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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
RENEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff :
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NiCKLiN,
CARLETON CHACE,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
BOSTON OFFICE:
,
'
r
. „„
GLAD HENDERSON,
L. E. BOWERS.
CHICAGO OFFlCfc:
JOHN
H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
3
„ ,
L. M. ROBINSON,
WM. B. WHITE,
g. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 37 South Wabash Ave.
°
HENRY S. KINGWILL, Associate.
Telephone, Mam 6950
Telephone, Central 414.
R o o m 8oa .
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EDSTEN.
CLYDE JENNINGS,
SAN FRANCISCO: S-H. GRAY, 83 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.
KANSAS CITY, MO.: E. P. ALLEN.
PITTSBURGH, PA.: GEORGE G. SNYDER.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
Pnbllsbed 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,
$3.50; 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-
Pfqnn and
t j o n s o f a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
TldllU dUU
j
d e a i t w i t ) l j w ;n b e found in another section of this
ICmUlMlI
paper. We also VejJdl
publish llllCllfe.
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, 1902
Diploma... .Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 598Z—5983 MADISON SQ.
Connecting- all Departments
Cable address: "Eltoill, New York."
N
E W Y ORH, N OVEMBER 1 , 1 9 1 3
PniTORIAI
m—iM-wa. J. V^F*^.l. •/-%.! i —
F
IGURES for the foreign trade during September, the latest
issued by the Government, do not indicate a let-down in pro-
duction or business so far as exports and imports are concerned.
The figures are records for the month. Exports increased $18,507,-
389 over September of the previous year, and imports were
$24,743,264 greater. The large increase in imports, however, is
two-thirds due to the inclusion in the report of the first three days
of October in order to have the October record begin with the new
tariff. Excess of exports over imports is less than the excess of
the previous month and September, 1912. Without the three days'
imports included, however, the excess of exports for September
would be considered greater than in the month before and last year.
With this record of merchandise trade and with shipments of wheat
for the past week larger than any week since 1901, there is basis
for encouragement regarding the commercial, and financial inter-
national relations of the country.
D
ISCUSSING trade papers and their value to the subscriber.
J. Henry Ling, the well-known piano merchant of Detroit,
Mich., says: "I read an editorial in The Review a short time ago,
concerning a man who had expressed an opinion that the music
trade papers did not do the trade any particular amount of good.
I would like to submit a little testimony. I have been quoted in
The Review several times as the originator of business plans
which had solved certain problems pleasingly, and which might be
termed educational in their nature. Disregarding the question of
their quality or value, for I don't care to'pose as a genius, I have
received letters from piano dealers in various parts of the country
inquiring for further details of the methods credited to me. This
looks to be like positive proof that The Review is read by the piano
dealers, in search of pointers through which they may improve their
business. Again disregarding the value of my own suggestions, it
is safe to say that there are a good many educational features in the
trade papers. Otherwise so many people would not be searching
there for them. Men do not seek vegetation in a desert. One
glance at the desert is enough. One reading of a trade paper
gives a pretty good comprehension of its style and scope. And
unless it has something of value in it the succeeding issues are cast
aside. As I said, letters come to me from North, South, East and
West, from people I never heard of, who got my name from trade
paper articles and want to inquire about something that will be of
benefit to their business."
I
T must be apparent to every student of music trade conditions
that there has been an enormous trend towards the player-
piano within the past few months, and 1913 will mark the banner
year in the production of pianos containing some form of player
mechanism.
For a number of years the player-piano did not make the prog-
ress which many predicted, but now we are receiving the cumu-
lative result of the years of educational work which have gone
before.
A notable realization of these conditions may be seen in an
announcement of J. Harry Shale, president of the Foster-Armstrong
Co., who said in a recent conversation with The Review that after
January 1 Foster & Co. would discontinue the manufacture of
regular pianos and concentrate their entire Foster factory resources
upon the production of player-pianos.
There will be a number of distinct types of Foster player-
pianos, supplied in a variety of cases, but the entire plant will be
devoted to the production of player-pianos.
Such an announcement from a house having such vast re-
sources, supplies the strongest kind of argument in favor of the
player-piano product. It is really a remarkable move when a great
business institution decides upon a course which means the utiliza-
tion of an entire plant for producing a special line of instruments.
P
IANO manufacturers are, as a rule, very glad to see the efforts
being made to bring into practical shape some plan for regis-
tering designs of all kinds, including those of piano cases; a plan
that, while dispensing with red tape will, at the same time, prove
effective in discouraging design pirates. Those piano manufactur-
ers who have well-deserved reputations for originating designs have
always been the victims of the copyists, and a new and attractive
case design has hardly been placed on the market in many cases
before several unscrupulous concerns without the ability or the de-
sire to originate have brought cases similar in every essential par-
ticular. Various attempts have been made by certain manufacturers
to put a stop to design piracy through the medium of the courts,
but with little success and much expense, and a simple method of
registration that would serve to prove priority of design in court
actions should be very desirable.
In answer to those who doubt the practicability of any meas-
ures adopted, to prevent design piracy it is to be remembered that in
both England and Germany design registration has been in suc-
cessful use for some time past and the same system could readily
be adopted in this country. It is to be hoped that the Anti-Design
Piracy Convention, to be held at the Hotel Astor on November 21,
will be successful in evolving some plan of registration that shall
minimize, if not entirely eradicate, the practise of design stealing.
I
T is pleasing to note some of the high-class advertising which
dealers are putting forth in various sections of the country.
At hand is a full page advertisement which has recently appeared
in the Memphis papers, placed there by the O. K. Houck Piano
Co., of that city. A number of pianos are advertised. Net prices
are quoted on all makes, and as the O. K. Houck Co. recently
stated to The Review, "nothing is left to the imagination. Such
an ad is only made possible by a strictly one price, no commission
plan."
It certainly is dignified advertising and the slogan of the
Houck house is, "one price to all, commissions to none." Certainly
there is soundness in such an argument, and we understand that
the extensive advertising recently entered into by the Houck Co.,
adhering strictly to the one-price plan, has been extremely profit-
able. The direct returns have well justified the N investment,
showing that sound advertising methods will pay in a monetary
sense. If there were more of this kind of advertising adopted
it would be better for the entire music trade.