Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1791

Page 4 Text:

SXO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable in advance. No extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 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 NEWS-
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—F&PECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
November 20,
was, of course, set right and quite a different name will be added to
the list in consequence.
The purpose of what has been said is not to draw attention to
one of the useful phases of a trade paper's work. That part of it is
obvious and, so far as Presto is concerned, there are few days in
which some such service is not performed. The saving, in both
annoyance and money, to the parties interested, could not be quickly
or accurately computed. Any way, it is a part of the trade paper's
work that is freely given and usually passes unknown to any save the
individuals whose misunderstanding of conditions is set right. But
the chief item of interest is much more general and gives emphasis
to the difficulty in finding suitable names for new enterprises.
The trade mark is becoming more and more an essential in the
operations of all ambitious industries. The methods employed, es-
pecially by merchants and manufacturers in some countries abroad,
make the properly protected trade mark invaluable. And, as an ar-
ticle in last week's Presto pointed out, there are countries in which
the only real protection is in the pictorial nature of the trade mark. It
is so in South America, and in China the picture or figure, that stands
for a thing, or for a degree of quality, is the only key, and by it the
public is governed in its purchasing. It is strangely true, further-
more, that in China the color of the wrappings, or the texture of the
article, decides the degree of its welcome. Certain colors, to the
slant-eyed Chinese, mean either merit, or desire, or favor, or they
mean commonplace, cheap or inferior. These are things the Amer-
ican manufacturers are studying, and the picture or trade-mark form
is as important abroad as the proper name is at home.
Speaking of trade names, the troubles which have stirred all
branches of industry have finally invaded the hotels. Just now the
name "Ambassador" has become the center of dispute and the law
courts are to thrash it out to a finish. To the piano man, tired of the
name-disputes that have attended their industry almost from the first,
it must seem that such a name as "Ambassador," as applied to hotels
in cities widely separated might be permissible without doing damage
to any particular caravansary. Other hotel names are duplicated,
and some of them have local significance in scores of communities the
world over.
Nevertheless, the name of "Ambassador" is claimed by one hotel
company, by right of prior use, and, as a trade name dispute, the case
promises to be an instructive one to piano men. And this because,
notwithstanding the many piano name law suits, there is even yet a
hazy understanding as to just what are the rights in the uses of a
familiar name when employed by one who bears it and wants to have
his products also bear it. It is a problem that has been often solved
by learned judges, but usually the solution has presented some ob-
scurities of technique by which the layman may easily be misled into
costly mistakes.
THE NAME PROBLEM
A few weeks ago an active piano man, now at the head of a
spreading industry, consulted this trade paper about the most expe-
ditious plans of procedure by which to win a share of the fall and win-
ter business. He had completed his manufacturing organization and
was ready to take orders. Of course he wanted trade publicity, and
the first thing discussed was the name of his new company. He had
already sent incorporation papers to the state capital and supposed
that the way for clear sailing was settled. And the start he had made
was so far from right as to seem almost characteristic of new-comers
in the piano industry.
The title chosen for the new piano industry was "Lexington."
When the head of the ambitious new industry was told that the
name he had chosen could not be used he was almost indignant in his
demand to know why it could not be used. It was necessary to go
into piano-name tradition, with illustrations of costly litigation, to
convince the gentleman that to try to kidnap one of the offspring of
the Conway Company would probably bring down the wrath of the
alert Boston industry. The end of it was that quite another name
was suggested and adopted.
A second case, almost identical, came up last week when the
manager of a proposed new playerpiano industry called to discuss the
question of a suitable factory location. Within a few moments the
name of the new industry was mentioned and it was identical with
that already in operation and so firmly grounded, as to be both im-
movable and almost invaluable. It was the name of a big Boston
industry which certainly would not permit the new-comer to get far
before putting a stop to its use. The head of the new concern, while
an expert in the technical part of the business, had not been so sit-
uated as to keep track of what is going on in the business and so he
did not know of the Boston industry already in active operation. He
EVERY MAN'S BUSINESS
No one in these days will deny the truth of the ancient axiom that
"the laborer is worthy of his hire." Nor are there many who still re-
fuse to the workers the right to organize for their protection and
social entertainment. But it is probable that not a large proportion
of people understand just what it is in the labor unions that awakens
the opposition of employers. It seems possible that, even in the ranks
of the workers themselves, there is not a full understanding on this
point.
In every large movement there must be, or in any event there are,
principles or underlying motives not designed for general informa-
tion. And it is not at all probable that every detail in the workings
of the labor unions are fully explained to the public understanding.
It is said, and also disputed, that the unions demand absolute control
of the industries where union rules are permitted to have enforce-
ment. But it is not often that the facts are so clearly set forth as in
a recent dispute which centered in a piano factory. There the state-
ment, in support of the union, is so conclusive as to permit of no doubt
concerning what the organization demands. And in that demand
every last vestige of ownership and in the direction and control of
the industry, is turned over to outsiders who not only would regulate
the wage-scale and time of labor, but dictate as to the very men to be
employed and their number.
Could there be any dictatorship more absolute or, in a special in-
dustry demanding expert management, more destructive? What
thinking man could contemplate such a condition in advance of em-
barking in an enterprise and still invest in it? The thought of estab-
lishing an industry and turning over to others, not directly concerned,
every atom of the control that either makes or breaks, would cause
anv man to hesitate. And yet that is the confessed situation under
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 5 Text:

F
PRESTO
November 20, 1920.
"union" rules, even in established industries where the owners and
managers have been successful because of their instinct, experience
and expertness in making- and selling pianos. Doesn't seem reason-
able does it? Can't think of being forbidden to employ the men you
want and know can do the work well, can you? But here is an ex-
tract from the report of a bill for injunction filed last week by a
labor union against a Chicago piano manufacturer:
"That the company has refused to carry out the terms and con-
ditions of a contract drawn up between them Oct 1, 1916. The union
charges that the company has been trying to deal direct with its em-
ployes instead of through agents of the union."
That is a condition which we believe a large proportion of the
workers themselves do not understand. The thought of an employer
being absolutely prohibited from treating with his employes, and hav-
ing to deal with his workers only "through agents of the union," sug-
gests a species of interference so obstructive as to be impossible.
It is a ruling that can not be enforced in some lines of industry with-
out disastrous results. And to realize that it has arrived at the point
where the unions openly appeal to the courts to support them in in-
terfering with the first principles of equity and right, seems to sug-
gest the need of better reasoning somewhere. For if the undeniable
sympathy of industry with the interests of labor and its betterment is
not to be broken, the unions must begin to display more sympathy
with the employers. Certainly no successful business—in any event,
no successful piano industry—can be conducted on the basis of every-
man's business.
SOMETHING ELSE
Just now the subject of business ethics, of "toting fair," in selling
the goods is having its place in the spot-light of trade discussion.
Of course, if any business is not done fairly it becomes discredited and
losses public confidence. The piano business has suffered in that way.
It has been brought within the shadow of suspicion by the coupon
schemes, the near-check dodgers, the count-the-dots and picture-
puzzle follies, and the bad advertising in general. The public had be-
gun to look askance at any store window in which pianos were dis-
played. The signs stuck up in the windows were considered as lures
for the unwary and the average citizen had become afraid to even
mention pianos in the presence of the music teacher, lest the local
music merchant set a special and all-too-high price on his instruments.
Of course that state of things did not help the piano business any.
For a time it may have brought a lot of seeming customers to the
stores and it proved profitable for the ingenious puzzle-inventors who
devised the little schemes and sold them to the piano dealers. And
then came the change. The more dignified and serious members of
the industry and trade recognized the dangers ahead, and they began
to fix standards of trade and set going the discussion of ethics and
better business leagues.
But in all the discussion of the ills of the piano trade, and their
remedies, there is an evil that has not been touched upon. It belongs
to the general subject, it is true, and it remedies itself as the other
evils are regulated and overcome. It is the habit of substitution on
the part of the salesman who, refusing to recognize the rights of
a customer who calls for a certain instrument, adroitly directs at-
tention to some other piano, and this with no further explanation than
that "this is a better one though we sell it for a little less." The cus-
tom has been a common one—almost an expression of a rule and not
an exception. And it is a custom that may as well have a share of
the attention that various leagues and "vigilance committees" are
devoting to other and often lesser trade evils.
In a discussion of the tipping habit as applied to business in the
bribing of purchasing agents. Printers Ink says : "What is the use of
building up good will on behalf of your products through advertising,
if your competitor can secretly "slip something to" an employe of
the man you are trying to sell and block your efforts? Advertising
presupposes the power on the part of the purchaser to make free
choice among the products offered."
And the same question applies equally, or more, to the habit of
ignoring the customer's request for an advertised piano, and being
"switched" to some instrument, perhaps even as good or, worse, of
inferior quality. The time has come when quite a number of fine
pianos are being largely advertised. Their manufacturers are invest-
ing heavily in publicity of a kind that implies character and quality.
Would it, or would it not, be well if those advertisers were to suggest
—perhaps in their advertising—the necessity, on the part of the pub-
lic, of insisting upon seeing and hearing the piano advertised ? Of
what good is it to build up a name for a good piano and permit the
custom of substitution to reap a harvest for dealers who prefer to
sell cheaper instruments for all they can get for them?
FRICTION
The best things in life were secured through friction or by efforts
to overcome it. The efforts of player and piano action experts have
been exerted for years along the line of eliminating friction. Friction
in an office or a factory is not wholly an evil, because it acts as a
stimulus to new exertions and improved methods. There is no place
in the world where there is more friction to the square mile or square
inch than in a great city, yet read this from the pen of a New York
City writer:
"Even the frictions of life here—the subway jamming, the in-
teresting problems of milk and coal, the high cost of diversion—fur-
nish their quota of stimulation, for friction begets warmth, and
warmth is ardor."
He makes his climax on the word "ardor." The arduous task, for
instance, is the one with the greatest appeal in it to the aspirant. To
attempt the seemingly impossible task of making pianos play them-
selves ; of "canning" songs and instrumental performances and turn-
ing on the "canned music" at will in the home years afterward; to
make men's and women's voices audible and distinct years after their
death; and now Thomas A. Edison's new task of attempting to com-
municate with the dead—are certainly arduous tasks. Just now Mr.
Edison is encountering world-wide friction from his critics, who are
guessing where, perhaps, he knows.
But if you want to know more about real friction in the piano
business, interview any live, aggressive and successful retailer in any
western town where sales are not made as candy is sold; where the
front door is still the point of attack and where two or three of the
same kind of piano salesmen are liable to gather together as soon as
it is whispered that the woman behind the door is thinking about buy-
ing a piano. There the friction becomes acute. The metal is heated
to a white heat. The adventure is a real one and each of the sales-
men is so determined that his piano shall gain admission that it even
approaches a fight for vantage ground. That is friction of the real-
for-sure kind. It means a good deal, and the victor goes back to his
store crowned as never man was crowned since the days of Caesar.
Friction is the motor that drives the car of trade. It is only another
word for competition, and if competition is the life of trade, then fric-
tion is the generator of power that makes competition worth while.
Of late the movement for better business methods has largely
eliminated the offensive, or objectionable, features of the friction
which is accentuated in the piano business. But friction itself, in a
refined sense, and modified voltage, remains and will continue as long
as piano selling is worth while—forever, probably.
A young man asked a Presto representative one day this week
what branch of the piano business paid the best, as he was thinking of
engaging in that line of work. His question was a stumper, simple
as it seems when an answer is not required. And the reply was cau-
tiously given as follows : "Well, that depends both on your talent and
tendencies. At your age it is probably difficult for you to determine
what you know best. If you know what you know best work along
that line. If mechanically inclined, the opportunity was never better
than now. A few years will develop you. If inclined toward sales-
manship, the road is long and arduous, unless the desire to sell things
and the 'pep' come natural to you. Probably not over tea per. cent of
the persons who engage in the piano business ever quit it for some-
thing else."
* * *
The story of the encounter of the Holland Piano Co. with the
Federal Trade Commission is both interesting and instructive. No
one who knows Mr. Geo. B. Norris, president of the Minneapolis in-
dustry, will believe that gentleman deliberately exceeded the ethical
bounds, and his manly disclaimer of the manner in which prices had
been placed upon Holland pianos, at the instigation of retailers, re-
flects credit upon the banker-manufacturer's sense of business probity.
We do not believe that the encounter has hurt the Holland Piano Com-
pany at all.
Business rests upon a complicated interdependence, in which the
tones of command have small place. Business men know that all their
intercourse is constant receiving as well as giving. And what big
business is not too proud to take account of small private relations
would do well to remember, since interdependence is the law of life.
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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