August 28, lp20.
FREIGHT RISE NO EXCUSE
FOR PRICE ADVANCE
11
PRESTO
WHAT AN ACCIDENT PROVED
Investigation Made by Bureau of Railroad
Economics Proves That Advances Are
Not Justifiable.
Warnings are sounded against attempts to take
advantage of the freight rate advance, now in ef-
fect, as an excuse for great price increases. Rail-
road economists have worked out schedules show-
ing in detail the advances which will be justified for
different commodities, and their general conclusion,
as expressed by statisticians of one railroad, is that
''the amounts which in any instance could fairly be
added to the present prices are a very small frac-
tion of the whole, and in the case of practically
every article or commodity of daily consumption
the increases in transportation charges are relatively
so small as to be practically negligible."
The Bureau of Railroad Economics, at the request
of Pitt P. Hand, editor of The New York Central
Lines Magazine, has made an investigation showing
in detail what an advance of 36.55 per cent in freight
rates would mean when applied specifically to a
number of representative commodities and to the
typical or common sales unit of these commodities.
"This investigation," the report says, "shows that
this increase of 36.55 per cent, the amount of the
rate increase which was proposed for the country as
a whole, would mean that it would cost $.021 more
to send a pair of shoes from Boston to Key West,
a distance of 1,742 miles, than it would under the
existing rates. To send a suit of clothing from
Chicago to Los Angeles, 2,265 miles, would cost
$.081 more.
"A phonograph weighing 180 pounds could be
sent from New York to Atlanta, 876 miles, for $1.04
more.
The bureau's survey seems to indicate that while
the advances will be appreciable, they will not
cause an increase in costs that will bear very heav-
ily on the ultimate consumer—which means all of
us—unless the higher rates are used as an excuse
for profiteering on the part of' dealers, many of
whom are receiving now profits that are far higher
in percentage than they were before the war.
Summaries of the bureau's investigation show:
The past and increased freight rates per unit for
pianos and phonographs:
Increase
per unit.
Ship-
Less
Dis-
ping
than
tance
weight
Car-
car-
Commodity,
(miles), (pounds), load.
load.
Pianos
..3,191 1,850.00 $10,302 $14,365
1,043
Phonographs
876 1,181.00
OLD NEWSPAPER CLIPPING
POINTS TO PROGRESS
News Note Printed Forty Years Ago Is Item in
History of Jenkins House.
Thanks to the advertising policy of the J. W. Jen-
kins Sons' Music Co., Kansas City and elsewhere in
Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, the public is
pretty well acquainted with the Jenkins Plan. This
provides advantages for the buyers of pianos and
players from the firm, but the plan also involves a
keen knowledge of human nature in carrying out
the details of its publicity schedules.
Of course the guarantees of the Jenkins Plan
have an alluring human appeal, for few prospective
customers arc indifferent to the obvious advantages
set forth therein. But in other ways the clever ad-
vertising chief of the big mid-western firm excites
the human interest in the newspaper readers. For
instance, this week a page display in the newspapers
has an interesting clipping set in a box and promi-
nently centered in the page. It is from the Kansas
City Times, July 27, 1880, and is headed, "Forty
Years Ago":
The rush for bargains in musical merchandise at
615 Main street continues unabated, but Prof. J. W.
Jenkins keeps up with the demands of his custom-
ers. The big stock is replenished faster than it is
depleted. Those in want of a piano, organ, drum,
fife, zither, harmonica or French harp, or anything in
the music line, should make it a point to call there
before purchasing.
The contents of the page advertisement of the
J. W. Jenkins Sons' Music Co. is comment enough
for the historical clipping. The display tells about
the twenty-third annual midsummer sale which
thirteen stores of the company are uniting in mak-
ing a success. In the page are printed cuts of the
main store in Kansas City, Mo., and branch stores
The above picture tells the story of an adventure
that befell an Estey piano in the course of its
travels to carry the message of good music to a
home near Milwaukee.
The sequel showed that while the delivery of
this particular message proved rather rough on
the bridge, and none too smooth for the motor
truck, the Estey music messenger passed through
the ordeal without a scratch to mar its lustrous
surface and with its tone and tunefulness quite un-
impaired,
i I •(»(
The accident occurred to a truck employed by
the Flanner-Hafsoos Music House, representatives
of the Estey Piano Company in Milwaukee.
in Independence, Topeka, Salina, Hutchinson and
Kansas City, Kansas; Joplin, St. Joseph, Mo.; Fort
Smith, Ark.; Oklahoma City, Bartlesville, Tulsa and
Muskogee, Okla.
ALL READY FOR TRADE CON=
VENTI0N AT YOUNQSTOWN, 0 .
SOME BRIEF ITEMS
OF A PERSONAL KIND
Varied Activities of the Men Who Sell Pianos Her*
and There Noted.
Carl Mintner and Warren Forgey, tuners connect-
ed with the Eberhardt-Hays Music Company,
Wichita, Kan., who were in Chicago this week on
vacation, took pleasure in their visit to the Gul-
bransen-Dickinson Company's plant where they
studied playerpiano construction at first hand.
Mr. Jones, manager of the piano department of
the Rhodes Furniture Company, Memphis, Tenn.,
was in Chicago on Tuesday of this week and pur-
chased playerpianos and pianos.
D. M. Groulx, piano man from Green Bay, Wis.,
was in Chicago on Tuesday of this week and called
at the Gulbransen factory offices.
H. A. Stewart, of the advertising department of
the Gulbransen-Dickinson Company, Chicago, and
his wife are at their old home town, St. Charles,
111., on vacation.
PIANO MOVER KILLED.
James Dolan, fifty years old, a piano mover em-
ployed by the Mathushek Piano Company, New York
City, was crushed to death one day last week while
placing a piano on the elevator in the factory at 37
West Thirty-seventh street. He directed the oper-
ator to bring the elevator up a couple of inches,
Something went wrong with the mechanism and
the elevator kept on ascending, crushing Dolan be-
tween the floor of the elevator and the door.
A KANSAS CITY SALE.
The Wunderlich Piano Company, Kansas City,
Mo., is holding its big annual August sale. One of
the most pretentious displays of upright players
west of New York had been assembled on the fourth
floor of the Wunderlich building in preparation for
this sale which started August 8. The Home Lunch
Club has been displaced through the growth of the
firm's piano bvisiness and its space turned over to
uprights.
A VISITOR FROM AUSTRALIA.
W. Crowle, piano dealer of
was in Chicago last week. This
second visit to the United States
ports that business in Australia
would be much better if it were
vantageous exchange rates which
the value of the English pound
dollar.
Sydney, Australia,
was Mr. Crowle's
this year. He re-
is very good and
not for the disad-
prevail as between
and the American
Piano Merchants' Association of Ohio Will Hear
Addresses by Prominent Men.
Piano merchants of Youngstown, O., are making
elaborate plans to entertain several hundred visitors
on September 14 and 15, at which time the conven-
tion of the Piano Merchants' Association of Ohio
will be held in Youngstown. The Ohio branch of
the association is noted for its enthusiasm in asso-
ciation matters and much interest is manifested in
the coming convention.
Among the speakers of note already on the pro-
gram are C. L. Dennis, George W. Pound and C. M.
Tremaine. Mr. Pound's topic will be "National Ef-
fort of the Past Year." C. M. Tremaine, director
of the National Bureau for Advancement of Music,
will talk on "Advancement of Music."
Following are officers of the Youngstown organ-
ization of Piano Merchants President, E. C. Mc-
Mahon; vice-president, Charles Yahrling; secretary,
P. Greenwood; treasurer, Howard Watkins.
NEW STORE FOR PEARSON
BRANCH IN SHELBYVILLE, IND.
Manager Dan Williams Gets Three-Year Lease on
Fine Quarters There.
The branch of the Pearson Piano Company*
Shelbyville, Ind., will soon move from its present
situation on the west side of Harrison street to the
store just across the street which will be vacated.
Dan Williams, manager of the piano store, has
completed arrangements for a three-year lease on
the store which will be occupied the first part of
September.
The Shelbyville branch of the Pearson Piano
Company, of Indianapolis, was established seven
years ago under the management of H. T. Williams,
now manager of the Columbus branch of the firm.
During the last two years, Mr. Williams has been
the efficient and capable manager of the local store
and his activities have carried the name and inter-
ests of the firm into hundreds of homes in Shelby
county.
A TENNESSEE CHARTER.
Application for a charter of incorporation was
filed last week in the office of the county register
by the Bell-Welburn Piano Company, Nashville,
Tenn., the location of which will be in Shelby coun-
ty. The company is formed for the sale of pianos,
talking machines and other merchandise pertain-
ing to such a business. Its capital stock will be
$100,000. Incorporators of the new firm are Frank
Bell, Allan Welburn, W. H. Levine and H. Scott.
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