Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JUNE 9,
1923
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
CONVENTION OF MUSIC INDUSTRIES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE—(Continued from page 5)
"About this time last year a nation-wide
movement was inaugurated to stimulate interest
in the development of more comfortable and
beautiful homes under the slogan of 'Better
Homes for America.' That great American,
Theodore Roosevelt, during his last years of
incumbency of the White House, saw the great
need of this very proposal and his now world-
famous investigation of better homes for the
farmer really did an enormous amount of good
in making home life on the farm more attrac-
tive and desirable. But now the movement is
not concentrated upon any one subdivision of
our American life, but is to have every home
touched by the beneficial influence of the move-
ment.
The Tie-up With the Better Homes Movement
"A great metropolitan newspaper of New
York City last year built a model home at
Larchmont, one of the attractive suburbs of
New York City, and to the amazement of our
organizations we found upon investigation that
there was no form of a musical instrument in
the equipment of what was otherwise a very
attractive house. A closer analysis of the living
room plan discovered that the architect had
made no provision whatever for the advan-
tageous placing of a piano, the basic musical
instrument, or even of a phonograph. The
obvious requirements that not even the durable
present-day piano can stand the rigors of the
modern steam radiator two inches away was
overlooked. The family Bible found no place
either in the scheme, and, of course, it was
hardly to be expected that the family photo-
graph album would be given a place of honor.
Briefly, the material conveniences for the physi-
cal well-being were admirably provided for,
but the spiritual element without which no
house can become a home was without the ken
of the designer and architect. Not so, however,
the model houses or the model apartments
that are now in evidence in connection with
the Better Homes exhibitions and expositions
that are being held throughout the country.
Provision is made not only for the proper space
for musical instruments, but in the furnishings
themselves musical instruments are provided,
ranging from the humble phonograph of most
modest price to the pipe organ without which the
really palatial American home of to-day is in-
complete. This transition, although originally
inspired by this organization, would not have
been so complete were it not that the public
themselves speedily discovered the omission of
musical instruments from the alleged home.
This further exemplifies the fact that the only
reason any American home will not ultimately
contain some form of musical instrument is
because of the poverty of its occupants.
"Last night our directors pledged the support
of this Chamber to in every way promote this
nation-wide movement for better homes in
America and in the promotion of 'Better Homes
Week,' this very week, June 4-10, 1923.
The Trade Service Bureau
"The responsibility in bringing about your
pledged co-operation rests upon the Trade Serv-
ice Bureau of the Chamber, which is under the
management of . C. L. Dennis. This Bureau
really has been the instrument by which the
facts that I have outlined in the foregoing were
brought to the attention of those responsible
for the Better Homes movement. I need only
recall to your attention the letters and litera-
ture that you have received of late from him
showing how the industry, by co-operation with
this movement, can secure material benefits.
The Trade Service Bureau has a fine record of
achievement during the past year, as you will
learn from Mr. Dennis' report which will be
available for distribution.
"This Bureau distributed 170,000 copies of
the attractive booklet, 'The Care of the Piano.'
It was responsible for the compiling of the
treatise on accounting for retail music stores
written by Prof. Peisch of Dartmouth College.
Prof. Peisch is an authority on retail account-
ing and his book should be in the possession
of every piano merchant in the country. The
Trade Service Bureau's Retail Advertising Con-
test Exhibit, supplemented by the manufactur-
ers' display of national musical instrument ad-
vertising, will be one of the big features of
'the Merchants' Convention session and must
be seen to be appreciated. When you have I
am sure you will be delighted to give credit
to the Bureau for its fine work in this con-
nection.
"Another laudable activity of the Bureau has
been the agitation with respect to establishing
a fair standard of exchange values for used
pianos. This important matter will have a
full presentation by C. A. Wagner during
the Merchants' Convention. The Trade Serv-
ice Bureau's record for the past year is an in-
dication of its desire and purpose t o be of
maximum usefulness in promoting sounder busi-
ness methods and systems and more profitable
operations of the very important retail selling
end of our industry.
"The Better Business Bureau during the year
has handled 170 matters affecting the music
trades mostly without ostentation, but never-
theless effectively. Its outstanding accomplish-
ment has been the practical elimination of the
song swindle which is characterized by Mr.
Dennis as a vicious, heartless method of de-
frauding would-be songwriters whose pathetic
attempt to win fame and fortune made them
easy prey for unscrupulous crooks who operate
just within the law. In the furtherance of this
work the Better Business Bureau distributed
100,000 pieces of literature, chiefly the leaflet
entitled 'Warning to Songwriters.' The Better
Business Bureau and the Trade Service Bureau
are everlastingly at your service.
'.'The Credit Bureau of the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce has been accused of
furnishing indispensable information infinitely
superior to any other credit information here-
tofore obtainable, no matter what the agency
or source, by the president of one of our most
important constituent organizations. Through
the facilities of this Bureau I am informed
by A. W. Johnston, chairman of the Credit
Committee of the Musical Supply Association,
that the members of that organization have
been saved over $400,000 during the past year.
Aside from this specific saving in dollars and
cents crises have been passed and situations
mastered that might have resulted far differ-
ently were it not for the facilities and co-opera-
tion made possible through the functioning of
your Credit Bureau. This Bureau now has on
file 8,300 reports which are available for con-
fidential use of the wholesale and manufactur-
ing elements of our industry. Each month
brings from 1,300 to 1,600 requests for infor-
mation, all of which are handled expeditiously
and effectively bv the staff and organization
that has been built up during the year.
"Our Legal and Legislative Committee has
kept close watch of governmental activities re-
lating to our industry during the year. No
grave emergency compelling spectacular activ-
ity has arisen like our memorable tax fight, but
the machinery is being kept well oiled and in
readiness, prepared for any emergency.
"At best what I have offered you can be but
a summary, but I think every fair-minded man
in the industry will feel that the Chamber has
definitely won its spurs and that through it there
are now functioning facilities that will bring to
bear upon any of the common problems of the
industry our full resources of intelligence, ex-
perience and skill."
At the close of Mr. Lawrence's address he
introduced the principal speaker of the meeting
in the person of George E. Roberts, vice-presi-
dent of the National City Bank of New York.
SEES CONTINUED PROSPERITY IN BUSINESS SITUATION
George E. Roberts, Vice-president of the National City Bank, New York, in Address Before
Meeting, Points Out the Foundations for Sane Optimism in the Future
"If a state of harmony is to be found any-
where in the world at this time I suppose it
ought to be in a convention of the music in-
dustries, at least at the first session. It is your
business to produce harmony and you ought
to do it harmoniously, although when I remem-
ber the reputation of church choirs and opera
stars I am not so sure about my proposition.
I understand, though, that as a matter of fact
George E. Roberts
you are a very harmonious and effective body.
You have done effective work in various ways
for impressing upon the public the value of
music as a beneficial influence in modern life.
"There is no doubt about the value of that
influence. Music is one of the great educational
and cultured forces of the world. It is one of
the most refined and also effective modes of
expressing the higher emotions, and thereby
of developing them.
"Music is a universal language which brings
all races of men into sympathetic understand-
ing. It gives relaxation from every kind of
toil; it has the power to lift men out of the
commonplace, to inspire the imagination—a
power to reach the deeper springs of our nature
beyond that of language itself. It is one of the
great achievements of modern inventions and
one of the great blessings of modern life that
mechanical agencies have been developed to
reproduce the voices and the instrumental per-
formances of the best artists in the homes of all
the people.
The Business Situation
"Now, I have been asked to talk to you about
the business situation. That is largely a matter
of harmony also. The state that we call pros-
perity is largely a matter of rhythm, of keeping
all the industries in tune with each other, and
all the workers in step. The modern industrial
and business organization is something like a
great orchestra, in which you would bring to-
gether every kind of a musical instrument. I
imagine that at best it would be difficult to keep
them all on the key, and if a good many of them
didn't like the tune, and didn't like the leader,
and were disposed to bust up the show any-
how, the performance would be a pretty bad
one.
"There is not very much harmony in the
business world nowadays. The leaders all feel
like posting up the old Deadwood sign: 'Don't
shoot the performers; they are doing the best
they can!' There is a popular idea that if any-
thing goes wrong, or in a way that we don't
like, somebody must be to blame, and that the
thing to do is to make a row about it. If sugar
goes up, somebody is blamed for it; if wheat
goes down, somebody is to blame for that; if
business is bad and a great many people are
out of employment, there is a popular belief
that Big Business, Wall Street, or some myste-
(ContittUred on page 9)