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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE STEADY MARCH OF PROGRESS.
(Continued from page 3.)
only occasionally that we see advertising of a nature which we know to be glaringly misleading
and offensive.
Of course, it will be some time before we reach, if ever, perfect conditions in the conduct of
business, but many of the methods of the past are happily abandoned, as they should be, and we
are moving along better lines to which all should contribute.
Conditions are improving, and while we hear a great deal of pessimistic talk, yet, as a matter
of fact, the average man has made progress in some form. He may not have piled up many easy
dollars, but there has been a knowledge accumulation. He has been acquiring a fund of some-
thing which is useful, and after all there are many things in life which show that progress is ever
with us.
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This century offers more to the poor man than the one that has passed offered to the rich.
From the days of Adam to the days of Washington was a slow journey.
From the days of Washington to the present has been an era of magic.
The age of miracles after all may not have passed. There is plenty of encouragement in the
present and the future has many charms. Never mind the past—it has gone.
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"ICs not worth while—the fretting,
The sighing and the woe;
Best spend your time forgetting
Your troubles as they go;
Best look ahead for laughter
And lak en<, lirne for ,cars-
7 he sunny days hereafter
Will make the golden years."
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The Passing of Edward Denison Easton.
HE death of Edward Denison Easton, president and founder
of the Columbia Graphophone Co., marks the passing of a
notable figure in the music trade field. His work as an industrial
developer blazed the way for the success of a new industry—the
manufacture of talking machines—for unquestionably he was the
first to comprehend the immense business possibilities which would
be opened up through the commercialization of the talking machine.
In 1887 Mr. Easton was a young stenographer in Washington,
attaining fame in that special field, for at that time there were very
few great stenographers, and his services were utilized by the Gov-
ernment not only in the Senate, but at notable trials.
In connection with his work, the talking machine, then in its
infancy, was viewed by Mr. Easton as a probable important ad-
junct, and he became at once actively interested. He organized the
Graphophone Co., which took over the Bell and Tainter patents,
and later assumed its presidency and direction of affairs.
When we look back to this period we can realize the difficulties
which Mr. Easton had to overcome in financing and developing a
comparatively unknown proposition, but he showed his caliber in
the determination with which he set out to achieve results—that
determination to conquer all obstacles which was evident in his
business career up to the time of his death.
Like all pioneers, he had difficulty in instilling in the public
and those around him confidence in the future of his business and
the industry which was then being started. That he did this suc-
cessfully is obvious, and not surprising, for he was endowed with
a splendid intellectual equipment and a perceptive talent, which
were developed by his work as a reporter and stenographer, as well
as by a legal training in corporation law.
In the Columbia Co. he drew about him a body of men who
became imbued with his enthusiasm, and who worked strenuously
with him to achieve success—for Mr. Easton possessed the happy
faculty of being able to gauge the capabilities of men. He de-
veloped an organization which year after year continued to expand,
resulting in making the Columbia Co. not merely a great American •
institution with representatives in the principal cities throughout
America, but one of world-wide reputation with branches in foreign
countries with which he kept in close touch.
T
Like all great Americans who have won international fame,
he was a great believer in organization both in financial, manufactur-
ing and distributing departments. Year by year he labored inde-
fatigably to carry out his plans and to broaden out the scope of the
Columbia Co. in keeping with the increasing demand for talking
machines.
His constructive work contributed largely to the develop-
ment of the talking machine industry, and he had the extreme
satisfaction of witnessing the growth of the company which he
founded into a great corporation occupying large factories for the
construction of talking machines and records in the United States,
England and Canada.
Mr. Easton took pride in the great organization, which has been
built up under his leadership, and he inspired the keenest sense of
loyalty and enthusiasm among the departmental heads, and the
employes generally, just as he inspired the older generation who in
former years were associated with him in the development of the
business.
He was a business builder in the truest sense of the word, and
organization, service and values were the foundations on which he
built. He had the intense satisfaction of knowing when the death
summons came to him that the great organization which he founded
would move on without the slightest break in its splendidly or-
ganized machinery.
Despite his active interest in business affairs, Mr. Easton—as
might be expected from his varied training in the early days of his
career—always took a keen interest in literary, political and social
affairs.
He was a man of broad vision, but was not unmindful of
the obligations which fall to successful men. He gave with un-
stinted hand to deserving charities and was ever inclined to help
along those who needed a helping hand.
The Columbia enterprise of to-day stands as a monument to
the life and accomplishments of Edward Denison Easton—the
fullest realization of the dreams of the young stenographer, who
fashioned out in his mind a great future for the talking machine as
an educator and entertainer and lived to see that future actually and
completely realized.