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increase in manufacturers' excise tax. Their wishes will
be presented to the American Retail Federation, which
have a committee to take up the overall picture of taxes
with the House Ways and Means Committee at the proper
time. In the meantime, the musical instrument business
seems to be good in all parts of the country and the fac-
tories are doing the best they can to supply the demand
which has become considerably greater than anyone
anticipated for this time of year.
The Jiusic
Ji
REVIEW
Piano Workshops Are Successful in New York
Established 1879
CARLETON CHACE, Editor
Alex H. Kolbe, Publisher
V. T. Cosrello
Associate Editor
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION
OF MUSIC
MERCHANTS
Alexander Hart
Technical Editor
'HE POORIST
CHI1D IS RICH
WI1H MUSICAI
Mary Louise Kauffman
Circulation Manager
Published monthly at 510 RKO Building, Radio
City, 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y.
Telephones: Circle 7-5842-5843-5844
l a | | HE interest shown by the piano teachers in the
I I piano workshops which were held in New York
^ ^ from February 12th to 23rd inclusive showed
conclusively that the idea of group piano lessons is
becoming more and more an important factor in the
teaching methods of not only private piano teachers, but
also the administrators of school music. A full quota of
200 teachers was instructed in the art of teaching group
piano lessons, by Dr. Raymond Burrows and Mrs. Fay
Templeton Frisch during these sessions, and it will now
be interesting to watch the results, which may be forth-
coming in the near future, and the attitude of the mem-
bers of the Piano Teachers Congress which sponsored
the workshops for the benefit of its members. The success
of this New York effort should prompt dealers in other
cities to support the project in their territories.
Why Not Overall Industry Committee?
Vol. 110
FEBRUARY, 1951
No. 2
Business—As We See It
\m • ! HERE seems to be some confusion throughout the
I I industry since it was announced recently that
there would be a proposal set before Congress to
increase the excise taxes on various commodities. When
the headlines in the newspapers appeared, they stated
that the proposal would include a
20% tax on automobiles and a
2 5 % tax on radios, television sets,
radio-phonograph-television combi-
nations, and phonographs. Some
members of the industry seemed to
feel that they had seen musical in-
struments included in the .list of
commodities on which excise taxes
would be increased, but after very
careful investigation we find that
this is not the case. Musical instru-
CARLETON CHACK
ments have not been included so far,
and we trust that they will not be. The directors of the
National Association of Music Merchants, however, who
met in Washington this month, went on record as favor-
ing a sales tax on musical instruments rather than an
\m P J H E National Association of Music Merchants'
I I Board of Directors at their annual meeting in
^ ^ Washington appointed a committee to be known
as the "War Effects Committee," composed of three
members, to confer with government officials when neces-
sary on the important matters which may arise due to
the war emergency. This, we think, is a very constructive
move and a very important one, but we also believe that
there should be members of a committee to sit down
and go over the various situations which arise in respect
to price and wage controls, production curtailment, etc.,
from the entire industry, a committee which can be rep-
resentative of all branches, including manufacturing, dis-
tributing and retailing. A committee of this character
worked to the good advantage of the industry during the
last World War, and although we have not been con-
fronted with some of the drastic issues which occurred
at that time, a well-grounded coordinating committee
formed at this time may be able to forestall some direc-
tives which might be
issued and which
might be hard to
have cancelled after
they have been is-
sued.
• /
Editor
THE MUSIC TRADE R^VIE\y, FEBRUARY, 1951