Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1914 Vol. 58 N. 1

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. SP1LLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
CARLETON CHACE,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
L. M. ROBINSON,
WM. B. WHITE,
BOSTON OFFICE:
GLAD HENDERSON,
L. E. BOWERS.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
L , .
», • a n E f t
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 37 South Wabash Ave.
HENRY S. K. KINGWILL, Associate,
Telephone, Main 6950.
Telephone, Central 414.
R o o m 806 .
PHILADELPHIA:
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL
ST. LOUkS!
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
•
ADOLF EDSTEN.
CLYDE JENNINGS,
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First St.
DETROIT MICH.: MORRIS J. WHITE.
CINCINNATI, O.: JACOB W. WALTERS.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
INDIANAPOLIS,IND.: STANLEY H. SMITH.
MILWAUKEE, W1S.: L. E. MEYER.
KANSAS CITY, MO.; E. P. ALLEN.
PITTSBURG, PA.: GEORGE G. SNYDF.R.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
Published 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, $8.00 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $90.00.
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
l&OXTCt DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982—5983 MADISON 8Q.
Connecting- all Departments
Cable address: "Eltaill, New York."
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.

Page 5 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE THREE LEGS TO BUSINESS.
(Continued from page 3.)
These facts may not at all times be pleasing, but they will interest because they are fundamental
in a business. After all it gets down to a question of management.
Business problems, of course, many of them—a business without problems is an impossibility.
It is a sort of a mercantile pipe dream—a phantasmagoria—an evanescent coruscation of ideas—
an impractical and visionary dream that can never be successfully realized!
Problems are always on hand, and the beginning of each year every business man should
figure on their solution. Many of them keep the machinery running along the same old lines—
that is one of the reasons why they do not arrive farther ahead at the end of the year.
They are not acquainted with the actual facts and details concerning their own affairs. In
other words, things which should interest them most, which are vitally essential to their business
life, are sometimes as foreign to them as the Greek alphabet.
Boiled down it becomes a question of management—one of the three legs of the modern busi-
ness institution—capital—labor—management; but of what use are the first two legs unless the
third—management—is of the right kind? The real test of the whole /^-^>
/V\ ,
is management, for without good management the other two legs are v^^^OAAlVVACVA/VlOCVVyV VlJll-
not sufficient to prop up a modern business for long.
Injury Done by Misstatement of Facts
attack upon the credit of the piano industry should
A NY be unfair
resented by every man whose interests lie therein, and
the dissemination of matter circulated to give a false impression of
the stability of the piano trade is apt to work material injury to
some deserving people perhaps at a most critical juncture.
To circulate the impression that the piano industry lacks in
many strong fundamentals is glaringly untrue, and the malicious
intent back of such a move is hardly understandable.
Recently the following communication was addressed to this
publication and signed by one of the most reputable members of the
trade—a piano manufacturer of national reputation. He writes:
"Gentlemen:—We note one of the trade papers is devoting a
good deal of ink to scareheads concerning opinions banks have of
piano paper as collateral and the piano business in general. Also
we have noticed much space devoted to a $20,000,000 piano com-
bine. Can you tell we what it is all about ?
"It looks to me as though some injury might be done the
general piano trade by some of these publications, for even a flea
as small as he is can create a considerable disturbance.
"General conditions of business to-day are not any too good,
many reasons for which we all know about. There is no doubt
that competition in piano selling has brought about too much credit
from all sources, but altogether banks have had so little trouble
with the piano business, that it is too small to be noticed.
"We doubt if any line of business has been as satisfactory alto-
gether to banks as the piano business, either with the manufacturers
or the dealers. A few notable examples exist where banks have
been losers in individual cases, but where one loss has occurred
through piano accounts, several can be cited for about every other
line of business. The occasions have been individual and not gen-
eral. I am acquainted with many dealers in many parts of the
country, and am sufficiently familiar with conditions to state these
facts, which I think can be verified through many others.
"I have found banks as a rule were able to take care of them-
selves, and there can be no good to advertise the shortcomings of
a very small minority which more than likely will work hardship
on many innocent business people. While some banks in individual
cases have been too lenient, my observation is that in the great
majority of instances they have not gone so far as they should in
their credits. I have heard that this particular paper is being circu-
lated among bank officials, and I am wondering who is really behind
the scheme, whether it is prompted by some manufacturer who
would like to work hardship on those less substantial in the trade
for personal gain. Anyway there must be a purpose of some kind
that is not maintained purely for the benefit of the trade at large.
"My opinion is that there are far greater evils in the piano
trade to which space could be devoted with better purpose,
and that the education to the banks should be on the lines to help
piano dealers in the matter of credit where they showed themselves
entirely deserving in integrity and ability rather than to put out a
plan "which might be a detriment to a great many who are entirely
safe."
Co-operating With the Manufacturers.
ITH a view to extending the foreign trade of the United
States, the Secretary of Commerce has directed the Bureau
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to open offices in the customs
houses at New York, Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco.
This is a move pregnant with possibilities for the best interests of
the piano trade as well as other industries in this country.
It is the purpose of the Department through the offices thus
established to co-operate with American business men. An experi-
enced member of the staff of the bureau will be in charge in each
city to give information concerning the work of the bureau and to
[assist merchants and manufacturers in the development of foreign
'trade.
One special feature of the work of these offices is an arrange-
iment made with Wilber J. Carr, director of the consular service.
W
Department of State, whereby Consuls who are in this country on
leaves of absence will visit the offices as convenience permits and
meet the representatives of business houses which may desire to
cultivate business in the particular foreign fields in which the Con-
suls are located.
Another feature of the work of the Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce, which has interest for the business world, is
that its commercial agents on their return to America will attend
trade conferences or conventions to inform manufacturers and mer-
chants of the situation in the foreign field regarding their lines of
goods.
The Consular Service has developed from a form of political
pap to a point where it is conducted on a modern business basis
and acts as the advance agent for the American manufacturer.

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