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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
There is the human side of it, that when a man is in a hole he
is going to strive the best he knows how to extricate himself from
a perilous position. He will borrow money and he will obtain
credit on promises which he hopes to be able to cash in later on.
However, conditions do not always work out as he hoped, and
instead of pulling himself out of the mire, he finds that he is getting
more and more engulfed all the while, until the fatal day of reckon-
ing comes and he is completely wiped out.
There are, however, certain kinds of men who appear at in-
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
tervals
in different industries who are known as price-cutters and
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
trade demoralizers.
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
They are enabled to perform apparently prodigious tasks in the
B. BKITTAIN WILSON,
CARLETON CHACE,
L. M. ROBINSON,
GLAD HKNDEISOH,
r
A. J. JSiCKLiN,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
Wii. B. WHITE,
L. E. BOWERS.
w
ay
of marketing goods at ruinous prices, because they do not pay
BOSTON O F F I C E :
CHICAGO O F F I C E :
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, Consumers' Building,
JOHM H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
their
bills.
220 So. State Street. Telephone, Wabash 5774.
Telephone, Main 6950.
HENRY S. KINGWILL, Associate.
Their floating indebtedness is constantly increasing, their obli-
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
gations remain unpaid, until a vast accumulation stands against them,
N E W S S E R V I C E IS SUPPLIED W E E K L Y BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN T H E LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
and the final story is told in the bankruptcy court.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York '
Permanency is a desirable factor in the piano business, and how
can it be made permanent if a disturbing factor which tends to
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
demoralize prices be introduced?
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $5.00.
If better times are coming, and most of us believe that they
ADVERTISEMENTS, $3.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages $110.00.
are,
is
not the present the opportune time for the adoption of meth-
KKMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
ods which make for business soundness and business permanency?
•Pi All A Anil
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
Piano permanency cannot be built up by men who do not meet
1 lauv uuu
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
their
obligations, and no business policy can enable the man who
dealt with, will be found in another section o this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
pays
his
bills to meet the competing force of the man who does not.
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
The man who does not pay his bills is a disturbing factor, and
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
to gloss over an alleged success by the adoption of methods which
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1908
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
reflect upon the honesty of this trade is fundamentally wrong.
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
Business methods which are questionable, demoralizing and
L O I O DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5983—5983 MADISON SQ.
Connecting 1 all D e p a r t m e n t s
unsafe
should be cut out of the piano man's policy.
Cable uddreu: "Elbill, New York."
The men who do not pay their bills can create a disturbing
NEW Y O R K , OCTOBER 2 , 1915
competition through their price-baiting offers to piano merchants.
The piano business should be broadened and built on an en-
during basis, and it must be done by the men who meet their obliga-
tions like men. not by the men who create fictitious enterprises which
suddenly collapse, leaving for those who had faith in the intent of
the
power behind, nothing but emptiness.
T is usually the practice of some members of the trade after a
Piano merchants should not be tempted by the over-alluring
financial crash in the piano industry to commence to blame the
offers
which come to them from sources which are questionable,
leaders of the supply trade for giving credit in such a generous
and
they
should be most careful in their investigation of the various
manner as the facts disclosed by the crash would s"eem to indicate.
propositions
that reach them.
In fact, it is almost a habit with many to blame the supply
Only
recently
we were in a far Western store where the pro-
trade for maintaining what they allege to be an unfair kind of
prietor
exhibited
a
communication from one of these men who had
competition—a competition which the man who pays his bills is
recently
collapsed
and had launched a new enterprise. In this
unable to meet.
tempting
epistle
he
offered to send him a piano at a price which
Are these broad criticisms justified by the actual facts?
was
paralyzingly
low.
An illustration of the instrument was en-
In the first place, there is an obvious desire on the part of men
closed,
and
an
offer
to
have
the instrument returned at the manu-
who are engaged in commercial enterprises to do a larger business,
facturer's expense if not satisfactory, was also included in the
and in order to do this they will frequently take chances which
letter.
lands them beyond lines of prudence and carefulness. But supply
The merchant who exhibited the offer remarked that he did
men are not the only ones who take such risks in the music trade.
not
see
how it was possible to produce such a piano at the price
What do the conditions reveal in some of the crashes which
and
how
a man could pay his bills and create such an instrument.
occur in the retail trade?
But
he
added,
shrugging his shoulders, that it was no business of
They show that piano manufacturers have been taking big
his
and
that
he
had ordered one instrument and proposed to order
chances as well, and it is unfair to blame the supply trade for
more
as
long
as
they lasted, emphasizing that one point, "as long-
policies which are to a certain extent adopted by all.
as
they
lasted."
Take some of the big financial crashes which have occurred in
Now, the man who pays his bills can never meet the competi-
the music trade during the past two or three years.
tion of the man who does not. Whether it be manufacturer or
Is it not shown that some of the banking institutions have also
retailer, the principle is just the same.
been somewhat over-generous in their credits?
Some of the retail men who have no credit in their home town
There is at the root of the whole business a fundamental which
—who could not purchase a suit of clothes on time—are able to
is difficult to remove from business life.
secure, by some plausible story, a carload of pianos and get enough
That is. a man in any kind of trade development will take a
backing
to' open a local wareroom. Having nothing to lose they
percentage of risk. After he has gone into a certain extent he finds,
put
out
goods
at absurdly low prices, hoping in some way to climb
in order to protect his original investment, he must go in deeper,
up
the
business
ladder, but with nothing behind them they invariably
and finally in the end he is gradually forced in far beyond any
fail,
and
the
local
piano mnn who pays his rent and all his obliga-
point which he anticipated at the outset.
tions
has
suffered
by
just that kind of competition.
Then sometimes, too, dishonest statements are made by the
The fly-by-nighters exist in this trade as well as in others.
men who are seeking to obtain credit. Statements are prepared
They exist in the manufacturing end and in the retail end, and
which show a financial condition in which liberal credit is justified,
they are supported perhaps by men who have a false conception of
but these assets in many cases prove to have been padded, and this
just what correct commercial methods mean. Perhaps many of us
kind of padding is not confined to any particular industry. It
are to blame by helping to keep alive this kind of illicit competition.
extends to all.
Competing Against The Men Who
Do Not Meet Their Obligations.
I