Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1777

Page 5 Text:

August 14, 1920.
their stores. And the wise ones will not advance the prices beyond
the increase represented by the new freight tariff. The excessive de-
mand for pianos has settled back. It would be a mistake to try to
revive it in the old way—by cutting prices and advertising "bar-
gains," which meant sacrifice of profits. Nor is that necessary.
The dealers who know how to make use of the inevitable increase
in the cost of their pianos, will benefit, rather than meet wiht loss, be-
cause of the freight increase. The kind that try to lead their trade
to believe that the new tariff kills their profits, and then swell the
selling prices accordingly, will turn away business. Keep the prices
where they belong, but don't make a small addition to the cost of
doing business a pretext for mulcting your customers and killing your
business.
SUCCESSFUL SEEBURG
It was old Bovee, ancient philosopher, who defined the secret of
success in just as many words as form the minimum in a modern tele-
graph message, thus: "Successful minds work like a gimlet—to a
single point." The application just now is to a recent transaction in
the piano industry by which a younger member of the Chicago group
becomes head of a two-factory combination. And the amalgamation
is more interesting because the successful man is the same that organ-
ized and established both of the factories.
The story of Mr. J. P. Seeburg's securing control of his old com-
pany, and his plans to combine it with his newer Marshall Piano Co.,
was told last week. To many in the trade and industry it created
surprise, because it was so comparatively recently that Mr. Seeburg
disposed of his interests in the older industry and, with the proceeds
of the sale, commenced to do business as the Marshall Piano Co.
Others, who had knowledge of the fact that the management of the
J. P. Seeburg Piano Co. was long ago looking around for a new loca-
tion, realized that a change was pending and easily foresaw that Mr.
Seeburg was "coming back."
But of more interest even than the combination of the two See-
burg industries, with their founder in control, are the career and
activities of the man himself. It is probable that in a crowd J. P.
Seeburg would not be picked out for a winner of the determined,
persistent and forceful type. He fits Bovee's definition of a success-
ful mind. He works with the silent, tireless insinuation of the gimlet.
His left hand no doubt knows what his right hand doeth, but he
doesn't pause in his boring, in the adamant of ambition, to cry out
his purposes to other borers just below or at either side of him.
Only when the gimlet emerges from the other side, and the light
shines through, does he tell why he has been at work, and what the
purposes of it may be. And that is the way with most successful
workers. They have definite aims, but they say little about them till
success has come and the liability of overthrow by interference is
past.
When many members of the piano business first knew Mr. See-
burg he was at work in the factory of the Smith, Barnes & Strohber
Co., in Chicago. He was quite young at that time, but he knew
where he was heading. And soon he was heard of as one of the pro-
moters of a piano action industry at Rockford, 111. He was an action
expert—a practical piano maker. The action factory was successful
but the gimlet did not just like the boring. So it wasn't long before
a new player-piano industry was launched in Chicago. It was known
as the Marquette Piano Co., and electric pianos were the product.
The company's name was due to the fact that Mr. Seeburg had inter-
ested his capital in the copper country of which the town of Mar-
quette, Mich., is a center. The industry still exists, but its founder
has long been out of it.
The next his friends knew of his persistent boring, Mr. Seeburg
was selling electric pianos at retail, putting them into places of recrea-
tion and disposing of the installment paper to capitalists who quickly
reposed confidence in the secure sagacity of the young salesman.
Naturally, that kind of association suggested a new industry by which
the selling of electric pianos direct, and in, larger numbers, might
quickly lead to fortune. Mr. Seeburg was not slow in getting started
along the very lines he had fixed his gimlet mind upon years before.
The industry set a new record in the speed of its development.
When Mr. Seeburg sold out his interests in the J. P. Seeburg
Piano Co., he had acquired a comfortable fortune. But his ambitions
had not yet been satisfied. He was still a young man with his ener-
gies unimpaired. What more natural that when this opportunity
arose he seized it rapidly and prepared to continue boring, with an
auger replacing the insinuating gimlet of earlier days?
OPENING OVERTURES OF THE CANDIDATES
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE'S CREED.
(Continued from page 3.)
more production, honest production, patriotic production, because
patriotic production is no less a defense of our best civilization than
that of armed force. Profiteering is a crime of commission, under-
production is a crime of omission. We must work our most and
best, else the destructive reaction will come. We must stabilize and
strive for normalcy, else the inevitable reaction will bring its train
of sufferings, disappointments and reversals. We want to forestall
such reaction; we want to hold all advanced ground and fortify it
with general good fortune.
Let us return for a moment to the necessity for understanding,
particularly that understanding which concerns ourselves at home.
I decline to recognize any conflict of interest among the participants
in industry. The destruction of one is the ruin of the other, the
suspicion or rebellion of one unavoidably involves the other. In con-
flict is disaster, in understanding there is triumph. There is no issue
relating to the foundation on which industry is builded, because
industry is bigger than any element in its modern making. But the
insistent call is for labor, management and capital to reach under-
standing.
OBLIGATIONS TO HUMANITY.
The human element comes first, and I want the employers in
industry to understand the aspirations, the convictions, the yearn-
ings of the millions of American wage earners, and I want the
wage earners to understand the problems, the anxieties, the obliga-
tions of management and capital, and all of them must understand
their relationship to the people and their obligation to the republic.
Out of this understanding will come the unanimous committal
to economic justice and in economic justice lies that social justice
which is the highest essential to human happiness,
DEMOCRATIC PROMISE OF PEACE.
(Continued from page 3.)
widening flow of American commerce. We will soon have a merchant
marine fleet of 11,000,000 tons aggregate, every ship flying the Amer-
ican flag and carrying in American bottoms the products of mill and
mine and factory and farm.
This would seem to be a guaranty of continued prosperity. Our
facilities for exchange and credit, however, in foreign parts should
be enlarged, and under the federal reserve system banks should be
established in important trading centers.
There is unrest in the country; our people have passed through
a trying experience. The European war before it engulfed us aroused
every racial throb in a nation of composite citizenship. The conflict
in which we participated carried anxieties into every community, and
thousands upon thousands of homes were touched by tragedy.
VISION OF THE FUTURE.
We want to forget war and be free from the troubling thought of
its possibility in the future. We want the dawn and the dews of a
new morning. We want happiness in the land, the feeling that the
square deal among men and between men and government is not to
be interfered with by a purchased preference. We want a change
from the old world of yesterday, where international intrigue made
the people mere pawns on the chessboard of war. We want a change
from the old industrial world, where the man who toiled was assured
"a full dinner pail" as his only lot and portion.
My vision does not turn backward to the "normal" desired by the
senatorial oligarchy, but to a future in which all shall have a normal
opportunity to cultivate a higher stature amidst better environment
than that of the past. Our view is toward the sunrise of tomorrow,
with its progress and its eternal promise of better things. The op-
position stands in the skyline of the setting sun, looking backward
to the old days of reaction.
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/

Page 6 Text:

August 14, 1920.
convenient. Then somebody proposed an auction
of the household effects and that was decided upon.
The auction drew a big crowd, bidding was brisk
and the prices for everything satisfactory. Then
came the turn of the old rickety tin-pan stencil piano
to be put up and Mr. Hulme drew nearer to listen
William Thomson, Accompanied by His Wife, to the auctioneer's eulogy. It was a wonder.
"We now come to the chef de owfer of this taste-
Calls on Old Friends in Chicago, Not
ful family's collection," he began in megaphone tones.
Forgetting Presto, Before Turn-
"This solid mahogany piano which can add grace to
a millionaire's mansion and cause it to re-echo with
ing His Face Homeward.
melody is for sale. But there's a reserve price. A
William Thomson, the piano virtuorium in New York City has telegraphed
Glasgow, Scotland, piano a bid. You cannot sell an object de art like this
dealer, and Mrs. Thom- piano without exciting desires for its possession
among the cultured and the collectors. But.I have
son, arrived in Chicago the
town pride. I hate to see this magnificent piano
last Friday on their way go out of Tulsa and I hope you feel the same way.
home from a visit to Mr. Now how much am I offered for this prized and
Thomson's branch store much sought—"
"The piano is not for sale! I guess I'm rich
in Vancouver, B. C. The
visit of Mr. Thomson enough to keep on owning it," was the excited shout
was one of his periodic of Mr. Hulme.
ones in search of pianos
and players and talking
machines for his big
store in Glasgow.
Mr. Thomson's ap-
pearance in the piano Milwaukee Association of Commerce Hereforward
Will Do Business on Business Basis.
offices and warerooms
is a pleasurable event for
The Milwaukee Association of Commerce has
scores of American piano
men. Apart from his notified ill members availing themselves of the serv-
WILLIAM THOMSON.
ability to buy the goods, ices of the credit bureau operated by the Retail
the Glasgow dealer's personality is a source of joy. Division that henceforth the bureau will do business
Few piano men are so well posted on the features on a business basis, and will charge for credit re-
of the business and industry in two countries; few ports at the rate of 28 cents per report. This is the
can so well draw the broad and fine distinction be- cost of each report at the present rate of service,
tween America and Great Britain, as far as the but as rapidly as new members are secured in quan-
selling of pianos is concerned. Mr. Thomson is one tities, the rate will be decreased.
"This action has been found necessary because
of the big men in the music trade over there. He is
president of the organization of music dealers of quite a few members of this organization have been
securing a great many more reports than they are
Scotland.
entitled to for the amount of money they are pay-
In his business in Glasgow Mr. Thomson is assist- inginto the association treasury," said Phil A. Grau,
ed by his son, William Thomson, Jr., who served in business manager of the association. "In order that
the army during the war in a way that won distinc- the Credit Bureau may be run upon a business basis
tion. While in Chicago, William Thomson an- and not at a loss, measured service is deemed neces-
nounced the forthcoming marriage of his son to a sary."
belle of Dumfries.
Under the new rule, firms holding multiple mem-
In a somewhat extended discussion of the piano berships will be charged for reports at the rate of
interests in both hemispheres, Mr. Thomson illus- 28 cents only when the number of reports asked by
trated clearly the effects of the high rate of exchange each member exceeds the amount covered by the
now existing upon the importation of American memberships. The membership fee is $25 a year.
pianos. Of course, it is an old story, and time alone
can bring back something like an even balance. At
this time, as Mr. Thomson plainly demonstrated,
by figures showing the prevailing prices of English
and Canadian instruments, as compared with those
in the U. S., the cost of exchange, together with the
tariffs imports create too great a divergence to make Tri-City Branch of National Piano Tuners' Associa-
it possible to handle many American pianos abroad.
tion Assembles at Annual Meeting.
Mr. Thomson has the figures at his fingers' ends.
He has been importing pianos from this country to
Piano tuners and dealers of Rock Island, 111., and
Scotland for very many years. He is even partial neighboring cities in Illinois and Iowa, affiliated with
to the American instruments and has a large sale the National Piano Tuners' Association, gathered
for them in Glasgow. But, under existing conditions, last week at the Y. W. C. A. in Rock Island for their
he found it impractical to place large orders and annual banquet. Charles Deutschmann, president of
was contented with informing himself concerning the national association, was in attendance.
some of the newer industries and placing orders for
Mr. Deutschmann addressed the gathering on the
a few samples with which to sustain his established success of the national association in impressing
representation of American instruments.
upon piano owners the necessity of having instru-
Mr. Thomson made the somewhat surprising ments tuned at least once a year to insure perfect
statement that talking machines do not have much service and retention of beauty of tone.
Talks were also given by John Donnelly of the
sale with his houses. He carries them, but the de-
Baxter Company and H. W. Shannon.
mand is not comparable with that in this country.
Members in attendance included Henry Atkins,
A. L. Bruner, A. J. Bullock, W. E. Herrick, W. S.
West, F. J. Fregin, Paul Braun, J. I. Cheney, John
D. Donnelly, H. W. Shannon, John T. Anderson
and D. T. Harris.
VISIT TO AMERICA
OF BIG GLASGOW DEALER
ANNOUNCES CHARGE FOR
CREDIT BUREAU RATINGS
PIANO TUNERS HOLD
BANQUET IN ROCKFORD, ILL
WONDERS OF AUCTION ROOM
PSYCHOLOGY ARE SHOWN
And Tin-Pan Piano Was the Subject of Potent
Glorifying Words.
"It takes an auctioneer to give the alluring art
character to a commonplace piano and get away with
it," said T. J. White, the Tulsa, Okla., dealer who
was a recent visitor to Chicago. Mr. White cited
an incident in proof.
Martin Hulme was an humble employe of a Tulsa
creamery when the discovery of oil near a piece of
land he owned in another part of the state gave a
turn to his fortunes. To be free to watch his inter-
ests in the oil region he threw up his job in the
creamery and sold his little house and lot at a good
figure. But the problem of getting rid of all the old-
fashioned furniture and household truck was not so
easily solved. The family considered it was of a
style and degree of antiquity impossible to retain
in the new-rich circumstances. The habitual thrifty
promptings, however, swayed the Hulme folks and
they hesitated to give the things away. The bids of
the second-hand dealers were considered dishonestly
low. To sell the stuff piece by piece was hardly
MADE ROTARIANS.
Pianos are represented in the Rotary Club of
Chicago by Wm. L. Bush and W. S. Miller of the
Bush & Gerts Piano Co. John Gerts and B. O. Jones
represent stools and benches. The information is
conveyed in a page announcement in the newspapers,
which give the purposes of the Rotary Club in detail.
Musical instrumments, talking machines and records
arc represented by the Wurlitzer Co., E. H. Uhl and
F. A. Siemon, rotarians. The club meets twice a
month for dinner at the Hotel Sherman. There is
also a round-table luncheon daily at the same hotel.
Membership is formed on the unique plan of one
active and representative man from each line of
business and profession in the community.
CAME FROM HUNTINGTON.
Carr A. Mitten, formerly of Huntington, Ind., is
secretary-treasurer of the A. B. Smith Piano Co. of
Akron, O., which recently reorganized and pushed its
capitalization to $1,000,000. Mr. Mitten has been with
the company ten years. The vice president of the
company is W. L. Moyer, also a Huntington man.
WAREROOM WARBLES
(A New One Every Week.)
By The Presto Poick.
WITH ATWOOD* HITCHED BEHIND.
I somehow seem a winner,
Whichever way I ride,
And every saint or sinner
Comes running to my side,
To see what 'tis I'm selling,
And when the truth they find,
I keep the music swelling
On Atwood,* hitched behind.
I rather like the summer,
When days are good and hot,
When all the world's a bummer
With most its cares forgot;
For then 'tis easy riding
Where prospects new I find—
My flivver smoothly gliding—
My Atwood* hitched behind.
In winter 'tis too chilly,
In spring the roads are wet,
And oft the fall is illy
Conceived for my best bet;
But in the days of summer
To music all's inclined—
It's then my fliv's a hummer;
With Atwood* hitched behind.
Then soon I stop, and gently
I tip it to the ground—
The Player speaks intently,
In music's matchless sound;
And when, at last departing,
What think you's on my mind?
I count the cash 'ere starting,
With Atwood* hitched behind!
*The Atwood Loader which, attached to a Ford,
will travel far and fast, carrying the piano safely
over any road.
PLANS TO CELEBRATE
NATIONAL MUSIC WEEK
Milwaukee Association, Through President Paul F.
Netzow, Addresses Letter to Trade.
The Milwaukee Association of Music Industries
is taking steps to tie itself up with the National
Music Week campaign to be conducted October 16
to 23 under the auspices of the Bureau for the Ad-
vancement of Music of the Music Industries Cham-
ber of Commerce. President Paul F. Netzow has
issued a letter to all members which says in part:
"Music instrument manufacturers have contributed
$40,000 toward a National Music W r eek to be held
from coast to coast during the week of October 16
to 23, inclusive. This amount will be spent in trade
paper campaigns; art work, 3,000,000 mailing fold-
ers to prospective customers; window display trims,
cash prizes, etc. The purpose of this Music Week
is to keep up the demand and make new busi-
ness.
The nature of plans for local work in co-opera-
tion with National Music Week will be announced
later.
E, P. LAPHAM CATCHING FISH.
E. F. Lapham, of Grosvenor, Lapham & Com-
pany, Fine Arts building, Chicago, is spending the
month of August at his summer home. Buckeye
Point, at Three Lakes, Wis. His partner, George
B. Grosvenor, is getting reports from time to time
of Mr. Lapham's success at fishing in the northern
waters. No fish have been shipped to Mr. Grosve-
nor so far, but his appetite for some of those fine
fish increases with each report of Mr. Lapham's
catches.
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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