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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
HELPING THE CAUSE OF MUSIC.
(Continued from page 3.)
The greater the musical education of the people, the greater the demand for musical instru-
ments. Hence, a truly musical America would mean a vastly increased call for pianos.
We spend annually vast sums of money in advertising, which, of course, is educational work,
in that it interests the public; but why not a reasonable amount of time and energy in the early
educational work of the young?
Why should not the men who are financially interested in the musical institutions of our people
figure that their energies should be expended in an educational effort which must mean larger
returns to them as the years roll on?
Why should not the two National Associations take up this subject in the broadest possible
way?
If piano merchants in every town throughout the United States
co-operated with the Boards of Education, and made their influence
felt in promoting musical education, there is no question but that their
efforts would be immediately rewarded.
The Value of Getting Together Demonstrated.
N organization that should prove an excellent model for oth-
A
ers of its kind throughout the piano trade is the Progress
Club, made up of the officials, department heads and others con-
nected with the Kohler & Campbell industries. The Progress Club
throughout the season holds meetings monthly, and after" a social
dinner the members listen to an address or two on general business
or special trade matters by some authority. They then make and
discuss suggestions regarding the betterment of their own business.
There is room for such an organization in every piano fac-
tory of the country, for there is much to be gained when com-
pany officials and factory heads, gathering informally, can feel
free to discuss their business from various angles. The Progress
Club, for instance, has a suggestion box, where every member
of the club may deposit a draft of any ideas between meetings,
and the suggestion is taken up at the next meeting for general
discussion. That this feature is a success is indicated by the
fact that during the two months preceding the last meeting of
the Progress Club over 200 suggestions were filed.
Many of these suggestions are, of course, impracticable. Some
of them are radical in character and must be tabled for future
reference, but among the many received there are always a large
number that can be put to actual test, and after having been gone
over carefully by the entire membership of the club, suggestions
that do not prove worthy of consideration are few indeed.
In the piano factory during business hours these department
heads and sub-heads are so busy in the handling of their own
departments that they have not the time to discuss the broad
field of business problems with their colleagues. Should a meet-
ing of an organization, however, afford the opportunity after busi-
ness, and in leisure hours to develop and present any ideas they
may have, it may be.found frequently that such ideas .serve to solve
problems that have long been present in the business. The man
who is afraid to impart his knowledge or ideas to his fellow-worker
is not one who makes for business progress. He forgets that while
he is giving up his knowledge he is also receiving an even greater
amount of help and information from his co-workers.
Buying Public Becomes More Discriminating.
""TTIAT there is a distinct revival of interest in quality pianos
1- among the purchasing public is evident from the pleasing re-
ports made by salesmen "throughout the country. The general public
is displaying a keener discrimination in the matter of selecting in-
struments, and all this has helped to make the demand for pianos
made by reputable, well-known manufacturers more pronounced.
This is an encouraging sign. Discussing this matter of quality re-
cently in System, Edwin W. Morse said: "The hardest thing that
I know of in selling is to show a customer that first cost is not last
cost; to make him understand that while the prices of goods may
be much lower in the beginning they are almost invariably dearer
in the end; to show him that almost always an article is worth just
what it costs; in short, to impress him with the meaning of 'quality.'
"No word in the vocabulary of business is mare pregnant with
significance than that one word 'quality.' You may apply it to
goods, to service, to ability; this one truth is universally the same—
no extravagant assertion of present advantage, no false logic or
economy can long make headway against downright merit in mer-
chandise or men.
"Who are the biggest men in the world to-day?
"They are the men who recognize the value of reaching the
highest standard of efficiency, whether it be in the manufacture of
a commodity or the rendering of a professional service. They may
call themselves bankers, lawyers, engineers or ministers. As a mat-
ter of fact, they are selling for themselves or some one else, and the
best salesman gets the highest price. They have stepped beyond
the dividing line of quality that marks off the great from the me-
diocre. They know that the great salesman sells his commodity
at his own price; the 'medium good' man sells his at the customers'
price. True it is that the great are few, the mediocre many; but the
few who have scored highest in the business game are the men who
have built on 'quality.' "
dering trade with those countries which American exporters are try-
ing to convert into better markets for American products, and it
shows how those countries arc turning to the financiers of the
United States for funds with which to carry on important industrial
developments, funds which in the past came chiefly from European
sources. It also recommends a plan by which it is believed that the
present disorganization of the trade of this country with Latin Amer-
ica may be remedied and placed on a permanently satisfactory basis.
This plan calls, first, for the establishment of a dollar exchange
through the ultimate creation of a discount market and, pending the
establishment of a discount market, by the extension of adequate ac-
commodation by banking institutions and the establishment of re-
ciprocal balances in this country and in Latin America for financing
trade between the two. Secondly, the plan calls for the perfection
of our selling machinery by furnishing additional support to commis-
sion houses familiar with Latin-American business, by forming
associations of merchants and manufacturers to be jointly repre-
sented in Latin America, and by obtaining information as to the
possibilities of developing retail stores in, large Latin-American
centers.