Music Trade Review

Issue: 1918 Vol. 66 N. 19

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President, J. B. Spillane,
373 Fourth Ave., New York: Second Vice-President, J. Raymond Bill, 373 Fourth Ave.,
New York; Secretary and Treasurer, August J. Timpe, 373 Fourth Ave., New York.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
J. RAYMOND BILL, Associate Editor
AUGUST J. TIMPE
Business Manager
Executive and Reportorlal Staif:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, CARLETON CHACE, L. M. ROBINSON, WILSON D. BUSH, V. D. WALSH,
WM. BRAID WHITE (Technical Editor), E. B. MUNCH, A. J. NICKLIN, L. E. BOWERS
BOSTON OFFICE J ,
CHICAGO OFFICE:
IOHN H. WILSOM, 324 Washington St. E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, Republic Building,
Telephone, Main 6950.
209 So. State St. Telephone, Wabash 5774.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., D. C.
NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN T H E LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
MAY 11, 1918
fault in his payments, after paying twelve instalments, and the
piano is repossessed in 1919, the dealer must enter one hundred
eighty dollars on his return for 1919, payable in 1920, as a result
of such repossession. This figure represents the entire amount
of money collected on the instrument ($240) less the sixty dollars
entered in the 1918 report, on which the tax will have already
been paid.
Piano dealers should bear in mind that the percentage of
profit for the tax returns should be figured on the gross selling
price, instead of on the cost. In the example quoted above the
piano dealer really makes a gross profit of 33 1/3 per cent. ($100
profit on $300 cost), but the percentage to be returned on the
income tax blank is only 25 per cent. ($100 on $400 selling price).
The ruling is in no sense complex, but piano dealers should keep
a careful account of all their instalment collections during the
year, so that they will have accurate figures on which to base
their returns in 1919.
HE union of music and patriotism and its power in moving
T
men and nations to great accomplishments was emphasized
very eloquently by James M. Beck, the distinguished publicist,
at the great Liberty Loan Rally of the Allied Music Trades in
New York on Tuesday of last week. It was a tribute well de-
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $5.00.
served,
for the important part that music has played in human
ADVERTISEMENTS, $4.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages, $130.
evolution
and progress is such that there is ample truth in the
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill, Inc.
statement oft expressed in these columns, that music is not a
. n J
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
luxury, but a necessity.
alia
of a technical nature relating g to the tuning,
t j ons
li
d repairing
ii
i
d player-pianos
l
i g,
r i a n a r t n i a n t e regulating
and
of f pianos
and
When a member of the music trade makes a statement like
U e p a r t m e i l t S a r e dealt with, will be found in another section of
this paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concern-
the
foregoing
it is viewed from a purely selfish standpoint, hence
ing which will be cheerfully given upon request.
the value of the utterances of great men of the nation, who are
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
nowadays recognizing, as never before, that in times of stress
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma.. .Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal.... S t Louis Exposition, 1904
and of great crises music is the great stimulator and controller
Gold Medal..Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
of emotions. It opens up the great spiritual side of mankind,
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 6982—6983 MADISON 8Q.
and helps to eradicate the purely selfish conception of one's duty
Connecting- all Departments
Cable address: "Elblll, New York."
to his fellow-man and to the nation.
The other day the New York Sun had a short editorial which
NEW YORK, MAY 11, 1918
emphasized most forcibly the power of an ordinary brass band
in getting people together, stimulating them with military ardor
and filling them with an idea of the needs of the hour, of doing
EDITORIAL^
their duty for the country, whether it be in buying Liberty
Bonds or getting recruits. It is a little classic in its way, and
it
is worth reproducing:
HE Allied Music Trades did themselves proud in subscrib-
"It was just before noon when the band struck up on Broad-
ing to, and securing subscriptions for, the Third Liberty
way,
near the Post Office. The sidewalks were well filled with
Loan during the drive which ended last Saturday night. Despite
the
usual
jostling, hurrying, double streams of human traffic,
the uncertain conditions existing regarding the immediate future
each
atom
intent on his personal affairs. The band was just a
of the industry, and the unusual burdens placed on all business
band
;
no
flags,
no companies of uniformed men following it, no
by the war, the Allied Music Trades went "over the top" with
brilliant
uniforms
or dancing horses. It was on its way to do
subscriptions totaling $3,017,200, or 276 per cent, over the sub-
its
noon
time
duty
on the Sub-Treasury steps, but it was not
scriptions of the music industry to the Second Liberty Loan, a
showing
off.
Even
the drum major was as unobtrusive as a
record that does honor to everyone connected with the campaign.
drum
major
can
be.
But it was a very good band.
Special credit is due to those who engineered and participated
"At the first roll of the drums the human traffic thrilled in
in the tremendous rally held at Carnegie Hall last week, when
response. Nobody stopped to watch. The curb remained clear;
subscriptions of over $2,200,000 were recorded. The work of
it was not a parade—nothing much to see. But in a few seconds
the trade in the Liberty Loan campaign furnishes convincing
everybody was marching. Shoulders were straightened, heads
proof of the patriotism of its members and their eagerness to
came up, and what had been a tangled mass subconsciously be-
back up the Government in its time of need
came a marching army; inchoate, ragged in action, but still
marching, everyone, from the stenographer in search of her early
IANO dealers doing an instalment business should familiarize
lunch, the stray imp of an office boy, the hurrying clerk, and
themselves with the ruling handed down last week by Internal
the 'traveling man' from Dayton, O., up to the elderly magnale
Revenue Commissioner Roper regarding the manner in which
in
an anachronistic silk hat and white whiskers, marching, yield-
returns must be made on instalment transactions during this year,
ing
to the spell of the rhythm of other marching feet and the call
on which an income tax will lie due in 1919. The Commissioner
of
martial
music. Perhaps there is an auspicious omen in t-i<-
has ruled that a percentage of each instalment collection, equiva-
incident."
lent to the percentage which the gross profit bears to the gross
contract price, must be entered upon the piano dealer's return as
S a means of promoting closer commercial relations between
income.
the manufacturers of America and buyers from foreign
To use a purely arbitrary example, the tax will work in this
lands, the New York International Exposition of Science, Arts
fashion: A piano costing three hundred dollars wholesale is sold
and Industries, which will be open in the very handsome exhibi-
on the instalment plan for four hundred dollars, the payments
tion grounds at East 177th street, Bronx River, from May 30
running over a period of twenty months. The gross profit on this
sale is one hundred dollars, which is twenty-five per cent, of the to November 1, should prove of tremendous interest to members
of the music trade and to all industries in this country.
gross selling price of four hundred dollars. Tf the piano dealer
collects twelve payments during 1918, of twenty dollars each, he
To-day it is necessary for us to give the closest considera-
must enter twenty-five per cent, of such collections as income on
tion to business after the war, in view of the activity which is
his return, or sixty dollars. Should the customer suddenly de-
now being displayed not only by our allied nations, but by the
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
T
P
A
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MAY
11, 1918
THE MUSIC TRADE
countries with which we are at war, all of whom are planning
for a world-wide industrial campaign.
The Department of Commerce in Washington, and our great
banking institutions are constantly warning the American busi-
ness man to prepare for this struggle, to the end that we not only
hold the foreign trade that practically was forced upon the United
States by reason of war, but also stimulate an expansion that will
furnish cargoes in post bellum days for our rapidly growing mer-
chant marine.
This permanent industrial exposition in the Bronx will do
much to aid in the development of New York's trade and com-
merce during and after the war. when we will have to face
strenuous competition. It is a movement similar to the annual
fairs or markets which have long existed in France and in Ger-
many, and which have attracted business men from all over
the world.
The directors of this New York International Exposition are
entitled to the heartiest support to the end that the success of
this enterprise may be fully assured.
HE music trade industry, and the business world generally,
T
have been feeling buoyant this week over the magnificent
crop report made by the Chamber of Commerce of the United
States through its Committee on Statistics and Standards. In
the forecast made in a report on the condition of winter wheat
issued Monday, the committee points out that we are destined
to have the greatest winter wheat crop since the record-breaking
yield of 1915, a possible 650,000,000 bushels being predicted for
the year, together with a probable increase of 15 per cent, in the
acreage of spring wheat.
This means much, not only for the business of the country,
but for the well-being of our allies. It means that from the
ground we get renewed wealth and food that is much needed,
not only for our own but for the world's needs. Not in many
years was the crop outlook so satisfactory, or was there a larger
acreage planted. There is certainly reason for cheer and opti-
mism in this report.
REVIEW
failures is to show more irregularity in value than in number of
casualties.
"Altogether the showing is as favorable as could be wished
or expected, considering the volume of business doing, the high
levels of prices ruling, the close scrutinizing of credits, the
economies forced by unequal earnings of different classes of
workers, the desire to aid the Government in conserving food
and other necessaries, the enlisting of 1,800,000 men in the war
and the cumulative effect of past bad weather upon distributive
trade. It would seem, in fact, that failures are really at the pos-
sible minimum, and below that if the largely increased number
in business is considered."
It, of course, needs to be recalled that liradstreet's returns
of failures deal in actual recorded instances of loss to creditors
and do not cover voluntary retirements from business, of which
there are said to be many, forced by combinations of circum-
stances mentioned above. There were only 832 failures reported
for the month of April, a decrease of 24 per cent, from April,
1917, and 50 per cent, from April, 1915. This is the smallest
April total recorded since 1907 and the smallest monthly total
in any year since September, 1909.
HE question of increased wholesale piano prices is again
T
coming to the fore, although it is a subject that does not
appeal to the average retailer and is generally evaded by the
manufacturer when possible. The fact remains, however, that
in spite of reduced output, due to conditions in the supply mar-
ket, transportation problems and Government orders, the per-
centage of increase in piano prices during the past couple of
years has been less than practically any other known product
in the United States. In other words, the producing end has
absorbed much of the increased cost of manufacture. Greater
curtailment of output, however, intensifies the manufacturer's
marketing problem. Although able to produce and ship a far
smaller number of pianos and players, he finds his fixed over-
head the same if not growing, and his material expenditures
also on the upward jump. The result is that it is costing more
to turn out every instrument, and in a number of factories this
increase in cost has been absorbed by the manufacturer to a
USINESS mortalities are declining, according to the reports
point
very close to the danger point. It would not be surpris-
of trade authorities, Bradstreet's analysis of April and the
ing
to
see some sharp advances in wholesale piano prices very
first four months of this year showing that business failures were
shortly—not
in the spirit of the profiteer, but in the spirit of
the lowest of the last ten years. "Liabilities for April fail to
self-preservation.
show an equal shrinkage," observes the writer, "but are far from
large, while for the year to date they are smaller than in any
OWEVER strong individually the members of a sales staff
year since 1907. In fact, it is necessary to go back to the early
may be, they seldom, if ever, constitute a unit stronger than
part of the year of the so-called Roosevelt panic to find as all-
around favorable comparisons as are had in the returns for the the executive head of the staff.
month just ended. Comparisons of failures by groups of States
HE dealer who placed his orders early will reap the reward
naturally show shrinkage from like returns to one, two and three
years ago, but in liabilities the influence of a few relatively large
of his foresight at no far distant time.
B
H
T
Do You Want to Expand the Retail Market
For Player^Pianos and Music Rolls?
You can do this by educating the people in your territory to a keener appreciation of the amazing
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Price, $1
THE PLAYER PIANIST
The Player Pianist deals with lucidity and
clearness upon the many problems which from
time to time confront the player-pianist and
player student.
This new volume is designed to afford a
complete and accurate guide to music appre-
ciation, player technic, music roll reading, etc.
This work is the result of many years 1 close
study of the player situation, and is put forth
to meet trie requirements of music lovers who
desire to acquaint themselves with the artistic
possibilities of the player-piano.
The book deals with the elements of music,
of musical form, and incidentally gives a short
sketch of musical history from early times
to the present day.
There are chapters devoted to practical talks
upon the management of the various expres-
sion devices, pedals and tempo levers.
A perusal of the volume will provide the
player-pianist with a complete course of in-
struction in all of the aspects of expressive
and artistic playing.
There are chapters in The Player Pianist
upon practical studies in player interpretation,
illustrated with special drawings made from
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc., Publisher
DISCOUNT TO
THE TRADE
music rolls and designed to show how, step by
step, the interpretation of pieces may be
worked out artistically and satisfactorily.
It is conceded that interest must be main-
tained in the player-piano—that its marvelous
possibilities must be rxplained to purchasers,
and there is no worP put forth in the entire
world—and we say this unqualifiedly—which
wiJl compare with The Player Pianist as a
stimulator and educator.
If you are not perfectly satisfied with the
book after examination, your dollar will be
refunded upon the return of the book. That
is fair, is it not?
373 Fourth Ave., New York

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