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EDITORIALLY SPEAKING
THE CONVENTION SPIRIT IS
STILL MUCH IN EVIDENCE
W
HEN is a convention not a convention? Does
it mean some hundreds of business men milling
about the halls or lobby of a hotel or is the term
equally applicable to an earnest group gathered
together to discuss the problems of the industry and to keep
the organization functioning? If a convention is marked by
the spirit of those who attend rather than by their numbers
then New York saw not one but several excellent music trade
conventions during the past month.
It is natural that most of the interest was centered in the
activities of the National Association of Music Merchants,
the activities of which body have represented the focal point
in national trade gatherings for many years. The postpone-
ment of the annual convention, coupled with the abandonment
of convention plans by the Music Industry's Chamber of Com-
merce and most of its affiliated organizations, naturally
aroused much conjecture, but those at the helms of the several
bodies managed to prove that while large numbers of delegates
make for good fellowship and a broader exchange of ideas,
much can still be accomplished by a comparatively few earnest
spirits.
Those of the trade, and they are in the majority, who
realize the need for organization in the industry under all
sorts of business conditions have been much gratified to learn
that plans have been made to carry on the activities of the
Music Industry's Chamber of Commerce on an economic plan
in keeping with the times. This decision of the directors to
carry on is commendable, for even though many of the activ-
ities of the Chamber will, of necessity, be curtailed there will
still remain an efficient skeleton organization under the direc-
tion of Harry Michael that can act as a gathering point for any
necessary trade movement to meet an emergency. It will also
stand ready for expansion and a return to normal functioning
when conditions change. As one officer put it, "It may seem
a little hard to dig up money for the Chamber and the vari-
ous divisional associations even in their skeleton shape, but
we support our police and fire departments in bad times as
well as good and often at a sacrifice for the needed protection
they afford. With legislators running wild in a hysterical
effort to balance budgets through more taxes than economies
in governmental operation, an organization to represent our
industry in any emergency that may arise is vital, in my
opinion."
Those who regard sheet music as the stepchild of the store
will be a bit surprised to learn that the sheet music dealers
and the music publishers are the only tradesmen who carried
out their convention plans this year on a more or less normal
basis. The sheet music dealers, for instance, found enough
to keep them in session for three days and accomplished some
really constructive work, not only developing a better under-
standing between publishers and dealers but in helping toward
the solution of the problems of the retailers in their own
communities.
There is also to be considered the annual convention of the
National Association of Piano Tuners, held in Washington,
D. C , last month, which managed, somehow, to draw over
150 members of the craft from all sections of the United
States and Canada to the National Capital and carry out a
three-day program, including a visit to the White House,
where the delegates were received by and photographed with
the President. It might be well for some other associations
to find out how the sheet music dealers and the tuners did it.
Just now most association men are looking forward to the
West next year in the hope that an improvement in condi-
tions will make possible a national music industries conven-
tion of the old reliable type. If the unselfishness and courage
of such men as Alfred Wagner, Edwin Weeks, Delbert
Loomis, Gordon Campbell, John Harden and other associa-
tion leaders may be accepted as a criterion and their earnest-
ness emulated by a fair proportion of the association's mem-
bers at large, then the future of the trade organizations would
seem secure. It is a regrettable fact that while these men
have given freely of their time and their intelligence to meet-
ing the problems support has been woefully lacking in many
directions. It is about time that more trade members m
whose interests these men are working lend a hand.
MAINTAINING THE STANDARDS
OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENT VALUES
I
T is not the question of price but rather that of the will-
ingness and ability to buy that is influencing retail sales
today. Even the large department stores that have been
engaged in an orgy of bargain advertising have agreed
that the sole accomplishment has been to develop a false sense
of values in the minds of the public without increasing sales
to any appreciable extent and certainly without adding to the
profits. As a matter of fact, the public has begun to revolt
on the assumption, very often correct, that sharp reduction
m prices has brought with it a reduction in quality.
This is a matter to which the members of the music
trade should give serious thought. In our own industry we
have had a great mass of bargain advertising, much of it
offering pianos, for instance, at prices far below the actual
cost of manufacturing and some offering inferior instruments
built down to a price, at a figure representing a fair mark-up.
Certainly the results have hardly justified the plan.
There is no question but that there have been and must be
fair price adjustments in line with the purchasing power of
the dollar, but these adjustments can be handled sensibly to
the end of building up rather than tearing down public con-
fidence in musical instrument values.
The main thing to consider right now is the future. Just
now it is a matter of maintaining standards or throwing them
overboard, and the process of rejuvenation of the industry
will be much simplified if it can be started from a basis of
recognized standards instead of having to wait until the public
can be reeducated to honest musical instrument values.
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
June-July, 1932