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MANUFACTURERS
I Continued from page 17J
in part revealed what his plans would
be when he said:
President Bond's Address
decreased, which he hoped would be
"I did feel like an old man because of
within a reasonable time.
my being the oldest active past-Presi-
of the Association, having- served
The only bright spots in the whole dent
during 1922 and 1923. However, your
situation were those regarding strings, election of me to the Presidency makes
hardware, tuning pins, etc. Joseph V. me feel a young man and I am proud to
Miller, Vice President of Mapes Piano have received the honor from you. I
String Co., said they had been for- accept it with an extremely humble
spirit because I am aware of the re-
tunate enough to get strings and serve sponsibilities and work that goes with
the trade on a 24 and 48 hours basis it.
and that he hoped within a short time
Second, I want to thank my prede-
they would be having copper strings cessor, George Stapely, for the fine job
that he has done during these most
again.
troublesome times. His term of office
Louis Schmidt, Assistant Treasurer was indeed a strenuous one and carried
of the American Piano Supply Co., on under discouraging conditions.
At the meeting of the Executive Com-
stated they had just taken inventory
mittee in July, 1943, Mr. Stapely pre-
and had sufficient hardware to take sented a plan of action for the industry
care of the trade.
that the members of the Executive Com-
John T. Tanner, of Cornwall & Pat- mittee were all very enthusiastic about.
Mr. Stapely discussed the matter of
terson Co., stated that the situation Dealer
Education and this the Associa-
was fair although they had used up tion should follow up most vigorously.
considerable of their material, while
He also discussed the matter of new
William Hessmer, President of Amsco ideas in piano design and construction.
Wire Products Corp., said he had plen- Merchants Association has been recent-
ly active in this. This is a matter that
ty of material on hand would would should be given serious consideration
be able to supply the demands of the by our industry.
As we know, the problems of our in-
industry for tuning forks.
dustry are much older than our Asso-
The lumber situation was discussed ciation. In fact, they are as old as the
by S. G. Ormsbee, of the Wayne Lum- industry itself but we have to remem-
ber Co., who stated that the Northern ber that, through our working together
Hardwood was 30 r /r behind the 1944 the work of our organization and how
progress can be made, and I want
cut and that there is a large quantity much
to make a plea here that we as mem-
of No. 2 Common which could be sup- bers present to him our individual prob-
plied 50% below normal provided it lems, especially as regards our rela-
could be used by the piano manufac- tions with the government, as his office
turers. The veneer situation was dis- has had a lot of experience and he is
most willing and anxious to be of help
cussed by C. W. Timpson, I. T. Wil- to us. This naturally leads me to our
liams & Sons and Coleman R. Curtis relations with the government. Limi-
of the Mangel Co., who stated that the tation Order L-37A has been revoked,
veneer supply was fairly good but that so that we are free to manufacture
pianos, providing we can get the men
the cost was much higher.
and the materials. Materials are still
William G. Heller, President of Win-
ter & Co., and chairman of the War
Activities Committee, spoke about the
OPA price ceiling effect on the produc-
tion of pianos and Harry Gennett,
President and Treasurer of the Starr
Piano Co., stated in respect to the man-
power conditions, it was almost impos-
sible to secure labor in his area.
Another phase of the production sit-
uation was commented upon by Wil-
liam R. Steinway, Vice President of
Steinway & Sons, who said that over-
all wage rates have increased 30 per
cent, to which must be added addi-
tional costs of vacations, holidays, etc.
During the last six months, he said,
production has been off 33% per cent,
making, actual cost about 50 per cent
higher than 1942. He reported mate-
rials and parts are almost impossible
to secure and their costs depend upon
future OPA action.
At the termination of this discus-
sion, the chair was turned over to the
new President, Mr. C. D. Bond, who
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JUNE, 1945
loss. We know that this cannot con-
tinue very long in any industry and
that something must be done about
it if we are to continue manufactur-
ing. Under the OPA rules, we can
put in individual appeals for advances
and I understand some of the manu-
facturers have done this and that to
date no appeals have been granted. I
think that this is an Association mat-
ter and that we as an Association
should take steps to clear up this un-
fair and uneconomical condition and
I hope that such steps will be taken
quickly and I know that the Kxecutive
Committee will give the matter im-
mediate attention.
Must Maintain Better Prices
And here 1 would like to inject a
little personal reasoning that I think
is pertinent. |In the days in which we
were operating even at half capacity,
the dealer organization was continu-
ously bearing down on all of us on
the matter of price and due to condi-
tions, we were willing to pay more
attention to these arguments than we
should have, being afraid that our
fellow manufacturers would take the
small amount of business we had
away from us, and we cut our prices
to a point where we had very little
margin left, if any at all. We in turn
went to our suppliers and did our best
to beat down the prices on supplies
so that we could make a living, with
a result that we lost many sources of
supply and those that remained were
unable to make a decent profit, which
leaves us in the position we are in
today. We know that our competition
should not be among ourselves but
should be with the other commodities
under allotment but WPB is anxious to
that are fighting for the consumer's
grant us the allotments we need to get
dollar. Our prices should be as low
the piano industry going again and we
as we can consistently make them so
need not anticipate a great deal of
as to get a wide market for our prod-
trouble in this respect and with allot-
ments we can get the materials.
uct but, at the same time, we should
be careful not to get them so low that
OPA Presents Main Problems
Regarding OPA, it seems to me that no one will make a. profit out of them
this is our main problem. Our supply because if we do this, it will be the
houses have received an advance but end of not only the supply business
it isn't enough of an advance to even but also the end of piano manufac-
reach the break-even point and that turing. As we look back over the
they are losing money continuously. years, we can see how unnecessary it
Either the supply manufacturers go really was and how it harmed every
broke or they have sense enough to member of the industry and also the
quit before they go broke and the purchasing public and we should
piano industry suffers for it. The 1 make sure that this does not happen
piano manufacturers have been grant- in the future. This is not an Associa-
ed an increase of 13%. Our Commit- tion matter but is a matter for each
tee that worked on this so hard is to* individual member of the Association
be congratulated because they re- but all of us should bear it in mind
ceived a larger increase than any when we again get to operating under
other Consumer Durable Goods group peace time conditions.
that appealed to OPA. However, it
Publicity and Promotion
is self-evident that any manufacturer
One of the outstanding needs of the
who attempts to operate on the 13% Association is Publicity and Promotion.
increase is operating at a definite
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