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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
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B. BtiTTAiH WILSON,
A. J. NicKLiN,
CARLETON CHACE,
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AUGUST J. TIUPE,
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• lUJCl 1 l a u v a i l U
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Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
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NEW Y O R K , A U G U S T 7 , 1 9 1 5
EDITORIAL
T
HE suggestions made in the report of Philip T. Clay, retiring
president of the National Association of Piano Merchants, at
the Convention in San Francisco last week, were along practical,
constructive lines, which we feel sure will receive the consideration
of the members and newly-elected officers of the association.
The subject of fraudulent advertising, its evils and its correc-
tion were taken up in detail, and city and State piano merchants
associations were urged to agitate in favor of the passage by Con-
gress of a national advertising law based on the Printers' Ink
statute, which is now in force in a large number of States through-
out the Union.
The subject of a national advertising campaign, as suggested
by Edward Lyman Bill in his editorials in The Music Trade Review,
met the approval of Mr. Clay when he said:
"I desire to call the attention of this association to what I
consider a serious phase that is now confronting the piano mer-
chants. The piano no longer seems to be an actual necessity in
every home. Whether this be due to the player-piano or whether
it be due to the large number of mechanical musical instruments
which are now being put upon the market, I am not prepared to
say; but I do feel that some concerted effort should be undertaken
by this association to endeavor to stimulate public interest and
create a desire in the purchasing public to own a piano. I, and no
doubt everyone of you, have thought long and conscientiously over
this same problem. Many remedies have been suggested and manv
methods. Some have stated that this condition is due to lack of
advertising by the manufacturers, and others that it is due to lack
of concerted effort by the manufacturers and dealers. This is a
subject wdiich I trust will be brought up for discussion at this
convention."
Another subject originated and long agitated by The Review,
the evil of trade-ins, was discussed by Mr. Clay in his report as
follows:
"Another phase of our industry which for a long time has been
cutting into the profits of the piano dealer and which, I am glad to
say. during the past year has shown a marked improvement, is the
allowance which dealers are making for second-hand pianos and
the giving way of many unnecessary things with each purchase.
No piano merchant can make a success of his business, and, further-
more, he is very rapidly approaching the brink of failure, when his
profits are represented by second-hand pianos upon his floor. The
purchasing public for many years has been educated to believe that
the profits in the piano business are enormous, and every human
being, being by nature a predatory animal, has looked upon the
piano merchant as his legitimate prey. This condition was brought
about by the piano merchant himself by advertising ridiculous dis-
counts and lying about the value of the instrument he was selling.
It has taken this association many years of constant hammering, not
only upon its members, but upon the public, to disabuse the public
mind of this idea, and I am happy to say that at the present time,
if the piano dealer will simply stand upon his legitimate profit which
he is entitled to, and refuse to give something for nothing, the pur-
chasing public will not only cease to desire this, but will have more
respect for the industry."
These are two topics of exceeding interest to the trade, and
owing to the limited time for discussion at the Convention in San
Francisco last week they will doubtless come up for consideration
at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Assoi-
ciation of Piano Merchants, which is usually held in January).
They certainly merit the closest consideration and action.
j
T is interesting to note that in an opinion to Secretary McAdoo
this week, the Solicitor of the Treasury Department decided
that winners of medals at the Panama-Pacific International Exposi-
tion may reproduce the same for use on their letter-heads or for the
purpose of advertising the articles for which the medals were
awarded.
As the act authorizing the issuance of award medals for the
Exposition Company provides that they shall be struck at the Phila-
delphia Mint, and that all provisions of the coinage laws prohibiting
the counterfeiting or imitating of coins of the United States shall
apply to the medals, it was feared by successful bidders at San
Francisco that they would be debarred from reaping full benefits
of their victories.
• -. - . - .
I
AILURES, no less than successes, are useful instructors to
the piano or player salesman who has the material that wins
out within him. Approach your prospect twenty times—fail if
you must—and go away each time with something added to your
knowledge of the science of salesmanship. One of the greatest
masters of the violin states in his autobiography that, during the
first year of his tuition, his instructor would not allow him to
make a sound on the instrument. For that period the student spent
eighteen hours daily in practicing how to hold the violin and bow
in correct positions, how to finger the strings, and in learning all
the details that entered into the violin's construction.
F
R
E F E R E N C E was made in last week's Review to the fact that
the Constitutional Convention at Albany has unanimously
adopted an amendment to allow traveling men to register and vote
while away from their homes. The Legislature, which will con-
vene in November, will vote on the appropriate bill for this amend-
ment, and its passage is certain.
Tt is interesting to note that four States. Kansas, Nebraska,
Missouri and North Dakota, have already written into their con-
stitution provisions for absentee voting. The Commercial Trav-
elers' Association plans to extend its fight until every State has
adopted a binding amendment which will give the traveler, "or
other law-abiding citizen," the right and privilege of casting his
ballot on election day regardless of his place of residence.
T
HAT was a most notable address delivered by Eldridge R.
Johnson, president of the Victor Talking Machine Co.. at
the banquet following the Ninth Annual Convention of the Talking
Machine Jobbers in San Francisco, and which was printed in full
in last week's Review. It is statesmanlike in its broad grasp of
great national questions—notably that of government regulation.
Mr. Johnson spoke not merely as a keen student of world affairs,
but as the head of an industry which ranks foremost among the
great industrial organizations of the United States. Tn the course
of his address he said:
"General business is far more difficult to regulate than the
motor traffic, the merchant marine, or a railroad, and something?
is happening in another part of the world that will force us out of