Presto

RE8TO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
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.
Cntered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois,
%
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable in advance. 'No ttr*
rge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Rate*^Three dollars per Inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Six dollars per in,ch per month, less twenty-five per cent on yearly contracts. The
Presto jtoes not sell Its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for articles of de-
scriptive character or other matter appearing 1 in the news columns. Business notices
will be indicated by the word "advertisement* In accordance with the Act of August
sl^s 1912*
,„
Ratee for advertising in the Year Book issue and Export Supplements of The
Presto will be made known upon application. The Presto Year Book and Export
issues have the njost extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical
Instrument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
The Ftesto Buyeis' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Musical
Instruments; It analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates it
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
? 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 communication* fe»
Presto Publishing Co., Chicago, III.
THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 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 N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
A BOW OF PROMISE
Industrial prosperity is almost impossible as long as strikes im-
pend and both capital and labor feel the uncertainty of the upheavals
which have kept the world in a state of semi-terror for many years.
The strike, as a means of defense, on the part of working men, is as
old as labor itself. In the early days England tried to check it by
barbarian systems of physical torture and imprisonment. The strikers
were sentenced to mutilation by loss of their ears and other punish-
ment of that kind. But strikes continued and spread until finally they
grew bolder and attacked the fields of labor where interference threat-
ens the very foundations of democracy,
It is time that the world, in its boasted refinement and freedom,
found some way by which to regulate the most vital problem in the
affairs of man. And, considering the many other problems which have
been settled, and the time, thought and fortunes that are put to their
solution, there must be some way by which the menace of spreading
industrial unrest may be quieted once and for all time.
Nothing is impossible in the operation of reasonable legislation.
No obstacles or opposition can stay the purposes of a government
that can by a word, and at once, change the habits and regulate the
personal appetites of its people. There is no such thing as any council
of citizens overthrowing the prosperity of the millions because of
private grievances, real or imaginary. And there should be no such
possibility as the getting together of any self-appointed delegates, or
other quasi officials, for the purpose of stimulating industrial strifes
when regularly chosen representatives of the people might quickly
adjust the misunderstandings and help the smooth and steady flow
of relations as they must exist between employes and employers.
In political campaigns it is a crime, severely punished, for any
candidate to spend more than a fixed and moderate sum of money in
winning election. It is the custom with labor unions to accumulate
large surplus sums of money with which to sustain, strikes, and to
March 25, 1920.
levy tax upon all who remain at work, in "peaceful" shops, for the
support of the strikers. To one who doesn't know much it seems that
there may be evil and corruption in the control and expenditure of
money, by untrained and possibly vicious leaders, exceeding the waste-
ful extravagance of the political campaign. And if one can be checked
the other certainly can be also.
But there is at last promise of some serious effort to settle the
strikes. The industrial commission has submited to the President a
plan which seems to promise well. It should be studied by piano men
as well as others. Every member of the piano trade who has been
annoyed by the shortage in production feels that the cause should be
removed. The strikes in the New York factories have cut down ship-
ments about 40 per cent during the last twelve months. The shifting
of many orders from the Eastern to the Western factories has
placed the latter industries at a disadvantage, and the fact that sup-
plies come so largely from New York has had the effect of interfering
with the Western output nearly as greatly as if the actual strike had
extended throughout the country.
Just now, the piano industry is moving ahead splendidly. The
New York industries are recovering from the effects of the protracted
strikes. But until some permanent settlement of the most vital ques-
tion of the day can be found, the piano trade, as well as others, must
feel the unrest of uncertainty. And we believe that the industrial com-
mission has proposed a plan in which there is the basis of funda-
mental reform and the kind of protection that has long been needed.
WELL-KNOWN SUBSCRIBERS
A little more than a casual estimate shows that of all Presto
readers ninety-three per cent are retail music merchants and their
salesmen. This includes heads of departments. The proportion of
paid subscribers to whose private homes the paper goes regularly is
not large, approximating four per cent, though the copies to the homes
of manufacturers is somewhat larger than that. In some cases the
paper has been going every week to private addresses of industrial
heads for from ten to thirty years without interruption.
And it may amuse a few—though it shouldn't—to know that it
several instances the ladies of the household insist on receiving th<
paper, also. We have a total of sixteen of that kind of attention.l
In one case there was, for some reason, a lapse in sending the papei
to a lady who had long before requested it. After a few weeks ha(
passed a courteous note, in which ill-disguised reproach at what
have seemed like neglect, came with a $2 check inclosed. The ladj
was at once made an honorary life member. She is the wife of one
of the most distinguished piano manufacturers, and her interest ii
trade affairs is widely recognized.
A rather surprising fact in connection with the mailing list
the number of small music publishers who are regular readers. Anc
they are among the most insistent inquirers in the "Where Doubts
Are Dispelled" department. It is curious, too, that the small pub
lishers seem to be perpetually concerned with the activities of th<
"Songs wanted" gentry. They appear to seek some methods of pub
licity and promotion which may wholly depart from the questionabl*
practices implied. It is a good sign, and in one case, within a weel
a small publisher in the West forwarded to this paper a sworn affidavH
stating that he would print no song that might be "in the least sugl
gestiye of smut or calculated to bring the blush to the cheek of th(
most refined." He wanted advertising rates, but when his sonj
arrived the publisher was told to save his money; that he had pr<
duced nothing with a spark of promise in it; that, while there is notl
ing shameful in the line "May God Almighty bring you bliss,"
sung to commonplace accent it could not prove inspiring.
Certainly the music publishers are doing better, anyway. Wl
mean the smaller ones. The nests of erotic vultures that cluster
the top-story lofts in middle New York are the same as when she<
music was first blown out of Pond's and Ditson's and Peters' and Goi
don's and landed in the cess-pools of Hit Alley. The hope now lies i|
the great music roll industry. With such powerful influences as tl
Republic Corporation, the Imperial Company, the Q R S Company
and the rest, it will not take long to close both the bung and tl
spigot of the intemperate sewers of song slush.
It was the purpose at first to attempt a tabulation of the pianl
salesmen who, independently of their employers, are regular subscrilf
ers to this paper. Some years back a systematic effort was made
win a large reading of that kind, and with success, as the frequenc
with which the Presto Watch Fob is seen testifies. But we failt
to carry that line of investigation far, though the daily letters whic
come afford ample evidence that the salesmen, are with us in sympj
thetic numbers. To show how much in earnest the traveling piai
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