Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1912 Vol. 55 N. 22

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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
"IlaUU
t l i a o t i n n s g O f
a a
n d technical
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
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Why it is Difficult to Get Piano Workmen.
I
T is not difficult for good workmen in the various departments
of piano making to get employment in New York these days.
Most every factory is in need of help, and many manufacturers say
that there is a scarcity of skilled and reliable workmen to supply
demands.
There can be no doubt but that the pianomaker—that is, the
man skilled in all departments of piano making—has become prac-
tically obsolete as far as mere numbers go in the ranks of factory
workers to-day.
This condition has been brought about, to our minds, not so
much by reason of the removal of the old-fashioned apprentice
system as from the fact that the gravitation towards specialism
has been felt in piano factories as well as in every other subdi-
vision of industry. In early years the contract system was not
in vogue and the pianomaker of those days was one who could
follow a piano through every department, and was a skilled work-
man. To-day through the contract systtm the various bosses have
held men for years in one special department of the business and
in this way they are entirely without knowledge of general piano
work, their employment having been along specified lines 1 .
This is emphasized by men who apply for employment. When
asked if they are pianomakers, they invariably reply in the affirma-
tive and state that they have worked in such and such factories for
a term of years. Closer investigation reveals the fact that they
have only learned one branch of the business and are wholly
ignorant of all the other departments even though closely related.
Herein lies an opportunity for serious work for the Piano and
Organ Workers' Union, if it really desires to* promote the welfare
of the men whose energies are devoted to piano making. If they
can organize their unions on the basis of eligibility to membership,
or the grounds of a knowledge of specified departments of the
business, and then work towards reaching a higher scale for pro-
ficient men in all departments of the industry than can be occupied
by a man who can only drive a few tuning pins or do a little polish-
ing. Such a workman can be then naturally encouraged by reason
of the high wages paid for a higher knowledge along certain lines
and will become a skilled pianomaker in the broadest interpretation
of the term.
If a union is worth supporting- it should work along lines
which tend towards the mental, moral and financial advancement
of those who have membership in it, and there is no reason in the
world save a purely selfish one why the Piano and Organ Makers'
Union should not conform to the laws which are operative in many
other industrial organizations.
Popularization of the Pipe Organ.
T
H E amazing growth within a recent period of the popular
priced theatre, in which moving pictures are playing a promi-
nent part, has resulted in popularizing the pipe organ—an unex-
pected development truly, for a few years back no one would pre-
dict that the pipe organ would assume any popularity outside of
the church or concert hall. But the fact remains that pipe organs
of exceeding worth musically are being installed in both high and
popular priced theatres in the leading cities of the country. They
are replacing or augmenting the orchestras used in these places,
and where an organist of ability is employed they are giving a
great deal of satisfaction to theatregoers.
The pipe organ which was installed last winter in the Amster-
dam Theatre, New York, is employed to good purpose not alone in
the plays produced at that house, but it is used with the orchestra
and at times solos on the organ are given and keenly enjoyed.
At the Fourteenth Street Theatre, New York, which house is now
devoted to moving pictures, a magnificent pipe organ has just been
installed which has been commented upon most favorably by mu-
sicians. In other cities, particularly in the West, pipe organs are
in great demand, and it would seem as if the popular priced thea-
tres had opened up a new field for the "King of Instruments. 5 '
Of course, the majority of these organs are constructed so that
they may be played either automatically or manually.
W r ith the growing demand for pipe organs in the music rooms
of our wealthy Americans, the increasing appreciation of this in-
strument in the concert hall, in colleges and high schools, in large
municipal auditoriums, and again in the theatres, one can realize
that a new era has opened for pipe organ manufacturers—one that
might be enlarged materially if they only displayed that enterprise
which has advanced and built up so successfully other branches of
the music trade industry.
In the exploitation of the pipe organ there has always existed
a conservatism that may be due to the fact that pipe organs in the
past were associated almost entirely with churches, withal many
religious bodies considered them "evil things" and "designed only
to please the devil." The pipe organ people are emerging from
this religious haze nowadays, and where modern commercial
methods of doing business are utilized they are commanding an
unexpectedly large share of business in an entirely new field.
It cannot be said that this development has been sought for;
rather, like Topsy, it has "just growed." It has forced itself on
the pipe organ manufacturers. Some concerns are alive to the
situation and are benefitting accordingly. Others are still drifting
along antagonistic to the present trend. But we are living in a
progressive, changing age—one that must affect and change the
ideas of the pipe organ manufacturer as everyone else.
Four Billion Dollar Trade in 1912.
O
NE of the most noteworthy facts for historians to record at
the beginning of the new year, when treating of the com-
mercial development of the United States, will be the attainment of
a four billion dollar trade in 1912. In announcing the totals of the
export and import trade of the country for the ten months ended
with October, the Bureau of Domestic and Foreign Commerce
stated this week that the foreign commerce would reach this enor-
mous total by the end of December. Its highest former record
was $3,626,000,000 in 1911. It crossed the three-billion-dollar line
for the first time in 1906 and passed two billions in 1899.
Imports in the ten months amounted to $1,511,000,000 and
exports to $1,871,000,000, making it apparent that the imports of
the full year will approximate $ 1,800,000,000 and the exports
$2,300,000,000, totaling $4,ioo,oco,ooo.
Imports have practically doubled in value since 1901, and ex-
ports similarly since 1904. The exports of domestic products,
•which had never touched the two-billion mark until 1911, in 1912
will approximate $2,250,000,000, while the exports of foreign mer-
chandise in the year will probably fall slightly below the high record
of $37,250,000 in 1910.
One of the striking features of the rapidly enlarging import
trade is the increase in non-dutiable merchandise. In 1902 these
imports amounted to only $409,000,000, and in 1912 they seem
likely to approximate $975,000,000.
This increase in foreign trade, while distributed among all the
grand divisions except Africa, is especially apparent in the trade
with neighbors on the American continent.
The Atlantic ports get the lion's share of the increase in im-
ports, but the northern border and Pacific Coast ports show the
largest percentages of gains in exports,

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