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PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic €1-708.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code),
"PRESTO," Chicago.
Bntered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois,
%
under Act of March 3, 1S79.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance.
•uarge m U, S. possessions, Canada. Cuba and Mexico
No vxtn.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Ratestr Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertion*.
Six dollars per inch per month, less twenty-five per cent on yearly contracts Th«
Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment is not accepted for articles of de-
scriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Business not.ces
will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the Act of August
84, 1912.
Rates for advertising in the Tear Book issue and Export Supplements ol Ttie
Presto will be made known upon application. The Presto Year Book and Export
issues have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical
Instrument trades ancl industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern an
•ru hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide is the only reliable Index to the American Musical
(Instruments; it analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimate! 9&
tbjeir values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
? Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the muiit
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications i*
Presto Publlshlnq Co., Chicago, III.
T H U R S D A Y , F E B R U A R Y 5, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF DjCfJ'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR •'PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
A THINKING TRADE
The influence of the trade paper is no longer challenged by piano
men who really think beyond the shallows of their own prejudices and
preconceived opinions. Every day Presto receives this kind of evi-
dence of this influence that convinces beyond cavil. It is constantly
shown to this paper that when some piano man of prominence says
something publicly, what he says instantly prompts either criticism
or enthusiastic approval in the trade.
The latest illustration of what has been said followed the publica-
tion of an article by Mr. Chris. G. Steger on a subject of interest tran-
scending the customary trade paper discussion. It gave expression
to Mr. Steger's viewpoint of the existing strain upon public resources
and individual incomes. It applied to the piano industry and trade
some of the precautionary principles, the lacking application of which
may lead to chaos.
One of Mr. Steger's assurances was that, so far as concerns the
Steger instruments, there would be no further advance in prices, but
that with the great industry of which he is the head every possible
concession will be made that may contribute to the easing up of the
conditions which now bear upon the domestic life of most of the peo-
ple. As a result of Mr. Steger's article, Presto has received a num-
ber of communications from thinking members of the trade, of which
the following is a good sample:
Newton, Kas., Jan. 23, 1920.
Editor Presto: Without any reflections upon any firm or person, permit
me to say that the article by Mr. Chris. G. Steger, which appeared in Presto
recently, I consider to be the finest, in its intent and purpose, that I have ever
had the pleasure of reading.
Mr. Steger might well be hailed as a George Washington among the piano
manufacturers and piano merchants of the United States, as his words speak
a spirit of fairness and set an example of 100 per cent broad-minded American-
ism that I think is the best I have seen or heard of anywhere.
(Signed)
H. S. DICKEY.
Readers of this paper will remember the article by the piano man-
ufacturer of which the piano man of Newton, Kansas, speaks in such
February 5, 1920.
complimentary words. It appeared in Presto of January 22. And
all will indorse what Mr. Dickey says. But the point now in mind
has to do with the thought expressed in the opening paragraph of
this article. It is that the readers of the trade papers in our line are
men possessed of the capacity to think. They like to read such ar-
ticles as contain substantial suggestions. They do not care so much
about what other men in their lines of work are doing, and less about
what is being done to bring about individual reforms in a business in
which they feel pride and not a shade of anything like shame. The
small trickery of a few hangers-on to the skirts of the trade does not
interest the rank and file of the business. They may, now and then,
experience the annoyance of local competition that is unfair in its na-
ture. But it is something larger that concerns them most.
And the trade papers can find so much good to talk about, and
the leaders in the industry are men of such versatility and strength of
expression, that what they say never fails to awaken new interest and
instructive discussion. It is a pity that more of them do not avail
themselves of the trade papers for purposes such as that of Mr. Ste-
ger's recent contribution.
Mr. Steger's purpose, in writing the article which has stirred
many thinking piano men in the retail trade, was to help along the
turning back of the tide of unrest over the seemingly reckless increase
in the selling prices of everything the people need or want. He de-
clared plainly that, so far as concerns the products of the great Steger
factories, there would be no further tax upon the piano buying public.
It is not strange that what Mr. Steger said created uncommon in-
terest of a kind to direct attention to the principles and purposes of
the house in the progress of which he is the dominating figure. Presto
welcomes articles of the Steger kind, for they are what the thinking
piano trade wants.
ALL ROLLED UP
Once in a great while some piano man, of the single-track mind
school, will tell about the hopelessness of the trade papers. He will
present "proofs" of the correctness of his conclusions, and chief
among them will be that he has seen the publications "all relied up"
on some other piano man's desk. Without doubt the charge is truth-
ful, and the pessimistic piano man has at some time witnessed the
damning evidence! But he might go further and tell of other things
that also present a sort of "rolled up" appearance in the same connec-
tion. And, again the condition may even apply to the effices of some
very wide-awake and well-informed man of affairs. He may have
been absent from business, or he may have been so crowded with
pressing duties as to have been forced to permit the trade papers to
remain "all rolled up" for the time being.
In any event, the condition may not be so very strange. It might
shed light upon the subject, also, to know what trade papers are thus
"all rolled up." One great writer has somewhere said that "no man
can read with profit that which he can not learn to read with pleas-
ure." Applied to the trade paper, that means that if the contents sug-
gest the weight of the wisdom of Solomon, or the dullness that Schil-
ler called the "stupidity the very gods fight invictoriously," no man
could do else than let it remain "all rolled up."
If the trade paper can succeed in keeping its readers awake during
the hours of respite from work, or in the times of relaxation after the
store closes, then it will not be long in its wrapper after it reaches
its owner's hands. And that suggests another awful possibility.
It is too often the wasteful and senseless custom with some trade
papers to intrude themselves uninvited upon the merchant. And in
such cases it is right that the "free" trade paper should remain "all
rolled up." Having no such "free list" Presto has little knowledge of
the condition under discussion. But it does know that Johnson was
right when he wrote that "the way to spread a work is to sell it at a
low price. No man will send to buy a thing that costs even sixpence
without an intention to read it."
'
We all know how true that is. The trade paper that drops in
regularly without cost is not welcome. If it had a value it would be
paid for. Presto has readers who have been paying their subscrip-
tions regularly for more than a quarter century. Some time we ex-
pect to publish an interesting story of the oldest Presto readers, in
point of continuous loyalty. And we'll wager a life subscription, and
more, that the oldest subscriber never permitted the paper to remain
"all rolled up" an hour after its arrival!
We have a notion that it is an insult to the trade to charge that
the trade papers remain "all rolled up" to any such extent as the un-
comfortable critic may imply. We know that it is not true. We
know the music trade well, and every issue cf this paper disproves any
such affront to the intelligence of the piano dealers. The denial is
seen in the departments of this paper which, week after week, con-
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