f
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
mum
THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPULANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
B. BKITTAIN WILSON,
CAILSTON CHACX.
L. M. ROBINSON,
GLAB HIKHMOIT,
A. J. NicKLiN,
AUGUST J. T u n ,
WII. B. WHITE,
L. E. B o w n i
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICEt
JOHN H. WtL.CN, » 4 Washington St.
_£. P. VAN HABXINCEN, 17 South Wabash Are.
_ ,
' . . . .,.,7.
HENBY S. KlNGWILL, Associate.
Telephone, Main 6960.
R o o m 8 0 J P Telephone, Central 414
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS a n d ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUISt
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EDSTXN.
CLTM JBNNINOS
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. G»AY, 8« First St.
DETROIT, MICH.: MOMIII J. WHITE.
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTIIS.
BALTIMORE, MD.i A. R O I U T P U N C H .
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.: STANLEY H. SMITB
MILWAUKEE, W I S . : L. K. MBYEJL
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Baainghall St., E. C.
Published Every Saturday at S7S Fourth Avenue, New York
hntered at the New York Post Of/ice as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (.including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada,
$8.60; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, M-60 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly cuntiacts, a special discount is allowed. Adrertising Pages, $76.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, fhould be made parable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
dealt 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.
Player-Piano and
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grmnd Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silvir Mtdml.. .Charleston Exposition, l«0*
DirUm*
Pan-American Exposition. 1901
Gold Utdal
St. Louis Exposition, 1B04
Gold Jtf**«/..Lewis-Clark E*»—ttion. HOI
^ _ _
LON0 DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS S982-5M3 MADISON SQUARE
Connecting all Department*.
Cable address : "Elblll, N e w York."
NEW YORK, A U G U S T 23, 1 9 1 1
EDITORIAL,
D
E S P I T E constant criticism—and. certainly, because of it—
business methods in the music trade industry and in all lines
are showing a constantly better trend. It is a good sign for the
future of the country that business men are realizing that the old
days when business moved along automatically—when its develop-
ment was without any serious effort or the result of a tremendous
amount of applied intelligence—-are past, and that a new era has
dawned.
It is conceded that a practical education is the winning trick
in almost every trade or business, and a technical education is the
sole safe way to success in any of the secular professions.
Tt is said that the wicked often flourish, but the ignorant never.
The world at large has respect for the man or woman who knows
something, and that respect becomes profound if they know some-
thing, and know that they know it. It is true that we can make
little use of any knowledge that has been gained in "parrot-like
fashion," whether it be commercial or technical, for intelligence
and perseverance must go hand in hand with knowledge if we are
to reap a goodly share of this world's rewards. Knowledge, intel-
lectual capacity and common sense are all needed by the man or
woman who is to be recognized as a successful merchant or
craftsman.
And this is why we expect more of a man to-day than
of his predecessors. The facilities to-day offered by our leading
cities for equipping a man, either in the trade or business fields, are
such as to give him opportunities that were absolutely unknown a
quarter of a century ago.
7
"^ H E R E are times when employes of factories may be justified
in endeavoring, through concerted action, to better their con-
ditions, but there are just as many times when they take stands
against employers that are not justified by the. actual conditions
and are against their real interests. Those who have their capital
invested in factories have the right to demand that the employe
really work throughout whatever hours may constitute the work-
ing day for the factory and to so arrange the work as to produce
the greatest efficiency in the operation of the plant. Competitive
conditions of the day demand that the rules of efficiency be recog-
nized to cut down producing costs. That employes will, against
their best interests and practically without reason, refuse to recog-
nize such demands of business, is illustrated in the case of the strike
called recently in a prominent music roll factory in New England,
and which, owing to the refusal of the company to agree to unrea-
sonable demands directly against its business interests and ap-
parently prompted largely by professional agitators, has resulted
in the consummation of plans to remove the entire business to an-
other city where it is guaranteed that labor conditions will at least
insure fairness to both employer and employe.
O
N another page of The Review this week there appears a de-
scription of an advertisement which recently appeared in the
daily papers in Seattle and which for weirdness of conception
has somewhat of an edge on any previous efforts in the same
line that has come to our attention. The reasons given for the
particularly low prices for the pianos, and the advertiser has
neglected to specify whether the instruments named were new or
used, hold the palm for originality. The bankrupt factory has
been a standby of the special sale artist since special sales were first
invented, but the Seattle piano house simply uses that excuse as an
introduction to larger things. After reading that a factory
drummer left three sample player-pianos and his music rolls, the
unsophisticated can form a mental picture of a piano traveler rush-
ing around the country with his suitcase in one hand and his three
sample player-pianos in the other, just as though he were selling
shoes or a commodity of like nature. Then, again, just to help
out an old friend who has been in the hospital, his obliging com-
petitor is selling off his stock at forty cents on the dollar. To
comment on the damage to the legitimate trade that can be done
by such an advertisement is superfluous, but it simply emphasizes
the necessity for a more general adoption bv the various States of
laws against misleading advertising. The number of States adopt-
ing such measures is steadily on the increase and cases have proven
that the laws are effective in checking misleading publicity. The
Seattle piano house might be able to prove some of its assertions
in the face of such a law, but would find the task a fairly large one,
at least.
T ^ H E Western States, particularly those bordering on the Pacific
-L
Coast, are maintaining their reputation as great consumers
of pianos and player-pianos. While the sales of the latter have
grown enormously, still there has not been the cutting into the sales
of the regular upright pianos as in some of the Eastern States.
One marvels at the vast number of pianos shipped to the Pacific
Coast, and it is certainly a tribute to the wide-awake methods of
the piano merchants of these States that they are able to transact
a business of such enormous proportions with a population so small
as compared with the Eastern States.
Recently a piano man from San Francisco who was in New
York, in a chat with The Review pictured what he could do in the
way of sales in New York City with its enormous territory for fifty
miles around. He figured out the vast number of people not yet
reached to whom piano merchants in New York should sell, and he
maintained the great retail trade in this territory has only been
scratched, so to speak. Of course, he considered the situation and
arrived at comparative conclusions based upon the sales of pianos
and other musical instruments made in California as compared with
those made in New York State and environs.
His contention was that if the same methods were utilized in
going after business in the East as in the West, more pianos could
still be sold than are now disposed of in New York.
This, of course, is purely a matter of opinion, for it must be
remembered that conditions in New York and Pacific Coast cities
differ materially—that is, conditions of selling or developing pros-
pects, and securing results in a business way. The methods pursued
by the Californian may not win out in New York City, although the
gentleman referred to asserted that he could bring his force of men
into New York City and, by his methods, double the business of any
retail house within twelve months. This is a bold statement, but
it is interesting.