Music Trade Review

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CHICAGO SECTION
VOL.
SINGLE
LVIII. N o . 23 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, June 6, 1914 M
$ 2E o o COPIES,
PER
10 CEN J
Accomplishment
T was in 1881 when I paid my first visit to Chicago. I was then on my way to points fur-
ther West, to what constituted the last fringe of the American frontier.
I remember my first impression was that it was a city entirely different in every respect
from the Eastern cities with which I was familiar. There was evidenced everywhere a resist-
less hustle—a tremendous energy, and what appealed to me particularly \vas the naturalness of the
people. The men had directness and frankness in their address which immediately won my
admiration.
Countless changes have taken place not only in Chicago, but in the entire West, since I first
viewed it as a youngster. Towns and cities have sprung into existence as by magic, and prairies
have been made to bud and blossom with the rose of enterprise.
Since those early days I have at intervals visited Chicago with ever-increasing frequency, and
I have seen its almost miraculous development from a big Western town into an industrial colossus.
When 1 compare its present impressive business strength with what it was when I first knew it, it
seems like a miracle that such development could have been accomplished within three and one-half
decades.
The advance of Chicago industrially, while primarily due to the energy of her people, is due
also to the unexcelled geographical position of the city. That has helped to make it the pulsing
business heart of the center of the continent.
If we study the map of the United States it will be seen that the commanding position of Chicago
makes it the central rendezvous of the West, and with its natural, as well as man-made, means of
trade communication it possesses the strategical key to the entire West and South.
It is true that many other cities also possess natural facilities, all of which have not been
improved, so it is fair to assume that Chicago not only possessed natural advantages, but she had
the right men behind her guiding her destinies for trade development.
The builders of the Great West were men who realized their opportunities and improved them.
Thev were not of the type that permitted opportunities to drift by them without having their fling
at them, and what is typical of almost every other trade is typical of the music trade.
Some of the pioneers of the industry were not practical piano builders, but they had brains
and intelligence enough to know that they could employ men who could build pianos scientifically
and acousticallv while they attended to the vital part of the enterprise—the business management.
Experience aided by keen mentality broadened them, and they became splendid types of the
aggressive and progressive element which has given the piano business its great onward march,
and has developed the music trade from every viewpoint.
It is a far cry from the Chicago of the early 80's to the present time, but I imagine that the
men who controlled the business in Chicago when I first knew it would hardly, in their wildest
dreams of business success, have believed in such a marvelous transformation. They would have
deemed among the impossibilities that the Chicago of 1914 would occupy such a commanding posi-
tion in the musical world, and that Wabash avenue should become the greatest retail music trade
center in the entire universe.
I
Chicago can claim the largest piano factories in existence, for the output of single factories
total 1,000 or 1,800 instruments a month.
(Continued on page 4.)