Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
SEPTEMBER 17,
1921
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
"1922 Will Reward Fighters"
in the Piano Trade, Says Graul
Our Countrymen Noted for New Ideas and Aggressiveness and the Piano Man
Will Be a Success Who Thinks Out New Ideas to Keep His Trade Alive
William R. Graul, the music mer-
chant of Columbus, O., has had long
and successful business experience in
the piano trade and in declaring be-
fore the convention of the Music Mer-
chants' Association of Ohio in conven-
tion in Columbus this week that "1922
Will Reward Fighters" he is in a posi-
tion to know whereof he speaks.
"Will 1922 Reward Fighters? can be an-
swered YES and NO. The fellow who sits at
his desk thinking hard how to attract customers
to his store by the 'Knock 'em dead' advertise-
ments, giving everything but his store to make
a deal, looking 'Purity' with the 'There's-the-
price—take-it-or-leave-it' air, or, in other words,
forgetting 'BUSINESS' has been on a big drunk
for two years, needs 'sobering up' methods to
get it straightened out and is again back with
the 'hard knocks' staring it in the face, probably
will get along and may survive.
"The fellow who puts aside his Sunday
clothes, gloves and patent leather shoes, and
William R. Graul
dons his old working clothes, starting to work
at the regular hour, forgetting the time and the
clock, ringing door-bells and sticking to them
with the old persistency, 'never-say-die' spirit,
will be on top a-smiling when the smoke of the
present hard times clears up.
"I feel that while 1921 will not be a very
brilliant year, still conditions cannot get much
worse and everything points to a slow but
steady improvement.
"The present fall of prices since the war is
not new in American economic history.
"This is the third time it has happened.
"The first time was during the War of 1812,
when we were really participating in the Euro-
pean struggle. At that time wholesale prices
reached the highest level up to that period.
"They kept dropping for thirty years after
until prices were lower than one-half of what
they were during the previous war.
"After that they began slowly rising for the
next twenty-five years up until the close of the
Civil War, when prices were almost prohibitive.
"For thirty years they again fell until they
reached the lowest point in American history.
"The next twenty-five years brings us up to
the Summer of 1920, which shows us that the
price situation has had an upward tendency for
about twenty years, making history repeat itself
about every thirty to forty years. Nothing new
about that.
"With the rise and fall of prices the business
man going through those periods has to cope
with entirely different methods, for what was
good business tact twenty years ago would not
fit the situation to-day.
"This means new ideas and aggressiveness,
for which our countrymen are noted, and that
is why the wide-awake piano man will be a suc-
cess because he has to think out ideas to keep
his trade alive.
"The shoe merchant, clothing man, grocer,
butcher, etc., know they will get theirs, but the
music man will have to choke his wares down
the customers' throat for a year or so at least.
"What the future holds in store for us no
one knows.
"Some of us are still up in the clouds, not
aware of the necessity of getting down to hard
pan and forgetting about our two years' vaca-
tion and easy time.
"There will be instruments sold as long as the
world keeps going around, and it is up to you
and me to hustle and put them over, even if
we do make some mistakes in our credits.
"I read an editorial in one of our leading
newspapers which fits my subject so well that,
with your indulgence, I will read a part:
"To be sure, we must find the stairs and
walk down them,~instead of riding in a luxurious
elevator, but we can get down, and if we do we
will find business as usual before the war. Thus
we know' that the price and demand for cotton,
one of the chief agricultural products of this
country, have been improving steadily for some
time.
"We know that not only the Russian debacle,
but continued drought in various sections of
Europe, is certainly preparing an improved de-
mand for American agricultural products. We
know that our railroads and highways are in
need of great improvements demanding the em-
ployment of men and the use of vast materials.
We know that our supplies of raw materials
and our natural resources are uninjured by the
war. We have a potential demand, the filling
of which will assure prosperity.
"How, then, can we make use of these possi-
bilities? That is a task for each individual to
answer for himself. .
"The head of one of our largest locomotive
manufacturing companies answered it the other
day, when he found business at a standstill, by
going to Mexico and obtaining an order for
forty-five new locomotives.
"Every business man must do something simi-
lar. He can improve his product, reduce his
cost of production, or find some new appeal to
the public which will keep his business going.
If he runs a delicatessen he can make better
dill pickles than any of his rivals, or keep his
shop cleaner, or give more courteous service,
or improve his method of advertising.
"If he is building a house he can build it
better and cheaper than he has been building
houses and so encourage more building. If he
is running a movie theatre he can study his
audiences and his films and give a show which
will attract more attendance at less cost. If
he is running a factory he can plug up the leaks,
get more power out of a ton of coal, with less
smoke, by proper firing, stop the waste of elec-
tric current, make it worth while for his em-
ployes to give the best service of which they
are capable.
"This is no time to sit back and wail that
the country is going to the dogs. It is a time
for intelligent, courageous, concerted effort.
Without such effort the coming Winter will
be sad indeed for millions. With such effort
it may be sad only for thousands. We need
fighters in business; 1922 will reward them."
"The first touch tells"
The
Christman
Studio Grand
Piano
has played an impor-
tant role in building up
the popularity of the
small grand.
Besides being the first
5-foot grand, its
Superior Quality
and
Great Volume
of Tone
have placed it first in
the estimation of lead-
ing m u s i c i a n s and
pianists throughout the
world.
Christman
Makers of
Grands, Uprights
Players and
Reproducing Pianos
of Quality
"The first touch tells"
(Registered U. S- Pat. Off.)
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St., New York