts. What are you going to do about it?"
Mr. Payson put into words only what dozens of the thinking
men of the trade have been pondering over, before and since. The
number of m.n who know every detail of piano making from the
draughting of the scale to the final tuning and regulating, are
growing fewer in number year after year, and who is to take their
places ?
If the practical heads of a score of leading factories were, for
some reason, forced to relinquish control simultaneously where
would the score of trained men spring from to take up those reins
with the confidence of knowledge? It is a problem that has come
to the mind of more than one thinking man in the trade.
There have been attempts made to educate the ambitious piano
workman in the scientific branches of his calling. There is such
a school in a Western city that trains a limited number of young
men annually, the Union Branch of the Y. M. C. A., New York,
has conducted classes in scale designing which attracted an ex-
cellent grade of men and proved really successful. One of the
students of the class is now the practical partner in a successful
piano manufacturing business in New York and doubtless others
have received great benefit through the classes. The course, how-
ever, is limited to twenty lessons, which at best can but put the
earnest man on the right track toward gaining knowhdge of the
trade.
The German manufacturers go us one better by combining to
support technical schools for the purpose of increasing knowledge
of ambitious employes and find the plan pays. If the instruction
is to be thorough and the results satisfactory, the employer must
co-operate with the employe by at least extending the facilities of
his plant for practical instruction purposes. It will cost money,
but the money will be as well invested as though it were put into
new and up-to-date machinery.
Specialization in the matter of laying out and performing
various parts of the work of piano building makes for economy
in labor and to a certain extent makes it unnecessary that a ma-
jority of employes have a general knowledge of the business, but*
that small minority must be trained, must be aided and encouraged
to study and improve themselves. The future of the business de-
mands that the supply of trained superintendents and factory heads
be provided while there is time and before they are really needed.
To wait for the actual call will be too late.
B
USINESS goes on in great and increasing volume in all parts
of the country, and in all lines of activity. The commercial
agencies, in their reports from the leading commercial centers, tell
of equal prosperity among manufacturers and both wholesale and
retail merchants. The Southwest has now become as optimistic
as elsewhere. Estimates of bank clearings for the week show great
gains in all the commercial centers excepting a few in the South,
and from these places come such good reports of current mer-
chandising as to make it apparent that the big clearings of last
year, with which the present must be compared, were abnormally
large on account of cotton crop financing, so that the clearings there
do not quite gauge the situation.
The paradox seems to be shown to-day, of the general situa-
tion being benefited by certain developments that tend to retard it.
The railroads and shippers, in spite of friendly co-operation to
make the supply of cars go just as far as possible, are facing a
serious shortage of equipment that would interfere greatly with
prosperous trade. In the Southwest the movement of general