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REM
THE
VOL. LXIV. No. 2
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York, Jan. 13, 1917
Single Copies 10 Cents
$2.00 Per Year
Export Possibilities in the Music Trade
T
H E United States has an opportunity, as never before, to extend American trade in foreign countries.
We are now able to enter the field in a new capacity, that of investor and organizer. This country, with
its great wealth and productive powers, has come into a position of world leadership, with all its accruing
responsibilities, and our nation is bound to be an active participant in affairs beyond its borders.
There are many piano manufacturers who regard export business—the shipping of instruments to foreign
parts—as being deeply mysterious and full of pitfalls for the unwary and the unsophisticated.
In the past, as a matter of fact, there was some basis for such a view, for many American manufacturers
in all lines learned to their sorrow that there were swindlers in foreign lands who, through legal tricks or
barefaced robbery, preyed upon the manufacturer thousands of miles away, who often was ignorant concerning
his rights or the protection to which he was entitled.
This uncertain condition is fast disappearing, and the cutting off of the European market has created
opportunities for manufacturers of musical instruments in this country which, although not being embraced to
the fullest extent, nevertheless are becoming known and appreciated.
Business from foreign countries, particularly South America and Australia, is knocking- at the doors of
American manufacturers. Pianos in increasing numbers have been shipped abroad and have actually been
paid for. The National City Bank has already opened, and it is said J. P. Morgan & Co. plans to open branches
in Latin-American cities with the view of giving American exporters banking facilities comparable to those
offered by Germany to her exporters before the war. Organizations have been developed for promoting a
better understanding between merchants in Latin America and manufacturers here, and for removing as far
as possible the obstacles that frequently loom up before a new man in the export field.
American piano manufacturers who have taken advantage of the opportunities already afforded them in
the export field have no complaint to make. There are naturally many manufacturers who are well satisfied
to take care of the domestic demand, and who have no ambition to extend their trade beyond the borders of our
country. But this fact offers no excuse for such manufacturers to condemn the export business as a whole.
In considering the export situation it will be well for the piano manufacturers who are entering that field
to heed the example of manufacturers in other lines, and get together for mutual protection and benefit. It
has been suggested in previous issues of The Review that a Bureau might be established under the auspices of
the National Piano Manufacturers' Association, along the lines of the Freight Bureau, which has been operated
so effectively for a number of years, for the purpose of compiling accurate information regarding foreign
credits, duties, shipping charges, and the thousand and one details that every exporter should know, but which
he can obtain, as an individual, only at considerable expense.
Such a Bureau should be under the supervision of a thoroughly competent manager, a man familiar with
conditions existing in not only the export trade generally, but in the piano trade particularly. The Bureau would
not sell pianos or arrange agencies, but would simply act as a center for export information relating directly to
musical instruments.
A Bureau of this kind could also represent the trade very effectively in such general matters as ocean
freight rates, marine insurance, questions of tariff and on occasions where the voice of the trade might be
heard to advantage for or against some particular proposition.
The fact remains that America at the present time is sending abroad more pianos than ever before, although
the number is woefully small in comparison with European exports before the war and with our own annual
production.
Some manufacturers have made and are now making a study of the export field and are endeavoring to
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