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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
BLACKMAN PROTESTS FLOOR TAX
WM. MAXWELL AS A PROPHET
Sends Strong Letter to Senate Finance Commit-
tee Pointing Out the Injustice of the Proposed
Floor Tax on Talking Machines
Vice-President of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Has
Predicted the Trend of Events With an Ac-
curacy Which Bespeaks Sound Judgment and
Foresight—Says Great Prosperity Is Coming
J. Newcomb Blackmail, president of the Na-
tional Association of Talking Machine Jobbers,
mailed last week to the members of the Senate
Finance Committee an interesting letter refer-
ring to the proposed sale taxes and floor taxes
on talking machines which are included in the
new revenue bill. In this letter Mr. Blackmail
points out the injustice of these taxes, and he
has also mailed to the Senators and Congress-
men from New York and New Jersey a copy of
this letter. Mr. Blackmail has asked the mem-
bers of the Jobbers' Association to co-operate
with him in this important matter by calling the
attention of their own Senators and Congress-
men to the discriminatory features of these pro-
posed tax laws.
The letter sent to the members of the Finance
Committee reads as follows:
"The talking machine industry considers the
proposed sale tax, in Section 900, and floor tax
ir. Sections 909 and 910, in pending Revenue bill,
unnecessary and unreasonable under present
conditions, and, therefore, unjust and discrim-
inatory.
"Our association, representing through its
membership fully 20,000 talking machine deal-
ers in the United States, appeals to your sense
of fairness, and asks your influence to have these
taxes entirely striken from bill, so that our busi-
ness will have a fair chance to do its full share
in the problems of readjustment.
"A tax on sales discourages and hampers in-
dustry at the source, and in our opinion revenue
is more, effectively obtained by first encouraging
industry, and confining taxes to income and
profits.
"Very truly yours,
"The National Association of Talking Machine
Jobbers,
"(Signed) J. NEWCOMB BLACKMAN,
"President."
FINE NEW QUARTERS IN PORTLAND
Hyatt Talking Machine Co. Now Settled In Fine
New Home In That City
PORTLAND, ORE., December 2.—The Hyatt Talk-
ing Machine Co. are now permanently located
in their handsome new quarters at 350 Adler
street, where no expense has been spared in
making the establishment one of the finest in
the city, if not in the State, devoted exclusively
to the sale of talking machines.
The equipment includes twelve soundproof
booths for the demonstration of machines and
records, all of them arranged with a view to
both general attractiveness and convenience of
both employes and patrons. Ample record
space is provided and the record department
is readily accessible from any of the booths.
The booths are furnished with handsome rugs
and draperies to match and supplied with com-
modious upholstered wicker chairs and tables.
The display rooms have a capacity of about
seventy-five machines.
The Hyatt Co. handle a well diversified line,
including the Victrolas, Edison Diamond Discs,
Edison Amberolas, Grafonolas and Brunswick
phonographs, as well as a large stock of records
for the various types of machines.
COLUMBIA CO. DIVIDEND
The Columbia Graphophone Mfg. Co. has de-
clared its regular quarterly dividend of 1)4 per
cent, on preferred and common stock, payable
January 1 to stock of record December 16.
Thomas A. Edison refers to William Max-
well, Vice-President of Thomas A. Edison, Inc.,
as "quite a prophet." Maxwell himself says,
"I'm a rotten prophet. I doped railroad bonds
for over a year and bought up to my limit a
month before the Russian collapse. C. H. Wil-
son, our general manager, hadn't doped securi-
DECEMBER 7,
1918
now recognize that, if we expect profitable trade
with Europe during the next ten years, we must
learn to invest in all varieties of European se-
curities, and it is predicted that before long
many European stocks and bonds, in addition
to the Government and Municipal bonds now
listed, will be traded in extensively on the New
York Stock Exchange.
Mr. Maxwell also called the turn on the way
the war would end. "The Germans are not
game," he asserted. "This talk about them
fighting to a finish is bunk. When they realize
they can't win, they'll quit like yellow dogs. 1
don't know when the war will end, but the end
will come quickly when it does come, and we
should be prepared for a sudden ending."
At the annual banquet of the Salesmen's Club
in New York some time ago, Mr. Maxwell, who
was the principal speaker of the occasion,
roundly denounced, in defiance of the conven-
tions but much to the delight of his audience,
the views of a previous speaker who was unable
to realize that a nation could wage war whole-
heartedly and at the same time keep the machin-
ery of business in good condition for peace.
Mr. Maxwell, while expressly disclaiming any
powers of prophecy, now predicts a period of
unparalleled prosperity in the phonograph in-
dustry so soon as we have absorbed the shock
of labor's transition from war work to peace
work. He shares Mr. Edison's opinion that the
unfavorable phenomena of this transition period
can be nullified if business men will go ahead
with absolute confidence in the future.
Full steam ahead is the advice of the men who
observe events most closelv.
SELLING FORCE ENLARGED
Manager Tincher, of the talking machine de-
William Maxwell
ties at all, but bought on the break when the partment of the Scott & Hart store, Terre
bad news came. Of course, I didn't lose any- Haute, Ind., has added Mr. Galmoris, formerly
thing except my pride, and everything I bought of the Dennis Music Co., and Mr. Barnhart,
has gone way over the top since the armistice, formerly connected with the Chicago music
but the fact remains that I didn't have any trade, to his corps of assistants.
money to invest when the right time came."
However, in going back over "the dope," as
AN ATTRACTIVE DELIVERY CAR
Mr. Maxwell would probably call it, we find,
in a magazine article appearing shortly after
The accompanying photograph shows a most
the outbreak of the war in 1914, and dealing with attractive delivery car recently put in service
its financial effect on the United States, that he by Edison dealer J. H. Gehring, at Delta, O.
predicted what has come to pass. At that time The car is painted a bright lemon color trimmed
we owed Europe
about $4,000,000,-
000. To-day Eu-
rope owes us in
the neighborhood
of $9,000,000,000.
Mr. Maxwell pre-
dicted in 19 14
t h a t the w a r
would make the
United States the
world's greatest
commercial and
financial power
and that a draft
on New Y o r k
would c o m e to
mean to the com-
mercial w o r l d
what a draft on
London
has
m e a n t for the
past t w o hun-
dred years.
In the same ar-
Edison Delivery Car Used by J. H. Gehring
ticle, which was
widely commented on when published, Mr. Max- with black and attracts a great deal of attention
well stated that the time would arrive when Eu- in its busy activities throughout the neighbor-
rope would invite us to invest in her securities hood. Mr. Gehring claims it is the only car
in exchange for our goods, and that we must be in the county painted anything like it, and that
prepared to do so. Leading banking authorities it "makes fhe people sit up and take notice."