Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1923 Vol. 77 N. 24

THE
VOL. LXXVII. No. 24 P.blisbed Every Satuday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. Dec. IS, 1923
Slng~to~o~:: ~~~ento
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Doing Something About Our Wood Supply
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OR twenty yeai-s pUblic-spirited men have told the wood-using industries that the timber supply of the
nation is being used up with a rapidity that threatens its depletion at a date to be set with reasonable
.
accuracy not later than the mid<;lle of the present century.
For twenty years, for fiye years longer than has elapsed since President Roosevelt called his first
conference of Governors of the States to discuss the preservation of our natural resources, the coming exhaus­
tion of the national lumber supplies has been talked about, argued about, made the subject of lectures to busi­
ness men and of debates in the Congress-all without any very effective result. It has appeared to many men
that the nation will not wake up, and especially that the industries will remain asleep, until a situation, which
already to-day is in the highest degree grave and anxioiJs, has become positively intolerable, until the industries
of the land are threatened with disaster and the well-being of the people menaced so greatly as to provoke a
national uprising of sentiment and of action.
~ow, however, it begins to seem that something may occur somewhat sooner than this.
The last se~sion
of Congress saw legislation proposed which would probably have been enacted if it had not been for an unfor­
tunate difference of opinion between the lumber men and the Government's foresters as to principles and methods.
This difference has in past years confused the mind of Congress to an extent sufficient to bar any effectual
legislative action . on a policy of reforestation of old and preservation of new timber lands. At last, however,
.
light is to be glimpsed at the end of the tunnel.
For many years the tremendously influential engineering societies of the country treated the wood-using
industries as outside their pale. To them wood-working was wood-working, and no more. They could not see
that wood-working is also engineering, in its own way, and that the piano industry for instance, most complex
and splendid of the wood-working industries, represents one of the most complex of engineering problems in its
construction and production work.
Three years ago the American Society of Mechanical Engineers saw the light, and organized a Forest
Products Division, to embrace the wood-using industries, including ours. A member of the staff of The
Review is a member of the Society attached to that Division. It is perhaps unfortunate that the piano in­
dustry is otherwise unrepresented in the Society.
This Forest Products Division succeeded in passing resolutions at the annual meeting held last week in
New York pledging the influence and resources of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to the
furtherance of the grand project of restoring our natural resources in standing timber by a general policy of
reforestation, to be undertaken by the general Government, and of preventing the spread of the present con­
ditions of the headwaters of our navigable streams, which have been denuded of their forest coverings and
which, in consequence, not only give rise to alternate disastrous floods and equally disastrous droughts in all parts
of the country every year, but interpose a bar to the further development of hydro-electric power, than which
nothing is more important for the future well-being of the nation.
Every piano manufacturer should rejoice to hear that a new era in the reforestation policy is about to
open. The wood-using industries have justly been in a state of alarm over the impending depletion of domestic
timber resources. What happily is now likely to happen will not of course restore at once what has been
wasted but it may prevent further waste, and begin at once to build up for the future. This is something
definite and tangible. The earnest support of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce should be given to
the project when it appears before the Congress in the form of proposed legislation.
It is a matter of gratification to The Review that it has been able in some degree to contribute to the
successful placement of this vital policy before the vastly important and influential engineering profession. It
looks now as if something will move.
F
THE
4
MUSIC
TRADE
( Regist ered in the U. S. Patent Office)
PUBUSHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
Presiden t and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 383 Madison Ave.• New York; Vice.President,
J. B. Spillane, 383 Madison Ave., New York; Second Vice·President, R aymond Bill, 383
Madison Ave., New York; Secretary, Edward 'Ly man Bill, 383 Mad ison Ave., .l'\ow York;
Assistant Secretary, L. E. Bowers ; Assistant Treasurer, \\'01. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WM. H. McCLEARY, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
FREDERICK G. SANDBLOM, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorial Staff
E. B.
THOS.
W.
MUNCH,
BRESNAHAN,
V. D.
E.
J.
WALSH, EDWARD VAN HARLINGEN, LEE ROBINSON,
NEALY, C. R. TIGHE, FREDERI CK B. DIEH L, A.
NICKLIN,
A. FREDERICK CARTER
J.
BOSTON OFFICE:
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Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grana Prix .• •.•. .. . Paris Exposition, 1900
Silve r Medal . . . Charleston Exposition, 1902
Dip/onta .... Pan·American Exposition, 1901
Gola Medal ... .. St. Louis Exposition, 1904 '
Gold Medal-Lewis·Clark Exposition. 1905
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Cable Address: "Elbill, New Y o r\<"
Vol. LXXVII
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 15, 1923
No. 24
PRODUCTION AND ITS RELATION TO DEMAND
EMBERS of the music trade, as well as business men in other
lines, should find some cause for thankfulness in the report
of the Administrative Committee of the National Association of
Credit Men fo llowing the Fall meeting of that body. The committee
sta ted that it cou ld see no indication of inflation and that it fe lt
the credit situation was very "comfortable." ::-.J'everthcless, it was
found that there was more credit avai lable than has been neces­
sary for legitimate business and it warned against the attempts at
specul ation as a result of this condition.
Trouble could be avoided, it was said, by developing the pro­
duction of the country to meet actual demands and not for inven­
tory purposes.
This last thought is something that the music indust ry might
do well to bear in mind, although in most branches it has not been
possible for the past couple of yea rs to keep the production up to a
point where it ha s met demand. However, experience has shown
that the real danger to the trade lies in overproduction, which brings
with it th e problem of disposing of the manufactured goods often
on long terms and at competitive prices. 'Cnderproduction may
cause distress through seeing perfectly good orders left unfi ll ed,
but overproduction creates a much more se rious condition when­
eve r it exists .
M
1-
PRESIDENT ENDORSES THE MELLON PLAN
SINESS men ge nerally shou ld take g reat sa tisfaction in the
B U fact
that President Coolidge in his messag-e to Congress on
December 6 came out emphatically in support of the plan of Sec­
retary of the Treasury Mellon for a substa ntial redu ction in
Federal tax es, amounting to something over $300,000,000. In hi S
message the Pres ident' said: "Being opposed to war taxes in time
of peace, I am not in favor of excess-profit taxes. A great service
could be rendered through immediate enactment of legi ~ l ation to
relieve the people of some of the burdens of ta xat ion. . . . High
taxes reach everywhere and burden everybody .
. They
diminish industry and commerce. They make agricu lture unprofit­
able. They increase the rates on transportation. They are a
REVIEW
DECEMBER
15, 1923
charge on every necessary of lif e. Of all serv ices which the Con­
gress can render to the country I have no hesitation in declaring
this one to be paramount. Th e country wants thi s measure to
have the right of way over all others."
The Music Industries Chamber of Commerce has la un ched
actively into the campaign to influence legislation designed to reduce
taxation and in this work shoul d have the united support of the
industry, for it wi ll need the strongest kind of pressure to force
the politicians in Congress to forsake ~heir own selfish interests
and gran t the relief desired . The President also came out in oppo­
sition to the bonus, but that vote-getting proposition is not going
to be dropped by Congress without a fight and the tax bill is likely
to suffer as a result.
Not only should the trade insist upon a general reduction in
taxes according to the Mellon plan but shou ld also back the Cham­
ber in its efforts to have lifted the discriminatory and nuisance
taxes levied on band and other types of instruments under the '
jewelry clause and on certain types of reproducing in struments
under the clause applying to vending machines. B usiness men have
heen waiting for an opportunity to secure tax release and with the
opportunity here it should not be allowed to pass without a prope r
effort being made to realize on it. This can only be accomplished
by united action.
r
"'1
THE HOLIDAY NUMBER OF THE REVIEW
I'
K my estimation the holiday issue of The Review offers a far
greater volume of instructive articles pertaining directly to
the problems of the trade than has ever appea red before in any
similar issue of a music trade publication."
That is the comment of one trade member regarding the Holi­
day :\f umber of The Review which was issued last week, and this
office has received similar comments from many sources. The
material presented was all of it from authoritative sources, or pre­
pared by men of standi ng in the industry and the result was .a
volume that will find a permanent place in the business library of
many manufacturers and music merchants.
The holiday number offered a fitting climax to the work of
The Review during the year just closing in presenting to the trade
a quanti ty of constructive articles singly and in series of direct
value to every member of the industry. This editorial policy has
won for The Rev iew a Premier position in the music trade field ,
and it is planned to cont inue it on even a broader scale during the
year to come.
So interesting did a number of the series of articles prove to
the trade that it was found necessary to print them in booklet form
to r11eet demand s after the supplies of th e regular issues had given
out. The repl~ints were offered without charge, thus presenting an­
other phase o f the serv ice which The Review is rendering to the
industry.
AFTER THE HOLIDAYS' DEMAND-WHAT?
A
T the present time the music merchants of the country are, or
should be, actively engaged in handling pre-Christmas busi­
ness and gaining a full measure of profit thereby. However, there
wi ll be many of them who will work enthusiastically up to and
including Christmas eve and then let down in their efforts on the
theory that with the Christmas ru sh over there will be a lull in busi­
ness for a month or so.
,\s a matter of fact good practice in thi s and other lines indi­
cates that for a fortnight or possibly a month after Christmas adver­
tising and sales effort sho uld be continued under almost full holiday
season momentum for the reason that th ere is a wealth of good busi­
ness to be picked up immediately after the fi rs t of the year.
This is the period when many corporations and bank employes
get their annual bonuses, which provide them with substantial
amounts of cash to invest, probably in musical instruments. A t this
ti me also the business man balances his books and may perchance
find that his year's profits warrant the purcha se of a piano or high­
class talking mach in e for his home. There are also cash Christmas
presents to be spent, and all this business comes after Christmas
Day itself.
There is a special articl e in The Review this week treating of the
possibili ti es of post-holiday business. It should be worth dollars to
some of the merchants who apply the principles set fo rth to con­
ditions in their stores.

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