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THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SP1LLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
CARLETON CHACE,
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L. M. ROBINSON,
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REMITTANCES, In other than currency forms, should be made payable 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.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900Silver Medal. •.Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
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NEW YORK, J A N U A R Y 3, 1 9 1 4
r
. | H E business situation at the opening of the new year shows a
\A-,' ;'marked .'improvement, and some of the best posted men of
'the country are' ineli'hed to view the outlook optimistically. The
new ciirretj£y^ia\V 4s giving courage to business men, and the belief
is growing irj financial circles that the increased credit facilities
which" it .proyfdes,y will give a fresh impulse to the country's halting
industries.
The uncertainty and uneasiness which has prevailed in the
business world for some time past, owing to tariff and currency
legislation, have now been removed, and in the business and finan-
cial worlds men are adjusting themselves to the new developments.
As soon as this has been accomplished there can be no question
that the country will make a fresh start. Fundamentally condi-
tions are healthy, and this despite the epidemic of pessimism
which has been so contagious during the past six months.
Take the crop situation, for instance, and if we were to follow
our pessimistic friends we would believe that last year's crop in this
country had brought disaster to the farmers, while as a matter of
fact the crops for 1913 reached the highest total in the nation's
history, the worth of yield being officially placed by the govern-
ment at ten billion dollars—a bumper year in spite of droughts
and other setbacks. The value of the 1913 crop is twice as great
as that of 1899, more than a billion dollars over that of 1909, and
substantially greater than that of 1912. It gives a cash income
of $5,847,000,000 to the farmers of this country.
The purchasing power of the agricultural community in this
country is greater this year than ever before, and there is just as
large a margin for buying pianos. Piano dealers must not become
inoculated with the pessimistic germ and leave things drift. There
was never a time when it was so necessary to be up and doing as
now. Careful, conservative management is a most desirable ele-
n}ent in business, but when it is backed up by energy and optimism
it is most successful. There has been a sort of house cleaning
going on for some time, and this is an excellent thing in many
ways. People had been moving along loose lines in a credit way
until a careful examination of the machinery became necessary tc
the end that business may be conducted on a sounder and safer|
basis.
The general improvement in financial sentiment which we have I
witnessed recently has not been wholly due to the satisfaction withi
which the new currency legislation has been received. There have]
been other developments scarcly less reassuring to the business
men of the country than the knowledge that in the future there is
to be provided ample credit facilities for those who are entitled
thereto.
The promise that the Administration is to provide a way
by which the great corporations of the country may bring them-
selves in sympathy with the law, the assurance that the railroads
are to be permitted to reasonably increase their charges as com-
pensation for their increased cost of operation and their wisdom in
conceding that public policy and the best interests of their share-
holders demand that the commission be given the power to super-
vise future issues of new securities, have provided much additional
cause for confidence and hopefulness.
There are signs, moreover, that the business depression has
run its course in many lines of trade, and the early turn in the tide
has been foreshadowed by the activity and breadth which the stock
market has developed, a movement that is neither artificial nor
temporary in character. The European financial situation, too, is
showing evidence of substantial improvement. There has been a
general relaxation of the tension that has existed at all the principal
financial centers for months, and there is every reason to believe
that as soon as the end of the year settlements are completed there,
every facility will be afforded our bankers to draw gold in pay-
ment of the heavy balance which the enormous exports of the last
quarter of the year have built up in our favor. In the meantime
the funds that have been released from agricultural activities nnd
from the business reaction will soon begin to gravitate to the re-
serve centers, where they will seek employment in various chan-
nels. Over $250,000,000 will be paid out in New York during
January in the shape of dividends and interest. This will add to
the purchasing power of the people—it will mean more money in
circulation.
S
OME manufacturers have carried out with a good deal of suc-
cess what has been termed the college idea. Briefly, it is the
engendering of a live spirit of co-operation between the manage-
ment and the men, and of loyalty to the institution of which they
are parts, that has something of the same meaning as the unbend-
ing loyalty the college stamps upon its alumni and the effect of
which is never lost.
Attempts to create this condition are sometimes failures, but
seldom wholly so. More times they succeeded. In many estab-
lishments the relations of all the executive and department heads
become the making of a powerful unit. The midday meal which
brings the head men together daily is a factor. This intercourse
creates a community of interest in the work of the establishment.
Petty departmental differences are minimized. Everyone who is
worth his salt becomes more closely attached to the organization
and is more active in meeting the competition.
However, to carry out the idea to completion requires that the
co-operation extend deeply into the corps of workers, and it is sur-
prising, as The Iron Age aptly says, to what extent painstaking
and tactful attempts have succeeded. The shop excursion or pic-
nic, abetted and joined in by the management; the shop baseball
team fighting for a factory league championship and backed by
the interest of the owners; the athletic grounds maintained for the
men—these and similar institutions, carried forward year after
year, have most beneficial effects.
In one of the more prominent works where foremen's meet-
ings have been held for years, the innovation was recently intro-
duced of inviting workmen to join in the gatherings, the serious
side of which is supplemented by a social hour and informal
luncheon.
Everyone knows plants where men stick if they can, unless
they graduate to places of greater responsibility and remuneration
elsewhere, in which case they are proud forever afterward of the
old place of employment. The great reason for this is the loyalty
developed by wise and sympathetic management through co-opera-
tion with the workers.