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The Music Trade Review
JULY 10, 1926
33
The Technical and Supply Department—(Continued from page 32)
New York Superintendents' Club Plans
Elaborate Program for the Coming Year
Charles Miller, the New President, Points Out How Valuable the Club Can Be Made Through the
Exchange of Ideas and Experiences Among the Members
A N enthusiastic session marked the opening
of the regime of Charles Miller as presi-
dent of the Superintendents' Club of the New
York Piano Manufacturers' Association at the
meeting held at the usual rooms at 34 West
Thirty-third street, New York, on Wednesday
evening, June 30. In spite of the exceptionally
warm weather about twenty-five members were
on hand and plans for an active year were
discussed.
Following the reading of the minutes of the
previous meeting, Mr. Miller made a brief ad-
dress acknowledging the honor of being
elected president of the club. His address was
in part as follows:
"I wish to thank you gentlemen for. the
honor you have conferred in electing me presi-
dent of the Superintendents' Club, and if I do
as well as my predecessors I will feel highly
pleased.
"During the existence of the Superintendents'
Club we have enjoyed many pleasant evenings,
due to the earnest efforts of our very competent
Secretary, Reulbach. He has seen to it that the
subjects discussed have presented a wide variety
both instructive and entertaining, and I have
no hesitancy in stating that I am voicing
the hearty appreciation of every member of
this club.
"The question has often occurred to me, Have
we, as superintendents, made the most of our
opportunity? And with the idea of presenting a
few matters for your consideration, I requested
our secretary to omit inviting outside speakers
for this meeting.
"While we in New York are handicapped
with a very high wage rate, I believe concerted
action among us will, in a great measure, offset
this handicap. Collectively speaking, I believe
we have among the piano superintendents of
New York City as much piano talent as is to be
found anywhere, and it is only by concerted ac-
tion that we can get the benefit of it.
"I venture to say that every factory in New
York, whether large or small, possesses some
advantage over the rest in some particular, and
if you do not tell us about it and we do not
see it, how are we to know? We are all con-
stantly having new problems crop up in con-
struction, labor and management, and I am go-
ing to suggest that at our next meeting every
member be prepared to present his problem in
person or, if preferable, by mail to our secre-
tary, who will present them in the order re-
ceived. It is possible and particularly so
among the older heads that there would be
some delicacy about asking for information they
are supposed to possess. To those members I
would say, send your letter anonymously and it
will receive the same consideration.
"Another matter I wish to call your atten-
tion to is that of the Superintendents exchang-
ing visits. It might be advisable if it meets
with the approval of our bosses and yourselves
that the visiting of the various factories be done
in a systematic manner by appointment. It will
not take long for us to cover the entire field,
which should result in a big benefit to all of
us. To sum up, I suggest that we form a pool
of .our experiences. I have the pleasure, gentle-
men, of presenting the foregoing for your con-
sideration. Let's get together."
Mr. Miller's address sounded the keynote of
the new administration and was greeted with
hearty applause. A. K. Gutsohn, treasurer of
the club, expressed the opinion that such a pro-
gram, carried out on a basis of common interest
with an exchange of ideas and experiences, will
prove of great value to New York superin-
tendents and manufacturers. He cited an in-
stance to show the value of visiting other plants,
the particular one being a large furniture plant
in Rockford, 111.
He stated that he had missed his train a few
years ago aad had several hours on his hands in
that city and decided to drop in to visit a furni-
ture plant he saw near the station to improve his
time. He said he was most cordially received
and, in being shown through the plant, he dis-
covered an excellent gluing process which con-
tained many applicable points for the piano in-
dustry. He has revisited the plant each time
he has been in Rockford, and considers the ex-
ecutives of the concern most valued acquaint-
ances.
As superintendent of the Standard Pneumatic
Action Co., New York, Mr. Gutsohn extended
an invitation to all members of the club to visit
the Standard factory and examine the produc-
tion, payroll and cost systems in use there as
well as the methods of handling departmental
labor problems. The invitation was to include
an inspection of the plant in the morning, wind-
ing up with a luncheon at the expense of the
company.
At this point a motion was made that the
club endorse the practice of visits of superin-
tendents among the various factories in the
New York zone, and was passed unanimously.
The chair was then authorized to appoint a
committee to arrange for group visits to
selected factories, and the following were ap-
pointed to serve: George Young, William Haus-
ler and William Kretzer. Another committee
to arrange for visits of groups of superin-
tendents to plants outside the piano industry
was appointed by President Miller as follows:
George Kennedy, Henry Berghane and John I.
Bogart.
Mr. Miller's point that the club get down to
the business for which it was originally organ-
ized, viz., the discussion of the problems of
piano construction, both from a managerial and
practical standpoint, was discussed and each
superintendent agreed to submit some problem
at future meetings. The suggestion was made
that the communications be made with Secre-
tary Reulbach anonymously and that he read
them before the gatherings to promote discus-
sion of the problems they contain. Charles
Rrambach cited many examples showing the
benefits of such discussions at informal meet-
ings of superintendents held in Boston many
years ago.
Mr. Reulbach announced that he was having
a stenographic report of the meeting made and
the club voted to have copies of this distributed
to all members of the New York Piano Manu-
facturers' Association and absent superin-
tendents to show them what the Superin-
tendents' Club is trying to do this year. Henry
Fry then moved that the club adjourn for the
Summer, with the idea of holding the first meet-
ing in September. This w?.s carried and the
club adjourned.
Lumber Men See First Half of Present
Year as Period of Industry's Remaking
Plans Under Way by Concerted Action Show Big Evidence of Awakening to Situation Which
That Industry Confronts at the Present Time—Forestry Making Rapid Strides
, D. C, July 3.—An authorita-
tive summary of the activity and general
situation in the American lumber industry for
the fiscal year ended June 30 has been prepared
by prominent lumber officials. The summary
is in part as follows: "The first half of 1926
will be memorable in the annals of the Ameri-
can lumber industry for the beginning of self-
regeneration of the industry. It has been long
out of perspective with other industries because
of its failure to reorganize and readjust itself
to profound changes in conditions affecting its
economic stability.
"The oldest of American manufacturing in-
dustries, producing an essential commodity,
which has had an automatic demand of huge
proportions for almost a hundred years—and
during a large part of that period without any
rival in a considerable sector of the building
field and also of industry—the lumber industry
was in danger of suffocation from deceptive self-
satisfaction and softening security. Internal
competition and individual rivalries have kept
the industry fully abreast of the times in me-
chanical and engineering improvements.
"Its big saw mills are modern to the minute
from every point of view; but former lack of
group competition retarded productive research,
and also the development of merchandising
methods corresponding to the larger scale and
more complex commercial fabric of the third
decade of the century. In a word, the industry
is still partly in the stage of believing that the
founders of the lumber industry attained the
summit of practical knowledge of the raw as
well as the finished timber products and that
the main function of a seller is to have goods
on hand when a purchaser voluntarily calls.
"Of course this is a generalization and, like
other generalizations, may be assailed with a
host of pertinent exceptions; but I think that
most lumber manufacturers will agree that the
industry has failed or lagged in research and
scientific merchandising. It has made good
lumber, but has said to the consumer 'Come and
get it.'
"To cite verse and chapter in a brief way, it
may be asserted that the lumber industry has
not yet frankly faced the competition of old
substitutes for lumber in new fields and new
substitutes in old fields, or militantly defended
itself against their unwarranted inroads.
"It has until recently failed to summon sci-
ence to the aid of its product and it has rather
supinely retreated from many markets which in-
ferior rival materials have undertaken to annex.
As a whole it has not given enough patient and
creative thought to the perpetuation of its own
sources of raw material supply in the forests.
It has been backward in consolidation and the
aggregation of small units into efficient com-
mercial units. It has competed fiercely within
itself but has lacked the equipment for effectual
external competition.
"Now, however, there are evidences of gen-
eral awakening on every hand. An ambitious
enterprise is under way for a national trade
extension campaign, which is to be based on
research in science and merchandising. Many
regional associations of lumber manufacturers
are now well into thoroughly modern and effi-
cient trade extension operation. National lum-
ber standardization is at last a fact, and that
fact paves the way for the rapid advance of
modernized merchandising and advertising.
Forestry is making rapid strides, and possibly
fifty great corporations are already on a con-
tinuous production basis; their forests will yield
and yet remain."
Consult the Universal Want Directory cf
The Review.