Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1771

THE PRESTO BUYERS'
•UIDE CLASSIFIES ALL
PIANOS AND PLAYERS
AND THEIR MAKERS
PRESTO
THE PRESTO YEAR BOOK
IS THE ONLY ANNUAL
REVIEW OP
THE MUSIC TRADES
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY » c*nt. t ti.oo . r~r
CHAMBER DIRECTORS MEET
Officials of Music Industries Chamber of Commerce at Meeting
Atlantic City Add Export Bureau to Facilitate
Music Trade
in
OTHER IMPORTANT OFFICIAL ACTION TAKEN
Date Set for Next Meeting in Chicago—Standing Committees Abolished
and New Ones with Advisory Capacity Formed—Vote on Labor
Report—Announcement of Chamber Bulletin
At the meeting of the directors of the Music In-
dustries Chamber of Commerce at the Hotel Tray-
more Atlantic City, N, J., June 25 it was decided to
hold the next annual convention of the Chamber be-
tween May 1 and 15th, at the Congress Hotel in
Chicago, the exact date to be settled by the presi-
dent after consultation with the officials of the vari-
ous member associations, which expected to hold
their conventions at the same time. Later, the ex-
ecutive committee of the National Association of
Music Merchants decided on the week of May 23 as
will be seen in a report elsewhere in this paper. The
view of the merchants' association members present
at the executive committee meeting was that the
Chamber officials would change to a May date more
in accordance with the merchants' plans.
;
Add Export Bureau.
i^n important action of the Chamber meeting was
the, decision to add another department— 'the Ex-
port Bureau. It will be in charge of an experienced
expiort man and will have proper facilities for pro-
moting the export trade of the entire music industry.
I
Abolishes Standing Committees.
Tfhe former standing committees of the Chamber
haye been abolished and the president was instructed
to Jreappoint the Salaries and Finance Committee with
additional committees so that it will be representa-
tive of all branches of the industry and also to ap-
i t th
l l i
i
L
point
the f following
committees:
Legal
and Legisla-
tive Committee, Better Business Committee, Com-
mi ttee on the Advancement of Music, Export Com-
mittee and Trade Information Service Committee.
These committees will be advisory committees for
th sei ve in an advisory capacity and will be available
foi consultation by the bureau in question and will
m; ke investigations, reports and recommendations
to the directors for action upon matters of policy
ar d important activities connected with the work of
th e bureau.
Incorporate Chamber.
The general manager was instructed to take mea-
su 1 es preparatory to the incorporation of the Cham-
be -, which at present is an unincorporated associa-
tic n. The final details connected with the incorpo-
ra tion will be passed upon at the next meeting of
th e board. In connection with the incorporation,
th ire will also be a revision of the Constitution and
-Laws of the Chamber, made necessary by its
wth and enlargement of its activities,
is planned to draw up uniform membership certifi-
s suitable for framing for each member associa-
This matter will be taken care of in consulting
the officers of the member associations, in the
e that each association will adopt a certificate as
cial. The certificates will all be similar, yet distinct
fe matter of future prices was discussed informally
the board instructed that an investigation be
: and at the discretion of the general manager
official report of the Chamber on the subject be
blished in an early issue of the monthly bulletin.
Votes on Labor Report.
"he committee considered and voted favorably on
jferendum 31 of the Chamber of Commerce of the
Jnited States of America, being the report of the
|>ecial Committee on Public Utilities, concerning
fgulations of employment relations to public serv-
corporations. This report favors the following
/o propositions:
ll. That stirkes by employes of all public service
lirporations, performing public service, essential to
the lives, health, security, comfort, and well being of
the people, should by law be prohibited and
2. That suitable tribunals should be created by
law to adjudicate the differences between the em-
ployes of public service corporations and their em-
ployers, and that the decisions of such tribunals
should be final and binding upon both parties.
The directors voted to contribute to the erection
of a building in Washington for the Chamber of Com-
merce of the United States which will serve as head-
quarters for the nation's business in Washington.
This is in accordance with the policy of the Music
Industries Chamber of Commerce to co-operate with
the National Chamber upon important business ques-
tions of a national character affecting this industry.
A Chamber Bulletin.
The directors also voted to publish monthly an
official bulletin of the Chamber. This monthly pub-
lication will be sent to all of the members of the
NEW HOME FOR KNABE
WAREROOMS, INC., IN CAPITAL
J. H. Williams, Its President, Purchases the Ca-
pacious Building at 1330 G Street, Northwest.
Combine the ex-
periences and ener-
gies of a good pi-
ano man and the
name of a high
class piano and the
result is a success-
ful business. The
story of such a
combination is con-
veyed in the title
of a leading music
house of Baltimore,
Md., and Washing-
ton, D. C, the
Knabe Warerooms,
Inc., the president
of which is J. H.
Williams.
Success is re-
corded and com-
memorated in va-
rious p l e a s a n t
ways. The business
w o r l d acknowl-
edges it in the reg-
ular form and in
incidental
ways
that are all the
more flattering be-
cause
they
are
spontaneous. The
KNABE WAREROOMS,
growth in patron-
WASHINGTON, D. C.
age by the public
is a phase of testimony. A convincing evidence of suc-
cess is supplied this week by the Knabe Warerooms,
Inc., in a formal announcement.
The accompanying cut shows the new Williams
building, 1330 G St., N. W., Washington, D. C. This
building was recently purchased by J. H. Williams,
president of the Knabe Warerooms, Inc., and will
be the future home of the Knabe piano.
various member associations of the Chamber and
individual members, comprising a total mailing list
of about 3,500. The paper will average eight pages
and will be approximately eight by twelve inches.
It is distinctly a house organ of the Chamber and
will not carry any advertising. It will contain the
monthly reports of the activities of the various bu-
reaus of the Chamber and information concerning
the purposes of the Chamber ^nd other material of
interest to the members. The official news, of the
Chamber will continue to be sent to the trade papers
each week and will not be held for publication in the
official bulletin.
The name of the bulletin has not yet been finally
decided upon, but it will probably be called "Monthly
Bulletin of the Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce." It is expected that its first issue will appear
about July 15th, and from then on it will come out
regularly on the 15th of each month. The editor of
the bulletin who also will have charge of its make-up
will be Frederic A. Steele, who is already connected
with the Chamber in the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music.
W. F. WALLACE JOINS Q R S
COMPANY'S TRAVELING STAFF
He Is One of the Pioneers in the Music Roll End
of the Industry.
The Q R S Music Co. announces the addition to
its staff of W. F. Wallace. Mr. Wallace will travel
out of Chicago.
"Bill" Wallace, as everybody knows him, is one
of the pioneers in the music roll game, and there
is perhaps no better known and loved traveling man
in the business.
He started in 1904 with the old Perforated Music
Roll Co. E. J. Delfraisse at that time bought from
him 5,000 65-note rolls for the L. Grunewald Co.,
of New Orleans, and that was some order in those
days. (P. S.—Earl Holland says he will corroborate
this as he found them all there in 1912.)
The Perforated Music Roll Co. and the 65-note
roll are both extinct now, but "Bill" Wallace has
progressed continually to the n'th degree, and his
genial smile fits so well with Q R S products, that
both this company and Mr. Wallace have been
the recipients of numerous congratulations from
coast to coast.
CALLS SPECIAL MEETING
OF NEW YORK PIANO CLUB
Secretary Bowers Mails Earnest Request to Mem-
bers to Foregather July 28,
There will be a special meeting of the members of
the Piano Club of New York, July 28, at the club
rooms at 1:30 p. m., for the purpose of voting on the
following amendment to the by-laws which has been
approved by the board of directors:
"Article III, Section 1. By striking out second
paragraph thereof and inserting instead:
"The number of members exclusive of gentlemen
connected with piano or its allied trades shall not at
any time exceed one-third of the total membership
of the club."
A LONG-DISTANCE AUTO TRIP.
Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Lehman, of St. Louis, Mo.,
drove to Chicago in their car and visited Mr. and
Mrs. James T. Bristol, of the Price & Teeple Piano
Company. Mr. Lehman is selling the Price & Teeple
line in St. Louis and is particularly fond of the
reproducing instrument manufactured by that com-
pany. While in Chicago Mr. and Mrs. Lehman
stopped at the Parkway Hotel. Accompanied by
Mr. and Mrs. Bristol, they went by automobile to
the Symphonola factory at Kankakee, 111., on Fri-
day. They drove back to St. Louis from Chicago
on Saturday.
ALLAN WELLBURN RESIGNS.
Allan Wellburn, member of the board of direc-
tors of the O. K. Houck Piano Co., Memphis, Tenn.,
and manager of the Nashville store of the company,
has resigned. Mr. Wellburn has not announced his
future plans. Mr. Wellburn is a man of wide expe-
rience in both the piano and talking machine fields.
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All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
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t BJL.
• . UIM4»K
PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
A. DANIELL and PRANK D. ABBOTT
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Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
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A d d r e s s all c o m m u n i c a t i o n s for t h e editorial or b u s i n e s s d e p a r t m e n t s to P R E S T O
PI4JPLISHING C O . , C h i c a g o , III.
tet -Thrte dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single ingortiejia.
ttlOQth, less twenty-five per cent on yearly contracts. The
h F« r el(t$H|l
«P«ee. Payment Is not accepted f6r artlctes of tfe-
r or other matter appearing In the news columns. Business notices
by the word "advertisement?' in accordance with the Act of August
for advertislnjr'in the Year Book issue and Export Supplements of The
M be mkde Kfi&Wn upon application. The Presto Year Bdo'H and B»p«rt
ye theTEcuit ©xWniiye circulation, of any periodicals devoted to th
.t t$d$fc*nAWfmfli* .»n•'*» Parts of th^ world. ahd^re^h;j&%*t
e houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern aha
e j s ' G u i d e i, the
. only
. reliable
. index to the American Muffaei
lyres aUjPianos and ftayer-Plano^i fives accurate esti
ntltns
a
dl(ecto?V
of
their
manufacturers.
lea a:
•H4 ajjd blher matter of general interest to thf
of jaws, phot
j>ted will be paid for. Addtess ail commublca'
i iAvffed knd W.
»ubirshinq Co., Chic
SATURDAY, JULY 3, 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
"GOOP 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.
July 3, 1920.
The manufacturers sought for new methods by which to keep the
wheels going 'round. And so branch stores were opened whenever
the big manufacturer found he could not induce some established
dealer to either buy or enter into the consignment agreement.
By these plans the piano manufacturers gradually tied up large
investments in finished instruments, and often the sums were aug-
mented by advances for freights, and even for the rents and running
expenses. The system became almost reckless and, of course, the
character of the retailers, as a class, was not improved in proportion
to the spread in their numbers. Also as a natural consequence, the
time came when the piano manufacturers realized that a change was
necessary. They began to draw in their lines of that kind of enter-
prise, and there soon remained only the dealers who had their own
stores, and the manufacturers' branches. And the consignment sys-
tem increased.
It was about that time that the manufacturers began to arrange
plans of wholesale installment systems. Some of them sent out their
travelers with propositions to deliver pianos on quarterly payments
of small amounts. At least one piano industry sold on monthly pay-
ments, taking the dealers monthly notes for each instrument. It may
easily be seen that the obligations of the smaller dealers grew with
a rapidity disproportionate to the credibility of the customers. And
soon that plan was suspended. The branch store became more and
more common, one Chicago manufacturer having them in nearly all
the cities of any size throughout the Middle-West.
The branch store investment on so large a scale became too
much of a burden and the branches were closed, the stores being
disposed of by special or forced sales. Only the most important
branch houses remained, and today those branches are valuable out-
lets to some of the larger and wealthiest industries.
'
There are consigned pianos still, but their number is very small
as compared with the proportion a good many years ago. Today
the piano business has outlived its consignment days and its dooms-
day-term selling systems. If W. W. Kimball were still here he
could no longer crack his joke about the piano trade being "not a
matter of time, but of eternity." The long time systems also have
gone, and no dealer today can look the manufacturer in the eye and
ask for three years' settlements with uncertain Security. It is npw
more nearly a cash transaction than ever before and it will continue
to be that kind of a business. One of the best lines of industry ajnd
trade, the piano business has been a long time finding its bearinjgs.
It has at last fallen into the control of men who know what the word
Business means and have the force of character and the financial
strength to conduct its larger affairs upon a basis of reason and
solidity. And the piano trade is, and will continue to be, the best
line of all for men of force and energy that wins in any pursuit
of life.
BETTER CONDITIONS
There was a time—not so very long ago—when it was customary
for music houses with jobbing piano departments to send out trav-
elers to find suitable men willing to embark in the retail trade. The
idea was not so much to sell pianos as to establish consignment
agents. The jobbing houses had contracts with the piano manufac-
turers by which they covered wide territory and agreed to take a
stated proportion of the factory output. Thus the jobbers financed
the manufacturers and carried the consignment agents.
There was a stereotyped contract form which was used by the
larger music houses in the piano departments. Usually the local con-
signment agent possessed no financial strength, but he was expected
to find one or two sureties who "went on" his contract, or bond, with
the jobber. Pianos were shipped to the consignment agent under
clearly stipulated conditions, and it was not often that new stores
were opened, the agent starting with his office under his hat and
his display room in his home.
L,ater it became less the custom to search for suitable agents to
sell pianos. The trade gradually developed and the consignment
agents became owners of regular warerooms. They began to look
for more makes of pianos than one or two, and the source of their
original supplies did not so nearly "own" them as at first. Then the
representatives of the manufacturers came along and gradually the
jobbers lost their control of the wide territory and the dealers did
business direct with the factories.
The consignment business continued and steadily grew great.
Large piano manufacturers saw opportunities in the consignment
system and encouraged it, until by far the greater proportion of
pianos in the stores throughout the country belonged to their makers,
and stood there by systems of sale with "strings to them." Natu-
rally, as with most good things, the consignment system became in
time overdone. The piano supply began to outstrip the demand.
A POOR PLANK
Isn't it perfectly beautiful, the calm consideration the officeholp-
ers, lawyers and political plank whittlers give to business affailrs
which do not affect them at all personally? Of course, it is propier
to expect the framers of laws and the shapers of the people's morajls
to suggest reforms and to correct evil customs. But in matters pi
business, of manufacturing and merchandising, there are so many
angles that the politician should give to them a deeper study than
merely the degree of delight with which he may thrill his "constitu-
ents." And he should not forget that while there is seemingly ; 10
blue sky to spread above and limit his fees in litigation or his salarii *s
and perquisites in political life, the manufacturer and the merchai it
may easily be squeezed to death between the law's unequal justi^
and the unrighteous suspicions and cupidity of the buying public.
About the first mouthful of profundity at the Democratic coj
vention in San Francisco was a proposition by Attorney Gene^
Palmer that a plank be inserted in the party platform providing "i
marking the producer's and manufacturer's cost price on commoJ
ties." The idea was, of course, to drive one more nail into the hi!
cost of living. And the proposition was a safe one from the polil
cian's standpoint. The manufacturers and merchants do not swir
the political parties. Their votes do not create a majority and
producers are not the kind of men to oppose any movement whic
may seem to have for its purpose the amelioration of the people's il
But it is very difficult to see just where such an enactment as
Palmer must have had in mind would lead to. It seems at once c
that any law of the kind could not be made to apply equally to a]
lands and classes of producers and manufacturers. In the piarj
business it would not serve any two industries just alike. And
the retail piano trade it would have the result of driving two-thirc
of the merchants out of business. Such a provision, strictly enforc<
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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