PRESTO
of extravagance can be made to subside, the piano industry and trade
will get back to a basis of better profits.
This year will probably be the turning point upon which the
world will settle back to business in a way to bring once more the
essentials of intellectual happiness, as well as the necessities of life,
to their proper place in the scheme of human progress.
OLD ALBANY PIANOS
Speaking of the old piano industries in which there seem to be
great, if perhaps latent, possibilities, there is one at Albany, N. Y.,
which possesses the glamor and glory of tradition and the record of
a conservative stability that is almost fascinating. It is a piano in-
dustry zo crowded with memories of the days of first beginnings and
fine personalities, that any student of the trade must turn to it with
interest and instruction.
There was a time when it was quite common to read, in connec-
tion with the lives of prominent piano experts that they found their
first inspiration and experience in the factory of Boardman & Gray in
Albany. It was considered almost as a guaranty of artistic efficiency
that the worker had been employed by the old industry in the Empire
State Capital. And all who had been thus fortunate were proud to
tell of it, and to speak with affectionate enthusiasm of the men who
founded it. Some of the most distinguished members of the industry
had their beginnings there.
The old Albany piano industry is still in existence and its limited
output continues to sustain the ambitions of James A. Gray whose
two sons have conducted it from the day of their father's death.
Many years ago an old historian described Albany as "a city of
brick houses, of 60,000 inhabitants, with their gable ends to the
streets." That quaint bit of statistical information seems to epito-
mize the way Albany is in the habit of progressing. In her industries
she is not so energetic as thorough, and in her ambitions she is better
satisfied with what she has done than with what she may still do.
We are not applying these comments to the old Boardman &
Gray industry, but it is impossible not to feel some regret that so
splendid a start as the name suggests to the old-timers in the trade
should not be made an almost priceless asset before it is too late. It is
only necessary to turn to other old pianos to see what magic may be
performed with a good name backed by fine traditions.
Years back, when the Boardman & Gray factory occupied the
little white factory building near South Broadway, and Jas. A. Gray
had his office down town, near Stanwix Hall, there was another Al-
bany piano factory on another side street near where the New York
Central Station now stands. At that time the writer of this article
was engaged in the Boardman & Gray factory, learning to tune
pianos. At times he had occasion to climb the stairs of the other
factory on errands. And it seemed to him that there could be no
possibility of the "other" piano ever winning such fame as had already
come to those for which he was doing the "chipping." But today the
magic of enterprise and progress has carried the Marshall & Wendell
piano so far ahead that its Albany beginnings are forgotten.
It is somewhat remarkable, too, that there are now very few of
the old pianos that remain in their original environments. Try to
recall some of them and see how true this is. The wand of modern
progress has touched them and they are now much more conspicuous
than ever before. So with the Chickering, the Weber, the Knabe, the
Haines, the Francis Bacon, the Hazelton, the McCammon, and others
whose names constantly appear in the trade papers and in the deal-
ers' advertising in the newspapers throughout the country.
No doubt there are representatives of the Boardman & Gray in.
many places and they are selling fine pianos wherever they may be.
But it is certain that the time will come when the Albany instrument
will come into its own, not only because of what its makers may do,
but equally because of the traditions behind it and what it has done
in the formative days of the American piano industry.
THE DOUBLE TAG
The latest commercial absurdity is the "double-tag." Some in-
spired reformer wants all merchandise plainly marked with the
cost as well as the selling prices. It is one more move toward indus-
trial imbecility and automatic salesmanship. And it is a suggestion
in which there might be the ruin of some lines of business.
It is not too much profit that is breeding unrest and discontent.
The retail merchants are not, as a rule, disturbed by plethoric indi-
gestion. They are, for the most part, worrying about the store rent,
taxes and incidental expenses. And the manufacturers are distressed
because they cannot secure the intelligent help required to move their
factories. It is underproduction that throws shadows over nearly all
January 1, 192011
lines of business, and the remedy is not to be had in any further inter-
ference with the very moderate profits of the retailers. The real
remedy rests With the workers who want all they can get for as little
time and toil as they can possibly render.
Of course a music trade paper may not be equipped to settle the
troubles of the merchants in most lines of business. The troubles
of the clothier, the butcher and the corner grocer, are not familiar
subjects to all of us. All we can say is that there doesn't seem to be
any too much prosperity for most of them. The millionaires among
the small storekeepers do not measure up largely, however the price
of sugar by the half-pound may soar a cent or two. But we do know
something about what is the matter with the piano business, and
other branches of the music trade.
When the writer of this editorial foolishly vaulted the school
fence and found a "job" in a music store he happened to start under
the eye of a mighty good man and master. He was placed behind
the sheet music counter and his "hours" were from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m.
Often, too, it was common for the head of the house to say to the
employes that, because of some special work, it would be necessary
for them to return after supper. And we would do it gladly, and
work right along until 9 or 10 at night.
Later the writer had a call to another music house, in another
city, and accepted. There, too, the head of the house very often an-
nounced that there was a new piece of music to be "folded," or a
large edition of some popular old one, and the employes would return
after supper and do the work. Of course there was no thought of
extra pay at double the regular rate. The employes were glad to do
all they could to help and to prove that they were earning all they
got, and more. Both these music houses were small ones at the time,
and both became very large ones later along. One was that of Lyon
& Healy, in Chicago, and the other that of John Church & Co., in
Cincinnati. But those two houses, at the head of which were P. J.
Healy and John Church, respectively, were typical of other houses
in the same lines of business, and in other lines as well.
Suppose the two great music men had been held back and down,
in the beginning of their careers, by the same instructions and trade
tyrannies that today seem to consume a share of the ambitious the-
orists. Would the great house of Lyon & Healy be what it is today?
Would the name of John Church be so large in the minds of the
music trade? Would any of the music houses which have lived and
grown through the years be what they are?
It's a strange thing that most men, whether employers or em-
ployes, will say that their greatest joy and satisfaction is found in
their work. And yet, largely because of a mistaken idea that life is
designed for play and self-indulgence, the cry is for shorter hours,
and still shorter hours.
It is an axiom that the idle man is the unhappy man. It is true
that most men can face death with more equanimity than they can
the idea of "retiring." It is common, of course, for the man hard at
work to lay down the tool, or the pencil, or the book, and sigh fof
the promised land of utter ease. But he soon forgets it and is happy
in his work.
The other man, who finds himself thrown out, even, with ample
means for all his wants, turns back longingly to the scenes of his
task and toil. He haunts the old office, or store or factory, and de-
clares that youth is the rare possession because it permits its pos-
sessor to run, and to fight and to work.
But about the double tag. In the piano trade it would be worse
than an injury. It would be as absurd as unfair. We have had a
good deal about the "standardization" of piano prices. Very well,
that is possible and perhaps desirable. It would work well, if every
piano could be "nationally priced" on the Gulbransen-Dickinson Co.
plan. But that refers to the retail selling price. With some under-
standing of "plus freight" the standard price could be made to fit all
longitudes and latitudes.
But the cost-price tag would disillusionize the piano buying
public without doing any good. As a rule, people go "shopping"
with but one idea in their heads. It is to buy something for "less
than cost"—a commercial absurdity. But it is easy to realize that
the average quickly-consumed article may safely display the propor-
tionately small margin between cost and sale-price. With a piano
so many things must be considered that what may seem to the mer-
chant a very small profit may appear a species of "profiteering" to
the buyer. The piano merchant in a small town can not predicate
his profit upon one sale a week, or a month, upon the same basis as
that of a big-city house that sells an instrument every hour.
But this phase of the subject is a complicated one and can not
be discussed in a short article. The world's unrest presents a serious
problem. It is one that must find its solution in the common sense of
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