Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 26, 1918
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
11
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D
ESPITE the plenteousness of statements and suggestions in
the newspapers of the land, regarding all manner of evils
that may catch us if we don't watch out, the present state of the
player business, at this beginning- of a New Year, is, all things
considered, very good indeed. It is true that we are all finding
it necessary to work a little harder for a somewhat smaller return ;
but after all, we seem to be getting used to it. What, however,
is coming- to be seen quite plainly is that the player-piano, the
music roll and their various musical allies are at last coming
into their own. The wonderful strides in mechanical and artistic
development that have been taken during the year just past, have
perhaps received less attention than they deserve, on account of
the abnormal conditions that have prevailed in the business world
generally. But those who have taken the trouble to acquaint
themselves with these matters know that the player-piano stands,
in every sort of way, miles further along the road to perfection
than it stood a year ago. We have, no doubt, much cause for
feeling that the heavy hand of war is no respecter of industries;
but we also have now found out that our industry at any rate
is to be regarded in future as one of the producers of necessary
products. Semi-official ravings to the contrary notwithstanding,
we are in a fair way, all things considered, to see a fine year.
HE place of music in the national task of winning the war is
T
a matter concerning which it is extremely easy to utter what
may not ineptly be termed "bunk." But the truth, soberly ex-
pressed, is quite sufficiently strong for our purposes. The fact
is that there is a metaphysical reason for the interest in music
which the civilized people of the world take so especially during
war. War is the expression of the idea of discord leading to de-
struction and death. Music is the best external expression, de-
spite its limitations, of the human realization that the reality is
always true, always good and always present, war or no war.
Of course, a state of technical peace, in which the greed and
hatred of men find full expression, is not a whit better in quality
than one of war. The one is systematic, organized murder; the
other is also murder, wholly as murderous, but lacking the ad-
vantage of system, and therefore relatively inefficient. It was a
fine melody even more than the somewhat crude words, that
inspired the ragged soldiers of Dumouriez when they stood up
against the cannonade of Valmy. It was a fine tune that ani-
mated the boys in blue as they swept down Pennsylvania avenue
on their way to the battle fields of the Wilderness and Win-
chester in the closing days of the great fratricidal strife fifty years
ago. It was a fine tune that animated that little British army, the
"Contemptibles," which in that amazing series of rear-guard
actions between Mons and Ypres, when Potsdam was telling its
soldiery to "walk over" them, withstood German troops at odds
of ten to one, saved Paris and made possible the ultimate winning
of the war by the Allies. All history tells the same story. Good
music is always part of the wartime necessities of civilized
peoples. The tunes of the "Marseillaise," of "John Brown's Body"
and of "Tipperary" are fine tunes, no matter what any dry-as-dust
may say to" the contrary. For that very reason, we of the player
industry are going, during this war, to find ourselves more and
more called upon to do fine, clean work in promoting the use of
the best music and the best instruments, for the production of
music. This is a war of machines. It is more than a coincidence
that the best means for the stimulation and encouragement of the
people during their time of trial should concededly be found in
the music of the modern player-piano and music roll, which many
of its present-day boosters not so long ago were wont to call
sneeringly "mechanical" and "canned."
HE experiences of war time are having, throughout our in-
T
dustry, one decidedly healthy effect. They are doing for
retailers what retailers have never yet, in any large numbers, had
the wisdom to do for themselves. They are, in a word, bringing
home, in a practical and pungent manner, the fallacy of the
"throw r -in" as a trade custom and its potency as a trade evil. In
these columns, for a long time past, we have preached against
the essentially unwise practice of giving away free such costly
articles as music rolls, benches, free-tuning contracts, etc. We
have, indeed, insisted that it is folly to make a player sale without
also including in it the sale of music in sufficient quantity to
assure that the purchaser will not become tired of the music,
that, to the extent of a dozen rolls or so, is given him free, before
he has had time to consider the new player-piano a real part of
his home institutions. It is this dissatisfaction with poorly
chosen music, meager in quantity and any-old-thing in quality,
thrown at the purchaser as something that he needs to go with
the instrument, that more often than not is the cause of com-
plaints directed against the player-piano itself. Common-sense
and business policy agree in thinking this sort of thing equally
stupid and dangerous. There is nothing in it save expense. There
is nothing in it save trouble. There is nothing in it save the fer-
menting ground for a crop of later troubles. Abolish the throw-
ing in! The wan gives us a good excuse for the reform! Let us
insist on including in every sales contract the cost of fifty well-
chosen rolls and an agreement to pay a fair annual price for tun-
ing and service. The figures will worry no one when they arc
tacked on to the main contract and paid as part thereof. The
result will be, at least, elimination of a prolific cause of complaint,
and the conversion of a loss into a profit.
BE PREPARED!
Many thousands of player-pianos and hundreds of thousands of player-
piano rolls were sold during the holiday season. Therefore, the
demand for music roll cabinets during January and February will be
immense. Be prepared to "Do Your Bit" in taking care of the
demand. Have a full line of our samples on your floor.
Salter Cabinets are Superior. They are the result of 40 years of
manufacturing experience.
SEND FOR CATALOG NOW
SALTER MFG.
19M:*"-'I Mr- Capil<-H.V
o v e r KO p l n y e r roll**.
339-349 N. Oakley Boulevard
CO.
CHICAGO, ILL.