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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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PiaitA anil
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
TlaUU aUU
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
Itonartmpnte
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
IFCpdl I11ICI1I&. a r e d e a l t w i t h ; w i ii be found in another section of
this paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concern-
ing which will be cheerfully given upon request.
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NEW Y O R K ,
SEPTEMBER
4
8, 1917
EDITORIAL
IANO dealers will do well to read carefully the article, which
P
appeared in last week's Review, relative to the freight em-
bargo situation, which included a letter from Vice-President
Campbell, of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad,
addressed to E. A. Leveille, traffic manager of the National Piano
Manufacturers' Association, in which Mr. Campbell stated that
freight conditions were such that it is not possible to give more
than twenty-four or forty-eight hours' notice of the placing of
an embargo.
In spite of the warnings which have been reiterated by
manufacturers and trade papers alike, there are still piano deal-
ers in this country who have thus far neglected to make any
provision for securing a stock sufficient to tide their business
over in the event of an embargo. These dealers seem to think that
because an embargo has not yet been declared which has affected
them, there will be plenty of time to worry about the embargo
when it actually comes. This is merely a policy of locking the
stable door after the horse is gone. There is as much logic in
the attitude of these dealers as there is in the attitude of the
man who refuses to carry fire insurance because his house has
never burned down.
The military preparations now being prosecuted with vigor
have already made heavy demands upon the railroads. Within
the present month it is fair to assume that the railroads of this
country will be hard pressed to handle the troops which will be
sent to the various training camps, and even after the embryo
soldiers have been concentrated at the designated points, the
constant carrying of supplies to the military camps will throw
upon the railroads a burden not lightly to be borne. The needs
of the Government must and will be taken care of first. Uncle
Sam is now a preferred customer, and his demands, no matter
how stringent they may be, must be satisfied fully, and ahead of
all others.
Without taking a pessimist's or an alarmist's view of the
situation, freight embargoes of all kinds can be expected in the
immediate future. That these embargoes will affect the move-
ment of such articles as musical instruments goes without say-
ing. The dealer who finds himself suddenly shut off from his
source of supplies by reason of a freight embargo has only him-
self to blame when he sees his more provident competitor garner-
ing in the sales by reason of an adequate stock of instruments
on hand. The only way to beat an embargo is to lay in a
sufficient supply to last through the embargo period. Wise deal-
ers have already done this; others are tardily awakening to the
seriousness of the situation and are placing orders with manu-
facturers at the present time.
There will be some dealers, however, who will not heed the
many warnings which have been given, and there will be but
scant sympathy for them in their loss of profitable business which
could have been theirs had they but exercised an ordinary amount
of foresight.
OR the fiscal year ending July 31, 1917, the Ford Motor Co.,
F
of Detroit, manufactured 735,000 automobiles, according to its
published report. This is an astounding figure and offers a basis
for much earnest speculation. For a basis of discussion it may be
assumed that taking all types of Ford cars into consideration, the
average retail price is in the neighborhood of $350 to $360 per
car, and that after deducting the number of cars sent to Europe
for army use, and for other purposes, there were over one-half
million people in America with over $350 in cash to spend for
"flivvers."
The. average retail price of all pianos sold is considerably
below $350, even at present-day prices, and it might be safe to
say that the average of pianos and players sold would not be
much over $350 per instrument. With an estimated output of
325,000 instruments a year, the Ford Co. turned out twice as
many automobiles as there were pianos and players produced
during the year with a neat 100.000 or so to spare, not taking
into consideration the outputs of dozens of other automobile
manufacturers, the figures of which are undoubtedly propor-
tionately as large.
Working on the Ford figures alone we find that five or six
hundred thousand people had $350 or more to spend on auto-
mobiles. Buyers of automobiles as a rule are not poor people.
They do not spend their last nickel for joy riding. It is, therefore,
to be assumed that they have some money left with which to
invest in home comforts, under which heading pianos and players
properly come.
It gives rise to the thought, too, whether each one of those
600,000 people had been properly approached by piano salesmen.
If 25 per cent, of them were overlooked, it means that 150,000
people, possible prospects, were allowed to spend their money in
other fields without having a single piano argument put before
them.
With over 600,000 people with enough money to buy Fords
alone, to say nothing of the thousands who have bought every-
thing from Saxons to Packards during the year, and are theo-
retically at least able to maintain them, the piano man cannot use
as an argument for poor sales that money is scarce. The money
is there—apparently more of it than ever before. The problem
is to get it.
increase in cash purchases of musical in-
A NOTICEABLE
struments has been in evidence in almost every section of
the country during the past few weeks. Many dealers to whom
a cash transaction was somewhat of an event report that their
cash sales are growing in volume all the time. While this does
not obtain in every section, the fact remains that cash sales are
increasing, and that where instalment sales are made, better
terms and larger first payments are the rule.
In view of these conditions, the piano dealer who makes no
effort to cut down the time on his instalment sales is missing a
golden opportunity. The day of "a dollar down and a dollar
a month" is fast fading; it need never return if piano dealers will
tighten their selling terms and educate their customers to the
fact that purchasing pianos on small payments and long-drawn-
out instalments is unwise, unnecessary and unprofitable to both
the dealer and the purchaser in the long run.