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6
THE
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NEW YORK, AUGUST 31, 1912
The pessimist, like the poor, we have with us
alway. We can stand him with less equanimity
than we can endure the poor. For he is an un-
mitigated nuisance. Quite a good many members
of his tribe are at present abroad in the player
business, prophesying dire things for business this
fall. Yet the most rigid observation of the^ busi-
ness situation in this country warrants no such
gloomy predictions. We are greatly inclined to
listen to prophets of evil, if only because the Amer-
ican people are so idiotically sensitive to what they
believe to be "conditions." One gets so sick of
hearing about "conditions" all the time. Big men
make their own conditions, and so forever master
that which they have created. The average Amer-
ican citizen always appears to think himself caught
between the horns of a dilemma. Either his busi-
ness will not succeed because grasping capital will
not loan money for it, or else the great financial
geniuses who run the country will take all their
money out of the United States and spend it else-
where, because they will not stand for this or
that program of legislation. And so on forever
ad nauseum. Everybody is afraid that capital will
run'away and go to Timbuctoo; just as if the
great masters of capital were so many school-
boys, frightened by a cow mooing at night on a
lonely road! Really, the intelligence of the great
American people is not so very high.
The truth is that there is not the slightest rea-
son to foresee anything but a prosperous fall and
winter in business. The crops are splendid and
the activity in all lines of business depending upon
them is enormous. These lines are written next
door to the Chicago Board of Trade, and it would
do the heart of any pessimist good to see the tre-
mendous amount of business in real wheat, cereals
and provisions which is being daily transacted.
The bugabood of bad business is just a bugaboo
and no more. It is about time that we heard the
last of it. Yet, until we can silence the croakers
and the Jeremiahs, we shall have a lot of very
excellent gentlemen worrying their very excellent
heads off their very excellent bodies, for fear that
some bogey is going to jump out at them and take
all their money away. What nonsense the whole
thing is!
Nor as there any reason why the political bogey
should be permitted to interfere with business this
year. The bogey .is not at all a dangerous spirit
and does no more than lean over the fence, utter-
ing a doleful and feeble cry at long intervals. Yet
we see men who otherwise are fairly intelligent
running around in circles and uttering loud shrieks
of agony over the possibility of a radical President
being elected! If men only read history they
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
would know that nothing radical is done all at
once. The progress of liberalism is sure, but it is
painfully slow, and the world gets each year just
such increment of radicalism as it is at that time
ready to absorb. Of course, professional politicians
are crying Wolf! but they have their own little
axes to grind and care nothing whether they
frighten the country into fits or not. Let us have
an end of this nonsense. Let the more sensible
of us try to persuade our less intelligent brethren
that the Metropolitan Tower will still stand and
the Masonic Temple will present the same front
to State street, even if Debs is elected!
EXHIBIT AT "MOVIES" CONVENTION.
Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. Shows Models of Auto-
matic Pianos and Player-Pianos at Hotel
La Salle—Furnishes Music for Banqueters.
(Special to The Review.)
Chicago, 111., Aug. 26, 1912.
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., this city, was the
only Chicago firm in the organ and piano business
to make an exhibit at the convention of moving
picture operators and manufacturers at the La-
Salle Hotel this week. The convention closed
Friday night with a banquet on the roof garden
For heaven's sake, then, let us get down to busi- of the LaSalle.
In spacious quarters on the 17th floor, near the
ness and quit weeping. If one might paraphrase
a popular song one might say, "Everybody's Doing convention hall room, the company had its head-
It. Doing What? Talking Rot!" We need to quarters. Here styles "]" and "G" of the 88 and
get down to business and prepare for fall and win- 65-note player were shown. These instruments
ter trade* Take note, please, that those who are have flute, violin, drums and mandolin attachment
simply sticking to business are finding themselves and may be played either automatically or
very busy. We do not know of a single player manually]
During the sessions of the convention at
factory in good standing at this time which is
not working pretty well up to its normal capacity. Orchestra Hall on Wednesday and Thursday
There is absolutely nothing wrong either with music was furnished by one of the large Wur-
business or with the business situation, except the litzer Hope-Jones orchestra piano and unit or-
calamity howlers. And they ought to be decapi- chestras, under the manipulation of Dr. Ronford,,
tated, one and all. One thing is sure, and that is a Chicago musician of note. The basis of this in-
that the player-piano business this fall can easily strument is a powerful pipe organ, besides whichi
it has attachments for simulation orchestrial ef-
be far and away the best on record, providing that
we shall be sensible enough to allow it to be so. fects. The displays were under the direction of
Thomas Clancy, head of the automatic depart-
Of course, it is easy to say, on the one hand, that
the time to advertise and hustle is when business is ment of the Wurlitzer Co., who came to Chicago
bad. But it is equally easy to find out, on the especially to meet the moving picture men. Hope-
Jones, the veteran organ builder of the Wurlitzer
other hand, that the business world never in any
circumstances takes good advice. It never hustles factories, was also in attendance. A third instru-
when it ought to, and always stops advertising as ment was set up in the roof garden of the LaSalle
soon as advertising will really do it some good. and furnished music for the closing banquet of
But there is another side to the question which is the convention. Several hundred out-of-town
possibly of greater importance and certainly is more people from all parts of the country were in at-
tendance at the convention.
interesting.
The man who really amounts to something,
whose goods are just a little mite better than the
other fellow's, is the man who comes out on top
when everything is not booming. And when you
consider how many good men there are in this
player business of ours, it does not take much gray
matter to figure out that most of them ought to be
doing pretty well. And, in fact, most of them are
doing just this. Still, there might be improve-
ment, and there in fact will be improvement, as
soon as we all get back from our vacations and
really settle down to hustling. Paradoxical as it
may seem, the American people are better buyers
of luxuries than of anything ehe. If there were a
veritable panic in this country now you would still
find that people were buying player-pianos. And
let it be remembered, also, that you can sell all
the player-pianos that you can make, if only you
present them to the public in the right way. The
truism that advertising will sell anything may be
old and bewhiskered, but it is just as utterly true
to-day as ever it was. If you tell people that they
need player-pianos to make them happy, or to en-
able them to put on as much front as their neigh-
bors, or for any old reason, and if you keep on
saying this over and over again, the time will soon
come when they will believe you. And when once
the American people come to believe that a certain
thing is necessary to their happiness, or that of
their children, they go right out and buy it, with-
out waiting to see what is going to happen next
year. And there you are!
MOLLER ORGAN IN AUGUSTA, GA.
Installed in One of the Aristocratic Churches
of That City—Some of the Specifications.
(Special to The Review.)
Augusta, Ga., Aug. 26, 1912.
M. P. Moller, of Hagerstown, Md., has just com-
pleted the installation of a two-manual duplex pipe
organ in the Church of the Good Shepherd iro
Summerville, the aristocratic suburb of Augusta.
The organ has the Moller patent tubular pneu-
matic action throughout, including couplers and
stop action. The instrument cost $2,500 and was
erected under the supervision of Oscar Postetter
and Fred Betts, both experts in their line, and who
have made many friends during their stay in the
city. This makes the second Moller organ to be
installed in Augusta within a year, the other in-
strument being in St. Mathew's German Lutheran
Church, which has given perfect satisfaction and
will doubtless Lead to others being installed from
the house of Moller.
TO EXPERIMENT FOR AEOLIAN CO.
Prof. Dayton C. Miller, of the Case School of
Applied Science, Cleveland, O., and conceded to be
one of the world's greatest experts in tonal inves-
tigation and acoustical discoveries, has just com-
pleted arrangements with the Aeolian Co. whereby
he will do experimental work for this company
this fall. Dr. Miller is the inventor of the Phono-
deik.
The Master Player-Piano
is now equipped with an
AUTOMATIC TRACKING DEVICE
Which guarantees absolutely correct tracking of even the most imperfect music rolls
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