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APRIL 30,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1921
THE CHICAGO CONVENTIONS—(Continued from page 3)
The important event of Convention Week will, of course, be
the meeting of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, the
first general meeting of this organization since February, 1920.
During the months that have intervened the Chamber has developed
and broadened out in keeping with the ambitious program laid down
for it at the New York conventions. There are some who have held
that the program was too ambitious, but nevertheless it must be
admitted that the Chamber has accomplished a real work in solidify-
ing the industry, bringing the various divisions into one common fold,
that has proven a strong factor both for offensive and defensive
purposes. This work has cost money—much money—but most of
the expenditure has been along lines calculated to prove of direct
and immediate benefit to the industry, such as on the music advance-
ment campaign and in the handling of legislative matters, particu-
larly the Federal tax situation. Conditions at various times have
forced a change in plans. It was found inadvisable, for instance, to
continue the work of the Export Bureau on the extensive scale orig-
inally thought out. Nor was it considered feasible in the face of the
existing situation to enter deeply into the dealers' service campaign.
The Development of the Chamber
The members of the industry at large will have the opportunity
in Chicago of considering in detail the report of the Chamber's
accomplishments, and to consider just how these accomplishments
have measured up to expectations. Certain it is that this big central
body has been developed from what was little more than an idea
into a strong, progressive, and at times militant organization—an
organization that has won for itself a definite place among the in-
dustrial bodies of the country and has succeeded in welding the
industry into a common whole.
The convention delegates will be called upon to consider and
act upon proposed amendments to the by-laws of the Chamber,
designed to enable that body to meet existing conditions and to work
more efficiently and in a sense more economically. These new by-
laws have back of them the results of actual experience in Chamber
work, and are to supersede by-laws drafted in a large degree on a
theoretical basis when there was no established precedent to furnish
a guide.
It would seem th£t many individual members of the industry
might with profit to themselves enjoy a more thorough understand-
ing of what the Chamber was designed to accomplish and what it
has accomplished. That it has succeeded in bringing into its service
some of the brightest minds in the industry is a fact well evidenced
only recently by the comprehensive report of the Legal Committee
upon which the tax fight of the Chamber and the industry have
been based. Men of that type do not lend their time and energy to
schemes of little or no merit.
The phase of the Chamber's work with which the average trade
member, particularly the retailer, is most familiar, excepting, of
course, the work of the Legal Bureau, especially when a tax fight
is on, is the carrying on of the music advancement campaign under
the auspices of the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music.
This Bureau in innumerable ways has given proof of the wide and
successful character of its work, and in many cases has brought
home its importance and usefulness with much force to the indi-
vidual dealer.
The Advancement
of Music
There is a distinct sentiment toward having the National Bureau
for the Advancement of Music considered a thing apart, not because
it hasn't functioned properly under the direct Chamber auspices, but
because there has developed an apparent danger of the work of the
Bureau being regarded in the light of commercialism when asso-
ciated too closely with the work of a distinct trade body. A New
York newspaper some time ago, commenting editorially upon this
association, referred rather sarcastically to the "wedding of art and
commerce." It is certain that some interesting developments may
be expected at the Chicago convention as a result of this sentiment..
President R. B. Aldcroftt, of the Chamber, in his pre-conven-
tion message, emphasizes most particularly that the delegates should
go to Chicago in the spirit of organization, and with a full realiza-
tion of the fact that the real strength of the industry, both for
defense and for accomplishment, lies in the development and main-
tenance of an organization representative of the industry as a whole.
The suggestion is pertinent and should receive the consideration it
deserves.
The fact that the interests of the various divisions of the trade
are closely interwoven, and that the success and efficiency of any
one division has a distinct bearing on the success of the others, has
been strongly emphasized of late. The fact that the retailer does
not buy these goods direct from the supply man does not change the
fact that the relationship between the supply man and the manufac-
turer has a direct bearing upon what the retailer pays for his goods
and what sort of goods he gets. Likewise, if the retailer cannot
solve his merchandising problems it means a cutting down in the
demand for supplies. In short, there is an interlocking of interests
that cannot be denied. The function of the Chamber of Commerce
is primarily to see to it that these various interests are brought to
a mutual understanding for the benefit of the industry as a whole.
The Merchants'
Program
Next to the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce the most
important event of the week is without doubt the annual convention
of the National Association of Music Merchants, for, representing
the distributing branch of the industry, the members of this Associa-
tion are responsible for keeping products moving from the factory
into the home.
To list the accomplishments of the Music Merchants' Associa-
tion since its last convention is a rather difficult task because that
body has worked in close association with the Chamber of Com-
merce and has transferred to that body a number of its activities, in
particular the handling of the Better Business Bureau. At the con-
vention, however, the National Association of Music Merchants
must and will assert its individuality, for there will come up for con-
sideration many matters of direct and distinct interest to the retailer.
These are the days when the music merchant is looking for ideas
and needs them. His merchandising problems are piling up thick
and fast and they are problems that he, himself, or his fellow re-
tailers must solve directly.
President Hamilton of the Association and those associated
with him in the preparation of the program long ago realized the
necessity for the presentation of constructive and practical ideas at
the convention sessions, and have worked along the lines of pro-
viding such ideas in profusion. The men who halve been invited to
speak at the various sessions are men selected for their intimate
knowledge of the merchandising problems of the music merchant,
and for the most part are specialists in one or another line, for it is
appreciated that expert information on the conduct of the talking
machine, musical merchandise, music roll and sheet music depart-
ments is quite as essential to the modern music merchant as are
discourses on piano selling. In short, the problem is that of mer-
chandising all lines profitably rather than that of selling only one line.
At the last convention the problem was one of getting a suffi-
cient quantity of goods from the factory and of selling such goods
profitably and on proper terms in the face of a rising market. Then
the question was one of supply and finance, rather than of selling.
To-day the situation is reversed. Supplies of goods are plentiful—
exceedingly so, in fact—and the retailers are called upon to move
this liberal output with profit to themselves and the manufacturer,
in the face of a public disinclination to buy, and a general falling
market. It has been a long time since the members of the National
Association of Music Merchants have had so great an opportunity
for the earnest and beneficial consideration of their problems as at
the present time. It is to be hoped that this consideration will result
in some helpful solution.
Problems for the Supply Men
The Musical Supply Association of the United States, as at
present constituted, will hold its first annual convention in Chicago,
and there are enough subjects slated for consideration to make that
meeting a notable one. This Association is to consider first of all
the matter of credit, and this is a subject that is of far-reaching
importance, for the credit practices of the supply man have been
blamed many times in the past for many of the evils of the industry,
for it has been argued that were the supply men more watchful in
(Continued on page 7)