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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY THE ESTATE OF EDWARD LYMAN BILL
(C. L. BILL, Executrix.)
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
J. RAYMOND BILL, Associate Editor
Business Manager
AUGUST J. TIMPE
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
I>. BKFTTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
CARLKTON CHACK,
W M . 15. W H I T E ,
BOSTON OFFICES I
JOHN H WILSON 324 Washington St
J
Telephone, Main 6950
E
*
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WILSON D. BUSH,
-
P
20
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L. E. BOWERS.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
- V A N HARLINGEN, Consumers' Building,
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HENRY S. KINGWILL,, Associate.
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NEWS 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.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
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ADVERTISEMENTS, $3.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages $110.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
PIjIVPP Pl2inA UnA
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
l lajCl "I lallU ami
t j o n s O f a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
Tpptinipnl n o n a r f m o n f c
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
I C l I l l l l l d l UKpaiUlKUVS.
d e a ] t w i t h > w j n b e 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.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1002
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
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Cable addre»: "Elbill, New York."
NEW Y O R K ,
JANUARY
2 2 , 1916.
EDITORIAL
In assuming, as associate editor, a part of the
hallowed chair of my late father, I desire only to
emphasize, with all fitting dignity, that The Music Trade
Review will continue to be dominated by the spirit of the
late Colonel Edward Lyman Bill. Indeed, it cannot be
otherwise—so indelibly has my father left his individual
stamp of "white" journalism upon every one and every-
thing connected with this publication.
The present staff has been shaped into master form
by the hand of the late Colonel Bill. The after outcome
of this can be nothing short of a reflection of the editor
who has so recently been called into God's home—and
through the earnest efforts of the staff it will be a mighty
true reflection.
„
Adherence to clean principles of journalism is what
enabled my father to mold the present efficient staff, and
adherence by that same staff to all that is straightforward
in trade journalism is the thing that cannot but maintain
The Review as a valuable constructive asset to the music
trade—as the enduring monument to the fair-minded
editor who has left us.
J. RAYMOND BILL.
T
HERE is a noticeable tendency upon the part of some to at-
tribute the increasing prosperity which we are now enjoying
to the European war. True, the vast amount of foreign gold which
has poured into this country, together with the establishment of the
dollar instead of the pound sterling as the standard of exchange,
has had a direct and beneficial influence on the finances of the coun-
try. War orders have also provided occupation for a vast number
of workers, reducing to a very great degree the percentage of un-
employed. But while these war-bred conditions may have a bene-
ficial result of a more or less permanent nature, it cannot be denied
that the awful economic waste caused by this present conflict will
have a direct influence upon the status of every country in the
civilized world, and America cannot escape from that influence.
A peculiar, yet nevertheless pertinent illustration of the preju-
dicial influence of the war upon American industry is shown in an
account, published in The Review last week, of the misfortunes
which befell a shipment of piano wire, sent from Bremen, which was
consigned to the American Piano Supply Co. The shipment, amount-
ing to 40,000 pounds of assorted wire, left Germany in March, 1915*
on the "Ogeechee,'' the last American steamer which sailed from
Bremen. A British cruiser halted the steamer, declared her entire
cargo contraband, forced her to unload at Sharpness, and then per-
mitted the American boat to proceed.
The items composing the cargo were brought up from time to
time before the British Prize Court, and the music wire in question
was ordered released officially last summer. Then followed the un-
winding of a tangled skein of red tape, accomplished only by the
filing of special papers, showing the manufacturer, the nature, and
the purchaser of the goods, the issuing of bonds and guarantees that
the goods would not be used for war purposes, etc., and the delay
caused by these official requirements resulted in the non-arrival of
the wire at this port until last week.
The American Piano Supply Co. is now setting a force of in-
spectors at work, and they will examine the entire shipment to make
sure that the wire is perfect in every respect, and is in as good
condition as it was when it left Germany.
The direct and unavoidable toll which the American Piano
Supply Co. has paid because of the war is threefold. It has suf-
fered a ten months' delay in receiving goods which were presum-
ably needed for immediate use. The various charges which have
been incurred in getting the goods out of the British Prize Court
and into an American port, have amounted to between eight and ten
cents per pound more than if the cargo had been shipped under the
usual conditions which existed prior to the declaration of war, an
item alone of from $3,200 to $4,000. Lastly, the length of time
during which the wire has been in storage, or in transit, combined
with the various handlings it must of necessity have had, lias made
necessary a minute inspection of the entire shipment, which will be
an added cost of no little amount.
Outside of the money paid in wages, which, of course, is never
a loss from the standpoint of comprehensive economics, the actual
cash which has been taken from the coffers of the American Piano
Supply Co. is purely and simply a direct contribution to the treasury
of Mars, a contribution which will in turn be expended in furthering
the effort to uproot and destroy the economic foundation of the
world—peace. The trouble, anxiety and commercial handicap
caused by the delay in receiving the goods cannot be measured in
dollars and cents, but it forms a contribution to the same cause.
I
N an exclusive interview published in a recent issue of The
Review, Dr. C. T. Graham-Rogers, Director of the Depart-
ment of Industrial Hygiene of the State Industrial Commission,
commented on the excellent conditions which obtain among the
workers in piano factories in New York. Especial emphasis was
laid upon the fact that the piano trade is free from occupational
diseases, and that the factories were admirable from a hygienic
as well as from a manufacturing standpoint. Dr. Graham-Rogers
holds no particular brief for the piano manufacturer. He is not
the champion of their cause, nor. indeed, of anyone's cause. He
is a highly trained authority on industrial hygiene, and his state-
ments regarding the piano industry are the result of carefully
made observations and coldly scientific research and investigation
among the piano factories in this city and State. Unbiased and
uncolored by interest or sentiment, the statements of this eminent
physician must be accepted as authoritative. Tt is a source of
exceedingly great gratification to have such a clean bill of health
given to the piano industry. It also proves that there is such a thing
as "sentiment in business," and that pianos—which are capable of
interpreting the highest sentiments and emotions, are being con-
structed by manufacturers who try to surround their workmen with
laboring conditions which shall be conducive to work befitting the
ultimate uses of the instruments which they are creating.
HE decision handed down by the United States Circuit Court
of Appeals in the case of the Victor Talking Machine Co.
versus R. H. Macv & Co. and chronicled in last week's Review,
marks a great victory for price maintenance in the talking machine
trade. It establishes the right of a manufacturer of patented
articles to exercise full control over the merchandising of those
products. The decision will meet with the approval of talking
machine men. for it must be conceded that this industry has been
T