Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1753

PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editor*
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic 61-70S.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code).
"PRESTO," Chicago.
Kntere «
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. No «Etra
•uarge
rge in Ti S. Dossessions, Canada. Cuba and Mexico
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates fc--.Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertion*
Six dollars per inch p«r 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 notices
will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the Act of August
S4, 19*2.
Rates for advertising in the Tear Book issue and Export Supplements of The
Preato will be made known upon application. The Presto Year Book and Export
issues have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musica-
instrument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely am)
•ffectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide Is the only reliable index to the American Musical
Instruments; it analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates m
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
fc Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the must*
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications to
Prcato Publishing Co.. Chicago, III.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 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. DON'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 NEWS-
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
There are business friends and friends in business. Perhaps the
distinction may seem vague. But there are a good many men in the
piano business who will recognize the difference when they contrast
the late Mr. Fayette S. Cable with some other men with whom the 7
have done business in times that were good and some other times when
things were not quite so good. And it is just that difference that made
the founder and head of the Cable-Nelson Piano Co. a man for whom
there remains, with a good many other men, a feeling deeper
even than respect and more lasting than is usual in the relations be-
tween merchant and manufacturer. Mr. Cable was one of the uncom-
mon men who are always ready to say the right thing. His lexicon
did not seem to possess any of the sharp, cutting terms with which
most men of affairs seem familiar. He was sunny and genial, eve*i in
times when his friends could see that he was possesed of worries
or r-odily weariness. For he was a hard worker and filled with ambi-
tion. He had undertaken a large thing at a time when business was
not especially certain. And he had made it win in the face of obsta-
cles. But he never even so much as suggested a doubt, and he was
one of the most willing men in the world to listen to the troubles of
others, and to hear the advice of any who thought he had a panacea
for the ills of the world, or its special affairs.
That was one of the secrets of the rapid development of the in-
dustry which Mr. Cable founded less than seventeen years ago, and
which had outstripped many older ones before it had passed its open-
ing days. It may be said that, being a Cable, he could not do less
than succeed. For there were three of the Cable brothers who became
heads of large piano industries by reason of their own initiative.
February 26, 1920.
Fayette S. was the youngest of the three, and it was his elder brother
who liked to refer to him as "my little brother." While the sugges-
tion which rests in the term can not, in the average sense, apply to
the younger of the three brothers, it does seem to convey something
of the feeling aroused in his intimates by his slender physique and sin
cere character. And there are few who knew him well that do noi.
mourn unaffected at his death.
To this paper—every member of the staff who knew Mr. Cable—
the word of his passing, which came to the office last Monday morn-
ing, brought a sense of personal loss. Not many of the paper's
friends had been so loyal, and few had displayed the same sense of
appreciation of whatever it might have been possible for the trade
paper to do of a helpful nature. And it seems such a little time since
the last interview, in which there was no hint of the end, but only
the steady faith in the power of effort and the same loyalty to ideals
that had actuated him from the first meeting more than thirty
years ago.
What Mr. Cable has done in the piano trade has made a good
chapter in American industry. And the place he had made in the
esteem, even the affection, of his cotemporaries and associates in the
business world, is one that will feel his going through all the shifting
changes of the future.
BEST YEARS AHEAD
If a well-posted piano man, in any department of the business,
were to be asked to pick out a jury of the best posted men of the
industry and trade, one of the occupants of the box would be Mr.
Richard Lawrence, president of the Kohler Industries, Inc. We do ,
not think we make any mistake in that statement, for Mr. Lawrence I
has a way of letting the piano world know of his presence and the
effect of his being here. He has the power of expression, and he has
a habit of looking steadily ahead.
In a recent statement by Mr. Lawrence is the positive assertion
that the best years of the piano business are ahead. Good as is the
present, notwithstanding its obvious drawbacks, the years ahead
promise much better things. And this in spite of the tendency to
doubt the iconoclastic faith in today and to cling to the Bourbon-
like fondness for what is past. It is the optimism of the man who
plans ahead, and who balances the future upon the scales of experi-
ence and a careful study of all tlje elements of progressiveness.
There have been other times, similar to the present, in the piano
business—in all lines of business. And in those times there have
been men who saw ahead and prophesied larger things than the past
had ever known. There were, too, men who looked forward into
industrial darkness and permitted their good beginnings to go to
decay until, when the new day actually arrived, they were unfit and
hopelessly left behind.
The piano industry has had men of that kind. The wrecks of
their promising beginnings may still remain, or the evidence of them
may have become wholly obliterated. But the towers of the men
who had faith, and foresaw "the best years ahead," lift themselves
high and no storms can threaten them.
In the smaller sense, too, it is easy to agree with Mr. Lawrence
that "the best years are ahead." Presto makes its first appeal to the
men whose living, and whose fortunes we hope also, are dependent
upon the retailing of pianos. Today the retailers are fretting because
they can not get pianos as fast as they can sell them. They can not
fully understand how it is that the same factories that a short time
back urged them to buy, and proposed attractive terms, are now turn-
ing away orders even when accompanied by the bank drafts. It seems
almost incredible, especially to the small-town dealer whose sales
are not many, and whose needs are correspondingly small. He had
been accustomed to feeling that his trade was so well worth having
that to be obliged to take his turn doesn't seem right.
But the small dealer's troubles are as nothing to those of the
larger dealers whose responsibilities are immeasurably greater. And
the problems of the dealers, both small and large, are almost as
nothing in contrast to the dilemma of the manufacturer whose order
book bulges and whose shipping room assumes the condition of transi-
tory emptiness. It is disappointing to the retailer to have his cus-
tomers on the anxious seat, with loss of profit threatening himself,
and it is still more unpleasant to the manufacturer to know that
because of his liability to ship his representatives he must suffer in
the productive part of the business.
But the "best years ahead" will be better, partly because of the
exigencies of the present. The stores will be thoroughly cleaned up
and the stocks will be bright and new. The manufacturers' books
will be cleaned up and the accounts will represent only reliable cus-
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
RRESTO
February 26, 1920.
tomers. It won't be possible for the other kind to hang on when
reputable, creditable merchants are waiting for supplies.
And it is not possible to estimate the other reforms that are
being wrought by reason of the abnormal piano trade conditions. The
advertising is better, the methods of sale are better, the death of the
guessfests, coupons, near-checks and prizes is largely due to existing
conditions. Mr. Lawrence is a reliable prophet of the piano trade
when he says that "the best years are ahead."
SELLING SECOND HANDS
Never before was there so good a value in secondhand pianos as
now. We mean to the retail piano dealer. It is probable that there
are thousands of used pianos in the basements and lofts and back
rooms of the piano stores. Many of the dealers have been putting
the used stock in order and selling it. Others do not, even yet, re-
alize the possibilities.
For a long time it was customary to hide away the trade-ins,
and display them only when customers called for some special make
which may have been advertised in the bargain lists. The old pianos
were put away in the basement and in some instances, dismantled,
used as shelves or given away for advertising purposes. All of us
remember the sensation of the Atlantic City convention at which a
lot of good old pianos were sacrificed by fire to make an association
holiday.
Just now things are different. It is a good time for the wise
dealer to pay particular attention to the trade-ins. If they are fairly
good uprights, the service of a skillful repair man and tuner is needed
at once. The old upright can easily be turned into cash—and not a
little cash at that. Even the old squares may be put into playable con-
dition and made to do for a time, or until the supply of new uprights
begins to come in.
Of course the same degree of attention that has been given to
the trade-ins when things were normal is not enough. It is well now
to have the second-hand cases well polished and the original beauty
of finish brought back as far as possible. And the tone regulating
and tuning should have equal care. The tuning pins should be rein-
forced by some such means as the late Mr. Frank Conover's metal
friction shield—simple, inexpensive and effective device. Care
should be given to all of the minor parts of the old piano, and its sale
should involve the agreement to exchange it again as part payment on
the entirely new instrument of high-grade quality when existing con-
ditions subside and the customer feels that the change may be desir-
able. The proportion of buyers who still retain the rebuilt instrument
will prove one of the surprises to the dealer.
No matter how you have conducted the second-hand department
heretofore, don't neglect the opportunities of the trade-ins at this
critical period in your business.
FIRE AND WHAT FOLLOWS
The first big fire of the year in the piano industry came at a
time when the trade could least afford it. With the demand for
pianos largely in excess of the possibilities of supply, flames lapped
up the snug plant of the Chute & Butler Co. at Peru, Indiana, and
destroyed a lot of fine instruments, some ready for the impatient
dealers and many more in process of manufacture. It seemed most
inopportune, and proved again the utter futility of the ingenuity of
man in his struggle to successfully combat the slips of circumstance.
It is probable that nowhere in the entire piano industry is there
a factory much less liable to fire than the one at Peru was supposed
to be. It was equipped with every device of safety, and it was in
charge of men who are noted for thoroughness and caution. Manager
R. H. Bouslog has been in charge of factory properties, and in con-
trol of big industrial plants, nearly all his life. He is a man whose
particular effort has been to safeguard the interests in his care. The
Chute & Butler factory burst out in flames within a few hours of
Mr. Bouslog's return from a short visit to the New York Music
Show where, fortunately as it now seems, there was a display of
Chute & Butler instruments. And the fire was not due, as most
such events are, to a cigar stump in a waste basket, or a lighted match
in a varnish vat, or a defective boiler; nor yet to any suspicion of vin-
dictive labor warfare. It was simply the result of that mysterious and
wholly unavoidable cause "spontaneous combustion." It was as much
a misdirected and fortuitous freak of nature as if the factory had
been struck by lightning.
But the main point now is that, in the face of the shortness of
pianos, one source of production is temporarily shut off. We have the
assurance that the Chute & Butler Co. will smother the sense of
loss and disappointment and at once prepare to build another factory.
There is the satisfaction—the special evidence of good coming from
evil. For, without doubt, the new Chute & Butler factory will be
larger than the old one, and in its construction the advantages oi
experience will insure even more advanced facilities and more com-
plete equipment.
The piano industry has changed greatly in the last quarter-cen-
tury. The new plant at Peru, Ind., will, without doubt, when com-
pleted, present a fine illustration of what a modern piano factory must
be in order to respond to the advanced demands of the trade and
the discriminating piano buying public. And the pluck of the Chute &
Butler Company will win, in the loyalty of its representatives, all and
more than even so great a disaster must entail at such a time as this.
THE PENDULUM SWINGS
It is a rare piano industry that doesn't now declare that it is
oversold. The demand for pianos is not normal and, in consequence,
it is not a healthy demand. The pendulum of trade swings far from
the center of industrial gravitation and there must inevitably come a
reaction. The pendulum must swing back.
When things in the piano business settle again to something like
normal conditions, how will the manufacturers find themselves? And
how will the average piano dealer be situated with relation to the
manufacturers, and their own possibilities of retail sales? There
are men in the business—many of them—who do not seem to give
any thought to these things.
A few days ago a brainy advertising concern had a full page dis-
play in one of the leading newspapers. The purpose was to inspire
large industries and proportionately large advertisers with the idea
that in such times as the present there is need of the kind of publicity
that lays firm foundations for the future, rather than that aims at
piling up more orders for goods that cannot be delivered. And one
of the points made is this:
A leading magazine publisher ask>s manufacturers:
"Are you well 'oversold'—or badly 'oversold'?"
To book thousands of dollars worth of "straw" orders, placed by shrewd
retailers who over order so that they may be sure of delivery by some man-
ufacturer of the goods they really want—
—to predicate production needs on soap-bubble sales volume that a pin-
prick may puncture—
—to be blinded by the delusion that you are the chosen Child of For-
tune—
—this is to be badly oversold.
To be well oversold means that you are represented by the best job-
bers or dealers or both; that they fully understand and use your advertising
and selling plans; that your sales force enjoys the full respect and confi-
dence of the trade; that your orders are legitimate and capable of imme-
diate increase whenever you have more goods to supply; that you are work-
ing on the established principle thai your product is not really sold until
it is in the hands of a satisfied customer.
If this is your position then you are "well oversold."
Apply that to the piano business and it will be found to fit more
perfectly than to most other lines of industry. Piano merchants are,
•as a rule, a sanguine lot of business men. They are, too often, given
to "counting the chickens before they are hatched." They are blessed
with a faith that is so sanguine it never sees a doubt about the profits
that must follow sales. And if today proves a dead one the piano man
believes that tomorrow will more than make amends. It is that
faith that has built up the piano trade. But it is the same faith that
has resulted in disappointment and even, in rare instances, disaster.
And so the piano trade- is very likely to forget to figure with the
future in its excitement because of the abnormal demands of today.
And the manufacturers who may neglect old customers, and reliable,
in order to win new ones with the cash, may be laying the foundation
of disappointment in the future
For when the pendulum swings
back, and the demand ceases to be so insistent, it will be the reliable
old customers that will still be the most desirable. Many of the newer
ones will fall out, and the factory output will again be greater than
the ready demand.
It is sure to be so. There is no exception to the law of ebb and
flow, and the rule of industrial supply and demand is no less inex-
orable. It is the manufacturer who steadily sticks to the policy of
careful selection of his customers and representatives that will be
on the winning side when the pendulum swings back. And it is the
retailer who sticks to the manufacturer who proves loyal in these
times that will be on the safe side when normal conditions return.
There is another good statement in the same advertisement of
the publicity concern, already quoted, that is well worth considera-
tion. It is this:
When the period of relentless competition returns, the battle for leader-
ship will be fought—not in the work shop—not in the office of the general
manager, but on the firing line—out on the salesman's territory—where
buyers are met and where orders are won or lost.
How many of the piano manufacturers have thought of this?
How many of the retail houses? What is being done to retain the
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

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