Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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EDWARD LYMAN BILL • Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
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AwowiT J. T I M K ,
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BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE*
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E. P. VAN HABLINGIN, »7 South Wabath AhreJ '
• OHM H.WiLsoK.St. Washington St.
H . N I Y S. KIHGWILL. Aswciate.
Telephone, Main 4960.
Room 809. Telephone, Central 414
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS a n d ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUISi
R. W. KAUFFMAK.
ADOLF EDSTIK.
CLYM JINNINGS
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GIAY, 8S Firtt St.
DETROIT. MICH.: M o n n J. W*IT*.
ONCMNATI. O.: JACOB W. WALTMS.
BALTIMORE, MD.i A. ROIMT F U M C I .
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.: STANLEY H. SMITH
MILWAUKEE. W I S . : L. I . MBYK*.
LONDON. ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenae, New York
Enttted at the New York Post Office as Second Clast Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (including pottage), United States and Mexico, $8.00 per year; Canada,
$t.60; all other countries, $4.00.
i n v r A T l M M I N D L $1.60 per inch, tingle column, per insertion. On quarterly or
f S r l y ^ m r t e t t f r ^ e 3 a l discount it allowed! Advertising Pages, $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, thould be made payable to Edward
Lyman Rill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques
tiom of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
rlajCr-rlaBO aWl
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
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dealt with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning which
will he cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prim
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal... Charleston Exposition, 190*
Di*Uma
Pan-American Exposition. 1901
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
G*U Jfofo/..Lcwit-Clsrfc Expedition, 1905
LOWS DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982-5963 MADISON SQUARE
Cbnneetlnta all Departments*.
Cable address : " E l b n T N e w York."
NEW
YORK,
JULY
12,1913
EDITORIAL
HILE it is a pleasure to record the improvement in sales
and advertising methods which now prevail in the piano
industry there are still left a number of people who believe that the
public can be cajoled into buying pianos by the offers of prizes and
knick-knacks, rather than by the giving of values.
We recently came across an advertisement in an Illinois paper
where a retail piano concern advertised a "factory sale," and in
addition to cut prices offered free delivery, railroad trip, round fare
to all out-of-town purchasers, free stool, and scarf, a year's tuning,
and, still better, to every purchaser who paid fifty dollars or more
cash down, the choice of a diamond ring, gold w^tch, or a twenty-
six piece set of silverware. This is certainly the limit, and the
wonder is that the piano itself was not given as a bonus.
This is the kind of advertising which undermines confidence in
the piano trade and which has done so much to convey the idea to
the general public that there are enormous profits in the piano
business.
It is true that the cut price, premium crowd is limited in num-
ber, thanks to the exposure of the absurdity of these methods of
advertising, and the danger which they work to the industry as a
whole and to the men who inaugurate and back them.
The assailment of this disreputable style of publicity is based
on the principle that anything which tends to drag down an indus-
try in the estimation of the public must be opposed and its dangers
pointed out. Dealers who believe that this kind of work is ex-
cusable should realize that the day has long passed when this form
of publicity is permissible, or effective in results.
W
SK the ordinary retailer or small manufacutrer to show, in
A
figures, the actual profit made on a certain line of goods
after charging that line with its proper percentage of the gen-
eral operating expenses, and it is not likely he could give the
specific information; he does not have it because he has never
felt it worth his while to analyze his business in this way. He
has no data which would show conclusively that it would be
economy to drop that particular line and put his floor space, his
capital and his energy into some other line showing a larger
margin of profit.
It is the common experience of auditors and accountants,
as System puts it, to find that one department or line of business
has been carried on for months or even years at a loss—a mill-
stone around the neck of the concern. The proprietor, looking
no further than the periodical statements of the business, may
feel disheartened that he has no more to show for his investment,
his anxiety and his work. He overlooks the system that would
point out to him the hidden profits that arc covered up by losses
from an unproductive department. He is too far away from the
blackboard and chalk.
To keep an accurate record of time and material and output
is looked upon by many foremen and clerks as interminable red-
tape. And the average business man regards a detailed ac-
counting system as "all right for a big business where the pro-
prietor can't keep in touch with everything, but unnecessary for
a place like mine." Yet the very success of the larger institution
is usually due to the fact that nothing is taken for granted;
exact information as to costs and profits are insisted upon, thus
leaks can be stopped before they drain the reservoir of all its
profits.
Theoretically, an idea, if new, can be made the subject of
letters patent. There is distinctly an idea—an idea well worth
a try-out in any commercial enterprise, great or small—in the
use of accurate records in accelerating business. Perhaps the
"basic patent" would have been awarded to the German grinder
of knives who transformed the blackboard and a piece of chalk;
into a dynamo of business expansion and far greater profits.
But as the matter stands to-day, let no manufacturer or mer-
chant hesitate about adopting the idea because of fear of "in-
fringing." The monopoly—if ever there was one—has long
since expired.
Get a correct line on your business—and get more business!
T
HE presentation by The Music Trade Review of a silver loving
cup as a baseball trophy to The Piano Club of New York
has stimulated a new interest in the baseball game which forms a
very interesting feature of the annual outing of The Piano Club,
which occurs this year at Witzel's Point View on July 15. The
conditions governing the winning of the cup are that the game shall
be played for at least five innings, in accordance with the rules set
forth in Spalding's Official Guide for 1913, and that the umpire be
a neutral person. The team which wins the game three years in
succession will be the permanent owner of the Review cup, and
the name of the winning team each year will be inscribed thereon.
The cup, which is now on exhibition at the Piano Club rooms, 137th
street and Third avenue, New York, has excited many compliments,
judging from the letters which have reached The Review office
in this connection.
No one of the several social events given by the Piano Club
during the year attracts such a large number of guests as the annual
outing, and this year a larger attendance than ever before is ex-
pected. Meanwhile the captains of the two teams, known as the
"Manufacturers" and the "Supply Men," are working hard to get
their men in trim for a contest which promises to be as close and
exciting as any of the professional games.
T
HAT apprenticeship is the main reliance of industrial train-
ing in Germany and that it might be desirable to revive it
in some form in this country is the conclusion of Dr. Holmes
Beckwith, who has prepared for the United States Bureau of
Education a study of German industrial education and its lessons
for the United States.
"Wasteful though the old apprenticeship was of the appren-
tice's time and effort, apprenticeship in its newer forms, both in
Germany and the United States, has in it much of promise for
the future training of industrial workers," says Dr. Beckwith.
"No better way, or even so good, has yet been devised for the
main training of the mass of industrial workers than in the shops
where they are employed and by those who supervise their
work."
Dr. Beckwith suggests that if all employers pay the cost of
adequate training for any youthful workers whom they may