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MUSIC Tiyy)E
ESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
Linking Up Patriotism and the Retailing of Pianos
The Piano Man Who Preaches the Necessity of Spending Wisely as Well as
Saving Wisely Will Find That He Will Have All the Customers He Desires
present moment, when the national campaign for a
A T new the proof
of our national patriotism and determination in
the shape of the third Liberty Loan, is occupying so much of
the energies and interest of all, the piano dealer might be par-
doned for supposing that public interest in piano buying is
likely to be sluggish. But this does not mean aught save a very
temporary situation. The money which the Government collects
from its citizens this week it begins to give back to them next
week in the shape of orders for material and munitions. The
enormously large class of creditors which the Government is
creating is a class which heretofore, to an enormously large ex-
tent, has never invested in Government securities and has never
been bound directly to the Government by any real tie. This
class is learning not only to save its money but to conserve its
self-respect. In another way, too, the thousands and thousands
of men and women who are buying Liberty Bonds are actually
promoting the interests of the piano dealer, even though they
may for the moment refrain from buying pianos. For these
people are buying Liberty Bonds only because they are learning
to save their money. They are learning to save it because they
have it to save. They have it therefore to spend also; and that
means that they will begin to demand the things they have
hitherto been unable to aspire to.
Those who know the truth of the matter know well that
the piano trade need not suffer from any amount of Govern-
ment borrowing, for so long as the Government is spending
the money right at home, that money is coming back into the
pockets of the people as fast as it goes out. The peoples of the
European countries who have put their hands into their pockets
five, six and seven times to take up war loans have nevertheless
continued to purchase musical instruments and all sorts of other
needs of civilized life and have done so without suffering in the
least from any national financial weakness as a result of this
"extravagance."
The problem we have before us is mainly one of education.
The newspapers of the country have a heavy responsibility. One
year ago, when this nation entered into the war with the Central
Powers, the newspapers raised cries of economy that were so
ridiculous as to bring their own condemnation with them. If
the peqple had at that time taken the newspapers' advice, there
would have been an end to the very industry that must be relied
on to keep the nation going and to finance the war. Ignorant
of the real meaning and vital importance of industry, the news-
papers simply did a lot of ignorant mischief. Nor have the echoes
of this silly outcry altogether died away.
It is up to us in the piano business to study carefully the
selling situation as it is affected by the participation of our coun-
try in the war. We have to realize that, in the first place, the
mere existence of war in itself has a certain somewhat depressing
effect on weak-minded people, of whom there are always many.
We must also realize that the sinister influences which are cease-
lessly at work to deliver us over to the Hun, find a most valuable
aid and abettor in these same easily influenced people, and that
rumors of disaster, tales calculated to discourage and alarm,
exaggerated accounts of the enemy's success, and minimization
of his defeats, are doing the enemy's work quite as effectively as
the same is done by the professional espionage operator. It
should be our business therefore, before and above all, to set
our faces like flint against discouragement, against timidity,
against lack of confidence, and to insist to each and every cus-
tomer, to each and every prospect, to each and every business
associate, that the paramount duty of the American citizen and
his wife is to "carry on" cheerfully and confidently. Victory is
to the right, no matter what the pro-German, the traitor who
calls himself an American citizen or the American Bolshevik
who cares for nothing so long as his own purse be filled and his
own skin safe, may whimper or whine or insinuate to the con-
trary. The Allied nations are winning but they need the cour-
age and confidence of nations behind them. Therefore they
need to know that their countrymen at home are "carrying on."
To the extent that we can educate our communities into
believing in themselves and in their country in the hour of trial,
shall we clear away from our business path the most mischievous
of those obstacles which stand between us and the good of our
own industry. In these days of high prices for labor and large
profits for the manufacturer of anything and everything that the
Government can use in this war, it is extremely illogical, with
the example of England before us, to suppose that there will not
be an excellent demand for all the pianos and player-pianos we
can put on our floors. Our main trouble this year is much more
likely to be in getting the goods to sell. There is not the slightest
reason for us to be discouraged. On the contrary, we ought to
sell, at better prices than ever, as many pianos and player-pianos
as we can get hold of; and then have a waiting list as well.
Every thinking retailer will tell that there is a surprising
demand for miniature grands of popular price and for player-
pianos at fair prices. Push the grand and push the player-piano
for all you are worth. These are the instruments that will sell
during 1918 better than all others put together. Why? Because
the folks have money, and if you don't scare them off with a
doleful face, but go after them, and preach the necessity for
spending wisely as well as for saving wisely, they will come as
fast as you can handle them. They want the goods; but they
are like the coy maiden whose lips you once tried to kiss. The
maiden pretended she wouldn't have it; but she only wanted to
be persuaded.
This should be our text: "Save, and support your Govern-
ment. Spend and support your Government, just as well. If
you won't buy from the other fellow, the other fellow cannot
buy from you. If neither of you can sell, neither of you can
make money to put into Government bonds. If you want to sell
your labor, and the other chap cannot buy it because your neigh-
bors won't buy his goods, then where are you and how can you
buy Liberty Bonds anyhow? Save! Sure; but also spend. It
is a patriotic duty to keep industry going. It is also a pleasure;
when you have a fine piano a.s tfre result, Save! Spend!"