Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1916 Vol. 62 N. 6

Page 3 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
RFMFW
THE
fflMC TIRADE
VOL. LXII. No. 6
Published Every Saturday by Estate of Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, Feb. 5, 1916
SINGLE COPIES 10 TENTS
$2,00 PER YEAR
Important Meetings of the Association Committees.
The Paul B. Klugh Plan for a Music Trade Chamber of Commerce and the Proposed National
Advertising Campaign to Be Chief Subjects of Discussion—A Large Attendance Expected.
A
NEW epoch in the history of association effort will be ushered
in with the meeting of the officers and executive committees
of the national associations connected with the music trade indus-
try, which will be held in this city on February 15 and 16.
The principal subject for consideration will be a discussion by
the various committees of Paul B. Klugh's suggestion for the for-
mation of a Music Trade Chamber of Commerce, which is to con-
tain representatives of every branch of the industry, and which
will discuss and act on all the larger topics of vital interest and
importance to the trade.
The main criticism of Mr. Klugh's suggestion on the part of
some is the fear that this plan will kill the individuality of the
various associations—that they would lose their influence in their
respective spheres.
This viewpoint, however, cannot appeal to those who take the
broader and more farseeing view of the trade situation and its
betterment.
There are so many problems which affect not only the piano
trade but other branches of the industry that a common under-
standing would be advantageous and this could be achieved
through a body such as the Music Trade Chamber of Commerce.
Meanwhile the individual associations have their own im-
portant problems to solve—those questions that have a direct bear-
ing on the betterment of conditions in their own sphere of work.
These, of course, should never be neglected and they need not be.
Each department of the industry now represented by an associa-
tion has matters which are purely local in their bearing, that can
only be considered by the organization representing that respective
branch of the industry.
There are three great divisions in any industry like ours.
The first is productive, the Technical Department or manufactur-
ing end. The third is Retail Distribution. The second, which
binds the first and third together is Credit. There are other classifi-
cations perhaps better, but this will serve.
The piano business already comprises in its productive end
four great sections: piano making, player making, roll making and
supply making. All overlap, all interplay, all are more or less
interdependent. Yet in fact there are really four classes of manu-
facturers corresponding, with these divisions more or less accu-
rately. What can a Music Trade Chamber of Commerce do for
them? For one thing, a common meeting place for discussion of
technical problems would almost automatically dispose of three
of the worst money-wasting nuisances in the trade, which are:
Lack of standards in roll manufacture, lack of co-ordination be-
tween player and supply manufacturers, lack of co-ordination be-
tween technical piano men and technical supply men such as action
makers.
n^^ n ^
We have the second great division, that of Credit. Surely,
in spite of the fact that the Merchants' Association only as yet
represents a minority of all the piano retailers in the country, yet
it does represent the best of them. Then let us assume that ulti-
mately, it is just as much the interest of the merchants that the
\
finance of the industry be sound, as it is that of the manufacturers.
There ts no need to argue about it; for whatever the one or two
dishonest men in any industry may think, it is plain that honesty
is not only the "best policy," but the very condition of life to com-
merce. That is not preaching, it is sense.
Well, then, is it to be supposed that free discussion between
the manufacturers and retailers, as must naturally be brought about
in a single unified body, is not to be productive of real good ? When
men get around a table they can usually settle their differences, if
they don't actually hate each other fundamentally. Our manufac-
turers don't hate their retailers, nor conversely do the retailers hate
their manufacturers. Sometimes they don't understand each other.
Usually this is when they think they entirely do understand. Will
the credit situation benefit by class co-operation. Why argue about
the obvious?
There is the third great division, Retail Sales. Consider the
player only! The manufacturer knows how to make what is tech-
nically right, the retailer knows what the public likes best. At
present the two are at loggerheads most of the time because they
have no way of getting together. The manufacturer makes what
he likes and the retailer must sell what he gets. Is this not waste-
ful? Why not cultivate closer intimacy between them and let the
manufacturer see things from the retailers standpoint? Visionary?
Well, that is what we always have said till it was done; and then,
of course, we all believed it would be so all the time! Again, one
might enlarge, but why discuss the obvious?
Meanwhile the formation of a Music Trade Chamber of Com-
merce, acting as the upper house of the trade, so to speak, would
be a tremendous moral, political and social factor both in local and
national affairs. It would give the music trade industry a new
position among the great business organizations, for it would have
behind it not one, or two, but the entire trade bodies representing
all branches of industry.
On national questions such as freights, merchant marine,
tariff, etc., it would be a power, while in the handling of technical
and sales problems, much might be accomplished that is now largely
overlooked. As Philip Werlein said in last week's Review: "Mr.
Klugh's suggestion is constructive in the highest sense of the word;
there can be no differences of opinion on that subject. The ad-
vancing of such ideas will do the trade more good than criticisms
of methods really too small to be noticed in any important relation
to an industry (when you consider the factories, the dealers and
the public) with an invested capital of one billion dollars."
This question of the organization of a Music Trade Chamber
of Commerce is only one, however, of a number of other topics
which will come up for consideration by the executives of the
national piano manufacturers' and dealers' associations at their
various meetings.
The proposition of F. W. Teeple,.of the Price & Teeple Piano
Co., Chicago, for a conference to form a standard method of laying
out the expressive perforations on tracker bar and music roll for
(Continued
on page 5.)

Page 4 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY THE ESTATE OF EDWARD LYMAN BILL
(C. L HIM., Kxecutrix.)
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
J. RAYMOND BILL, Associate Editor
AUGUST J. TIMPE
Business Manager
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
CARI.ETON CHACE,
WM. B. WHITE,
L. M. ROBINSON,
WILSON D. BUSH, •
BOSTON OFFICES I
CHICAGO OFFICE! I
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L. K. BOWERS.
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Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
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t ions o f a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
Tf>rhniP!lI fkpn!IT*tmpntG lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
i t X l U l l l d l VCpdl UUCUte. J e a l t wi t h> w i l l b c f o u n d i n a n o t h e r sect i O n of this
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which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
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Diploma
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NEW Y O R K ,
FEBRUARY
5, 1 9 1 6 .
EDITORIAL
T
H E piano industry is realizing the daily increasing necessity
• of an advance in piano prices, a demonstration of which fact
is found in the interviews with three leading piano manufacturers,
which appear in this issue of The Review. That there will not be
adopted the seemingly easiest alternative of a reduction in quality
to offset the increase in material costs, is a most encouraging
thought, and one which is expressed in some manner, at least, by
each of the manufacturers whose opinions we quote. Particular
attention should be given to the plea for co-operation among manu-
facturers, and between manufacturers and dealers. The most
cursory examination of the purchasing department of his concern
will convince any manufacturer that his pianos are costing him
much more to make than they did a year ago. This fact is known
and admitted by maker and dealer alike. But unless the manufac-
turers as a whole get together on the policy of an increased price, a
condition will obtain in the piano trade that will result in serious
embarrassment.
Equally important is the suggested co-operation between the
manufacturer and the dealer. If the dealer will but realize the
necessity and justice of a small advance in his cost prices, and will
seek to educate the public to the same realization, it will be an
easy matter for him to more than recover the increase which he
will pay through an increase in his selling price to his customer. A
comparatively small increase will turn the threatened deficit which
the manufacturer is facing into a fair profit. The dealer can ad-
vance his prices proportionately and still do the same amount of
business, thus maintaining his profit on his sales. The customer
who is in the market for a piano, for which he expects to pay, say.
$350, will not balk when he finds that the instrument he wants is
priced at a few dollars more. Knowing from other experiences
that the cost of materials in every line has advanced tremendously,
the sense of fairness which the average purchaser has will make
him willing to pay a slightly advanced price for an instrument
which he is assured is up to the usual standard in quality, and he
iH rather pay more for this kind of a piano, than to take one at
the usual price, but which he knows has been cheapened in quality.
The education of the public, a comparatively easy matter, is
the most important service which the dealer can render to the
manufacturer, to himself, and to the trade in general, and if dealers
as a whole will devote a little attention to this work, their efforts
will result in better conditions for all concerned.
r
" p l l E re-introduction last week in the House, of Representatives
1
of the Stevens-Ayres Bill with a number of important amend-
ments incorporated, should serve to remove much of the doubt that
exists regarding the desirability of the measure and its ability to
pass Congress. Among the arguments used by those opposed to
the bill was one to the effect that the provision for the main-
tenance of prices made no allowance for price variations due to
transportation charges. The amended bill specifically permits dis-
counts for cash and for quantity, and for allowances and rates
covering costs of transportation.
The many friends of the Stevens bill in the piano trade believe
the changes will assure the passage of this desirable measure, which
is designed "to protect the public against dishonest advertising and
false pretenses in merchandising."
The National Piano Manufacturers' Association, the National
Association of Piano Merchants, the National Association of Talk-
ing Machine Jobbers, the Music Publishers' Association of the
United States, and other trade bodies that have indorsed the
Stevens bill in the original, will welcome the changes made as likely
to add to the value of their indorsement.
IVE HUNDRED of the nation's most prominent men of
finance, foreign and domestic commerce, transportation and
allied industries, attended the third National Eoreign Trade Council
which held sessions the three closing days of last week in New
Orleans. The various eminent speakers predicted sharp fighting
for trade in all the markets of the world after the European war is
ended, with probable attempts on the part of European nations at
discriminations against America, and economic alliances designed
to prevent America's expansion in foreign trade fields. The most
important result of the gathering was the formation of a definite
foreign trade policy for the United States, which was the direct
object of the conference. This policy is partially expressed by the
following measures:
First—Judicious investment of United States capital in re-
sources of foreign countries, particularly Latin-America, in such a
manner as to stimulate their development and their consumption of
American products, while extending to those countries the means
wherewith to buy American goods.
Second—The introduction of greater flexibility into American
tariff-making to meet changing conditions in foreign tariffs, and
particularly in preferential tariff arrangements among the Euro-
pean countries whose commercial relations, disrupted by war, must
eventually be restored in the greatest tariff revision process the
world has known.
Third—The adaptation of American education to the needs
of foreign trade, with particular attention to qualifying young men
for foreign business posts through courses in foreign languages,
foreign banking, commercial geography and foreign trade.
The creation of a permanent non-partisan tariff commission
was strongly advocated, not only as a safeguard when the change
in the industrial conditions will occur after the closing of the Euro-
pean war, but also as a means of preventing a disturbance to busi-
ness whenever tariff changes become a necessity.
F
HIS is an age of ideas. Never before in the history of the
world has there been such an urgent and increasing demand
for bright thoughts of a commercial nature.
The competition which yearly draws the lines of trade tighter,
and sifts men and affairs with a relentless force, turns the business
mind upon some new object with which to strike out from the
crowded highway into an unbeaten path toward success.
In every office, store and shop throughout the wide world there
is somebody who is continually thinking and seeking for an idea
which will help his affairs. The clergyman is thinking of an idea
which will extend his influence. The physician, as he sits by the
bedside, is seeking for some new idea which will aid nature. The
banker is puzzling his brain for an idea which will master finance,
T

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