Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
VOL. LXVIII. No. 18
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Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
May 3, 1919
OMING at a time when the export trade and its possibilities are receiving so much consideration in this
and other industries, the sessions of the National Foreign Council held in Chicago last week with the
attendant discussions developed therein, were, or should be, of distinct interest to every piano manu-
facturer, whether or not he contemplates going after export trade. It is understood that several
members of the piano trade attended some of the sessions, and it might have been well for the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce, or at least the National Piano Manufacturers' Association, to have been represented there
officially, in order to gather and bring before the trade the vast amount of important and valuable information
presented before the Council by experts in their respective fields.
The fact most strongly emphasized during the sessions of the Foreign Trade Council was that American
manufacturers cannot expect to go after export trade successfully, unless they have made a study of the existing
conditions and have made preparations to take up the question earnestly. The point likewise was emphasized
that, despite the declarations of the overoptimistic to the contrary, European competition is not a dead issue.
It is alive, aggressive, and steadily getting stronger as the effects of the war are being overcome. This means
that American manufacturers cannot simply wait for export business to drop into their laps on the theory that it
must come to them, but that they are under the necessity of going after this business in the face of competing
interests—interests which, in many cases, have had wider experience in foreign fields and must, therefore, be
reckoned with seriously.
The general opinion seems to be, however, that American business methods will win out if intelligence is
used in their application, provided manufacturing costs are reduced systematically and efficiently to a point where
they will compare favorably with the costs of competing interests. The first thing to do, however, is to over-
come the injurious and extravagant habits and customs that have found their way into business during the excite-
ment and unsettled conditions of war times.
As to business methods, there is some encouragement held out to those who believe that our own business
systems are sufficiently elastic to permit of their being followed in the export field. As one speaker said during
the session of the Council: "In my opinion there is very little difference between the basic principles necessary to
develop foreign trade and the methods commonly used in the successful development of our home business. The
elaborate training for foreign trade is much discussed, but 1 believe the salesman with the lowest selling cost and
better quality of goods, speaking good plain American English, and possessed of average American honesty and
intelligence, will in the end book more orders than the man who wastes his time and his company's money aping
foreign habits, customs and peculiarities."
The latitude given under the new Webb Act for the formation of combinations of manufacturers in order
to conduct an export business consistently and economically was carefully explained at the sessions in Chicago,
as was the question of foreign exchange. In the latter connection it was stated that until other exchanges are
established it would be well for the exporter to make his quotations on the American dollar basis. This is
significant, and it indicates that the dollar has become the world standard of money values and is to be accepted
as such until such time as some new basis is established. This fact in itself should prove a decided advantage to
our manufacturers in gaining and holding foreign business.
Then there is the matter of acceptances, of technical training, of studying foreign habits and customs, an
understanding of all which is necessary to avoid pitfalls that may prove expensive. In short, the export field is
open. It offers big opportunities. To these facts all agree, but to secure the full advantage of foreign trade
genuine study and effort must be put forth by the manufacturer. Like everything else worth having, it must
be worked for.
C
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