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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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AUGUST J. TIMPE
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Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
TlallU dUU
t j o n s o f a technical nature relating to the tuning,
FlpnartmPIlte
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
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NEW YORK, OCTOBER 6, 1917
EDITORIAL
the War Revenue bill in the form finally agreed
I the N upon reviewing
by the House and Senate Committees, it is found that
music trade has not entirely escaped being discriminated
ments to existing laws, will provide still further taxes for this in-
dustry to pay. It certainly is not a prospect to be viewed with
equanimity.
The excise tax on musical instruments was placed in the face
of opposition of not only the members of the trade, but of many
influential newspapers who took up the cudgel in behalf of
music generally. The following editorial from the New York
Evening Mail may be taken as a sample, and yet, so far as the
War Revenue bill is concerned, the effect was practically nil.
The Mail said:
"Again Congress is considering a project to impose a tax
upon the manufacture of musical instruments for the purpose of
raising war revenue. This tax is recommended on the ground
that music is a luxury, and that like other luxuries it must be
made to yield its contribution to the war fund of the country.
"This assumption that music is not a necessity of our
national life is based upon ignorance of its power. In this crisis,
above all other times, music is not a luxury but a prime neces-
sity of our spiritual and political life. No man who has observed
the stirring effect of music in the work of recruiting in New York
will dissent from this conclusion.
"The news dispatches convey the information that at one of
the Long Island camps there are many patriots in olive drab who
cannot understand English enough to obey the words of com-
mand. The news from Long Island is a powerful argument for
music. We are a nation made up of various races of various
tongues. Music is the language of all races. It speaks words
of fire which warm the hearts of all races alike. It is a great
force for the infusion of a common emotion in all the races that
make up our population—the high emotion of devotion to
country.
"To impose a tax upon music would be to impose a tax on
the common language which all Americans understand, to which
all Americans respond.
"Let us have an 80 per cent., or even a 100 per cent, tax on
excess war profits. But let us have no tax upon the flame that
is doing so much to weld us into a united nation with a united
purpose."
S set forth in the interview with C. C. Conway, which ap-
A
peared in The Review last week, the dominating feature
at the War Convention of Business Men held recently in At-
lantic City was the spirit of co-operation and of give and take
that prevailed throughout the sessions. It was pleasing to
against in the assessment of excise taxes, Paragraph B. of Sec- note that while Federal officials attending the conference em-
tion 600 reading: "There shall be levied, assessed, collected and
phasized the unusual demands that the Government was making
paid—upon piano players, graphophones, phonographs, talking
on business, they at the same time expressed the willingness
machines and records used in connection with any musical in-
of the Government to co-operate with business and to show a
strument, piano player, graphophone, phonograph, or talking ma-
proper recognition of the rights of business men to preserve
chine, sold by the manufacturer, producer or importer, a tax their interests while at the same time aiding in the national
equivalent to 3 percentum of the price for which so sold."
cause. It is the logical course to pursue; for the Government
must depend upon business to provide the revenue for carrying
If the bill is correctly presented the only musical instru-
ments that are not burdened with an excise tax are pianos, organs on the war to a successful conclusion, and unless business is
protected and assisted in maintaining a proper income, it will
and musical merchandise, or what are termed small goods, includ-
ing band instruments. It rests upon the interpretation of the not be possible to secure from it such revenue.
term "piano players" whether the modern player-piano is subject
to the tax—a question that was discussed by officials of the
WO steps taken by the War Industries Board, with the sanc-
National Piano Manufacturers' Association on Tuesday.
tion of the President last week, should prove of deep interest
Despite all the proof offered to the legislators in their re-
to the music trade generally. They are the fixing of prices on
cent hearing to the effect that music of all kinds is not a luxury steel products at figures averaging 50 per cent, below present
but rather an absolute necessity of life, particularly in war time
quotations, and the action of the Priority Committee of the Board
when the people require both the solace and the stimulation in announcing preference in the matter of filling orders for steel
offered by music, and the proof that the music trade, and par-
products, with the war needs coming first and the public de-
ticularly the piano trade, is not an industry of large profits able
mands following in the order of their importance.
to stand excise taxes without injury, the Congressmen have stuck
The first of these moves indicates that the Government is
persistently to the plan to make the music trade industry one of in earnest in its plans for price fixing; that in the ramifications
those to bear more than its fair share of war tax.
of these plans may be found some solace for the piano man and
On the question of the special excise tax there is also
the piano supply man, who have wondered when the end would
to be considered the precedent that it sets, in classing musi- come in the steady rise in prices of steel and other metals. So
far as it goes, price fixing on steel may be taken as a healthy
cal instruments as luxuries. We have hardly passed our first
sign, while on the other hand, the activities of the Priority Com-
six months of war, have really not yet entered into the con-
flict, and unless peace comes with unexpected suddenness, we mittee are to be viewed askance^. With a steadily growing
demand for steel for use in war materials, the question arises
may expect more and heavier taxes in the not far distant future.
just how the Priority Committee will classify luxuries, and as
With musical instruments once firmly entrenched in the excise
has already been proven in the case of the War Revenue bill,
tax list, it may be that future War Revenue bills, or amend-
T