RESTO
March 25, 1920.
25
THE
TALKING MACHINE
News of the Week in the Phonograph Field
POOR COLLECTORS
It is stated by men. qualified to speak that
most of the failures of retail phonograph deal-
ers are due to the fact that they are poor credit
men and poor collectors. "Insufficient capital"
may be the summary of the condition's report.
But that is only another way of saying it.
What makes capital insufficient is the unex-
pected and constantly increasing burden of the
uncollected back accounts; fatty degeneration
of the collection department. The wise trade
editor, inspired trade orator, or paternal trade
association that could make all the merchants
of the country careful credit men and good
collectors would not only work one of the most
beneficent miracles imaginable to the trade but
would also do wonders in smothering incipient
crops of deadbeats before they pass the chrysa-
lis stage.
The retail talking machine business is essen-
tially a credit one. So the credit sense, as you
might call it, and an expert knowledge of col-
lection methods is as big an asset as a knowl-
edge of machines. Perhaps bigger. There are
hundreds of merchants of genial personality
who can sell the goods but who are as lacking
in the vital elements of business management
as a lamb. So long as they are closing the in-
stallment deals and seeing the goods delivered
they are happy and feel that they must be pros-
perous. In fact they are so busy selling the
goods they fail to note that collections are very
sick and that the Business Health Department
has telephoned for Dr. Sheriff.
Capital, health, intelligence, honesty and in-
dustry are essentials to a start in the talking
machine business. The credit sense is a neces-
sity to sticking in it. This involves the wit
and force of character to collect.
An optimist is a man who makes the best of
the worst of it.
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The alert man sees an opportunity. The
wise man knows when to let it pass.
* * *
It's a poor profiteer who can't prove that he
is losing money.
* * *
Politeness always pays. But of course it is
hard to be Chesterfieldian if you are trying to
get a woman on the other end of a customer's
party line 'phone from butting into the phono-
graph deal conversation.
COLUMBIA EARNINGS
The Year Just Past Was Most Remarkable One,
Says President Whitten.
The Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Com-
pany reports for year ended Dec. 31 last a surplus
after excess profits, dividends, etc., of $1,188,801,
against $208,182 in preceding year. The surplus in
1919 is arrived at after a reserve for income and ex-
Cess profit taxes of $3,391,313, while in 1918 no re-
serve was made for taxes.
F. S. Whitten, president, in his remarks says that
the year just closed has been in many respects a
most unusual one, and that the company would have
shown much .larger net earnings were it not for the
unfavorable Federal tax law now in operation which
resulted in over 45 per cent of the company's net
profits in 1919 being paid the Federal Government
as taxes. The income account for 1919 follows:
1919.
1918.
Earnings from all sources
$7,793,044 $1,939,512
Net earnings
7,530,084 1,435,797
Net profits
7,015,515
819,451
Excess profits, taxes, etc
3,391,313
Net income
3,624,202
819,461
Dividends
2,435,401
611,279
Surplus
1,188,801
208,182
Previous surplus
2,396,361 2,188,179
Total surplus
3,585,162 2,396,251
Other charges—
Against surplus
720,616
Final surplus
2,864,546 2,396,261
PROUD OF HIS MAQNOLA
Advance
Agent of World's Greatest
Charmed With Machine.
Shows
W. Al. White, advance agent for Ringling Bros,
and Barnum & Bailey's Combined Shows, is the
proud owner of a style 185 Magnola Talking Ma-
chine, manufactured in Chicago by the M. Schulz
Company. He claims that he never heard a ma-
chine that can equal it. His brothers have choice
machines of other well-known makes, but Mr. White
says the Magnola has theirs "skinned a mile."
Mrs. John Swadling, Mr. White's mother, was 83
years old on February 3, and she was honored at
STYLK 185 MAGNOLA.
her home in Brighton, Iowa, on that occasion with
a big dinner. W. Al. White was chief cook and
seasoned the dinner to suit his mother's taste. It
was a three-course affair. The local paper of Brigh-
ton said of it:
"Music was furnished by their Magnola Talking
Machine, which added greatly to the feast. Many
beautiful presents pleased 'grandma,' including a
100-piece bluebird dinner set."
STUDENTS TYPE TO MUSIC
Marches and Dances from Phonograph Stimulate
Mental and Physical Activity in School.
William Bachrach, supervisor of commercial
work in the high schools of Chicago, has a sys-
tem already in operation at the Hyde Park High
school, wherein all the typewriting classes are
conducted to the rhythm of music.
While the students punch the keys the teacher
keeps a phonograph in operation. Mr. Bachrach's
idea of having them write to music has gone over
with a bang, and the stenography classes have be-
come the most popular in the school. Furthermore,
the other high schools are demanding that the sys-
tem be adopted in them.
"I got my idea," Mr. Bachrach said, "some years
ago from the cigar makers of the South, who work
to music. Since it has been put into practice here
I find that the students develop, first, evenness of
touch, then speed and accuracy. We use march
records for the most part; some dance records.
Another result is that in all interschool contests
the Hyde Park students have won every prize."
ITEMS PROM CINCINNATI
The Druffel vs. Onken Suit Over Ownership of
Stock Interests the Trade.
The suit of Henry B. Druffel against Oscar On-
ken and the Oscar Onken Company, Cincinnati,
manufacturers of phonograph cabinets, involving
claims which Mr. Druffel makes as to his owner-
ship of stock in the company, and his share in its
assets, is on hearing before United States District
Court Judge Weld Peck, in Cincinnati. The suit
alleges that Mr. Druffel was forced out of his posi-
tion in the company and was deprived of his proper
proportion of the accumulations.
During the past week G. E. McCord, phonograph
manager of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Com-
pany in Cincinnati moved his family to that city
from Chicago, and for the present they are residing
in Clifton. Prior to coming to Cincinnati, two years
ago, Mr. McCord was engaged in the piano busi-
ness in Chicago.
P. H. Oelman, manager of the Cincinnati Phono-
graph Shop, and H. W. Schmid, sales promotion
manager, attended the conventions of the Edison
Company at Indianapolis, Ind., and Atlanta, Ga.,
last week.
CHANGES IN THE VICTOR CO.
All Concerned Are Well Known to Trade and of
Long Association with Company.
The places of Leon F. Douglass and Albert C.
Middleton, who resigned recently as directors of
the Victor Talking Machine Co., have been filled
by Calvin C. Child and Edward E. Shumaker. The
former, who were among the original incorpora-
tors of the company, have been appointed on the
newly organized advisory committee which decides
important matters of Victor policy.
Mr. Child, who has long been connected with
the recording laboratory, is a prominent figure in
talking machine circles. Mr. Shumaker, too, is fa-
miliar to the trade and industry. He has been
Victor purchasing agent for the past nine years.
Edward K. MacEwan, another veteran of the Vic-
tor organization, has been elected secretary of the
company, succeeding Ralph L. Freeman, who re-
signed that office in order to devote his entire
time to the problems of Victor distribution.
Other appointments are: Walter J. Staats elect-
ed treasurer, succeeding Charles K. Haddon, who
will devote his entire time to the duties of vice-
president. Eugene F. Haines, Frank B. Middleton,
Jr., and George W. Jaggers have been elected
assistant treasurers.
MEN AND THEIR TERRITORIES.
The following territories and the traveling men
assigned to cover them have been announced by the
Victor Talking Machine Co., through H. A. Beach:
W. E. Witham, Pittsburgh and Western Pennsyl-
vania; T. L. R. Husselton, to North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida; O. C. Pearson, to
Iowa; E. R. Dunning, to New York City, assisting
Herbert McCreedy; P. G. Roberts, New York state;
W. B. Gannon, Michigan.
PHONOGRAPH NAME CHANGED.
In order to avoid trouble over patented names
the name of the Symphona phonograph has been
changed to the Amphona. The announcement was
made recently by Jos. M. Abrams, manager of the
talking machine department of Kohler & Chase,
San Francisco, which handles the machine in a
wholesale way. The wholesale talking machine
department of the company now occupies the en-
tire sixth floor of the Kohler & Chase building.
LEASE TO PHONOGRAPH COMPANY.
The BurTftg Realty Company, New York, during the
past week closed a lease for a term of years in the
American Law Book building, Flatbush avenue ex-
tension and Willoughby street, to the Grand Talk-
ing Machine Company. The leased space covers a
half of the Flatbush avenue ground floor front and
will be used as a showroom.
OTTO HEINEMAN VISITS CHICAGO.
Otto Heineman, head of the General Phonograph
Corp., who spent several days in Chicago on busi-
ness, left on the Twentieth Century Limited train
of the New York Central lines, Tuesday of this
week, for New York. The Heineman factories are
very busy these days.
W. O. Harris, talking machine dealer, Burling-
ton, N. C, has moved from the Harkins Building
to more commodious quarters in the Development
Building.
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