PRESTO
January 1, 1920.
a class of people who are not usually credited with using too much of
that article. When, by education and the confidence and sympathy
cf employers, the workers in the industries learn that their own well-
being depends, not upon radical leaders or the largest pay they can
get for the smallest effort, things will be better.
Then the factories will run smoothly without the interference of
labor unions or other official busybodies. Then the merchants will
recognize that fair play to the public is the same as fair play to their
c^rks. Then paternalism will fall away and the honest man will come
into his own.
The annual report of Secretary of the Treasury Carter Glass
submitted to Congress last week promises the removal of that
abnormality in taxation, an excess profits tax in peace time, and the
substitution therefor of increased rates on the normal income tax and
the lower brackets of the surtax. The excess profits tax is not even
as commendable as that other war-time expedient, Bevo. The excess
profits tax puts a premium on over capitalization and a penalty on
brains, energy and enterprise, discourages new ventures and confirms
old ventures in their monopolies. The secretary admitted that "In
many instances it acts as a consumption tax, is added to the cost of
production upon which profits are figured in determining prices, and
has been and will so long as it is maintained upon the statute books,
continue to be a material factor in the increased cost of living."
* * *
Scientists have written thousands of big books about the nature
of clusters. The stars of the heavens seem to cluster in the Milky
Way; the earth itself is but a cluster of atoms. Pigeons and sparrows
c'uster in their roosting places. Men cluster in great cities. The steel
mills are clustered in places like Gary, Bethlehem or Joliet, and more
than 47 per cent of the world's boots and shoes are made in Massa-
chusetts. So it is but natural for the piano manufacturing industries
to follow the natural law of clustering. The Bronx in the northern
part of New York City probably still leads as an individual cluster of
piano factories. Chicago leads in the number of piano manufacturing
companies' main offices, and subdividing the Chicago cluster into
other clusters, the biggest cluster of main piano offices under one roof
is in the Republic building at State and Adams streets.
:;:
*
£
Steps have been taken to organize in Baltimore a new steamship
company to be known as the Inter-American Navigation Company,
which will operate vessels between Baltimore and South American
ports. There will be a subscribed capital of $2,325,000, which will
be issued as "certificates of interest." There will be no capital stock
as this is generally recognized. The company's powers will be
obtained under a declaration of trust. The company proposes to
purchase five vessels from the United States Shipping Board, of
3,700 tons capacity each, so constructed that they can burn either
coal or oil for fuel.
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We have been asked more than once what has become of the
project of a cash prize for the best essay on the subject of piano
standardization. There were so many interpretations of the word
"standardization" that hardly two contributors hit upon the same
side of the subject and, we understand also, none of the discussions
was deemed of sufficient interest to win the pot. In other words, there
was no "best" essay.
* * *
Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the American Forestry
Association, hammers day and night on the need of a national forest
policy. Memorial trees, roads of remembrance, victory drives, all
planted in honor of men who offered their lives to their country, and
other requests for tree planting have met with responses from clubs
and individuals, particularly throughout New England. Planting trees
in rows, in groups and in groves, has begun in many parts of the
country. Many of the varieties are the woods out of which piano
veneers are made.
* * *
It would surprise some of the ambitious men of the industry to
know how many opportunities exist just now to secure going piano
factories, and often fine large ones. It may seem strange that it is so.
But the reason they are for sale at this money-making period is based
upon that very condition. It is a good time to sell as well as a good
time to buy.
* * *
The scarcity of stock is still with us. The suggestion of the
G.-D. Co., to "hold your Gulbransen's for cash," still applies. The
piano business is no longer a matter of swapping jackknives. Even
the small town custom of trading in moon-eyed horses and selling
them for the profit, is no longer to be entertained.
* * *
There will be more liberal advertising of pianos this year than
ever before in the history of the industry. The ambitious manufac-
turers purpose taking advantage of the best time ever offered in
which to gain precedence and win lasting places in the front ranks.
*
*
ij;
Piano men who expect to be present at the convention and music
show next month are invited to send their New York addresses to
this paper. Compliance with this request will prove a good invest-
ment for all who respond. And do it soon.
* * *
There are still piano dealers who do not seem to know that an
instrument is worth what it will cost to replace it, and should not be
sold on the basis of what it cost before the first rise in prices—or
even the last increase.
* * *
Strange to say, the funny men of the daily press have not yet
described a piano with a special compartment for the future abode of
John Barleycorn. Even the cartoonists have permitted the oppor-
tunity to pass.
* * *
Here's another year starting. It promises to hold great oppor-
tunities for the piano trade. Begin it right, and try hard to overcome
any bad business habits that may have held you back in the years
behind us.
* * *
Only one month more and the lights will shine for the piano
men at Grand Central Palace, in New York. Only four weeks in which
to complete your plans to be there. Are you going?
* * *
Presto is the only music trade paper in the world to bear the
initial date of the New Year, and a year destined to mark some of
the greatest events in all history.
* * *
Almost one-fifth of the new century has gone. When it began the
player-piano was just breaking into the industry and trade, and the
phonograph was still a toy.
"Well, boys,
here's a bright New
\
Year starting! It's up to
you to make it everythin
or nothing) and I'll help
you. So go to it!"
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