RE8TO
music show. But wait till such combinations as the Apollophone
and the Player-Piano Phone get fully going. Then we may see and
hear a music show that will rival all the used automobile shows on
earth.
.
,
FACTORY BONUSES
The scarcity of competent factory workers in the piano industry
is a generally recognized condition, whatever the cause. It is more
than twenty years since the plan of bonuses for competent and loyal
workers was introduced. In some of the piano factories the plan of
premiums for practical ideas, designed to improve either the product
or the working conditions, has resulted in increased efficiency. The
late Calvin Whitney, when head of the A. B. Chase Company, at
Norwalk, Ohio, encouraged the plan and a series of boxes were placed
throughout the factory, into which the workers were invited to de-
posit their suggestions. Cash prizes were awarded to all who made
available suggestions, and it was understood that results were good.
Other piano industries have tried the same plan. One or two of the
very large ones still maintain some such system.
But today it is not so much to inspire the piano factory workers
to new proofs of progress and adaptability, as to get them to stay at
their tasks and to do loyally the work that is allotted to them. By
way of illustrating the difficulties experienced in finding and holding
suitable workers the case of a large mid-west industry seems to the
point. And it is probably only one of many in which similar methods
are employed.
Throughout the factory alluded to the visitor may see good-sized
placards, tacked upon the walls and pillars. In large type the an-
nouncement is made that "any employe who brings a good worker
to this department is entitled to a bonus of $2 if the man remains
one week or more." That is a new order of "tip," and it shows to
what an extreme the labor shortage has come. And it is typical of
factory conditions in most lines of industry.
To the average merchant who clamors for stock, in almost any
line of business, it seems impossible to believe that raw materials are
May 8, 1920.
so hard to secure that the finished product can not be had, whatever
the special price offered. It isn't a question, of price at all, so far as
the piano industry is concerned. It is the constant effort to produce
and to satisfy the trade, irrespective of either price or profits. It is,
we believe, too much so in the case of some piano manufacturers.
There are a few piano industries the management of which seem
to have foreseen industrial conditions as they exist today. Those fac-
tories may not be able to meet the demands of their trade with the
utmost promptitude. But they come very near to doing it. A notice-
able example is the industry at Fort Wayne, Ind., whose motto is "If
there's no harmony in the factory there will be none in the piano."
Mr. A. S. Bond, president of The Packard Company, had worked
out a systematic plan of contentment for his workers before he
adopted that motto. He tried it and found that, by putting more of
the humanizing element within the factory walls, there would be
less unrest there, better reward to the workers, and a more enduring
spirit of permanency and persistency. It is by a departure from the
old conditions into new, broad and more liberal adjustments, that
progress is today insured. We can all remember the time when a piano
factory, in not a few instances, meant a dingy loft in some desolate
section of a noisy city. Steep stairs, often reeking with dirt, formed
the approach, and unwashed windows let in barely sufficient light for
the workers to apply their skill. Crowded, stuffy and unsanitary, the
old-time piano factory often suggested almost anything but the often
really beautiful instruments which were born amid such unsuitable
surroundings.
Today the piano factory is a model of convenience and often
beauty of surroundings. We could name some of them, even in large
cities, the environment of which might challenge, in attractiveness,
the best of the institutions of education. Fine, clean buildings, sur-
rounded by flower-beds and green lawns, equipped with the most
modern appliances and conveniences, the workers have reason to be
contented, and the $2 bonus for the privilege of staying and work-
ing seems almost needless and certainly a superfluity. And yet the
workers are just now hard to find.
ABE'S EPIGRAMS
(Continued from page 3.)
This seemed quite possible to him, and fordays at a time he would think and dream,
and dream and think, of the wonders of such a machine. He could see how it would
revolutionize modern life.
Without realizing it, he fell into the pleasant habit of working in his imagina-
tion only, rarely using his hands to experiment, test, and try again. In the mean-
time, his tidy little fortune dwindled. Poor investments which he did not bother
to look up closely, ate into his substance, and now the rapidly diminishing capital
will barely maintain him. In building castles in the air to the exclusion of all else,
his possessions on the earth are rapidly disappearing.
A business man who was so sure that he could make a fortune out of a scheme
of his to sell by mail, utterly neglected the business which was sufficient for him-
self and his family. His father had put a lifetime of work into this. The son had in-
herited it and carried it on in a leisurely way for some time. Then it struck him that
the whole world should be "his oyster."
So he began reaching out through the printed page, for customers at distant
points of the compass. He didn't know the game or how to play it. He thought he
was building a fine castle in the air with a cage of canary birds in every room, but
one day he awoke to the dismal fact that he hadn't any business anywhere.
What about it? Have you reached the happy medium—that mental attitude
where you can keep the business of today at flood tide, and at the same time have
the vision and ability to plan for larger things tomorrow and the day after?
What about your goal? What do you hope to do and to be three—five years
hence? It is foolish to drift, because sooner or later drifters are bound to hit the
rocks. We must steer, and in order to steer, we must keep our hands on the wheel
and our eyes on the road.
A current advertisement reads, "Don't count crows while you are driving."
It is a good advice, for if you start to count that flock of crows overhead, you are
pretty sure to land in the ditch. Drive while you drive—but don't drive all the time.
Drive during business hours, or during such part of business hours as it is neces-
sary for you to keep your hands on the wheel; but arrange a reasonable amount of
leisure for constructive vision and planning and expansion.
Strike the happy medium of practical, efficient business management, and of
shrewd foresight as well, Then and then only will large and sure success come to
you!
LESTER G. HERBERT.
VISITORS TO EXPOSITION
TO SEE MIESSNER MADE
At Forthcoming Show in Milwaukee Jackson Piano
Co. Will Stage Factory Scene.
The piano and phonograph industries of the State
will take an important part in the first annual Made-
in-Wisconsin Exposition, to be held in the Milwau-
kee Auditorium during the week of May 22 to 30,
under the direction of the Milwaukee Journal, which
has conducted a number of unusually successful ex-
positions in recent years.
The Jackson Piano Co., 110-120 Reed street, Mil-
waukee, has taken a large space for staging a unique
exhibit which will demonstrate the construction of a
piano. This will show the little Miessner, the prin-
cipal product of the Jackson company, in process of
manufacture. A special feature will be a contest be-
tween two teams of employes of the Jackson factory
based on the assembling of the Miessner in the
shortest time possible. The work will include put-
ting together a case, installing the action, tuning
and regulating, tone-testing and other processes to
make a complete instrument ready for the home.
Other large piano manufacturers of Wisconsin have
arranged similar contests among their employes.
J. J. Jordan, sales manager of the Jackson Piano
Co., is working as a member of the general com-
mittee in charge of the exposition.
MUSIC IN DENVER.
Through the aid of the music dealers of Denver,
Colo., the city may soon have a symphony orches-
tra. The scheme was among the plans for the en-
couragement of music discussed at the recent meet-
ing of the Retail Music Dealers' Association of Den-
ver held in the Metropole Hotel recently. The proj-
ect is backed by the Rocky Mountain News of
which Edwin J. Stringham is music editor. Music is
to be the big feature of the festival to be held in
the city from June 5 to 7.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT.
A Presto representative caught Bush & Gerts
Piano Company, Weed and Dayton streets, Chicago,
on Friday in the act of shipping a carload of pianos
southward to Texas to replenish stocks in the Dallas
store. "We are even surprised ourselves to be able
to ship out a carload at a time with strike conditions
as they are," said W. S. Miller, general manager
of the company.
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