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THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
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p
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NEW YORK, JANUARY 5, 1918
EDITORIAL
T
HE nationalization of American railroads, for at least the
duration of. the war, which became an actuality last Friday
at noon, marks a new era in the commercial history of the United
States. The change was automatic and tmobservable on the sur-
face, for trains arrived and departed, passengers and freight were
transported, but all these activities were under the direction of the
Government, as they will be for some time to come.
The supreme authority, as general director of the railroads, is
in the hands of Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo, who is
credited with a very broad conception of America's transporta-
tion problems. He sees the country's railroad lines as a single
system, with separate trackage and terminals eliminated, with
every car marked "U. S.," whatever the label on its side. He
believes that the congestion that has occurred, and the obstacles
that have proved insuperable to private management, are inherent
to the railroad system of the nation with ks competitive features
enforced by law, rather than attributable to incompetent han-
dling.
Traffic pooling will be introduced and profits will no longer
be considered as separate; the entire transportation system of
the nation will be co-ordinated as a single whole. This, of course,
will take time, and no radical action will be taken by Secretary
McAdoo until he is sure of his ground.
Secretary McAdoo's task is of great magnitude and difficulty,
and in a statement issued a few days ago he has asked for the
co-operation and assistance of every good citizen in this great
work. He said: "The question of the railroads as a thoroughly
unified system is of fundamental importance to the success of the
war. Without it we cannot get the effective use of our resources.
The supreme test in this war will probably come in the year 1918.
Victory will depend upon our speed and efficiency. We can get
neither speed nor efficiency unless the railroads are equal to the
demands of the situation."
The business men of the nation will watch with the keenest
interest the development of the railroads under governmental
REVIEW
JANUARY 5, 1918
control, and it is hoped that a broad policy will be adopted
whereby freight shipments outside of war necessities will be
given fair consideration to the end that the legitimate business
of the country may not suffer hardships or be unnecessarily cur-
tailed.
As directing head of the nation's railroads, Secretary
McAdoo will have control of 250,000 miles of railroads with
twenty billions of capital. He will have also in his service rail-
road men of experience and great ability, who have served the
interests of the country so well for many years, and these men
will without question bend their every energy towards aiding Sec-
retary McAdoo in his attempt to serve the transportation needs of
the country efficiently and well.
A
MOST timely message of optimism was delivered by Geo.
W. Gittins, president of the New York Piano Manufac-
turers' Association, at the year-end luncheon last week. Mr. Git-
tins did not base his prophecy of future security for the trade
upon personal imagination, but was able to offer convincing
arguments to prove that there were factors in the situation that
should tend to encourage rather than depress the piano men. His
most striking point, perhaps, was that which emphasized the
prosperity of the nation as a whole, owing to the fact that the
income from crops alone, irrespective of the income from manu-
factured products, was estimated as being in excess of even the
great war expenditures.
The necessity for the manufacturer having accurate knowl-
edge of the costs of his business has been hammered home time
and time again, but apparently has made very little impression
upon some members of the trade. Mr. Gittins did well to bring
up the question again, and his claim that at least 90 per cent, of
the manufacturers did not know what it was costing them to do
business should at least encourage some serious thought on that
highly important subject.
T
HE war is awakening many of our manufacturers to a fuller
realization of the importance of industrial efficiency. There are
factories—many of them in the music trade field, too—that have
not been or are not now being worked to their real capacity.
Meanwhile there is a tendency to enlarge manufacturing plants
without properly appreciating their full productive resources at
present. In this connection a piano manufacturer the other day
in chatting with The Review stated that he was able to secure
results in production from his regular plant that were simply
amazing by organizing his working forces into two shifts a day.
This policy was not haphazard but definitely developed, with the
result that with his regular equipment this manufacturer increased
his output to an extent that was surprising, and at a comparatively
small increase in expense for night work, as compared with the
increased cost or fixed charges that would result from the erec-
tion of a new building.
It is a question whether all of our manufacturers have given
serious attention to factory efficiency. It is a big field for study
—a big opportunity for the saving of money—for there is consid-
erable "lost motion" in the production end of the industry to-day.
A well known engineer who is an expert in industrial prac-
tice has recently gone on record with the opinion that the industries
of the United States on an average are not realizing over 20 per
cent, of their possible capacity.
This is a startling statement. If it is true we have enough pro-
ductive capacity unused to radically change the living conditions of
our people, and it has been pointed out that the amount involved in
our wage controversies is insignificant in comparison. The war
debts would cease to be a problem if these savings could be realized,
and capital for revolutionary developments in industry would be
quickly available. He says that we have scarcely begun to appre-
ciate the gains that are possible under more effective organization.
Comparing the United States and Germany, he says:
"During a visit of a body of engineers to Germany in the
summer of 1913, to study the industrial conditions in that country,
many of us were convinced that not only was the individual efficiency
of the American greater than that of the German, but in many cases
the amount of work produced per dollar of wages paid to the
American workman was even greater, although the wage rate in
this country was at least 30 per cent, higher than that in Germany.
"In spite of this, the collective or co-operative efficiency of the