Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
W/M
THE
VOL LXV. No. 15
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Oct. 13, 1917
Single Copies 10 Cents
$2.00 Per Year
Cultivate the Optimistic Viewpoint
A
no time in the history of the country has it been more essential to cultivate the optimistic viewpoint than
now. The nation is facing tremendous problems which will be capably solved. Success, however,
is impossible without the hearty and enthusiastic support of the rank and file of our people.
^
The psychological value of optimism, even in the face of the greatest difficulties, is so apparent
that it needs no argument to sustain it. The merchant or manufacturer who "lays down" these days—who has
so little faith in himself or in his business as to refuse to "do business as usual"—who hesitates to place his
orders early for his usual winter requirements because "the war will be over in a short time and things will
resume their normal condition"—who refuses to recognize that we must do business along more aggressive
lines than ever before if the country is to triumph industrially as well as in a military way—is a hindrance to
the progress of the nation.
Yet there are manufacturers and merchants who think otherwise—men who curtail their output and their
advertising—who pare down their sales promotion plans, and indulge in other so-called economies, deeming
this a wise policy.
As a matter of fact, this is the very time that every one should rush into print to a greater extent than
ever before, because unless earth opens and swallows us up there will be greater prosperity in America this
winter than ever before in the history of the Republic.
It is authoritatively stated that the expenditures of our Government, in connection with the entry of this
country into the European war, will amount to over eighteen billion dollars within the next twelve months.
Can any reasoning man believe that aught but prosperity can follow in the wake of the expenditure of a sum
such as this?
The human mind cannot actually conceive the amount of money represented by eighteen billions of dollars.
It represents a per capita sum of $180 for every man, woman and child in the country, estimating the population
to be one hundred million. But while the sum is so stupendous that the imagination cannot grasp its full
significance, the effects of the expenditure of this sum will be concrete, and will be felt by every industry and
every individual in the United States.
The influx of a sum of money of this size into this country cannot but bring unprecedented prosperity with
it—a prosperity as far-reaching as it will be lasting.
The man who listens to the pessimist, with his halo of gloom, and sets back to "wait for things to settle
down" is yielding his common sense and enterprise to the baneful influence of idle sentiment. He is actually
contributing to the starvation of the bird that lays the golden eggs of prosperity.
Let us be up and doing. Let us not only cultivate, but stimulate afresh the American spirit of accom-
plishment—of surmounting all difficulties and winning new achievements by not only doing business as before,
but in greater volume, so that past accomplishments may be entirely outdone, and new records scored.
Of course there are many annoying developments in connection with the war that bear heavily on the
business man. He is a victim of price restriction and taxation that catches him coming and going. Notwith-
standing these handicaps our business men are patriotic and broad. They are doing, and intend to do, "their
bit" in their own sphere, just as effectively as the young men of the nation are doing theirs in the camps or in
the battlefield. Such men rise above all obstacles to success. There is little credit for "winning out" when
there are no difficulties to surmount—the great test is in trial.
These are times to try men's souls—but let us be thankful that Americans have souls—that their belief in
the "square deal" for those countries that are upholding civilization as against the destruction of every ideal
that makes life worth while, is an inspiration, a beacon light of right and justice in the roughest sea humanity
has ever encountered.