Presto

13
January 15, 1920.
VITAL TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION FRISCO TO SELL
Progress and Ambitions of the National Association of Music Merchants
to Be Shown in Activity in Organized Work.
From the discussions and decisions
of the music trade meetings in the
Hotel Commodore, New York, in
February organized activities will
take form which will make an im-
portant mark on the progress of the
business, not only during the current
year, but for many years to come. It
was through the organization work
of the past two years that the music
trade established its place as an im-
portant factor in American affairs,
commercial and social. Only through
an intelligent continuation of this
work will the trade enjoy continued
recognition and reap the benefit of
the high position it has gained. Lead-
ers in the field are optimistic, and
even in the remote places the influ-
ence of the associations has made it-
self felt.
"Big problems have been met and
solved by the men who have devoted
their time and money unselfishly to
the common welfare," said Secretary
C. L. Dennis, in forwarding the com-
pleted program which represents sev-
eral months of thought and study by
the officers of the Merchants' Asso-
ciation. "We have been fortunate in
the past two years in having big men
directing the affairs of the dealers'
organization. When the critical mo-
ments arrived under wartime condi-
tions, our leaders merged their forces
in masterly fashion. The close of the
war brought conditions scarcely less
critical. Our last convention in Chi-
cago in June found itself faced with the problem of
financing our organized work.
"The plan of President Conroy for raising the
Merchants' contribution to the organized work,
through the Official Stamp for the Advancement of
Music, was unanimously accepted as the only possi-
ble solution, though with great reluctance in some
quarters. Almost every opposition was removed,
the plan was unanimously adopted, and its subse-
quent success has proved its soundness."
Will Continue Stamp Plan.
The continuauce of the Official Stamp plan will
be one of the big things to be decided on at the
February convention in New York. The experi-
ment of holding the national conventions and the
Music Show in the winter will also be worked out.
Present indications point toward the permanent
adoption of wintertime for the annual meetings.
Never in the history of the music trade has there
been such widespread interest throughout the whole
country in the organized work.
HOTEL COMMODORE ENTRANCE.
"I have only been connected with the music trade
a comparatively short time, yet the third year of my
service shows a radical change in the attitude of the
trade generally," said Secretary Dennis. "I have
found that the men of the trade regarded the asso-
ciation activities as largely social, and only in the
last two years have they come to appreciate the
value of organized work for the common good.
"The operation of the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music is a big factor in this change,
and to my mind its plans and activities are the most
important things we have to consider just now. The
only way we can extend these activities is through
our organization machinery, with state and city as-
sociations, commissioners of the National Associa-
tion, travelers, manufacturers, and individual mem-
bers working to a common end. I believe the view-
point of the trade has broadened to overlook petty
jealousies, and it is certain that much unfair compe-
tition has been eliminated since our Music Indus-
tries Better Business Bureau was established."
DEMOCRATS PIANOS
National Convention Week Will Be Made
Occasion of Strenuous Efforts to Inter-
est Political Visitors in Pianos
and Players,
The piano trade of San Francisco is unanimous
in expressing pleasure at the success of the city's
representatives in securing the national convention
of the Democratic party. The piano men hold that
"there's always a customer in a crowd." As a rule,
political rallies result in the biggest harvests for the
hotels and restaurants, but the piano men of San
Francisco have the shrewd belief that, directly or
indirectly, some of the convention money will find
its way to the cashiers' desks in the music houses.
But the piano dealers will go after the direct
money. Every visitor to San Francisco for any
place west of the Rockies will be considered a good
prospect. With this ambitious thought in mind the
trade of the city is already planning an advertising
campaign which will be used throughout California
and adjoining states, and so framed as to make the
visitors receptive to the piano proposition when
they come to the convention.
Instructing Customers.
• A. L. Quinn, manager of the Western Division of
the Q R S Co., with offices in San Francisco, has
inaugurated a propaganda which he believes will
make roll selling easier for the dealers. That is,
eventually it will, but the propaganda entails a pre-
liminary labor that will be rewarded later.
Mr. Quinn holds that the average dealer is indif-
ferent to the necessity of instructing the customers
in the proper way to play the rolls. He advances
the theorem that there is a right way and a wrong
way to play a roll. And he points out to dealers
the necessity for instructing the customers in the
right way. It involves an understanding of»the par-
ticular piece of music and the exercise of the mu-
sical intelligence every owner of a playerpiano has
or should be made to have. His scheme is simply
to increase the pleasure of the owners in their in-
struments. He advances the irrefutable argument
that the more enjoyment a player owner gets out
of his instrument the more rolls he buys.
Frank Cowles formerly with the Q R S Co.'s offi-
ces in San Francisco has returned to his old position.
Mr Cowles has beeri with the Wiley B. Allen Co. for
about six months. D. S. Rockwell, the Q R S
traveler who spent Christmas and New Year with
his family at Ocean Beach Grove near San Diego,
has started out on a road trip.
The Eastern manufacturers may look for Frank
Anrys, general manager of the Wiley B. Allen, after
the 15th. The annual convention is only one of his
objectives. It is one, too, that Mr. Anrys would
not miss for a big bonus. He is one of the piano
men with the delightful convention habit. Mr.
Anrys will be accompanied by James J. Black, man-
ager of the talking machine department of the
Wilev B. Allen Co.
RUSSIAN SONGS FOR U. S. LIBRARY.
GERMANY HAS NO PIANOS
FOR THE EXPORT TRADE
Nor Can Manufacturers There Produce
Money or Raw Materials.
Them,
Instead of having great reserve stocks of manu-
factured goods on hand ready to ship to foreign
points with the resumption of peace, Germany is
stripped completely of raw materials and will not be
able to fill any orders before getting the money to
buy raw materials and fitting up its long-neglected
plants, according to D. R. Martinez, who arrived
at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, fram an extended
trip through South America. Mr. Martinez is in the
export business, specializing in musical instruments,
automobiles and shoes in Cuba, Porto Rico and
South America.
"Some time ago a story appeared in many papers
throughout the United States," said Mr. Martinez,
"to the effect that there were 40,000 pianos in Ger-
many which were ready to be shipped and sold in
foreign markets. This seemed quite likely for be-
fore the war Germany held 80 per cent of the for-
eign trade in musical instruments. But upon inves-
tigating this through my representative in Berlin.
Dr. Alfons Lissner, I learned today by letter that
instead of having instruments ready for shipping
'Germany is slain like Abel, lying flat on the ground,
and cannot think of beginning to fill orders before
having money to buy raw materials, fitting up the
long neglected plants and paying the now extremely
high wages. Everything costs about ten to twenty
times as much as it did before the war.* An up-
right piano of the cheapest type that brought then
about 300 marks now sells at 10,000 marks and even
more.'
"This effectually kills insofar as the musical in-
strument industry is concerned, the talk of German
trade aggression at this time. We have in this coun-
try "already passed our prewar export figures in
pianos and musical instruments and have secured
about $8,000,000 annual foreign trade formerly held
by Germany, but there is still twice as much busi-
ness to be done."
AMERICAN PIANO CO.'S DIVIDEND.
American Piano Company, New York, declared
initial cash dividend of V/2 per cent on common
stock, also stock dividend of 5 per cent, payable Jan.
1 to stock of record Dec. 24. Usual quarterly divi-
dend of $1.75 on preferred will be paid Jan. 2 to
stock of record Dec. 24.
AN ERROR CORRECTED.
Presto made an error in printing the Bay Com-
pany's space at the New York Music Show, which
is to take place at Grand Central Palace in February.
The Bay Company will exhibit in space 214, not in
space 219 in that show.
Pearl Woods is a progressive music goods dealer
in Sterling, 111.
Two sets of Russian songs that are unique "songs
of the Siberian galley slaves, tramps, and natives;
for single voice and for choir, with accompaniment
of piano," have been bought by the music division
of the United States Library of Congress and re-
cently added to the very valuable collection of music
there, announces W. R. Whittlesey, chief of the
music division. These songs are from the unusual
collection of Kurt Schindler and contain a set of
songs of three compositions, and another of eleven
compositions. They were collected in the galley
prisons of Siberia, have been rearranged, harmon-
ized, and performed in almost every Russian city.
V. N. Garteveld has arranged them.
WILLIAM M. PLAISTED BUSY.
William M. Plaisted, vice-president of the Hazel-
ton Brothers, Inc., New York, is exceedingly active
making preparations for the coming Music Show
and convention. He claims he has several new
schemes which will improve the Hazelton exhibit,
but we feel this will be very hard to do as the Hazel-
ton displays during previous Music Shows have al-
ways been successfully fostered and attended.
WALTER LANE VISITS CHICAGO.
Walter Lane, president of the Bush & Lane Piano
Company, Holland, Mich., was in Chicago this
week. Mr. Lane said the future is full of promise
for the piano industry. His factory is running full
blast, with plenty of orders on the books to keep it
going for some time. He greeted old friends in the
trade and had cheerful words for all.
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