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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE
PUBLISHED BY THE ESTATE OF EDWARD LYMAN BILL
(C. L. BILL, Executrix.)
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
J. RAYMOND BILL, Associate Editor
AUGUST J. TIMPE
Business Manager
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
BOSTON
CARLETON CHACE,
W M . B. WHITE,
OFFICES i
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L. M. ROBINSON,
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L. E. BOWERS.
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LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
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Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
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(including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
REMITTANCES
Edward Lyman Bill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
ntc!
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
p n i S .
dealt with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
.il
allU
A
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
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Paris Exposition, 1900
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Pan-American Exposition, 1901
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NEW YORK, APRIL 8, 1 9 1 6 .
EDITORIAL
the piano trade, as in other lines of business, the war on the
advertiser is carried on, it seems, almost constantly.
I The N misleading
legitimate piano men wait until there is a flagrant case of
deceptive piano publicity and then proceed to take any action pos-
sible against the offender. The great trouble, however, seems to
be that the effect of such action is purely local, and that the mis-
leading advertising is stamped out in one locality only to bob up
serenely in another.
In certain sections, in Baltimore, San Francisco and Cincinnati,
piano men, either on their own account or in connection with
organizations of advertising men, have taken drastic action against
questionable piano advertising, but each case makes it more evi-
dent that the final solution to the problem is a Federal statute ex-
plicit in its provisions and applicable to every part of the country.
The law known as the "Printers' Ink Statute," and which has
been passed by nearly thirty States in the Union, appears to answer
the purpose intended on the subject, but even this measure in the
hands of State legislators and the courts can be so misconstrued
as to be ineffective. It has been found that the little words,
"knowingly" and "with intent to defraud," offer a wide loophole
for the escape of the fraudulent advertiser, though inserted osten-
sibly to protect the innocent from the workings of the law. A
Federal statute to be acceptable should be so framed that the guilty
advertiser could not escape in a tangle of red tape or through vary-
ing interpretations of the meaning of certain phrases.
I
N the discussions regarding the handling of used pianos of
standard make that have cropped up in the trade from time
to time, the suggestion has been made on numerous occasions
that the legitimate representatives of the pianos be permitted
to buy them at a fair valuation from competitors who had taken
the instruments in trade and thereby directly discourage the
advertising of the used instruments at prices tending to reflect
on new instruments of the same make.
To many dealers the suggestion appeared to be Utopian in
character, but a number of houses have actually put it into prac-
tice with a remarkable success, among them being the piano
department of the Emporium, San Francisco, Cal., where Man-
ager Marcus never places a trade-in piano of standard make on
sale or advertises it until the local dealer of that particular make
of piano has been afforded an opportunity to purchase the
instrument.
The Emporium department watches closely the allowances
made on used pianos, and, consequently, is able to offer the
instruments to a local dealer at a price that is fair. The result
is that the plan is working out most successfully, and is worthy
of consideration and adoption by other piano houses.
HILE youth in business is to be accepted as representa-
W
tive of modern methods, abounding energy and that
intangible spirit termed "pep," age in business will never lose
its value as an asset. New concerns enter the field and succeed,
but as they succeed they grow older and gradually come to the
point where the date of establishment looks good on the sta-
tionery. That a house has been a factor in the piano business,
for instance, for thirty, forty or fifty years and at the latest
analysis can show a steady and persistent advance speaks vol-
umes for its honesty of purpose, ideals lived up to and the proper
conception of business methods. Such a house must have sold
products of quality at fair prices and thus been able to build
steadily new business upon the business that has gone before.
A half century in business means something beyond a plain
schedule of years; it means more than a mere period of time.
Only recently the noted house of Thomas Goggan & Bro.,
of Galveston, San Antonio and other cities in Texas, celebrated
its fiftieth business anniversary. When the late Thomas Gog-
gan, the founder of the business, entered the field in 1866, Texas
was a land of magnificent distances, small population, and very
little else, and yet, through earnest effort, the Goggan house,
with a quality line of instruments headed by the Steinway,
appealed to the musical tastes of the cattle barons and the
townsmen and expanded as the population and resources of the
State expanded. It is a fifty-year record to be proud of, but a
record that is closely approached, if not equalled, by a number
of other concerns prominent in the trade to-day. Certainly
age in business means something.
HILE on the subject of preparedness it might be well to
W
emphasize the desirability for adhering to that slogan in
the matter of trade associations. An instance in point is the
experience of the piano dealers of Baltimore recently in the
fight against the business methods of a new member of the
trade in that city. When the sensational sales tactics were first
in evidence, Jos. M. Mann, head of the Mann Piano Co., imme-
diately called a meeting of other old-line dealers and framed such
a strong protest that the post-office authorities stepped in and
arrested the principals of the offending concern.
Had there been an association in existence a few weeks ago,
the officers of that organization could have handled the matter
with neatness and despatch, and with a knowledge of just who
was supporting the movement. Fortunately, however, the music
dealers of Baltimore have seen the light, as evidence of which
there appeared in The Review last week the account of the
formation of the Music Dealers' Association in that city. Even
though there be no questionable sales methods to require atten-
tion, there are plenty of trade features to keep the trade asso-
ciation busy in any city.
HESE are days to put lines of worry upon the faces of
T
exporters while their dispositions are affected by many
exasperating matters. One figures out an excellent profit on a
bill of goods sold to a South American merchant, say, and
arranges for his cargo space on a steamer. The goods are made
up in a Western plant and are shipped with a fair time allow-
ance for delivery at the steamer's side. Railroad congestion
delays the shipment, perhaps no further away than New Haven
or Poughkeepsie, the ship sails without it, the exporter is unable
to fill his contract, and besides, if he decides to ship the consign-
ment on the next steamer, two weeks later, he finds the freight
cost greatly advanced. The profit originally contemplated can
easily shrink 25 per cent.