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THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President,
[. B. Spillane. 373 Fourth Aye., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
fourth Are., New York; Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAYMOND BILL, B. B. WILSON, Associate Editors
CARLE TON CHACE, Business Manager
Executive and Reportorial Staft:
WILSON D. BUSH, V. D. WALSH, W M . BRAID WHITE (Technical Editor), E. B. MUNCH,
C A. LEONARD, EDWARD LYMAN BILL, A. J. N I C K U N , L. E. BOWERS
BOSTON
OFFICE:
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CHICAGO
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Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered as second-class matter September 10, 1892, at the post office at New York, N. Y.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
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REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill, Inc.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
regulating a n d repairing of pianos and player-pianos
p
are dealt with, will be found in another section of
this paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
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NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 6, 1919
No. 10
AN ADMITTEDLY UNFAIR RULING
HE action of the Internal Revenue Department in reversing its
former decision exempting from war excise taxes musical instru-
ments sold to Boards of Education and public institutions, and
paid for out of public funds, has been received with great regret,
not so much because of the slightly increased financial burden that
has been placed upon the trade, but rather because it is indicative
of the attitude of the revenue officials toward the educational status
of music. Music as an educational force is not a matter of propa-
ganda, but a matter of fact, regarding which no better proof can be
afforded than the schedules of the Board of Education of New
York, for instance, which include pianos and talking machines
as standard articles of supply, to be requisitioned as needed by school
principals and teachers.
All excise taxes on musical instruments have been, and rightly,
condemned as direct taxes on education, whether the instruments
be used in private homes or public institutions. To insist upon
taxes being paid on instruments designed directly for school use is
a move requiring special condemnation. It may be that the Internal
Revenue officials may be persuaded to reverse themselves again and
remove the tax from instruments for public use, but whatever future
action they may take they have already made their real attitude
plain. The officials are credited with stating that they realize the un-
fairness of the ruling, but that their 'hands are tied in the matter.
It would be interesting to know just who had done the tying.
T
SEPTEMBER 6, 1919
ment work of national scope and importance, and to make this work
most effective there must be in the various sections of the country
representatives of a caliber to appreciate what the Association is
doing, and contemplates doing, and with sufficient energy and force
to line up the trade in their respective districts back of the
movement.
In the past there have been found some State Commissioners
who accepted their appointment as an invitation to get out and
hustle in the interests of the Association, while others simply accepted
the appointment as a tribute to their high standing in the industry
and let it go at that, quite frequently not even attempting to attend
the convention and confer with their fellow commissioners. It is to
be hoped that the selections made this year will be so far as is pos-
sible of men who are imbued with the Association spirit, and will-
ing to back up their enthusiasm with effort.
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR MUSIC ADVANCEMENT
OFFICE:
Telephone, Main 6950.
209 So. State St. Telephone, Wabash 5774.
LONDON, ENGLAND:
1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., D. C.
N E W S SERVICE IS S U P P L I E D WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN T H E LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
rJaYcl-
REVIEW
PLEASING and practical application of the music advance-
A
ment idea which has been developed so successfully in and out
of the trade is found in Milwaukee, where plans have been com-
pleted for holding a music festival in conjunction with the Wiscon-
sin State Fair next week. The movement has the support of the
music industry, represented in the Milwaukee and Wisconsin As-
sociations of Music Industries, and although the time has been short
in which to do justice to the opportunity arrangements already made
should serve to impress most forcibly upon the Fair visitors the
dominating position held by music to-day.
For the next month or two there will be held throughout the
country the usual long series of State and County Fairs, and it
will be well for the members of the trade generally to take a leaf
from the book of their Milwaukee representatives, and see to it that
music has proper recognition at such fairs. These annual affairs
attract people who are in a mood to" see, to investigate, and quite
frequently to spend. They go home from the fairs full of enthu-
siasm regarding the new things they have witnessed. If, through
special efforts made in advance, these people go home imbued with
the thought that music is one of the big things in life, more will
have been accomplished than by a full year of spasmodic effort
and scattered publicity.
KEEP PIANO ADVERTISING CLEAN
S has been frequently pointed out in The Review, the value
A
of a piano on the wareroom floor to-day is not the straight
purchase price, but rather the purchase price with increased over-
head expense, war taxes and hundreds of other items added, and
then the relation of these figures with the price that will be de-
manded by the manufacturer to-day for an instrument of the
same type.
There are apparently some piano merchants who do not realize
this fact and who likewise do not realize that in an effort to do an
increased volume of business, simply to make a showing, they are
casting reflection upon the entire retail trade in their vicinity, the
effect of which is going to revert directly to them sooner or later.
Right now there is what is generally called a buyers' market
and in most localities there are more buyers than there are pianos
and players, which would appear to offer strong contradiction to
any arguments for sensational low-priced advertising.
These remarks are superinduced by a perusal of some adver-
tisements which have reached us from Western papers, in which
gross misrepresentations are made regarding the present status
of the piano business. These advertisements lead the public to
believe that pianos can be sold at old-time prices and that they can
be procured in abundance. In other words, they leave the impres-
sion that the piano man who is asking a fair price for his instruments
THE NEED FOR ACTIVE COMMISSIONERS
is not telling the truth.
Questionable advertisements of this kind have the very worst
ITHIN the next few weeks there will be announced the list
possible influence, for they undermine the confidence of the public
of those members of the National Association of Music Mer-
in the members of the industry. Local associations and piano mer-
chants appointed to act as State Commissioners during the present
administration, and it is well that President Conroy and his ad- chants everywhere throughout the country should watch closely
visers have been giving, and are giving, careful thought to the se- for any species of misinformation published in the public press and
bring it to the attention of either their local, State or national asso-
lection of these representatives. There have been great develop-
ciations. The members of the piano trade are not profiteers. They
ments in the trade, and particularly among the merchants, during
are asking a fair, honest price for products that have appreciated
the year, and still further developments 'are promised in the near
tremendously during, and since, the war.
future. The Association has entered into trade and music advance-
W