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APRIL 28, 1923
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Intelligence and Player Exploitation
Army Psychological Tests During the Period of the War and Their Relation to the Merchandising Campaigns
Behind the Reproducing and the Player-Piano—Markets Limited Through Mental Ability
of Prospects—The Lesson for the Dealers and the Manufacturers
The automatic expression player-piano in all
its forms is generating some unanticipated
changes in the methods of the music industries.
The reproducing piano, which is, of course, the
highest embodiment of automatic expression, is
giving rise to sales problems of an entirely novel
kind, and in turn to solutions of those problems
which in many ways are as novel as they are
interesting. In fact, the reproducing piano is
re-orienting all the ideas of the trade with re-
spect to the sale of musical instruments. It is
showing new possibilities and indicating with
irresistible force the logical direction in which
all sales efforts should be made. It would be
curious indeed if the vei»y latest comer into the
music industries should be the one to show the
way to future salvation.
Measurements of National Intelligence
If the meaning of this statement is not wholly
and immediately apparent it will doubtless be-
come so upon consideration of the methods
which are being adopted to push the repro-
ducing piano. Those are of a very definite kind
and are directed towards one definite element of
the population. They are directly aimed at those
elements which, roughly speaking, correspond
with the highest classes among the millions ex-
amined during the army drafts of 1917-18. As
will be remembered, the army authorities under-
took to make intelligence tests in order to de-
termine, in the case of every individual drafted
for service, the branch of military work in which
he could most efficiently work. The tests were
worked out and applied under the direction of a
board of eminent practical psychologists, who
volunteered their services and are generally con-
sidered by competent authorities everywhere to
have succeeded in the difficult task of obtaining a
cross section of the mental efficiency of the na-
tion's most representative manhood. These men
between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one,
certified as physically fit for military service,
were tested for their intelligence and were then
graded in five main classes, A to E, with sub-
classes, such as —A, -f"B, etc.
The results were rather appalling, to be quite
frank about it. Taking the white men born in
the United States together, it was found that
only one in eight (12.8 per cent) classified in
A and B classes. Now class A included only
those who appeared upon test to be mentally
competent to make a distinguished record in
college. Class B men were those whose abilities
would appear to permit them to make an ordi-
nary record at college; just to manage to
struggle through the four years. Class C men
were those who appeared equal in intelligence
to the average boy who has managed to get
through high school. D class men were grouped
as parallel in mental, age to primary school grad-
uates. Class E men were the apparently iin-
teachable. More than 17 per cent of the Ameri-
can born whites registered + C or lower.
More than 24 per cent of the American-horn
whites graded D, D—, or E.
The Moral
Much more detail could be given; but the
facts disclosed are sufficient for the present pur-
pose. The point is simply this: that if these
figures represent the mental condition oi the
whole country, then it is evident that the re-
producing piano people are doing precisely the
right thing in promoting their sales among the
highest classes of the population. Even though
the A's and B's, as we may call them, number
only one-eighth of the total, they number some
fourteen millions; and it is fairly safe to assume
that they correspond to about three millions of
families.
Now these three millions of families may all
be provided with pianos of some sort; but it is
a safe bet that not one-half of them have player-
pianos in any form. On the other hand, it is
plain to see that those who have on their
shoulders the job of putting across so impor-
tant a novelty as the reproducing piano are
doing the only practical and logical thing, in so
arranging their exploitative work as to appeal
to these fourteen millions of men, women and
children, rather than to the ninety millions who
comprise the C's, D's and E's. It is horrible
to realize that seven-eighths of the population
grades so low; apart from any immediate com-
mercial aspect of the case, one may well reflect
upon the social and political implications of
these terrible statistics. Meanwhile, however,
they convey to us a direct lesson; a lesson we
ought to heed; a lesson we shall be extremely
foolish not to heed immediately.
For they show, when examined in all their
completeness, and not merely in the fragmen-
tary condition considered sufficient for the pres-
ent purpose, that a large percentage of the popu-
lation of this country is not worth the serious
attention of those who would sell high-class
musical instruments. High-class musical goods
like reproducing pianos will not readily be sold
to the C, D and E class people; at least, it may
be taken for granted that those who belong in
these classes will not respond to the appeal this
instrument makes in anything like the way we
already know to be characteristic of the high-
class people. The reproducing piano interests
are perfectly right, therefore, apart from any
question of prices and costs, in staging their
promotion stunts for the benefit of the one-
eighth of the population which is likely to re-
spond to treatment.
Application to Regular Player-pianos
But the same principle has, in fact, a wider
application. It is absurd and untrue to say that
the reproducing piano is set apart by itself so
remotely that what applies to it does not apply
to the regular player-piano. The latter is not
an instrument for the unintelligent. On the con-
trary, it is decidedly an instrument for the in-
telligent music-lover. How foolish, then, have
been those who have insisted, in season and
cut of season, that the music industries should
go after the "common people" only. Why, the
very meaning of all the facts we have been
setting forth is this, that, for the high-class and
relatively costly instruments of the piano family,
the right course is to make the strongest appeal
to the people who, by reason of their grade
of intelligence, will adequately respond to it!
These people are not the seven-eighths of the
population; they are the one-eighth!
It has always been true, but it has taken the
coinciden.ee of a world-war and the emergence
of a new musical instrument to make the music
industries understand its truth. For the four-
teen millions of class A and class B men, women
and children in this country are still no more
intensively cultivated than are the ninety mil-
lions of inferior majority. The entrance of the
reproducing piano into the field is of itself
forcing the trade to begin to concentrate upon
this intelligent minority. If, now, the foot-
played instrument be treated in the same way,
upon the same principles, we shall see a revival
that will leave some of us dizzy in the results
that it will bring.
An article of the length of this one can only
suggest a few outlines in a subject so vast as
this. Nevertheless, it is highly significant that
the first attempt in twenty years to appeal by
intelligent demonstration to the higher faculties
of that minority which can appreciate musical
values should be having the success which now
characterizes the reproducing piano campaigns.
Is it too much to argue that the foot-played
player-piano, and the straight piano, too, might
be helped by the adoption of similar principles
and methods?
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT EXPORTSJX)NTINUE TO INCREASE
First Eight Months of the Present Fiscal Year Show Appreciable Growth—597 Pianos and 719
Player-pianos Exported During February, 1923—Roll Exports Show Total of $20,444
WASHINGTON, D. C, April 23.—The summary of
exports of the commerce of the United States
for the month of February, 1923, the latest pe-
riod for which it has been compiled, has just
been issued as follows:
The total domestic exports of musical instru-
ments for February, 1923, amounted to $835,137,
as compaied with $577,342 for the same period
of the previous year. The eight months' expor-
tations of musical instruments amounted to $6,-
242,517 in 1923, as against $4,657,481 in 1922.
This shows an increase of $1,585,036.
Of the aggregate exportations in February
there were 87 organs, valued at $13,943, as com-
pared with 72 organs, valued at $4,835, in 1922.
The eight months' total showed that we ex-
ported 869 organs, valued at $97,120, in Febru-
ary, 1923, and 723 organs, valued at $80,407, for
the same period of 1922.
In February, 1923, we exported 597 pianos,
valued at $135,201, as compared with 393 pianos,
valued at $91,831, for the same period of the
previous year. The eight months' total shows
4,187 pianos, valued at $975,175, as compared
with 2,783 pianos, valued at $747,306, for the
same period of 1922.
The exports of player-pianos show that 719 of
these instruments, valued at $237,031, were ex-
ported during February, 1923, as compared with
334, valued at $110,803, exported in 1922. The
eight months' total shows that 4,671 player-
pianos, valued at $1,524,569, were exported dur-
ing 1923, as compared with 2,203 player-pianos,
valued at $789,694, for the same period during
1922.
The exports of perforated music rolls for the
month of February, 1923, amounted in value to
$20,444, as compared with $16,404 in 1922. The
eight months' total amounts in value to $162,420,
us compared with $139,486 in exports for the
same period in 1922.
Player-piano actions and parts thereof shipped
abroad during February. 1923, were valued at
$24,083. The exports of piano actions proper
;md parts thereof were valued at $6,964.
Band instruments to the value of $12,581 were
shipped abroad during February, 1923, while
string instruments totaled $8,730.
The value of all other musical instruments
and parts thereof exported during February,
1923, amounted to $91,317, as compared with
$89,568. The total exports for the' eight months
-under this heading foot up to $832,840, as against
$757,745 in 1922, showing an appreciable increase
over last year.
EDITOR'S NOTE.—The omission of figures on imports from
the above list is explained by the Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce as follows:
"Only the exports of
domestic merchandise by articles and principal countries
are published at this time, on account of delay in the
import reports due to the new tariff. The corresponding
statement of imports will be published when the delayed
reports are received."