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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
i
REVIffl
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
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regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
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Vol. LXXV
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 2, 1922
No. 10
FORESTALLING THE COAL PROBLEM
HE action of Richard W. Lawrence, president of the Music
Industries Chamber of Commerce, in sending a letter to the
Governors of several States which produce musical instruments in
large quantities, setting forth the urgent need of this industry for
adequate coal supplies during the next few months, is unquestion-
ably a protective move in the right direction.
As the coal situation becomes increasingly serious .there will
develop the problem of allotting coal supplies on a priority basis.
The Governors of several States have already appointed fuel ad-
ministrators to take charge of the situation, and there is a strong
probability that the Federal Government will itself establish some
.form of fuel administration as it did during the war period. As
The Review has pointed out on several occasions, the members of
the trade will show wisdom by making preparations to get their
fair share of fuel under any priority rulings that may be put into
effect.
Mr. Lawrence's letter was the first step in that direction and
presents logical arguments in behalf of the industry. The question
is not one of coal for the next year, but of coal for the next few
months, when it is vital that piano plants be kept operating on a fair
basis to keep many manufacturers from facing a most desperate
situation following two years of distinctly subnormal business.
T
PLANNING A PRACTICAL COURSE
NTEREST in the Piano Salesmanship School which will open
I sponsored
in New York on September 11, under the auspices of, and
by, the New York Piano Merchants' Association, has
been materially augmented through the announcement of the
eighteen lecturers who will address the students during nine days
of the school, it being planned to have a lecture and discussion each
morning and afternoon during the course.
A glance at the list of lecturers is gratifying, for it indicates
that the men who have volunteered their services and have been
selected for the work are recognized as among the authorities in
SEPTEMBER 2,
1922
their respective fields. It has been realized in the preparation of the
course that successful salesmanship rests primarily upon an inti-
mate knowledge of the products to be sold, and therefore a good
proportion of the course has been given over to lectures on piano
and player actions and other structural features of the instruments.
The proposal to organize a school for piano salesmen was origi-
nally received with some doubt in many quarters among those who
held to the opinion that a piano salesman was born and not made
and that if he was to receive any instruction it must be as an in-
dividual and in the wareroom itself. As the course has been
mapped out, however, these doubts have been dissipated in a large
measure, for it is realized that there are several subjects offered
which should prove interesting and profitable even to the salesman
who has been in the field for several years.
Certainly the New York Association, particularly the commit-
tee in charge, is to be congratulated for pioneering in a new field
so far as the piano trade is concerned, and the experiment is
worthy of a full measure of success.
BETTER SALESMANSHIP ABROAD
to Julius Klein, Director of the Bureau of For-
A CCORDING
eign and Domestic Commerce, what is very essential in any
organized attempt to build up the export business of the country is
better salesmanship abroad. The practice has been, he declares, to
send abroad men qualified perhaps as linguists, but without a thor-
ough knowledge of the product they were expected to sell or accu-
rate details regarding the field itself and its possibilities.
There is room for the real Yankee salesman in the export
field, and as a rule he is well liked, but the fact remains that he is
regarded as representative of the business interests of his country,
and if he is inefficient it reflects to the disadvantage of American
trade in general.
It is declared, and likely with some truth, that a concern which
would not under any circumstances send out into the trade in the
United States a man who did not possess a thorough knowledge
of its product and its field does not hesitate to send abroad a man
who, while he may be intelligent and of pleasing personality, has
not the detailed knowledge of his products necessary to enable him
to talk with conviction and promote confidence. It is an angle of
the export trade that is worthy of attention.
THE FARMER AS A PIANO PROSPECT
PARKER, a piano salesman of Youngstown, O., who re-
M • ). cently
won a trip to New York, a week's tour of Canadian
Summer resorts and a new outfit of clothes for topping the list in a
recent sales contest conducted by the McMahon Piano Co., ascribes
his success to the fact that he has a full appreciation of the value
of rural trade.
Mr. Parker holds that, under existing conditions particularly,
and for that matter at any time, the average farmer is the best
prospect in the world for a piano sale. As a rule he has the money
available for purchase and pays cash, quite in contrast to the aver-
age city purchaser, and on top of that he has a permanent home
life that makes a piano a desirable acquisition.
The secret of success in selling the farming element, accord-
ing to Mr. Parker, is to treat the farmer with the same courtesy
and respect that is shown the city prospect and not to impress him
with the idea that he is something apart and of a different class
with the city worker. Treat him like a "regular fellow" appears to
be the answer. At least, it won the prize for Mr. Parker.
SCIENTIFIC STUDY COURSES
T
HE announcement that the Forest Products Laboratory, in
Madison, Wis., has arranged for study courses in kiln drying and
gluing of wood, as well as in boxing and crating, is received with
much interest by the piano trade, which has already had occasion
to note the effective work being carried on at that laboratory in
the collection of reliable information regarding the selection and
handling of woods for piano manufacturing.
Courses will be of a distinctly practical nature, and much is to
be gleaned therefrom of definite value to the piano trade as a
whole. There has been up to the present time all too little scien-
tific research in relation to materials that enter into piano making,
and the work of the Forest Products Laboratory is calculated to
overcome this condition.