Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1913 Vol. 57 N. 6

Page 4 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SFILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
B. BaiTTAiN WIUOM,
CAILETON CHACX.
L. M. ROBINSON,
GIA» HBMBBBSOM,
A.J.NICKLIN,
AUQUtTj.TlMPl.
WM. ti. WHIM,
L.E.BOWII8
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICES
iOHN H. Wilson, 83* Washington St.
=• J- VAH HABMKBI,, «7So»tt Wabash A*e
_ ,
'
. . . „„,.
HSNBY S. KiMcwiLL, Associate.
Telephone, Main 8950.
R o o m 8 0 c . Telephone, Central 414
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS a n d ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUISt
R W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EDSTBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GIAY, 88 First St.
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTKBS.
BALTIMORE, MD. 1 A. R O I H T F H N C B .
CLYBSJ JBKNIMCI
DETROIT. MICH.: U o u i l J. WHITE.
INDIANAPOLIS. IND.: STANLBY H. SMITH
MILWAUKEE. W I S . : L. K. MBYBB.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
Published Every Saturday at 171 Fourtn Avenue, New York
hnteted at the New York Post Office as Second Class Alatttr.
SOTMORIPTION. (including postage), United States and Mexico, 18.00 per year; Canada,
H.60; all other countries, S4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, |8.60 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
/early contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $76.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
i.yman Bill.
_^_^^_
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
Plan*
•nil
TUUIV aUU
tions
of a technical nafure relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and
repairing of pianos amd player-pianos are
p
i
dea t with
w i l | b e f o u n d i n t n o ther section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning whkh
cheerfully
given
upon
request.
will be
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
•Grind Pri*
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, lffOf
DifUm*
Pan-American Exposition, 1001
Gold Medml
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal..Lewis-Clark Exposition. 1900
LON6 DISTANCE TELEPHONES- NUMBERS 5982-596S MADISON SQUARE
Oanneettna a l l Dcasutoneatsh
Cable a M r t a a : "Elbtll. N e w Yovtc M
NEW YORK, AUGUST 9, 1913
EDITORIAL
EEPING in touch with customers is a recognized necessity
J \
in business nowadays, and with the dealers the salesman
necessarily stands for the manufacturer. On his character depends
largely the concrete results in trade. If he possesses intelligence,
personality and a knowledge of the business the house can safely
trust its customers to his.handling. The oftener such a man calls
on dealers the greater his influence becomes, and in dealing with
the successful salesman, year after year, the dealer is bound to con-
sider him an important factor in his relations with the firm.
An. intelligent salesman is worth good money to any business
house. He binds closer the bond between the house and the dealer.
But the moment the salesman begins to resort to lavish promises
or deception to secure orders then it goes the other way. Friendly
relations are liable to become somewhat strained. But a good
salesman can always untangle any of the little knots which may
become tied in business.
It is good salesmanship to sell goods at fair prices to responsible
parties. It is not gcxxl salesmanship to grant ridiculous terms to
dealers—prices which afford the manufacturer no profit. That is
not good salesmanship and it is mighty poor judgment.
T
HE revolutionary agitators of the I. W. W., whose aim appar-
ently is to destroy industries as they exist and to create out of
chaos a new social system of their own crazy devising, are again
trying their hand at agitation in the piano industry, and under its
auspices circulars are being disseminated among piano workers in
New York, urging organization and union with the object of bring-
ing about dissension and labor troubles some time next winter.
American workers, whether in the piano or any other industry,
ought to know by this time how utterly hopeless it is to succeed
in any undertaking engineered under the auspices of the I. W. W.
The experience of the Paterson workers should be sufficient to
cause them to stop and think. Under the incitement of the agita-
tors of the I. W. W., who declare that they care less about wage
scales or conditions of employment, .than the success of their organi-
zation, the workmen at Paterson have sacrificed millions of dollars
and have been reduced to the verge of starvation. They have been
fed on a diet of inflammatory speeches, with little else to sustain
them, in order that outside leaders in the name of the "sacred rights
of labor" might glorify themselves in a campaign of violence against
"capital."
In this strike, as in the others instituted by the I. W. W., the
victims have been used as pawns in a senseless class war. This
organization, so absolutely anti-American in its spirit and actions,
is not one with which piano men should affiliate. The leading
American labor unions repudiate the I. W. W. because it seems to
have a fiendish desire to cause trouble between employers and em-
ployes, irrespective of cause.
T
HE very interesting talk by E. S. Conway, vice-president of
the W. W. Kimball Co., which appeared in last week's Re-
view, bearing on the immense annual loss due to the inefficiency
of the individual and the prodigal and reckless waste of the Amer-
ican people as a whole, is a most timely comment upon present-day
conditions which should awaken interest.
How many stop to think that with almost a hundred million
people in this country, if through idleness, short hours or inefficiency
of labor, production should be reduced 3J/2 cents per capita per day,
and through extravagance and reckless expenditure there should
be an added waste of 3 ^ cents per day, making a total loss of 7
cents per day, or $25 per annum per capita, it would equal $2,500,-
000,000, an amount as great and as destructive as a 75 per cent,
crop? A short crop is immediately noticed, and we locate our mis-
fortune at once, but apparently no one takes into account a loss due
to inefficiency, and the reckless and almost criminal waste of our
people, which is as destructive annually as would be the short crop.
As Mr. Conway properly remarks further: "Our Government
cannot regulate and correct existing conditions; it is up to the indi-
vidual. If for the next year every American would do honest
work, cease, watching the clock and practise decent and sane econ-
omy, our troubles would be eliminated, and the muck-raking press
and the political agitators would be a thing of the past. Will our
people adopt a sane plan of living and meet the situation, or will
they continue to follow the course now being pursued, and plunge
our country into further social and political revolution, or possibly
something worse? Every citizen should bear in mind that a nation
is never better and never worse than the individual units which
comprise the composite whole. If the units are good, the national
life will be good, and peace will reign. If the units are bad, we
may look for nothing but disintegration, unrest and possibly
anarchy."
This is the truth, well expressed. There is too much superficial
thinking nowadays. While many of our people wave the American
flag and spout patriotism on stated occasions, yet the basis of true
patriotism is real pride of country, and that should mean pride in
one's city, in one's State, in one's self; it should mean an active and
earnest participation in everything that will aid in the uplift of the
community.
The conditions which exist to-day call for the earnest considera-
tion of men who will think for themselves—who are not led by
sensational papers or muck-rakers.
We have been cleaning house in the business world, so to
speak, for the past few years; business ethics and advertising have
been placed on a cleaner and healthier basis, and it is about time
that attention should be turned to other important matters that
mean so much for the uplift of our States and our cities and the
nation as a whole.
''l^HE privilege of citizenship, which carries with it the right to
J.
have a voice in the government of the country, is, or should
be, a most cherished possession of the individual. Theoretically the
right of franchise is denied only to those convicted of crimes and
to those of foreign birth who have failed to become naturalized.
Actually, however, there are close to 40,000 of the total of 70,000
or more traveling men, citizens of good standing, who are denied
the right to vote owing to the fact that they are unable to be at
their homes at the time of registration and election. The present
movement to devise a means for permitting the traveling man to
vote, no matter what part of the country he may be at the time of
election, should therefore be given the strongest kind of support.

Page 5 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Remove Obstacles to Business Advance.
B
USINESS men can base their plans with reasonable certainty
upon a fall trade of satisfactory proportions.
This condition would seem to be assured by reason of crop
conditions, which, if not quite up to last year, will certainly add
many billions to the material wealth of the country. The funda-
mentals are right, and there is no reason why a country like this
should be halted in its onward march by a lot of politicians and
calamity howlers.
It is not pleasing to see the business interests of the nation
held up temporarily by the tariff makers at Washington.
The
country is prepared for a change in the various departments of
trade, and while some industries may be hit heavily, no doubt,
American enterprise will adjust itself to the changed situation; but
for Heaven's sake let it come!
It is to be regretted that, while certain business interests are
halted in a degree until the proposed tariff legislation is enacted
into law, that there should be obtruded a lot of matter which has
no direct bearing upon the present situation. The main issue is
to get the tariff bill settled. After that, if the currency issue is
to be taken up, let it be handled as expeditiously as possible; then
if our legislators have time that they want to kill and know of no
better means to employ it than to go into the Mulhall investigation,
our people, presumably, will be willing that they should; but it
certainly does not increase the confidence of the nation in our
legislators at Washington to see them engaged in a discussion of
matters which are of minor importance, to say the least, when
compared with the great questions of tariff and finance which are
now up for consideration.
Scientific Management of Factories.
F
^ACTORY efficiency, and this includes, per se, capable super-'
vision and management, is a vital question in this era of
close competition in the piano field. As has been well said by an
editorial writer in the Iron Age: Give a thinking man an oppor-
tunity to get acquainted with the average industrial establishment
and he will find points susceptible of improvement. He makes his
inspection with a broad view of things and has not the long-time
intimacy which tends to bring the subject so close to the eyes that,
like the manager, he can see only one or two spots at a time, albeit
his view may be microscopic. Let the manager have mechanical
leanings and he magnifies production; let him be a salesman first
and a mechanic second and he becomes an executive who uncon-
sciously permits an unbalanced condition in his works.
Cases are not uncommon of the manufacturing department
turning out articles for which there is a poor market, though the
articles themselves are exemplary. Sales departments have been
known to oversell manufacturing capacity or to take orders for
articles difficult or unprofitable for the works to produce. Condi-
tions like these call for that application of scientific management
which aims not so much to uproot existing things throughout a plant
as to effect a perfect balance among departments.
The situations described are not new. Indeed they exist in
plants which are supposed to be run with some idea of good man-
agement. They are an outcome of a confusion between manage-
ment as an art and management as a science. Good ideas obtained
here and there are applied as the judgment dictates, but the process
is a hi't-or-miss or cut-and-try method of trying to reach scientific
bases. The management is constantly finding some phase of the
manufacturing, distributing or executive departments of the busi-
ness out of joint and in attempting to correct the trouble by con-
centrated attention to it perceives that some other part of the system
has buckled. Industry in general has been built up as an art, and
the head of it is to be excused if he does not apprehend the scientific
relation of all parts.
In fact, the purely scientific foundation of business appears to
be known to very few, but it remains for every manager to seek to
build upward or to deduce proper procedure from the fundamentals
rather than to reverse the order by applying palliatives without
locating the disease. A scientifically erected business ought to pos-
sess as many gauges as there are departments, and each should
show when things are not going well, and the cure of one depart-
ment should be effected without disturbing the gauges of the others.
Doctors Solve a Much Discussed Matter.
W
E are living in a rapid age, truly. Not merely in politics,
but in the terpsichorean and musical fields as well, innova-
tions are materializing that cause amazement and some degree of
uneasiness. For instance, in the sudden and widespread popularity
of eccentric and more or less violent dancing, the New York
Medical Times sees a phenomenon closely analogous to those danc-
ing manias of the Middle Ages which have been so often discussed
by psychiatrists, alienists and neurologists. . The impulse to "trot"
in ragtime it views as the symptom of a distinctly contagious dis-
ease to which the victims of a neurotic diathesis are susceptible,
and the diathesis itself it ascribes to the unrest of the age and the
various social conditions of a pathological character.
The influence of a peculiar music, combined with a naive deter-
mination to be amused, starts up the motor reactions seen in the
new dances to which a large and specially sensitized class in several
countries has suddenly devoted so much of its time and energy.
For the scientific observer they beautifully illustrated the psychology
of crowds as formulated by Le Bon and other investigators of
that subject.
It is a fact probably not without significance, too, that "trotting"
originated in or was highly congenial to the wild religious emotion-
alism of negro revival services. There, at any rate, the "trqtters"
found it, and dancing was an essential part of most of the ancient
religions, as well as of not a few new ones. It gives outlet and
expression to certain primordial and entirely normal emotions, but
it can be diverted into pathological lines, and that, the Medical
Times suspects, is what has happened now.
All of which should be carefully pondered by such votaries of
the new—or old—sport as have developed intelligence enough to
understand it.
Warn Manufacturers Against Giving Credit.
T
H E National Association of Credit Men has issued a warning
to manufacturers and jobbers against granting credit to
small incorporated retailers, many of whom incorporate to evade
individual responsibility. It was said this week at the offices of
the association that the practice is a menace, and has grown tre-
mendously during the past ten years. Officials of the organization
believe that it should be discouraged, as the risk in granting credit
is largely personal, both as to character and financial worth. The
association advises credit grantors in such instances to have the
officers and directors personally guaranteed, or else have them
indorse notes that may be given for the purchases of the corpora-
tion. x\n official said that no concerted action to fight the practice
is under way, and that none could be brought to bear on the situa-
tion, except by impressing upon credit men the necessity of making
the officers of these small retail corporations individually responsible
for credit extended to them.

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