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The Music Trade Review
REVIEW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
Published Every Saturday by
Federated Business Publications, Inc.
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
President, Raymond Bill; Vice-Presidents, T. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secre-
tary and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald;
Assistant Treasurer, Win. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
W. H. MCCLEARY, Managing Editor
RAY BILL, Associate Editor
F. L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
E. B. MUNCH, Eastern Representative
WESTERN DIVISION:
BOSTON OFFICE:
FRANK W. KIRK, Manager
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
E. J. NlALY
333 No. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Telephone: State 1266
Telephone: Lexington 1760-71
Vol. 87
I
Telephone: Main 6950
Cable: Elbill New York
No. 20
N o v e m b e r 17, 1928
Function of the Business Press
N an address before a group of business-paper publishers
recently, William Butterworth, president of the Chamber
of Commerce of the United States, emphasized strongly
the genuine need for such publications in keeping the men in
their respective fields fully informed of the numerous and frequent
changes taking place in industry to-day, and of conditions likely
to develop in the future.
The speaker said in part: "I am a thorough believer in busi-
ness organization and in the business press. Both are potent allies
of business and industry. But let me say that the business press
should not content itself, merely with reporting business delibera-
tions and business decisions. It should take part in tl>em. And
in saying this I have no thought to detract from the value of the
reporting function. That I know to be most valuable—that inter-
change of business experience. It enables me as a manufacturer
in Illinois to profit by the successful methods of others, and it
enables me to avoid errors that have been discovered elsewhere.
That, I repeat, is a service of the highest order. But as a business
man, as a manufacturer, as a member of trade and business organ-
izations, I need, too, the candid advice of the business press. The
business paper with its trained observers scanning the business
horizon naturally has a wider view and an even better perspec-
tive upon the interrelation of business events and movements
than either the trade association or the individual business man.
The value of this detached viewpoint and of the frank and friendly
counsel of the business press cannot be too highly estimated. The
business press has universal contact with business, it "has the op-
portunity to mirror business to itself, and fearlessly to advocate
sound policies and win for them the approval of both business
and the public.
"Moreover, never was the opportunity greater than now for
the business press to make itself indispensable to business and in-
dustry. Never had it a like opportunity to stimulate leadership.
New York Piano Merchants
to Meet on Tuesday
The New York Piano Merchants' Association
will hold its first Fall meeting at the Hotel
Breslin on Tuesday evening, November 20, at
7 o'clock. Emil J. Pettinato, president, has
urged all members of the trade to attend with
their sales staff. Several matters of trade im-
portance will be discussed and resolutions
drawn up at the October meeting of the ad-
For our business world is a rapidly changing world. In all its
phases its processes are undergoing almost revolutionary readjust-
ments. These require a new strategy, new tactics, new methods,
and, above all, unflagging fortitude and courage.
"The business press, therefore, needs, it seems, to me, to make
of itself more than an accurate chronicler of events. The busi-
ness publication that fully grasps its present opportunity will re-
adjust itself to these changing conditions and interpret them. It
will look beyond the things of to-day and point the way to sane
procedure for to-morrow. It will serve as a clearing house of
ideas. It will evolve new ideas."
The views expressed by the president of the Chamber of
Commerce of the United States are in keeping with the policies
adopted by The Review some years ago and carried on persistently.
The Review publishes the current news of the trade, but this is
only a small part of its activities. For during the past few years,
and particularly during the year just coming to a close, every
effort has been made to show the wa)' in improved merchandising
and selling methods and in music trade procedure generally. In
this work the thoughts of the best minds of the trade have been
presented at frequent intervals, and an editorial policy adopted that
has met conditions of the future as they were developed rather
than simply to comment upon the existing situation with which
the trade as a whole is familiar.
In promoting this policy of encouraging and aiding in an in-
terchange of the best ideas of the trade, and of leading rather
than of following the trend, The Review has simply been keep-
ing step with modern business paper practice. It is far more
than a newspaper. It is the outstanding medium serving the field
of the genera] music store, and in a broad sense represents the
forum of the industry.
1
HE returns of income taxes covering 1927 and tiled
with the Treasury Department up to August 31 last
indicate that nearly two-and-a-half-million citizens
reported taxable incomes for the year, totaling over $18,082,600,000.
The figures also show that nearly 22 per cent of these reporting
had incomes in excess of $5,000, and of the remaining 78 per
cent each one had an annual income exceeding $1,500 if single
and $3,500 if married.
These returns are particularly interesting, or should be to
those who take occasion at different times to question the buying
power of the American people. A certain percentage of that
$18,000,000,000 naturally went into savings banks, permanent in-
vestments, etc., but the greater proportion found its way for the
things that make life pleasant and worth living as well as for
the bare necessities.
A man with an income of over $5,000 a year is a mighty fine
prospect for a first-class piano, phonograph, radio or other musi-
cal instrument, and if only half of those reporting such incomes
made such purchases, business would be a lot better. Of the
2,000,000 who reported incomes of less than $5,000 the majority
made enough to give them extra income for the purchase of music-
producing and reproducing media.
From a dollars and cents standpoint, the field seems to be
broad and promising, but the problem for the music merchant is
in developing profitable contact with that field. He will find that
it does not require any great amount of effort to secure the names
of those in his particular territory who have reported worth-while
incomes and then to go after them first for business. The ques-
tion is not that of having the money but in temporary lack of
buying urge.
visory committee of the association will ...be
presented.
The Kimball in Akron
AKRON,
O., November
NOVEMBER 17, 1928
12.—Announcement is
made that the Van Camp Piano Co., 1096 South
Main street, has been appointed distributor in
the Akron area, of the Kimball line of pianos.
This concern has opened a new display room at
207 South Main street for the introduction of
1 hat line.
Victor Go. Wins Patent
Suit in Canadian Court
OTTAWA, ONT., November 13.—The Victor Talk-
ing Machine Company of Canada was to-day
sustained in its right to use the orthophonic
horn in a decision by the Exchequer Court. The
action was brought by E. Grissinger of Buffalo,
N. Y., who charged infringement of a patent.
The Court found that the Victor horn was radi-
cally different from anything produced before.