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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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Vol. LXXV
NEW YORK, AUGUST 12, 1922
No. 7
THE TARIFF AND THE TRADE
RESENT prospects are that the Tariff Bill, which has been
keeping Congress in more or less of a turmoil for some months
past, will come to a final vote before the end of the month, those
credited with having delayed the measure being willing apparently
to accept a final showdown.
It is to be hoped that after so much delay and argument there
will come an early settlement of the tariff question and that the
threats to hold the measure over until after election as a political
move will not be carried out. The tariff question may not be the
most important before the country to-day, but there is no question but
that it is keeping many business men on the anxious seat and is hold-
ing up other legislation that should receive attention.
The ordinary individual feels perhaps that the Tariff Bill is not
calculated to affect him very seriously one way or another, but it is
bound to have an effect on commodity prices and unlil the definite
duties to be levied against imported products are finally decided upon
the quoting of future prices in many lines of industry will prove a
troublesome question.
The music industry is among those greatly interested in the
outcome of the Tariff Bill. The importers of musical instruments
will not know where they stand until the measure is finally passed,
and those American manufacturers who use foreign materials are
also at sea. It makes the task of planning for the future a difficult
one in many instances.
P
THE PASSING OF A GENIUS
T
HE death last week of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor
of the telephone, who directly and indirectly played an important
part in the developments in the telephone industry during the last
quarter of a century or more, has been widely mourned, even though
the noted inventor and scientist had exceeded the allotted threescore
and ten years of life by nearly six years.
It is given to few men of such genius to live to see the complete
development of their work and ideas, but Dr. Bell was fortunate
in living to see his telephone develop to a point where it may be
AUGUST
12,
192-2
said to be one of the main props of modern business, bringing the
far ends of the continent within a radius of seconds so far as vocal
communication is concerned. Business without the telephone to-day
would lapse into a state of chaos until radical readjustments could be
made, and it can, therefore, be said that modern business develop-
ment is due in a large measure to the genius of one man—Dr. Bell.
Although Dr. Alexander Bell does not figure as one of the
inventors in the talking machine field, he was closely associated with
his brother, Dr. Chichester A. Bell, in the development of the Bell
and Taintor inventions which made possible the utilization of the
idea of the graphophone, or phonograph, record on a commercial
basis. This invention had to do with the old type of cylinder records,
but, nevertheless, made possible the early development of the talking
machine trade, making the public familiar with its possibilities and
putting it in a frame of mind to receive and appreciate the more
perfect types of talking machines and records which are in com-
mon use to-day.
In every field of endeavor there stand forth individuals who
are to be credited with much of the success realized by a particular
industry. The music trade cannot claim Dr. Bell as its own, but
there are those who have, perhaps, in a more humble way, played
their part quite as successfully in advancing the art and commerce
of music.
MUSIC AND PUBLIC EXPOSITIONS
A
T the Pageant of Progress now coming to a close in Chicago,
and which attracted wide attention throughout the Middle West,
music and exhibits of musical instruments have been strongly in
evidence. In Milwaukee the members of the local music trade are
making elaborate preparations for organized participation in the
annual food and household exposition a month or so hence. In
Toronto the members of the Canadian trade are completing plans
to have elaborate exhibits at the annual exposition in that city, and
so it goes.
The increasing participation of members of the music industry
in local fairs and exhibitions of various sorts is a matter for con-
gratulation because such participation is calculated to impress the
public with the standing and importance of the industry and to estab-
lish its place among the businesses of the country rather than as
something apart and unimportant.
As in every other form of publicity, the arrangement of fair
exhibits cannot be handled in a haphazard manner, and with cheap-
ness as the goal. If the display is worth anything at all it is worth
the expenditure of enough money to insure its attracting sufficient
attention to make it a paying proposition.
When the mountain wouldn't come to Mohammed Mohammed
went to the mountain, which indicated that he had some recognition
of the principles of salesmanship. The local fair, even if it is only
one of the county variety, offers to the music merchant an oppor-
tunity for bringing the products he handles before that portion of
the public which will not under ordinary circumstances visit his
warerooms for purposes of inspection.
DECREASING UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE TRADE
T
H E rapid decrease in unemployment reported from various sec-
tions of the country is to be hailed with delight by merchants gen-
erally, including dealers in musical instruments, for the situation is
calculated to prove of direct benefit, not alone through adding to the
role of possible purchasers of musical instruments, but in bringing
collections back to normal.
Figures given in various localities indicate that the number of
unemployed is no larger than that registered during periods described
as normal, and this is encouraging. The various strikes, of course,
are having some effect upon business, more serious in some localities
than in others, but the total number of men out of work through such
strikes is small in comparison with the employment rolls of the coun-
try and the condition they are in may be considered merely tem-
porary.
One fortunate thing about the lowering of the unemployment
figures is the removal of statements regarding widespread unemploy-
ment from the front pages of newspapers, for it has been proven
by experience that constant harping on the subject, while calculated
to do little good to the individual in need of a job, at the same time
serves to undermine the confidence of the man who is working, but
who begins to wonder just how long he will be kept at it.