Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
NOVEMBER 12,
1921
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
KEEPING UP THE TAX FIGHT
FACE THE DESCENDING SCALE
STARTS XMAS CAROLING CAMPAIGN
Members of Industry Urged to Keep in Touch
With Committeemen to Prevent Reinsertion of
Excise Tax in Final Draft of Bill
President of Associated Advertising Clubs of the
World Gives Some Sound Advice at Banquet
Given in His Honor in Milwaukee
National Bureau for Advancement of Music
Sends Leaflet and Letter to 1,100 Newspapers,
Urging Co-operation in Movement
MILWAUKEE, WIS., November 7.—The music trade
was well represented at a banquet given by the
Milwaukee Association of Commerce in honor
of Charles H. Mackintosh, president of the
Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, who
came to Milwaukee as the first stop on a tour of
cities having affiliated'Ad Clubs, to inspect ar-
rangements for the 1922 international conven-
tion, which will be held here June 11 to IS. What
interested the members of the trade most, per-
haps, was the nature of Mr. Mackintosh's ad-
dress in which he struck the keynote of the
next convention. He said in part:
"We are coming to consider business condi-
tions and how to meet them properly in this new
era of business. Records show three big peaks
in our commercial history, with about twenty-
five years between each one. The peak of top
prices invariably was followed by a period of
about twenty-five years of descending prices;
then another quarter of a century of a sharp
upward curve, and so on. Are we facing novr
twenty-five years of descending prices? If we
are, let us not be afraid that this means twenty-
five years of 'hard times.' It cannot mean that.
"But the difference is that many business men,
especially retailers, have for the last twenty-
five years been trained entirely to market and
merchandise on an 'up' market, and they are un-
familiar with doing business on a 'down' market.
Therefore, I feel that the keynote of our deliber-
ations at the Milwaukee Ad Club convention in
1922 is to be: To learn best how to do business
successfully on a descending scale of prices.
"We must all realize that no sale is made until
the goods actually enter the hands of the con-
sumer. There is a difference between moving
goods from one factor to another, as between
manufacturer and jobber, and jobber to retailer,
and making the sale to the user.
"The big point is that the retail clerk is the
last tap from the tank of merchandise. In 55
per cent of cases the clerks break, instead of
make, the sale. It is our job to open up this
last, final tap and make it function 100 per cent.
AMEND CANADIAN INVOICE FORM
We must make advertising mean merchandis-
Amendment Prevents Dumping of Exports Into ing. We must forget that advertising is merely
Canada—Provides for Fair Prices Based on preparation and placing of copy.
"When the biggest retail store in Chicago in-
Production Costs in Country of Origin
stalled a merchandising department to find out
TORONTO, ONT., CANADA, November 7.—Notifica- why Mrs. Jones or Smith quit buying, instead
tion has been received by the Canadian Manu- of merely allowing the collection and credit
facturers' Association of an amended invoice department to forge-t her when she ceased being
form, to be used by exporters sending goods to a customer, I call that advertising and merchan-
Canada. The amendment is so devised as to dising.
"In selling such commodities as a piano or a
take care that the anti-dumping clause of the
Canadian tariff laws are carried out, and that talking machine, an overcoat, a piece of jewelry,
no goods are unloaded on the Canadian market a washing machine, you merchants are not sell-
at less than their fair market value in the country ing goods or service, but use. If we will always
of origin. This has necessitated an amended bear that in mind, your selling problem will be
invoice form by those sending goods into much easier than it is if you are content merely
Canada, and it is stated that the Department of to visualize your goods as goods, standing on
Customs and Excise at Ottawa desires this form your floor or lying on your shelves, to be sold
to be in use uniformly by January 1 of next year. and then forgotten.
"In the case of a modern, high-grade reproduc-
The change in the invoice form to be used by
exporters in other countries is the inclusion of ing piano which is priced at, say, $3,000, rela-
the following" clause in the certificate which the tively few people can see $3,000 worth of value
exporter is required to place on invoices covering in it until a real salesman points out to the
prospective customer that if the instrument will
shipments to Canada:
"That such fair market value is not lower last only thirty years—it really will last much
than the wholesale price of the said goods at the longer than that—the investment is only $100 a
said time and place, and that in the case of new year.
"When we really learn to sell, and sell prop-
or unused goods such fair market value is not
erly,
many of our major troubles will vanish so
less than the actual cost of production of simi-
lar goods at said time and place, plus a reason- quickly that we ourselves will be surprised."
able profit thereon."
Robinson Bros.' Music Store, of Salt Lake
Rodney Martin, manager and owner of the two City, Utah, has been granted permission by the
Martin music stores in Dayton, O., is planning State Securities Commission to increase its capi-
the establishment of a third branch in that city tal by the sale of $50,000 worth of common and
$50,000 worth of preferred stock.
this month.
The National Bureau for the Advancement of
Music fired the first gun in its annual campaign
for the extension of outdoor Christmas caroling
a little earlier this year than last. As a prelimi-
nary step the Bureau published a four-page leaf-
let, giving a summary of its survey made last
Winter on the spread of the movement, sketch-
ing briefly the growth of the custom during the
past few years and indicating the prospects for
this December. The leaflet also listed all the
330 cities in which the Bureau has definite record
that caroling had been held. The caroling in these
cities was almost entirely through the Bureau's
efforts. This leaflet was then sent to 1,100 pa-
pers in all parts of the country with a short letter,
urging them to get back of the movement locally,
and an article on the extension of the custom
as revealed by the Bureau's survey. Those
interested in organizing the singing groups were
offered free copies of the Bureau's booklet,
"Christmas-Eve Caroling Being Revived," con-
taining instructions for procedure.
The Community Service is planning intensive
work for Christmas caroling this year through
its local music organizers, and the Bureau will
co-operate actively.
As a result of the efforts already made a num-
ber of papers in various cities have run articles
on Christmas caroling and many individual re-
quests have come in for information on organ-
izing the singing.
With all taxes on music eliminated from the
Revenue Act of 1921 by the overwhelming vote
of the Senate the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce at once started an intensive campaign
in all States represented by a Senator or a Rep-
resentative, or both, on the Conference Commit-
tee of the Senate and House, to which the bill
probably will go for final action late this week.
The Senators and Representatives who are cer-
tain to be members of the Conference Committee
are: Senators Boies Penrose, Pennsylvania;, Por-
ter J. McCumber, North Dakota, and Reed
Smoot, Utah, and Representatives Joseph W.
Fordney, Michigan; William R. Green, Iowa, and
Nicholas Xongworth. To these may be added
the following: Senators Robert M. La Follette,
Wisconsin; -William P. Dillingham, Vermont;
Furnifold M. Simmons, North Carolina; Andri-
eus A. Jones, New Mexico, and John Sharp Wil-
liams, Mississippi, and Representatives Willis C.
Hawley, Oregon; Allen T. Treadway, Massachu-
setts; James W. Collier, Mississippi; John N.
Garner, Texas, and William A. Oldfield, Ar-
kansas.
Last Saturday afternoon the Chamber sent let-
ters to all members of the industry in every State
certain to be represented on the Conference Com-
mittee. On Monday, when information from
Washington indicated that ten more men, five
Senators and five Representatives, would be
added to the Committee, the Chamber blanketed
the States from which these men come with other
letters.
In each case the members of the trade were
told exactly what the attitude of their Senator
or Representative, or both, is toward the elimina-
tion of the music tax as understood in Wash-
ington and they were urged to act accordingly
and to act quickly.
Where it was evident that the mails would be
too slow to be of service telegrams were sent,
with the request that communication with Wash-
ington be conducted by wire.
FRANK F. STORY COMING EAST
Story & Clark Factory Manager on Trip—A. M.
Chaffe a Visitor—Piano Business Returning to
Safe, Sane Basis, Says G. E. Eucker
Frank F. Story, factory manager of the Story
& Clark Piano Co., with headquarters at the fac-
tory in Chicago, 111., will visit the company's
Eastern headquarters in New York some time
next week, according to George E. Eucker, East-
ern manager of the Story & Clark interests.
A. M. Chaffe, of the firm of Chaffe Bros.,
Story & Clark dealers of Grand Rapids, Mich.,
was a visitor to the New York warerooms of the
company this week.
Mr. Eucker states that business during the
past two weeks has improved considerably and
he expressed the opinion that the piano business
was gradually assuming a more stable aspect.
"The hysteria in the business is gradually passing
away and merchants are no longer cutting prices
beyond all reason in order to make a few sales.
They have, in most cases, come to their senses
and they are conducting their businesses in a
sane, sensible way," said Mr. Eucker.
DOEHLER MADE EXPOSITION OFFICER
President of the Doehler Die Casting Co. Is
Selected as Vice-president of the Brooklyn
Manufacturers' Industrial Exposition
H. H. Doehler, president of the Doehler Die
Casting Co., Brooklyn, N. Y., has been elected
vice-president of the Brooklyn Manufacturers'
Industrial Exposition, which will be held in the
Twenty-third Regiment Armory, that city, during
the week commencing January 14. Mr. Doehler
has been active in similar affairs for many years
and is well qualified to contribute to the success
of the undertaking.
Musical instruments of all kinds will have a
prominent place at the exposition, having been
allotted an entire section on the Armory floor.
All the exhibits in one line of industry will be
grouped, therefore visitors interested in the musi-
cal instrument section will find these exhibits in
close proximity to each other.