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TH
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
CARLETON CHACE.
AUGUST J. TIMPK,
L. M. ROBINSON,
WM. B. WHITE,
BOSTON OFFICE:
GLAD HENDERSON,
L. E. BOWIM.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 884 Washington St.
ADOLF EDSTEN.
CLYDE JENNINGS
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First St.
DETROIT, MICH.: Mourns J. WHITE.
CINCINNATI. O.: JACOB W. WALTERS.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
INDIANAPOLIS, I N D J 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
Entered 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, $8.60 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-
nature relating to the tuning, regu-
repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
y
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.
,
Plan A dUU
and
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t l i a o t i n n s g O f
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Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Pnx
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1808
Diploma... .Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal..Lewii-Clark Exposition. 1906
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 5982-5983 MADISON SQUARE
Connecting all Departments.
Cable address •• "Elblll, N e w York."
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 30, 1 9 1 2 .
EDITORIAL
T
T
RADE conditions in all parts of the country are generally
pleasing, and the good business, which the men of the piano
industry have enjoyed during the Fall months, will do much to
bring up the total volume for 1912 to a very satisfactory point.
There was a time during the year when it looked as if we were
going to drop down very materially, but the Fall has changed things
in many ways and it seems that trade continues very fine in all lines
of business enterprise.
In many localities it is a question of how to get the various
products 1 that are necessary to satisfy the local demand.
Competition, of course, is keen, men are hustling for business
and the activity of one man is stimulating to a competitor, and on
the whole the business future is very bright.
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 87 South Wabash Are.
Telephone, Main 6950.
Room 806. Telephone, Central 414
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
REVIEW
f
I S H A T corrupt trade journalism has not only tainted the pro-
-L
fession, but has impeded the growth of the music trade
industry, is conceded by most men, and the wonder grows how
advertisers will continue to support any publication which still
exerts a destructive influence upon the industry which it has mis-
represented for many years.
Perhaps it may be explained partially on the ground of fear
and partially on the ground that the trade has become so accus-
tomed to attacks upon its members that it does not even resent
them, but takes them in a matter of fact way.
Rut there are a limited number of readers who still glance at
abusive journalism—note the attacks—and shrug their shoulders
and say: "Well, So-and-So is getting an extra dose this week.
Wonder when he will settle?"
But this system is not journalism and should not be con-
founded with it for a single moment. It is nothing more or less
than abusive methods worked under a cloak of an honorable pro-
fession, and the members of the music trade have stood for this
kind of abuse more years than any other trade on earth.
Its doctrines have not only affected every honest journalist,
but they have crippled the growth of the industry.
They have prevented men from being free and independent
in their actions for fear of unfair criticism.
It has made it impossible for a self-respecting journalist to
criticize any product or principle fairly and freely because he knows
that the moment he entered into a just and critical analysis of men
and methods his motives would be impugned by some readers. In
other words, "no matter how honorable his motives, some readers'
would assert that he had abandoned decency and was using de-
basing methods of attack.
Why, the slightest association with these distorters is injurious
to any business and some houses are beginning to realize it, for it
is said upon excellent authority that a large company, which for
some time past tolerated the presence of one of these representa-
tives of abusive journalism, came at last to hear such criticisms that
it felt called upon to ask this oily product—this representative of an
abusive press—to make his visits to the office less frequent.
In plain, they saiel they could not have him forever hang-
ing around their office because reports had already reached them,
that he, himself, had boasted that he was directing the policy of
the business, and that they were "dead easy."
Now,, when it reaches the point that the very presence of one
of these representatives of a decadent press is injurious to business
interests and that he will not even take a hint to leave, but has
to be grabbed by the collar and unceremoniously chucked out doors
—what next? It takes a knockout blow for some of these fellows
to get it through their pachydermic hides that they are not wanted.
Well, the mills are still grinding, and from present appear-
ances there will be less business establishments wherein the de-
cadents will be welcome during the new year, but there are certain
places where their presence may be welcome and where they will
find congenial companions—but, of course, not with reputable busi-
ness men.
HE ubiquitous "union label," which is to be found on so many
American products nowadays, has "loomed up" like the pros-
pective war between the great European powers, following- a discus-
sion before the Chicago Federation of Labor last week.
;
It seems trjat some violinists belonging to the Musical Union,
which is part of the Federation, have been playing violins made by
a non-union maker named Stradivarius, of Cremona. This fact
aroused the ire of the Band Instrument Makers' Union, and a
formal complaint was made to the effect that no violin should be
played without a union label on it.
The discussion in connection therewith, which appeared in the
news columns of The Review last week, is intensely amusing. For
instance, one of the delegates said: "Don't let's hear any more
about artists. This artistic talk makes us tired. Music from a tin
pan would sound sweet to a true union man if the union label were
on the tin pan."
And these euphonic words did not fall from the lips of a cellar
digger, or a plumber, or a hod carrier, but from a member of the
Band Instrument Makers' Union, many of whom claim and adver-
tise themselves to be "artists."
It is clear that union men, at least some of those in Chicago,
have no patience with the "art" in artistic talk, and desire their
music properly labeled. Therefore, it will be necessary to relegate
the famous "Strads" to the refuse heap or have them placed among
the curiosities in our museums as obsolete musical instruments.
The committee appointed to consider the matter cannot fail
to be weighed down with the importance of the question under
consideration—what is more musical, a "Strad" or a union label ?
E have been in receipt of many communications from read-
ers in various parts of the country praising the last issue
Musicians throughout the world will await their decision with
of The Review. An issue of one hundred and fifty pages reflects
anxiety and trepidation.
some credit upon the trade newspaper organization putting it forth
Think what may result if the label is formally declared the
and such a paper will be preserved and consulted frequently as a
victor? Seriously, the entire affair is ludicrous and a reflection upon
the intelligence, or, should we say, sanity, of some of the members
reference volume, for it contains matters which are of obvious
of the Chicago Federation of Labor,
interest to piano merchants everywhere,
W