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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Important Meetings of the Association Committees.
(Continued from page 3.)
instruments of the power-driven type—an amplification of the reso-
lutions adopted four years ago at the Chicago conference, when
the present dimensions of music rolls were settled—-is in order.
Then there is the suggestion of The Review in regard to a
national advertising campaign, for the purpose of educating the
American public to the entertaining powers of the piano and player-
piano. This would be handled without reference to the names of
the manufacturers, but rather on the broad plan of concentrating
the attention of the public on the need of the piano and player-
piano in the home, along the promotive lines adopted by a number
•of other industries. It is a plan for revitalizing the piano business
;,which has won the approval of the officers of the national piano
-^manufacturers and piano merchants' associations.
-•'"." -'- It may be contended that present day sales activity nullifies
.the need for a national campaign along these lines at this particular
-.time. This, however, is the time for preparedness—the time to
augment interest in the piano and player-piano, to the end that these
instruments will be even in greater demand, and the output in fairer
proportion to the population of purchasers than it is now.
The details of this suggestion of The Review for a broad edu-
cational campaign are certainly ripe for consideration. It was our
idea that the entire matter could be handled satisfactorily by a
national body of piano manufacturers and that a fund should be
cieated, based upon the annual output of each subscriber.
The absorptive power of America is sufficient to take care of
a half million pianos and player-pianos yearly, and with the condi-
tions of prosperity so well diffused throughout all classes this year
is an opportune time to consider this plan of trade enlargement.
It is clear that there is much work of a constructive nature to
be accomplished at the forthcoming meetings of the associations,
and it is to be hoped that there will be" a full attendance of all
interested in the many important questions up for consideration.
and the piano manufacturer and piano merchant are on the still hunt
for ideas to improve their business. It only requires a mere idea,
if it is a perfect one, to prepare the foundation for a great success;
but, like inventions, ideas which stand the test of practice are rare
indeed.
Men who have that peculiar faculty which enables them to so
apply old principles to new purposes as to produce a novel idea or
method are the sort of inventors whom the world admires and
rewards.
It is said that ninety out of every one hundred business men
fail who continue in a given line for a term of years, and the
majority of those who do succeed will tell you that a new idea
which turned the current of their thoughts was the keystone of
their prosperity.
F. Owen French, who at present is in New Zealand representing
that firm. The schedule shows that the average advance of the
cost of materials is 57 per cent., and it is reasonable to suppose
that the American piano manufacturers are facing an even greater
increase in the cost of their materials. This increased cost of pro-
duction necessitates immediate action on the part of the manufac-
turers to protect their legitimate profit by raising the wholesale
selling price of their instruments. Unless this is done, and speedily,
the manufacturers will find that the increasing business which 1916
will bring will do little or nothing toward increasing their revenues,
and that they are doing little better than to break even on the cost
of doing business.
No sane dealer, will object to a legitimate raise in the cost of
pianos, when he is assured that the manufacturer is merely seeking
to cover the actual increase in production cost, and is neither seek-
ing to tack on an extra item of profit, nor is cheapening the material
which he uses in order to keep the cost of his instruments on a par
with the cost which existed before the raise in raw material.
RECENT issue of The Review contained a schedule of cost
advances in the manufacturing of English pianos, which was
sent to the home office of the Tesse French. & Sons' Piano Co. by
A
A Pointer Worth Considering
If you could hear some of the dealers express themselves in
enthusiastic language over the success they have won with the
Poole Pianos and Player-Pianos
in 1915, you would be interested in forming an alliance with
a piano and player-piano that has so many marked points
of excellence and individuality. It
Means New and Profitable Business for 1916
Wherever the Poole instruments go they stay. They make
enthusiastically satisfied customers by reason of their un-
questioned excellence both musically and constructionally.
POOLE PIANO CO.
Sydney Street, Cambridge A Branch
Boston, Mass.