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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
HAT Francis Bacon called the Idols of the Market Place,
W
that is to say, the prejudices, preconceptions, and bigotries
which we derive from the circumstances of our business, and
which distort and otherwise warp our judgment, even in matters
concerning" that business, are worshipped in our own special
industry as much as in any other. Perhaps of all human weak-
nesses, none is commoner, none more .natural, yet none more
fatal to success, than that of failing to see the point of view of
the opposite party. Of all the Market Place Idols, this species
of professional squint-eye is surely the most subtle in its ef-
fects ; the most subtle because the least noticeable. We need
above all things, in all matters concerning our business with the
outer world, the gift of clear vision, of apprehending and rightly
judging the point of view which is taken by the man on the
other side of the table. We need, in short, to see things from
the other man's point of view; and all successful business is
necessarily founded on the possession, to greater or less degree,
of this ability. The great men of the business world have been
the men who have seen the other man's need and intuitively
have foreseen the necessary method for filling it. How much
better off we are when we can understand the other man's ob-
jections and realize that this other man has a right, not inferior
to our own, to the enjoyment of his own opinion and his own
viewpoint.
"Adventures with a Player-Piano," the first instalment
I tion N of the in which
occupies the "Musically Speaking" page of this sec-
its present issue, the person whose experiences are there
recorded has striven to give to the trade a clear picture of the
manner in which the intelligent layman approaches the player-
piano, what he thinks of it in advance, how it appeals to him,
and what there is about it, from his point of view, to like and to
dislike. It is a fundamental fault in the conduct of human busi-
ness that we habitually neglect all public opinion which we can-
not discover from the most superficial examination. In our
own industry we are always being told what the public wants
or doesn't want; yet it scarcely ever happens that we are able
to ascribe any plausible reasons for our belief. The public
wants in the case of the player-piano have never been analyzed
and the trade has gone on the theory that the public has no
desire for anything that can be called educative or even inform-
ing. We are told that the public is all unintelligent, and that
STARTS A VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN
Philip Werlein, Who Recently Took on the
American Piano Co.'s Line, to Feature It in
a Big Way—Expect to Achieve Great Success
NEW ORLEANS, LA., July 24.—Philip Werlein,
Ltd., which recently closed arrangements to
handle the American Piano Co.'s player line, is
planning to institute an extensive campaign on
behalf of these players. The company is taking
no cognizance of the summer season for it is
already starting to feature this line in a high
class, aggressive manner.
The American Piano Co.'s player line, which
is now handled in full by Philip Werlein. Ltd.,
the road to success is through the filling of that unintelligent de-
mand. Such a demand takes what it gets. But such a demand
never yet created a business; and never will. The great man
of business is the man who takes the trouble to find out what
the people really think: not by judging from his own experi-
ence, as small men always do, but by investigating. We aim
in the above mentioned articles, to do a little something towards
putting forward the cause of the immense number of intelligent
men and women who would buy players if players were intelli-
gently offered to them.
day, when the conflict of claim and counter-claim has
S OME
died away and honesty of thought rules amongst us, we may
take time to observe that the progress of invention is continuous,
and that the process of refinement, though extremely slow, is
nevertheless steady. The player-piano is at its simplest a
highly technical product and one which has not yet reached
anything like the climax of its improvement. Indeed, it is fair
to say that we are only at the beginning of an almost endless
road along which the process of refinement may travel. How
much more rapidly that progress could be if there existed some
bureau, or laboratory, or call it what you will, devoted to the
study of technical problems and to the general investigation of
the lines along which pneumatic progress might most readily
proceed!
Such an institution, supported either by the Music Trade
Chamber of Commerce or else through the voluntary associa-
tion of technical men, might do an immense amount of good
and save an immense amount of money, even if it accomplished
no more than the standardization of some dimensions and the
publication of some tables bearing on the fundamentals of pneu-
matic design. Of course the natural reply of the conservative is
that individual firms should be permitted to work out their own
improvements and that no one else must be permitted to share
in discoveries not made by himself or by those whom he abso-
lutely controls.
The answer in rebuttal is that, in any case, the progress of
the industry is the concern of all, and that the investigation of
fundamental truths hurts no one and benefits all. We might
do worse, far worse, than think over the idea set forth more at
length in the Point of View Department of this section of The
Review.
includes the well-known Chickering Artigraphic
electric and foot-power player-pianos, Haines
E r o s ' Stoddard-Ampico electric and foot-power
players; Flexitone-Soloist and the Flexotone-
Electrelle. The company also handles the Ryth-
modik hand-played rolls, which are manufac-
tured by the American Piano Co.
Philip Werlein, Ltd., is one of the oldest and
most successful piano houses in the country,
catering to a clientele which is certain to appre-
ciate the distinctive features of the American
Piano Co.'s player line, especially the Arti-
graphic and Stoddard-Ampico players.
Mr.
Werlein is an enthusiastic admirer of these play-
ers, and predicts that they will achieve unlimited
success in this territory.
GLEN BROS.ROBERTS CO. OUTING
OGDEN, UTAH, July 24.—The Glen Bros.-Roberts
Music Co. held its first annual outing recently
for the employes of the firm and their families.
The outing was held at the Winters camp in
Ogden valley. In addition to a picnic lunch
of generous proportions, further entertainment
was provided by a program of games and ath-
letic events, including a nail-driving contest for
the ladies, novelty races for the children and a
tug-of-war and a baseball game between the
men. All of the employes of the Ogden and
Salt Lake City stores attended the affair, as
well as many traveling representatives of the
concern.
The Master Player-Piano
if Mm equipped with aa
AUTOMATIC TRACKING DEVICE
Which guarantees absolutely correct tMctriag at even Hie most imperfect mueic rolls
W I N T E R & CO., 220 Southern Boulevard, New York City