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THE
VOL. LXV. No. 11
MEM
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. Sept. 15, 1917
81n
*£ Copies
Anticipating Coming Conditions
T
H E nation is at war! The statement is not new; but it is certainly needed. The hardest thing we have
to do now, as individuals, is to bring ourselves into realization of the fact that war is not peace, and
that a nation at war must adjust every part of its normal activities to a new point of view. This
adjustment is as yet hardly begun.
Signs, however, multiply that this war will be a very serious undertaking for the American people; and
that until they recognize their duty and do it, mistakes, blunders, and possibly even serious setbacks, are certain
to come about.
A new and—for this nation, enormous—army is going into training. The Government is taking from
commerce and industry thousands of our best young men. So far, the loss has not been felt seriously. But
it soon will be.
Let no one console himself with the puerile notion that the war will soon be over or that the first army
will be also the last one. The enemy is indeed already beaten, in the large sense, for his aims are wholly
checkmated, his highest level of power has been reached and he has !~»st the initiative; forever. But his
defensive power is still great and he will not give in till he is crushed, for to give in will be to provoke
revolution at home as well as ruin abroad.
Therefore, there will be a second army called on; and perhaps a third. Therefore also the economic
effect of this consequent drain on the nation's man-power should be considered, and discounted: NOW!
The Commercial Economy Board of the National Council of Defense is beginning to tell the business
men of the United States some of the things about their duties in the war that so far they'have overlooked
in large measure.
One of these is that the Government will, sooner or later, be making drafts upon the man-power of the
nation which the commercial and industrial leaders of this country must at once begin to provide for.
Put it in a sentence: When the Government comes into your factory and takes away every third one
of your skilled men, how are you going to meet the emergency?
The call will be coming sure. Those who take heed now may discount its effects. Those who, through
lukewarmness regarding their country's fortunes abroad, or simply through carelessness, neglect the warning,
will suffer; and suffer severely.
You cannot re-man a piano or player factory overnight. Ask your superintendent how long it would take
him to replace one-third of his total skilled force, even in normal times. Then ask him how he would proceed
to do the same thing if one-third of all the available piano workers had been called at the same time.
He will probably tell you that in the latter case he could not run the factory up to one-half its normal
capacity.
Just that situation confronts the piano trade. Shall we meet it or shall we wait for it to catch up with us
and hold us up ?
What can we concretely do to meet the impending conditions? We can do several things. First of all,
we can use women in every branch of piano making, save perhaps in the mill-room and in the case making,
coarse rubbing and bellying departments. Stringing might be considered difficult, and even fly-finishing; but
chipping, action finishing, action regulating, varnishing and fine rubbing, are all tasks eminently adaptable to
women's hands and thought. Even tuning can be taught; though not in a few weeks.
They are doing it in England and we can do it here. Munition girls are handling machinery over there
that is quite as heavy as any in the piano mill-room, too.
(Continued on page 5)