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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 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—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
LETTERS BY MR. BENT
Mr. Geo. P. Bent has kindly volunteered to contribute a series of
letters descriptive of his experiences and observations during his trip
around the world. Mr. Bent will sail from Seattle, on November 19th
and his communications will be anticipated with unusual pleasure by
every reader of this paper. His long experience and unusual facility
as a writer will render Mr. Bent's letters of very special usefulness
also to manufacturers who are reaching for an export trade. Any-
thing that readers abroad may do to assist Mr. Bent in gathering ma-
terial for his letters will be appreciated by this paper and will have
such attention as that gentleman may suggest.
NO PIANO MAKERS
There may be interest to the piano industry in the fact that the
immigration occupational tables, recently issued by the government
statisticians show that not a piano maker came into this country
during the past year. Practically all the other departments of skilled
labor and professions received large enlistments by foreign arrivals
during the twelve months. From actors to clergymen, and from
editors to musicians the lists of professionals were long ones, the en-
tire aggregation of fortune seekers for the year ending- June 30th
reaching in number 173,133. Of that army of more or less skilled
workers, 12,442 belong to the professional ranks, 69,907 are factory
workers, 7,341 are merchants, and 81,732 laborers. There isn't a single
piano maker in the entire crowd.
To be sure, the term "piano maker" is not as lucid in its meaning
as shoemaker, carpenter or plumber. The world at large still has an
idea that any man with a hammer and hand-saw can make pianos.
The only skill usually recognized by music lovers, in connection with
the piano, is that of the tuner, the teacher and, above all, the salesman.
Behind these three, and the first payment, the average piano buyer
seldom looks. And so, when it is said by the newspapers that among the
173,133 immigrants there are 627 musicians, 162 cabinet makers, 110
November 13, 1920.
woodworkers and 12,681 clerks and accountants, there seems nothing-
lacking to insure a good supply of instruments, with an ample force
of salesmen to dispose of them. That is about as far as the tables of
the in-coming workers can be expected to interest the average citizen
of musical inclinations.
But to the piano manufacturer who has been on the look-out for
skilled workers in his factory, who has been struggling through years
of lack-labor and threatened strikes, the absence of piano makers in
the occupational lists of new arrivals, may have a real significance.
The cabinet makers and the workers in wood, may promise some-
thing-. But even there a glance at the column of out-going skilled
laborers shows that during the year 70 cabinet makers left these
shores and were accompanied by 20 wood workers. And of common
laborers, while 81,732 arrived, 183,820 departed, leaving quite a void
in the potentialities of the workers should piano-making schools be-
come so urgently needed as to cause them to be established.
In England, France and Germany, industrial schools in which
piano making is a part have been in existence for very many years.
There has been a good deal of talk on the same subject in this country.
One large New York industry conducts a player action school which
has been taken advantage of by hundreds of expert piano men and
practical tuners. It is believed that to the Danquard school a great
debt is due for what has been done to protect playerpianos in every
•part of the country. And several of the foremost piano tuning
schools have also inaugurated playerpiano departments which are
doing good work along the same line.
But there seems to be need of a systematized school of practical
piano making. We are making in this country more pianos than all
the rest of the world combined. This may not remain true after the
old-world countries get back into full industrial swing. But the
United States will always be the greatest piano making country, and
the need of skilled labor will always be felt. With so many other
phases of the industry and trade to take care of, it would be too much
to expect the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce to include vo-
cational training in its activities, but it would pay private or indi-
vidual enterprises to try it. There are schools, or departments of
schools, devoted to other branches of industry, and they seem to be
thriving institutions. The active, going piano factories can not afford
to take in apprentices and let them "grow up" to the requirements of
skilled workers. Labor conditions in these times render the old
methods impractical and too expensive for any but wealthy philan-
thropists. But the tables of occupational immigration for the last
year seem to imply that piano workers, in the old countries of musical
instrument expertness, prefer to stay at home. And this suggests
the need of some means by which to produce that kind of skilled
labor within easy reach of the factory walls.
A HAPPY CLIMAX
As a corollary of industrial and trade conditions, for which the
great war was responsible, came the attitude of indifference, amount-
ing at times to insolence, displayed by some classes of employes. How
far the music trade has been afflicted by the condition it is not the
purpose here to discuss. No one who observes at all will deny that
the art of being- civil was for a period almost lost to the world of
trade, and the unfortunate buyers in many busy marts were subjected
to annoyances and inconveniences surpassing the woes of the Salem
witches. That is nearly passed now, however, and if any trace of
it remains it has to do more with a mild degree of incivility which
compared to the older condition is almost a delight.
Nevertheless, there are evidences at times which seem to show
that, even in the music trade, the effects of the conditions to which
we have referred have not yet been wholly forgotten. In a recent
newspaper advertisement of the old house of Lyon & Healy the fol-
lowing statement is made conspicuous: "We try to make every one
who enters our store glad they came in." That is fine. It is, also,
characteristic of the conduct of the selling departments of the "largest
music house in the world." It is the very spirit that actuated the late
founder of the house, whose personality was one of radiant geniality.
And there is in the Lyon & Healy declaration a key-note which
might to advantage be adopted by many other business houses in the
same line of industry. In a recent Presto editorial direct charges were
brought against big business houses whose marked evidences of in-
civility had been noted. That editorial has brought to this paper sev-
eral communications in which the writers tell of other instances of
the repellant and inexcusable indifference of employes in high places.
One of these complaints so strongly gives emphasis to what was said
in these columns that, were it less credibly related, it might be hard
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