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REVIEW
THE
[1UJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXIV. No. 7
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York, Feb. 17, 1917
Single Copies 10 Cents
$2.00 Per Year
The Passing of Questionable Methods
T
H E day of the peddler type of merchant in these United States is rapidly drawing' to a close, and the star
of clean merchandising is in the ascendency. Both business men and the public generally have come to
realize that there must be a standardization of business—a tendency to promote trade by clean advertis-
ing, and, once promoted, to hold trade by fair dealing. In some measure this has come about in the
- natural course of events, but it must be admitted that the new tendency has been developed largely through what
might be termed legal means.
It was not so long ago that in almost every line of business, including that of selling pianos, the Latin slogan
caveat emptor, (Let the buyer beware), was accepted as representing good business practice. If the buyer was
deceived, if he could be prevailed upon to buy something upon misrepresentation of the dealer, it was his own
fault, and the dealer stood out thereby as a clever salesman.
The day is fast approaching when an unsophisticated child will be able to go into the average piano store
with a certain sum of money and purchase just as good an instrument as the more mature person might select.
The price will be fixed and the quality offered at the price will be fair and representative.
It is already becoming unsafe for a merchant to exaggerate or lie in the written or printed word. Not only
do local advertising clubs support bureaus to watch for just such violations, but the Federal government has
shown an inclination to listen to complaints on this score and serve out prison sentences or impose heavy fines
when the opportunity offers. A misleading advertisement proves a particularly effective trap for the dishonest
merchant, for by sending false statements through the mails he violates the Post Office regulations against fraud.
There are laws being framed—in fact some have been passed—that go just a little further and which are calcu-
lated to enmesh the offending merchant whether or not he sends publicity matter through the mails.
The better class of piano men have been quick to support such measures and to co-operate with merchants
in every line in seeing that they are enforced. There is much said about harassing business men by too much
legislation, but if it is necessary to keep a fair proportion of the business world honest by law, the sooner we
have such laws that are country-wide in their effect, the better for business as a whole.
Juggling prices to fit the occasion, offering cheap pianos away out of their class—which is the real excuse
for price juggling—and making statements about such instruments that cannot be proven by facts, tends to hurt
not only the individual following such practices, but to do immeasurable harm to the trade as a whole.
More than one member of the piano trade has commented upon the fact that the public as a whole looks
upon the piano man as being ready and anxious at all times to take just a little more of the purchaser's money
than he is entitled to receive.
Clean advertising, the maintenance of fixed prices, and the publicity given the work of the piano trade
associations which are endeavoring to clean up the industry, are gradually having an effect upon the public mind,
and the average man to-day is beginning to believe that the purchasing of a piano from a reputable house will
give him value received for his money.
The piano business is based upon confidence to an unusual extent, for not one customer in a hundred has
a technical knowledge of piano construction or piano values. If the case is pretty and the tone satisfactory,
the purchaser is generally inclined to depend upon the word of the dealer as to the intrinsic value of the
instrument, and the quality of the materials entering into its construction.
Anything that goes towards uplifting the trade and weeding out the fakir does just so much to increase
the confidence of the public in the piano business as a whole. It is confidence that is badly needecf.
As was said before, the peddler type of piano mer.chant—the fellow who depends upon sharp practices
instead of actual values for his business success—is coming to the end of the trail. The better element of the
trade is attending to his elimination, and the law is helping the good work along.