PRESTO
PRESTO
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Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
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of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 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—F&PECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
MR. DOLD'S ADDRESS
The address of Mr. Chas. A. Dold to the workers in the piano
factories, which appears in this issue of Presto, must have interest
to every member of the industry and trade. This paper has ex-
pressed the thought, in times past, that the Piano & Organ Workers'
Union is fortunate in the temper and character of its president. Mr.
Dold is a man who thinks, and who seems to consider the knotty
problems which beset his responsible position with much more reason
and deliberation than is evidenced in the words of some leaders in
other lines of labor.
Nevertheless, there are signs in what Mr. Dold said which sug-
gest that, notwithstanding his long association with the piano work-
ers' union, he is not well informed concerning the inner situation
with respect to the industry and the men who have made it. His
reference to piece-work is not just what the majority of piano work-
ers can accept as of a kind to help them. Nor is it the fact that a
uniform wage is more easily applicable to the results in all depart-
ments of piano manufacture. The men who have worked on the piece-
work basis have made a good deal of money, and they have expressed
such satisfaction with their progress that Mr. Dold's philosophy can
hardly strike the dulcet note of approval.
Mr. Dold was by trade a cigsrmaker and, no doubt, a good one. If
he had been a worker in making musical instruments, of exercising the
craftsmanship of the case designer and builder, or of regulating
the actions and bringing the steel wires into perfect accord, he might
be better able to sympathize with the piano employee and to suggest
how the instrument might be made better without disturbing the
pleasant relations of worker and employer. Nor is it altogether wise
for Mr. Dold, or any other leader just outside the ranks of the actual
toilers, to repeat over and over again the suggestion of some impend-
ing "conflict." In psychology, an accepted science, there is a firm
belief that words "are made flesh," or may find realization in fact, if
sufficiently impressed upon the sub-conscious mind. There is no
"conflict in the piano industry." But is there any danger of even so
October 16, 1930.
mild-mannered a man as Mr. Dold doing injury to his followers by
the constant reiteration of a condition that does not exist and should
not even be dreamed of in the peaceful pursuit of the piano workers?
Of course it is easy to realize that an industry in which so large
an admixture of the races and intelligences is engaged must pre-
sent perplexities for an organizer bearing responsibilities such as con-
front Mr. Dold. The piano factories employ workers from every
race, almost on earth. The admixture of enthusiasts in music is one
of the marked elements of the piano industry—men who find such joy
in their accomplishments that other considerations are not para-
mount. And usually those are the men who earn the largest share
of money—and get it. The uniform wage scale, which is the back-
bone of the unions, doesn't seem to apply nearly so well to piano
making as to many other lines. Mr. Dold's illuminating address is
the outpouring cf a man of ability and good sense, spiced with the
ambition to do something that conditions do not justify.
PIANO POUNDING
The semi-annual story about some square-headed "pianist" who
has succeeded in pounding the piano for days without intermission is
now going the rounds of the newspapers. And what of it? If a man
feels that it is necessary to do some long-time pounding why not get
about something useful? Why not pound rocks, and so help along
the good roads rrovement? Of what avail is it to hammer the life
out of some helpless piano? And if the purpose is to see how long
the instrument can stand such hardship, why not let the player-piano
action do the work, and permit the human machine to get some real
exercise, in some rational and less destructive manner?
Piano pounding is not exactly physical exercise. It has never
been introduced as a regular part of the health cures, or the "make
ycu strong" tortures. It is, of course, an exceedingly useful part of
th.2 intellectual and spiritual development, but it is too one-sided in
its muscular app^cation to perform miracles in the upbuilding of
the form divine. It may enhrge the biceps, but it won't increase the
hitting powers, and it is not conducive to the refinement of musical
touch. No pianist has ever been perfected by pounding the ivories
for days at a time. It is not possible to conceive of an intellectual
being hammering away at the keyboard day and night, without rest,
to the great advancement of the artistic temperament. No great piano
teacher has ever recommended that sort of technical exercise, and no
eminent m, d. has ever suggested it as a cure for insomnia.
Is it about time that some of the misguided philanthropists and
reformers, who make it their business to interfere with the harmless
diversions of their neighbors, banded together in protection of the
instrument of music which must be dear to their he£rts? Would it
be impossible for the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Pianos to
exert a beneficent and mellowing influence, not only upon the instru-
ment itself but upon the life fabric of the innocent victims of the
monotonous and senseless jangling?
No piano deserves such treatment. Any manufacturer whose
handiwork is threatened with such a fate would be justified in
swearing out a warrant for the arrest of the ivory mauler. No neigh-
borhood could be blamed for turning in a riot call after the piano
pounding had proceeded beyond the hours of sleep. In Cincinnati, a
few years ago, the mayor issued an edict that all piano playing should
cease at 10 p. m., and ordered the police to arrest all violators of
his order. That was going a little too far, but had that mayor been
in charge of the public peace of Croydon, England, when Albert
Kemp, champion piano slugger of New Zealand, pounded a piano for
four and one-half consecutive days, his law would have been hailed
as a blessing to humanity.
Let's have the new society for the Prevention of CrueLy to
Pianos before the New Zealand prize pounder accepts som? chil-
lenge to pound it out on this side.
PIANOS AND PSYCHOLOGY
There is an "American Citizen recently returned from London,
where he conducted the largest institution of applied psychology in
the world," now giving lectures on the same subject in the large
American cities. His name is Orlando Edgar Miller and, while all
he says is entertaining, his treatment of a strange theory of psycho-
economics is positively fascinating. And, as specially applied to
piano manufacture, some of Dr. Miller's illustrations of what a
man's mental attitude may mean when at work in shop or store, in the
midst of his toil, inseparably brings to mind the slogan employed
by a famous piano industry. It causes one posted in piano progress
to almost wonder whether or not Mr. A. S. Bond, of Fort Wyane.
Ind., has not been taking a course in applied psychology, and passinp
along the essence of his discoveries to the workers in the Packard
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