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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A Summary of Opinions From Manufacturers and Dealers Regarding the
Status of the Player Industry During the War Indicates That Good Business
Is to Be Expected, Despite Certainty of Rising Prices and Freight Embargoes
At the present moment we are all inclined to
listen, more or less seriously, to those who
would te.ll us what is the immediate duty of us
all as citizens, as business men, and as mem-
bers of the trade. The fact that the nation is at
war, gradually, but steadily and surely, per-
meates the consciousness of the man in the
street. That the resulting cerebration will not
invariably take the form of the clearest thought
is sufficiently evident.
Meanwhile, we have to go about our daily
business. We have to keep the wheels of in-
dustry turning, and to maintain private and pub-
lic activity at such a pitch that the great task of
financing the war shall be carried out efficiently
and easily. Especially, we have to combat the
fallacy that this war is one in which the working
man alone will suffer and the "capitalist" alone
gain. We have to do our utmost, in fact, to
promote our own business; and also to assist
in promoting the business of everybody else; to
the end that the enormous industrial activity
which the Government is now making possible
by its huge war orders may be translated into
'a prosperity as widely distributed as the neces-
sities of the case allow.
Some persons, more distinguished for talking
ability than for common sense, have advised us
all, in stentorian tones, to stop doing anything
and everything except "save." We have been told
horrible tales of the awful, frightful results
bound to ensue from our dreadful wastefulness;
but, somehow or other, nobody is much worried
about all this. What the business man wants
to know is how to keep business going during
the war and after it. He wants to know whether
business will keep up during the war; what
effect the freight situation now impending is
likely to have. He wants to know whether the
people are going to continue buying pianos,
player-pianos and music rolls; and if so, what
kinds of such goods they will prefer. He is not
worried about invasion, or losing the war, or
drivel of that sort. He wants to do his patri-
otic duty and yet keep his business going; and
he has a shrewd notion that the two ideas are
not far from each other, in reality.
We all want to help; and we all—all of us who
have any reason to know the facts—are well
aware that the prosperity of the country during
the continuance of the war is positively assured.
What then can we say to the American citizen
who is occupied in the music trade, and who
wants to do precisely the best he can do at this
time?
We have tried to answer the question by
gathering information and opinions; seeking out
those whose opinions we have thought worth
while, and whose sources of information are
really of some value. The facts set forth be-
low give in tabloid form the results of the
search.
THE WHOLESALE OPINION
"Courage, Intelligence and Common Sense"
are the qualities which the manufacturers inter-
viewed seem mainly to think necessary at the
present time. There is a general feeling that
the trade is being pulled in two opposing direc-
tions, neither of which leads to any good end.
On the one hand there are the many dealers
who insist upon pooh-poohing all talk about
freight congestion and whose actions, if not
their words, imply that they believe all the talk
about increasing costs of manufacture to be
mere bluff on the part of the manufacturers. On
the other hand, there are those others, equally
wrong, though in a different way, who believe
that the end of everything is here and that the
war is an unhappy and horrible business which
will spoil trade, kill the sale of player-pianos
and generally work all manner of industrial and
commercial evil.
Both are wrong, say the manufacturers. The
facts about the freight situation are simply that
during the fall there is great probability that
the railways will have to handle a much in-
creased load of normal business with only 75
per cent, of their present car equipment; the
remainder being devoted to Government haul-
age, which will have priority, of course. Add to
this present car shortage, which about a
month ago was 100,000 cars, and it will
be understood that those who delay order-
ing till the last moment will not get their
goods. Therefore it is obvious that the in-
junction, "Order early," which the manu-
facturers are now so busily engaged in preach-
ing to their retailers, is not a scheme or an
alarm; it is a plain fact and the railway man-
agers are themselves admitting it.
But will there be a good business this fall
anyway? The answer is, There will! The com-
mercial agencies, the great banks, the great
wholesale houses, alike unite in reporting the
outlook for fall business to be splendid. And as
for the question of prices, it is the unanimous
opinion that another rise in wholesale quotations
is inevitable by winter; for the cost of supplies
continues to increase steadily, and it is even
impossible to obtain, for delivery promptly, cer-
tain supplies at all. In a word, the question is
between price and quality. If the present quali-
ties are to be maintained—and not a manufac-
turer is willing to compromise here—then the
prices to the dealer must be put up.
As for the dealer himself, the manufacturers
seem to think that he ought to anticipate so
lively a business this fall and winter that, if he
will but take the trouble to order early and go
after his prospects jenergetically, the question
of increasing prices will not bother him. It is
the unanimous belief that the workers will have
more money to spend this Christmas than ever
before.
Courage, Intelligence and Common Sense!
THE RETAIL THOUGHT
Dealers who have any real importance in the
trade certainly are not pessimistic, judging by
the recently gathered remarks which we are now
analyzing. There is no doubt that some of the
small-town men were at first badly frightened
at the entrance of the U. S. A. into the war.
But investigation shows that in every instance
these men had either been seduced into reading
un-American literature published in this country
for the enemy's benefit; or else have been of the
kind that gets frightened whenever anything is
done in the least out of the ordinary routine.
But it may safely be said that only an insignifi-
cant minority is thus affected.
The vast majority of retailers in our trade are
patriotic citizens who are backing their Govern-
ment for all they are worth. Their only request
is that they know just what is the right and
proper thing to do. When this is told them
authoritatively they will lose little time in
worrying about whether things are going this
way or that way during the coming months.
Serene confidence in their country and in them-
selves is the mental position of the important
retailers.
On the question of early ordering, it is diffi-
cult to obtain definite information. There is a
rather general inclination to postpone the in-
evitable, which is to be regretted. One feels
that the warnings put forth by the freight bureau
of the Piano Manufacturers' Association have
not been taken at their face value by everybody.
This also is a pity. Yet, several of those whose
opinions are distilled here feel very acutely the
necessity for being prompt in respect of orders
for fall and winter; and are beginning to esti-
mate their likely wants with this end in view.
It is undoubtedly most important that this feel-
ing should permeate through the consciousness
of the entire retail trade as rapidly as possible;
and anything that the associations can do to
back up the freight bureau's plea should at once
be done.
Dealers have the duty, so one gathers, of
working from now onward with real intelligence
and persistence, to bring the public mind into
harmony with those feelings of confidence and
serenity which are now so abundantly justified.
No one can see the dark side of the music busi-
ness better than the dealer, but the fact does
remain that the purchasing power of the public
was never so great as it is this moment. And
it should further be remembered that the player-
piano has not yet been so adequately exploited
that it is a back number, or less than a novelty,
to a vast number of the war-wage workers.
There are always, of course, those who do not
like music, but the ordinary citizen does like to
have a piano in his house or flat; and the influ-
ence of his family is usually enough to persuade
him even if he himself does not care.
It is plain that dealers are anticipating a good
business in player-pianos this fall, but it is. not
so plain that all or most of them understand
that the old game of cut prices is really a dying
issue in these days. With wholesale prices
mounting, it is obvious that the sales must be
made on some other plea than price and terms.
Perhaps no present issue is so vitally important
to the rank and file of the dealers as this. A
hopeful sign is that retailers are beginning to
perceive this.
If all player-pianos give the general satisfaction that the
WILFRED PLAYER PIANO
produces in its remarkable simplified form, then both dealers and manufacturers are
to be congratulated on the progress made in player quality.
Have you sounded Wilfred Player Piano simplicity? If not, we will be pleased
to have your inquiry.
WILFRED PIANO CO.
Whitlock Ave. at 156th St.
NEW YORK CITY