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THE
MUJ1C TIRADE
VOL.
LXXI. No. 21
T
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyraan Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Nov. 20, 1920
Single Copies 10 Cent*
$2.00 Per Year
HE American Bankers' Association is again solemnly adjuring the people of this country to save, save,
save! Workers of all degrees are being urged to join in a thrift campaign to last three years. Appar-
ently only the barest necessities are to be bought, whilst the money unexpended is to be deposited h\.
savings banks, which, by the way, pay three or four per cent interest.
It is a lovely scheme, but it has its faults. In fact, we shall ask no pardon for saying that if the A. R. A.
has any serious belief that its fantastic scheme is either possible or beneficent there must be something wrong
with the mentalitv of its members.
What, we should like to ask, is the use of idle money? If only the bare necessities are to be bought
what will become of the numerous customers of the banks whose capital is tied up in the outlawed industries?
What becomes of pianos, player-pianos, sheet music and musical instruments? Of course, one can "get along"
without all these; of course, one can get along without nice clothes, without travel, without motor cars, without
books, without anything save bread and sackcloth; but who is to benefit by the whole world thus going short?
Certainly the workers won't benefit.
To-day, when the world cries aloud for every sort of manufactured goods, there are men of some
prominence who are saying, "don't buy!" Business is already feeling the result of all this foolishness. When
we have all ceased to buy anything save bare necessities we shall find three-fourths of all the factories closed,
their workers out of jobs and a state of utter misery prevailing, not in the least relieved by the fact that the
banks will be bursting with money.
No one wants another orgy of extravagance. But between extravagance and the sort of "thrift" which
would stop all buying, and consequently all commerce, there is a great gulf fixed.
What, one wonders, are piano men going to say to this sort of nonsense? Like all business men, piano
makers and merchants are accustomed to consider their bankers gentlemen of grave and thoughtful minds,
who speak only after due reflection and give wise advice when they do open their mouths. But when the
Association which speaks for the body of bankers takes the sort of attitude we have indicated it Is as plain
as a pikestaff that to be. a banker is not necessarily to be a combination of jCroesus, Solomon and Sherlock
Holmes.
Piano men are complaining that piano buying is slow, although there is not the least reason for any
slowing up in demand. There is a shortage in production below what we have come through years of experi-
ence to consider as the normal output. Employment has been steady in all industries and wages extraordinarily
high. The needs of the world for goods of all sorts are more acute than ever. What, then, is the matter?
Why should buying be suddenly slowed up? The answer is simple, and is found in this recent propaganda
against buying.
It is time for the business men of the country to protest. It is time for them to let their voice be
unitedly heard. Surely the financial men ought to be be made to sec that they are only cutting off their noses
to spite their faces. Mere accumulation of specie, currency or other tokens called "money" will be utterly
useless when there are no goods to buy. We cannot all go out on the farms and start in to produce crops. In
Europe to-day several countries are enjoying wonderful crops which they cannot exchange for goods they
need on account of the disturbed state of finance. What we w r ant is not more "saving," but more buying.
And this does not mean extravagance. It simply means the elimination of hoarding.
Let piano men, through their associations, look at these facts simply and clearly. The country does
not need a thrift campaign. It needs more judicious buying. The piano industry is interested, as scarcely any
other can be, in maintaining the buying spirit. Let us make the bankers realize Iliat the advice they are giving
is thoroughly unsound.