THE
4
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
JU LY
7, 1923
husiness, for instance, is not simply fighting the railroacfs, hut is
also fighting manufacturers in ot her lin es "vho seek to sec ure
favorab le classifications at the expense of both competitive an d
lion-competitive indu stries. The freight traffic problem is one of
w ide ramifications and one that deserves carefu l and constant
watching.
I AMERICAN
(Regiltered in the U . S. Patent Office)
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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Madison Ave.. '\iew York; Secretary, Edward Lyman Bill, 383 Madison Ave., New York;
Assistant Treasurer, "Vm. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON•• RAID WHITE, Associate Editors
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Executive and Reportorial Staft
E.
THOS.
W.
n.
1I.1UNCH. V. D. WALSH, EnWARn VAN J-IAH LlNGEN, LEE ROBlNSON 1
BRESNAHAN, E.
NEALY. C. R. TIGHF.. FREDERICK
DIEHL. A.
NICKLIN
A . FREDE RICK CAIlTl::[~, FREDERI C K G. SANUBL01f
n.
J.
J.
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Exposition Honors Won by The Review
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Cable Addrt"s!":
Vol. LXXVII
··I·~lbili.
Nf"W Vorl'"
NEW YORK, JULY 7, 1923
No.1
The Music Trade Review is now located in its new offices
at 383 Madison Avenue, New York City. It cordially invites
its readers, when in !V ew York, to visit it and to make use
of its facilities. Th e offices are in the center of the hotel
and music industries section of the city and conven'ient to
all transportation.
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NEED FOR A NATIONAL TRAFFIC BUREAU
N aSSOCIatIOn committee that is wo rth y of the earn est support
of the mel'nbership at large is the Traffic Committee, ""'hich,
l!I1f ort unately, is not ahvays accorded the encouragement it de
serves. One of the factoi's serving to keep up the price of mer
chandise as delivered to the con sumer is th e high freight tariff
charged by the railroads, which, in cert ain in stances, appears to
be little short of exorbitant. "Jot on ly this, bu t through redis
tri cting the country and changing cla ss ifications a number of rail
roads are a lmo ~ t con stantly endeavoring to increase that freight
tariff against certain classes of manufacturers. It is to protect th e
industry fr om such attempts that the Traffic Committee fun ctions
The individual manufacturer often finds it difficult to meet
the expense of an ex perienced traffic manager and , even if he has
one, it is quite impossible for him alone to bring about adjustments
in rates that will benefit his particular lin e of bu sin ess. Through
an associ ation Traffic Comm ittee, however, or, better sti ll, thro ugh
a well-organized Tra ffi c Bu reau, a for ce can be brought to bear
. that is likely to im press not only railroad" but the Ill t e r~tate Com
merce Commi ssion, whi ch contro ls freight chan ges.
A well-organ ized traffic bureau in the K ational P iano Ma nu fac
turers' Associa tion could save a vast amo un t of money by se curing
a more favorable classification of pianos and also by preventing
suggested freight increases. In "Jew Yo rk City alone a traffic
bureau, organized and maintain ed by the local assoc iation, ha s actu
ally saved piano m en tho us ands of dollars by suggesting new rout
ings for freight and b) securin g business concessi ons in other direc
tions. It is unfortunate at the present tim(' th at the work for
which all pia no Illanufacturers ought to be responsible lllust be done
hy an outside bureau -in this case la rgely th e Traffi c Bureau of the
Chicago P iano :'Vf;1rlUfacturers' .'\ sso ci ation .
A
In the matter of freight rates, the manub ctu rer in the pianu
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GRANDS AND CANADIAN PRODUCTION
I
I
T is generally recognized among manu fa ct urers of the bette r
grades of pianos that the Dominion of Canada r epresents a
very substantial market for good instruments of . \merican make,
including reproducing pianos, despite th e heavy tariff ba rri er s
erected against goods shipped into Canada from thi s co unt ry.
In conside ring the Ca nadi an market, therefore, it is inter
(sting to learn that in 1920, according to the official census there
were manufactured in th at country 21,454 upright pianos, 3,043
upright player-pianos, ISS grands and five player grands, these
instruments being made for the most part of supplies and materials
furn ished by Canadian supply houses. The sign ificant point is
th at only 160 grands were made in Canada during that yea r and
only five of these we re player grands. This would seem to indicate
that even allowing for the normal in crease in grand production
that might have occurred during the past three yea rs there is st ill
offered a great opportunity for promoting grand sa les on the other
side of the border.
Admitting that the Can adian tariff would serve to increase
the price of the ordinary grand to the Canadian custom er in a
discouraging degree, this increase would be offset in no sma ll meas
ure by the fact that the heavier outpu t of the American factory
specializing in grands would result in more economical production.
The fact is that the re is a suffici ent number of well-to-d o Cana
dians open for the purchase of grands amI particularly repro
ducing grands to warrant American manufacturers g iving close
a ttenti on to the trade prospects in that cou ntry.
DEALERS' SALES WO~K IN THE SUMMER
WITH th e corrting of Summer tbe re has been a slight decrea se
111 th e volume of advertis ing clone by mLlsic merchants in the
various sect ion s. The curta il ment, howev er, has not been as large as
has been the case in other years. It appears that the retail music
dealers are com ing to realize slO\vly, perhaps, but slIrely, that it is
just as essential to continue advertising regularly throughout the
Summer and the so-called "dull" period as it is during the livelier
Fall and \Vinter months. I n fact, generollS advertising is even more
necessary if Summer sa les volume is to be kept on a substantial basis.
IIarold A. Thurlow, well-known advertising mall of Ro ston ,
in commenting upon Summer publicity, said recently: "Merchants
vvho believe they know th eir business would look aghast if someon e
shou ld suggest th at they close up their sto res during the Summer
month s, ye t they will curtail their ad verti sing to that point where
they practically drop out of existence so far as th e bu sy man and
woman of to-day are concern ed .
"Progressiv e retail merchants know that properly prepared
newspaper adve rtisements produce worth -whil e results. Du rin g
the Summer months make your advertising seasonable. Fi ll it
full of interesting store nevI's. It is a we ll-kno wn fact that many
women prefer the metropolitan newspapers that carry the most
big department sto re adve rti sing. Capitalize on this habit and make
you r advertisement newsy."
It is perhaps overoptimistic to express the beli ef th at S um
mer business can be made as profitable as thal of oth er seasons of
the yea r for the reason that various con diti on s operate against
it, bu t it is not bey ond reason to sta te that the maintenance of a
reg ul ar ad verti si ng campaign , with copy that suit s the season, to
gethel' with a fai dy energetic se lli ng effort, can make Summer
business pay a profit ov er expenses.
\Vhen the retailer simply accepts the Summ er season as is and
rests upon his oars he is simpl y facing the necessity of making
up during the remaining months of the year the losses whi ch are
bound to accrue in his busin ess during th e pe riod o f Summer rest.
Judging by the reports received irom The Review correspond ·
ents in every section of the count ry, June of thi s year has proven
itself an exceptionally good month with the dealers, a cond iti on
which is reflected in the prod ucti on schedules of the factories which
are go ing at a fine pace.