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The Music Trade Review
AUGUST 20, 1927
23
The Technical and Supply Department—(Continued from page 21)
should be only too happy to remain humbly
occupying the station to which it had pleased
Fate to call them. This, indeed, was the state
of the case as recently as ten years ago, and
so long as such beliefs were held, so long as
the industry was in that manner graded and
stratified, one might be certain that it woulct
stand up very badly under any storm which
should call for united and brotherly effort on
the part of all elements to combat it.
The Logic of Facts
Ha-ppily, however, these false notions had
been succumbing to the logic of facts for some
service man, the tuner in the outlying com-
munity, is and for years has been the best
outpost the industry has ever had or can ever
have. The tuner it is who has the confidence
of the community. His technical opinion on
a piano is taken as both impartial and authori-
tative. He can make and he can mar. He can
do, by indifference and by sloth, as much to
depress the public interest in music and the
piano as by enthusiasm he can do to build it
up.
An instructed, prosperous, intelligent
tuner, supported by his community and con-
stantly busy in keeping tuned and repaired
Exhibitors' Breakfast at the
years before the present time, so that to-day,
when the piano industry is facing difficult
times, we find that the true position of the
service man in the hierarchy has become better
understood. Manufacturers for some years
have been bringing their latest and best tech-
nical achievements to the tuners' conventions
and have actually been finding far greater ap-
preciation, far more encouragement and better
positive publicity from this practice than they
had ever been able to obtain from similar
displays before the merchants. In a word, the
tuners conventions have gradually been taking
root in new and unexpected ground. Gradually
they have been becoming, and to-day veritably
are, the annual technical exposition of the
piano industry. Hither are brought the latest
achievements in the realm of pianoforte tech-
nology. Here the latest improvements in
player mechanism are shown. Here are given
classes in action regulation and in player main-
tenance. Here come eager crowds of service
men, anxious to learn anything and everything
which may help them to do better work and
become technically more efficient. The tuners'
convention has become the annual engineering
exposition of the industry.
Now evidently this is not being done because
the piano manufacturers and their allied supply
houses have become suddenly and unreasonably
enamored of the service men. Old jealousies
and ancient bigotries do not so easily die. All
this is being done, rather, because in these
times of stress and of transition the absolute
essentiality of the service man is becoming
understood. In a word, piano manufacturers
and their allies are realizing, through the
operation of causes entirely beyond their con-
trol and wholly undesired by them, that the
Annual Tuners' Convention
the pianos of that community, is an outpost
of the industry, doing practical work every
day to build up love for music and for musical
instruments.
A community able to keep a
tuner constantly busy, a community, that is,
which understands and appreciates the need
of piano tuning and repairing, is a community
able to keep, and keeping, piano sales in a
state of prosperity, too. And the converse of
the situation is equally true.
Disciplined and Cohesive
In these circumstances, when the piano trade
is fighting for its future against great and
formidable odds, it is imperative that all its
forces should be disciplined and cohesive. The
service men, as the outposts and skirmishers
of that army, deserve and should have credit
and encouragement as great as that which is
given to a merchant or a manufacturer. Just
insofar as manufacturers are willing to work
with service men will the latter, in their turn, be
willing to serve faithfully and obediently under
the orders of the industry's leaders. For the
service men also know that the industry is
facing difficult -times and must fight for its
future prosperity. Let them now be assured
that their position is appreciated, that they
are known for the brave and faithful soldiers
they always have been and that their com-
munity of interest with ours is thoroughly
realized and will be acted upon.
The solidarity so realized can hardly be ex-
pressed better than it was expressed by the
number and quality of the exhibits which were
features of this year's convention. It is alto-
gether probable, in my opinion, that manufac-
turers will come shortly to see the desirability
of making each year two displays of their
products, one commercial for the merchants
and one technical and scientific for the tuners
Such is the tendency, and it should be en-
couraged in every possible way.
The Standing Committee
A step towards the realization of this desired
consummation has now been taken. The effect
of all that was said at the exhibitors' breakfast
was to cause the immediate formation of a
standing committee to work with the Tuners'
Association for the purpose of developing the
number and interest of the exhibits at future
conventions and to act as a sort of liaison
between the service and the manufacturing in-
terests. On that committee I am privileged to
serve, and I believe that it can do an immense
amount of good in bringing about the state of
friendliness and of co-operative understanding
which the present trade situation demands.
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
Piano Tuning;, Pipe and Reed
Organ and Player Piano
YEAR BOOK FREE
27-29 Gainsboro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
Tuners
and Repairers
Our new illustrated catalogue of Piano and
Player Hardware Felts and Tools is now
ready. If you haven't received your copy
please let us know.
OTTO R. TREFZ, JR.
2110 Fairmount Ave.
Phila., Pa.
The mere fact that the exhibitors did take
this step of organizing a standing committee
»jf the kind represents the best evidence of
their satisfaction with the results they have
hitherto obtained from their displays at the
luners' conventions. The first question before
them was thus answered in the affirmative, and
the others, we may hope, will be solved by the
mediating labors of the standing committee.
Think This Over
The formation of this committee is the im-
portant event to which I referred at the be-
ginning of these observations. There is, how-
ever, one possible result of the committee's
labors which will, I hope, be translated into
reality, and fact. I believe strongly that the
annual meeting of the technicians' association
(the National Piano Technicians' Association)
should in future be held with the National
Association of Piano Tuners and not with the
general convention. The reasons for this sug-
gestion are obvious. Supply houses who might
wish to exhibit their wares have no reason to
do so at the merchants' convention, but they
would have every reason for so doing at a
joint convention of the service men and of
the factory technicians. The sessions of both
these associations are technical, they fit in with
each other, and the topics discussed are as in-
teresting in either case to one party as to the
other. This is not the case when the tech-
nicians meet with the merchants. The technical
end of the industry should be unified, even if
not a unit, and its annual meetings by all rules
of logic should be held at the same time and
in the same place. I heartily commend this
suggestion to the officials of the two associa-
tions and shall have more to say concerning
it during the next twelve months. I believe
that this is an important matter and I intend
to keep it to the front. And I sincerely hope
that everything which has been said here will
be most carefully and deliberately considered
by all parties to the questions which are under
discussion.
Correspondence
is solicited and should be addressed to William
Braid White, 5149 Agatite avenue, Chicago.
New Orleans Tuners
Mark First Anniversary
NEW
ORLEANS, LA., August 16.—The New Or-
leans division of the National Association of
Piano Tuners held its first anniversary meeting
here recently in the store of the Collins Piano
Co., and elected Emile W. Nagel president.
James Conner was made' vice-president and
Henry H. Hecaud was re-elected secretary and
treasurer.
The association was organized a year ago,
starting with a membership of eight. The en-
rollment now includes twenty men, three hav-
ing been added to the roster at the meeting.
The local division is holding to the conditions
of the national body with respect to new mem-
bers, the eligibility requirements being five or
more years' experience and the passing of an
examination.
F. A. Barrow Away
Fred A. Barrow, editor of the Standard Play-
er Monthly of the Stanftjfrd Pneumatic Action
Co., New York, is spending a two-weeks' vaca-
tion among the lakes and hills of Connecticut.
Mr. Barrow showed his interest in the na-
tional piano tuners' convention last week by
commuting to New York each day from Bridge-
port, Conn., his home, in spite of the holiday
from his office.
George L. Koenig, secretary and treasurer of"
Wcsscll, Nickel & Gross, New York, makers of
the Wcssell action, has returned from a vacation.