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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
HIS committee has been appointed not only to consider all the
various bills on this general subject that have been intro-
duced in Congress, but also to consider the feasibility of framing
an original and general measure that will cover the whole subject
of fraud in interstate commerce.
If the committee finds that it is not possible or feasible to draft
such a bill, then it may be decided to recommend the Campbell bill,
which is familiar to piano men, or some other of the bills already
before Congress, but more likely than not the outcome of this dili-
gent probe of the whole broad question will be the evolution of a
new measure that will be all embracing.
Henry Behning, president of the Behning Piano Co., New
York, this week got in touch with the Congressmen from his dis-
trict, on whom he urged the support of this measure, and he also
wrote to a number of other members of the trade urging on them
the importance of an active support of the proposed legislation,
which aims to eliminate the stencil piano and other misleading
practices which now prevail, to the detriment of the high grade,
one name, one price policy of leading manufacturers.
The Congressmen, be it known, are anxious to hear from
manufacturers on the subject—not only from those who are in
favor of such legislation, but also from those who are opposed to it.
They want to know all about it, and their desire for information
should be gratified.
T
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
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NEW YORK, J A N U A R Y 17. 1 1 1 4
PIANO MAKERS SHOULD PRESENT THEIR VIEWS
W
E are in receipt of a number of communications from piano
manufacturers in regard to the legislation contemplated by
Congress which aims to compel every manufacturer to place his
name or label conspicuously on each manufactured product which
leaves his factory, and which was referred to so illuminatingly and
fully in our Washington correspondence last week.
This proposed bill is in the hands of a special committee, which
is in reality a sub-committee of the House of Representatives' Com-
mittee on Interstate Foreign Commerce, which is holding public
hearings in Washington so as to secure the information necessary
to frame or recommend the best measure calculated to secure the
ends aimed at. While the measure has a broad application, pianos
constitute a class of products directly aimed at in the legislation now
in the making.
Up to the announcement in last week's Review little interest
was manifested in this measure, but the piano manufacturing inter-
ests will doubtless become alive to the situation when they realize
that the present status of the subject is very different from that
which it has occupied in relation to Congress for some years past.
At intervals during the past two or three sessions of the Na-
tional Legislature there have been introduced bills, such as that
fathered by Representative Campbell which had they passed would
have had more or less bearing upon the stencil piano proposition
and fraud in the piano trade.
But none of these bills seemed to get beyond the committee
stage and many of the leaders of the piano trade have evidently
gained the impression that it is not worth while to pay much atten-
tion to such measures because of the supposed improbability that
any such bills can be enacted into laws.
But now, as has been said, the whole subject has attained a new
dignity. There is a growing sentiment in Congress that something"
must be done to safeguard the interests of the honest manufacturer
and to protect the ignorant ultimate consumer. In recognition of
this feeling there was appointed the special sub-committee which is
now holding public hearings at the Capitol.
,
N
ONE of the Congressmen who are wrestling with this subject
is a manufacturer of pianos. On the other hand, most of
them say, frankly enough, that they are approaching the subject
from the standpoint of spokesmen for the consumers of pianos and
other manufactured products, but they are desirous of hearing the
manufacturer's side of the question and to know what he wants.
It has been emphasized at the hearings thus far held that in its
exactions as to musical instruments and other manufactured prod-
ucts the United States is far behind the leading European countries.
One speaker said: "Germany, France and England have long
required the highest possible standard of every product of manu-
facture that enters into their commerce and the manufacturer is
held strictly to account for the nature of the article, and he gives his
name and address and holds himself out as responsible to the public
for every article that he places upon the market."
Incidentally it was stated that German manufacturers are tak-
ing the keenest interest in the movement in America which seeks to
put a ban on instruments of doubtful or uncertain origin.
Pianos, buggies and other articles purchased from catalog
houses and mail-order firms are obviously aimed at, to no small
extent, in this crusade. Several of the Congressmen who are most
active in the movement come from the agricultural districts of
Middle Western States, where the people purchase heavily on this
plan and they are wrought up over the deceptions practiced upon
their constituents in the case of nameless pianos and buggies which
have been proclaimed in the catalogs to be the equal of similar
articles for which local dealers ask a much higher price.
I
T has been stated before the committee that in some instances the
victims of sharp practices of this kind not only could not dis-
cover who was the actual manufacturer of an unsatisfactory piano,
but could not even get an answer to letters written to the house
that sold the instrument. In the case of pianos and organs, how-
ever, the sentiment as expressed at the committee hearings thus far
held, is that the label should take the form of a plate that would
be attached direct to the instrument.
This plate, if the ideas of some of the Congressmen are carried
out, would bear not only the name and address of the maker of the
piano, but concise information as to the materials entering into the
construction of the instrument.
The special committee considering this new measure seem
to have a rather hazy idea as to the specific requirements or meth-
ods of applying the proposed legislation to pianos, and this is evi-
dent from the remarks of some of the members which serves to
show how desirable it is that these gentlemen be enlightened by
manufacturers and other well-informed men of the piano trade, as
to just what requirements are necessary in marking, or identifying
pianos in a way that will insure the maxmum integrity of the
product.
Piano manufacturers will be required, if legislation is framed
along the lines now favored, to not only place their name and ad-