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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
(Chicago Section)
Eleven Years in the Chicago Music Trade Field.
E. P. Van Harlingen "A Chiel Amang Ye Taking Notes" for the Review,
Gives His Impressions of Men and Things Based on Acquaintance in all
Branches of the Industry—Accomplishments but Shadow of Things to Come.
W
HEN I became Chicago representative of The Music Trade
Review, nearly eleven years ago, I was new to the piano
trade, but had had long experience in trade journalism in other
lines of business. I was therefore rather amused when, almost in
my first rounds of the trade, I heard some people say that the piano
trade was the most demoralized of all lines of business, that com-
petition was keener, more illegitimate practices indulged in, and
that the manufacturers and dealers were a more jealous lot than
in any other craft. Frankly, I didn't believe it, and I did not hesi-
tate to say so to my informants.
You do not hear as many people talk in that manner nowadays,
still you hear remarks to that effect once in a while.
Naw, my experience in other lines teaches me that each trade
has its abuses, its causes for complaints by those engaged in it.
Some of these troubles are not the same as in the piano business.
Others are of a very similar nature. I can truthfully say, however,
and this is not flattery, but the plain truth, that I do not believe
that in any line you can find business men superior in character
and in mental attainments to those engaged in the manufacture
and retailing of pianos and in the lines auxiliary to the piano trade.
We have not reached the millennial period—far from it—at the
same time, the personnel of the piano trade is such as to give one
the conviction that there is not an abuse in the trade that cannot
be remedied by men of the character who compose it when they
once come to a realization of the fatuity of such practices.
The Growth of Fraternal Spirit.
A very hopeful sign to me is the growth of the fraternal spirit
engendered by the Chicago Piano and Organ Association and the
present Piano Club and its predecessor, the informal Roaster Club.
I believe that about the same thing is happening in other cities. I
firmly believe that every large city should have a piano organization
of some sort. Even if it be only a purely dining or social affair,
it tends to dehorn and dehoof the members in the eyes of each
other.
If I were asked to describe what is, in my opinion, the prin-
cipal characteristic of the piano trade of Chicago, I would say that
it is what I conceive to be that of Chicago business men in general.
They seem to have a freedom and bigness of vision, born perhaps
of the wideness of the prairies. If there are no mountains in this
section of the Westland there are no valleys. The spirit seems
to be one of persistent optimism—a sane optimism in spite of the
fact that Chicagoans in the mind of the world at large seem to
be considered a lot of neurasthenics. That the majority of the
business men of the City by the Lake chase the dollar for the sake
of the dollar is a canard.
The Men Who Have Done Big Things.
Talk with any of the piano men who have done big things and
you will find that they are not in the business so much for the sake
of the money there is in it as for the sake ai the game, for the ac-
complishment for the accomplishment's sake. A man who is in
business merely for the money is likely to desert his particular
business for another if he thinks the pecuniary opportunity is
greater. Piano men, as a rule, stick by their business, and this is
because they like it—because of the weird fascination it has for
them. The piano business is attractive not simply because of its
commercial opportunities, but also because of its artistic side and
because of the association with the finer and better things of life.
I think that this sentiment exists even among the makers of the
so-called commercial pianos and manifests itself in a constant effort
toward the betterment of the product. Surely when all is said
and done there can be nothing more stimulating to one's ethical
sense than the privilege of providing those whose means are small
with good instruments which will aid them in the education o*f
their children and in their own desire for the gentle ministrations
of music, without putting an undue financial burden on their
shoulders.
This train of thought reminds one that the low-priced piano
does not dominate the Chicago market as it once did. Even in
the decade in which I have been trying to serve the piano trade of
Chicago there has been wonderful progress made in the improve-
ment of product and a most notable increase in the number of
pianos now recognized by competent judges as truly high grade
instruments even if they do not bear names hallowed by a half
century of reputation. I can call to my mind, not one, but a num-
ber, of Chicago and Western manufacturers who less than ten
years ago were content to "stencil" the larger proportion of their
production, but who are now putting forth every possible effort to
build up their own name and who look toward the day when every
instrument they produce will be an advertisement far that name.
Development of the Western Industry.
This article is written before many of the contributed articles
by members of the trade for the Chicago special issue of The
Review have come to hand. It is expected that all of these articles
will emphasize some phase of the creative thought which has been
behind the development of this wonderful Western industry.
Looking back over the brief period of my own connection with this
trade, and calling to mind the things which to me were particularly
typical of the Chicago trade, I get an impression of utter stead-
fastness, of faith in the future of the Western industry and a firm,
although not egotistical, belief in their own ability to contribute to
that future.
The splendid spirit of craft loyalty, absolute refusal to become
discouraged no matter how unfavorable the temporary trade con-
ditions might be, a sturdy optimism learning of the past, disregard-
ing the present and bending earnestly toward the future—this has
been, in my opinion, the vital element in building up the Western
piano industry.
The All-Conquering Spirit That Wins.
One working even in the purlieus of a trade for upwards of a
decade becomes more or less thoroughly familiar with certain firms
and personalities and is able to observe them under all sorts of cir-
cumstances.
I have been greatly impressed with the almost Spartan forti-
tude with which men of my acquaintance in the trade have faced
what must seem to them as almost certain disaster. I have seen
them square their shoulders to the blast and in most instances they
have weathered it most successfully. This is, indeed, the all-
conquering spirit that wins in the commercial fields of to-day just
as it did in the old time world wars.
Of course, there are all sorts and conditions of men in this
Chicago trade of ours. There are men with the aggressiveness of
Napoleon and others who are as staunch preservers of the status
quo as was Metternich.
Take it as a whole, the progressive, one might almost say the
ultra progressive element, is in the majority. Facts which have
only recently been chronicled in this paper and things which are
brewing right now, but which have not yet reached the stage when
publication is advisable, go* to prove that the Chicago trade as a
whole does not think that the piano has by any manner of means
reached its ultimate development.
Certainly I wish to be counted among those who* believe that
the past accomplishment of Chicago and the "Chicago district" is
only a shadow of what it will be in the years that are to come.
While conceived in sincerity and prosecuted with enthusiasm,
this special Chicago number of The Review, because of the limited
time possible to allot for its making, falls short of the ideals enter-
tained for it in the minds of those who have had a hand in its
production.
Nevertheless, if it succeeds in giving anyone a more adequate
idea of the greatness of the Western industry and of the factors
which have made it what it is, I am sure that my honored chief "in
New York, as well as myself, will be mdre than satisfied with the
result