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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A REVISION OF SELLING TERMS NEEDED.
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in this trade should get together and arrange a definite plan of credits and related selling conditions.
It is not a difficult proposition. All it requires is an initial move, and all the manufacturers of
this trade would hail with joy a system which would protect their interests in a better manner than
the unsystematic methods of the past.
For this it does not require a trust or a combination. A few men could adjust this matter for the
entire trade.
From certain indications 1 feel that this move will be made within the very near future, and I
feel confident that new conditions will be introduced which will benefit everyone.
Men frankly admit the need of systematic rules governing selling conditions.
They willingly admit that the lack of a definite system has caused the loss of vast sums to the
trade—to individuals and to the industry, and there is no good reason why a few men should be
permitted to brand the piano industry with the taint of financial suspicion.
There is no good reason why the piano trade should not be one
of the best—if not THE very best, from a financial standpoint.
If an acceptable system is worked out, in a year after its adop-
tion, men will wonder how they could have endured the old unbusi-
nesslike methods to have existed so long.
Profit Sharing in Industrial Circles
T
HE announcement in The Review recently of the first distribu-
tion of bonus checks of the Charles Kohler Memorial Fund
to the employes of the Kohler & Campbell industries brings home
in a most pleasing way the desirability of the modern idea of profit
sharing in industrial circles. That a business institution even of
the size of the Kohler & Campbell industries is able to back up its
ideas on industrial welfare to the extent of $32,000 cash is proof
of the practicability of the scheme- Other, though very few, piano
manufacturing concerns have, up to the present day, adopted
the profit sharing, or bonus, system on a somewhat less elaborate
basis, but with excellent results. The success of the application
of this system in other lines has shown that it will do much to keep
the workmen satisfied and cheerful and, therefore, improve both
the quantity and quality of the product.
Under a profit sharing system the employe has something to
look forward to beyond his weekly pay envelope. He feels that in
sharing the profits he is a real part of the organization in fact as
well as name, and takes a personal interest in the welfare of the
industry. That personal interest means just a little care where
formerly work might be slighted:—just a little more effort put
forth to produce greater results. The man who is inclined to
slight his work either realizes that he is actually hurting himself or
begins to show up so badly in contrast with his fellow workmen
that he is soon forced out.
Profit sharing emphasizes to the employe that the "loyalty"
that has been preached to him for years is not entirely one-sided in
that the employer shows an inclination to be loyal to the employe
by recognizing his extra effort in a more or less substantial manner.
The total amount that may be distributed by such a system, while
it may appear large on the surface, becomes comparatively small
when figured against the accumulated results of such a policy.
Bonuses distributed simply as a form of charity may not be very
effective, but bonuses distributed in proportion to effort expended
by the employe have an unquestioned value.
Piano Recitals Help to Increase Sales
NOTICEABLE feature of the musical season now under way
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in this country is the number of pianists who have been heard
in recital and concert, due, in a large measure, to the fact that the
war in Europe has driven many artists to this country for a liveli-
hood. This influx of pianists we believe will have a distinctly
beneficial influence on the piano trade. For the recitals by these
great artists will stimulate interest in the piano, and where pianos
are not available it means that the player-piano will be utilized in
an effort to play the numbers heard at a recital just to ascertain
how nearly the player-pianist can duplicate the playing of the
pianist. There is a fashion in pianists as in everything else, and
truly this season the pianists have the platform in right good
measure. All nationalities and all schools have been in evidence
in New York and elsewhere throughout the country, and the music
trade industry is bound to feel this influence in a practical way.
The fact that people nowadays who have not the time or
convenience for practice, can, through the medium of a music roll,
play the most difficult numbers without troubling themselves re-
garding technique and in a manner to satisfy their artistic instincts,
means a tremendous advance—a consolation and a pleasure to the
truly musical that can hardly be measured adequately. For be it
remembered that the player-piano is in the truest sense of the word
a great educational medium when it is intelligently used, and we
are glad to say that the number of people who appreciate what the
player-piano really means is rapidly growing and a new and greater
appreciation of this instrument is evident.
HAT the opening of the Panama Canal is a matter of direct
importance to the members of the piano trade is indicated
in no uncertain way by the reports from both Atlantic and Pacific
coasts. Piano shippers from Atlantic Coast points have succeeded
in securing a most favorable rate to the Western seaboard, a rate
a trifle over 50 per cent, of that charged by the railroads and with
the extra advantage that the instruments are handled with much
less danger of damage than when shipped by rail.
W. S. Gannon, in an interview on trade conditions on the
Pacific Coast in last week's Review, estimates that the piano deal-
ers in that section of the country will save fully $150,000 annually
in freights and through receiving their .pianos in better condition;
$150,000 is no mean item to be deducted from the handling expense
of pianos, and when divided among the thousands of instruments
handled each year by Pacific Coast dealers will represent a sub-
stantial saving per instrument. At such a rate it will not be very
long before the members of the piano trade will realize in full their
share in the heavy cost of building the canal and the dividend will
be substantial and in cash instead of into the elusive form of taxes
under which conditions the principal was paid out.
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