Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1793

14
m T o
RUBINSTEIN'S LAST TOUR
AND THE PIANO HE USED
Observing Reader and Practical Tuner Says Instru-
ment Belongs to C. C. Polk.
Writing from Boston to Presto, O. W. Moran, a
practical piano tuner, talks interestingly about the
last American tour of Anton Rubinstein as follows:
"In 1872 Rubinstein toured America, receiving
$40,000 for 215 concerts. Later he refused $125,000
to repeat the tour. He used the Steinway piano and
if T have it correctly, C. C. Polk, of the tuning school
at Valparaiso, Ind., has that piano now. 1 saw it
while there last season. I believe Mr. Po!k told me
he purchased it in some town in Illinois. Rubinstein
toured America in 1872-3 and died in 1894.
"H. E. Turner's article on paino tuning I read with
interest, but will say many teachers are as ignorant
as pupils on piano tone and history. A teacher
should have all pianos tuned when teaching on them.
If out of tune, children, if talented, will detect false-
unisons. The plan of placing directions on each
piano as how to care for it and keep in tune is good."
FIRST LESSONS IN THE
PROBLEM OF DISCOUNTS
Questions and Answers Which Bear Upon Matters
of Interest in the Trade.
1. What is discount? Discount is a deduction
made from a gross sum on any account whatever.
2. In speaking of cash discount what is meant?
It is a reduction made for the cash payment of a
bill of goods.
3. By time discount what is meant? It is the
reduction made from the Hst or catalog price within
a specified time.
4. In.commercial discount where is the reduction
allowed 0 It is allowed on the list or fixed price of
the article.
5. What is the face of a note? The sum for
which the note is drawn.
6. When protest is made why is it done? For
the nonpayment of a note and consists of a formal
declaration in writing made by a notary public at
the request of the holder of a note, and notifying
the makers and indorsers of its nonpayment.
7 What is true discount? It is the interest which
added to principal (called present worth) will equal
the face of the note.
8. When a bank cashes a note or time draft what
is the sum charged by the bank called? Bank
discount.
9. What is meant by present worth? The pres-
ent worth of a debt payable at some future time
without interest is that sum which, being put at
legal interest, will amount to the debt at the time-
it becomes due.
10. How long a time is covered by the term of
discount? It is the time from the date of discount
of a note to its maturity. Notes may contain ,i
promise of interest which will be reckoned from the
date of the note unless some other time is specified.
MAKING MORE MONEY WITH
CLARK ORCHESTRA ROLLS
Leaflet Issued by Manufacturers Proves a Point
Valuable to Electric Piano Owners.
A leaflet issued by the Clark Orchestra Roll Co.,
De Kalb, 111., asks the owner of an electric piano to
"figure this out for yourself": "Supposing you can
buy music rolls for your electric piano for 25c a roll
less than the price of Clark orchestra rolls. Assume
that other makes of rolls will collect $8.00 worth of
nickels each month from your piano. By buying
other makes of rolls you are saving 25c on each roll
and increasing your earnings for the month from
$8.00 to $8.25, or a little more than 3 per cent. That
sounds like good business.
"But—it has been proved repeatedly that Clark
orchestra rolls will double the income from any e 1 ec-
tric piano. To be conservative, let us assume that
a Clark orchestra roll will collect $12.50 instead of
S8.00. Deduct from this the extra 25c you had to
pay for the roll and your net income is $12.25. Your
profits have increased from $8.00 to $12.25 or over
50 per cent—56 per cent, to be exact. Is it worth
while paying the difference?"
December 4, 1920.
CHICAGO CITY MANAGER OF
EASTERN MUSIC ROLL CO.
Harry J. Shonewald, Who Has Been Given Impor-
tant Position With Mel-O-Dee.
As was an-
nounced
last
week. Harry D.
Shonewald has
been appointed
city sales man-
ager of the Mel-
O-Dee Co. in
Chicago. He Is
a live-wire in
the business and
he knows how
to stir up trade
and keep it in
the
condition
that
causes
things to move.
W i t h Gordon
Laughead, and
the rest of the
Chicago organ-
i z a t i o n, Mr.
Shonewald is a
part of a wide-
a w a k e selling
force, and his
HARRY .1. SHONEWALD.
Ipart in it will
prove a forceful influence in the results.
The music roll industry has developed into so
important a place in the trade that only the most
active, resourceful and industrious men are fitted to
it in the best sense. Mr. Laughead believes that in
Mr. Shonewald the company has a man who will
prove of great value in keeping the Chicago trade
informed and fruitful in distributing the rolls of
his house.
Q R S CHRISTMAS ROLLS.
The most desirable songs for Christmas to be
sung with the aid of Q R S music rolls and a GuL
bransen playerpiano are advertised in a special way
this week by the Young & Chaffee Furniture Com-
pany, Grand Rapids. Mich.: "Christmas Song," Q
R S Roll No. 124; "O Come All Ye Faithful," Q R
S Roll No. 668: "Silent Night, Holy Night,'" Q R S
Roll No. 133: "O Christmas Tree," Q R S Roll
No. 138.
NOW SELLING INSURANCE.
Once a missionary always a missionary fits the
average piano man. And so Dr. George M. Soule,
long associated with the piano industry in New
York, is now selling life insurance. The doctor is
with the Equitab'e Life Insurance Co. in the
metropolis and piano men's widows will have more
money later along because of the fact. And goo'!
piano men always make good insurance men.
BETTER THAN EVER
THE NEW EDITION
PRESTO BUYERS' GUIDE
NOW IN PREPARATION
Orders for quantities of 100 or more copies must be placed at once or
we cannot guarantee deliveries.
Single Copy SO Cents, Post Paid
No Dealer or Salesman Can Afford to Be Without It
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn St., Chicago
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/
December 4, 1920.
ANALYZING COSTS
IN PIANO PLANTS
O. C. Stone in Able Article Gives the Items
and Shows Comparisons Proving How
Prices of Instruments Cannot Be
Reduced.
That cost of labor in piano factories is the real
reason why prices cannot now come down is the
subject of Article No. 3 by O. C. Stone, authorized
by the National Piano Manufacturers' Association:
On the closest analysis, it is found that the present
cost of labor is the one big, outstanding reason why
piano manufacturers cannot yet reduce their whole-
sale prices.
It is a fact well recognized that the cost of all
labor in the piano manufacturing industry in 1920,
over that of 1914, has increased more than 100 per
cent, due to two causes. First, the increase in wages,
and secondly and perhaps most important, the de-
creased production per unit per man, occasioned by
reduced hours and a general slowing up on the part
of labor. In a great many cases this has caused an
increase well over 100 per cent. A study of the
charts involving costs of piano manufacture, from
which the following are taken, shows many such in-
stances.
An idea of the increased cost of labor may be
gained from the figures based upon the cost per op-
eration. In the following items the increased cost
of labor over 1914 is shown: Staining and filling
cases, 2 : /\ times. Varnishing (4 coats), 2Vz times.
Washing off case and varnishing back of frames, 3 r 4
times. Rubbing case and brackets, 2 times. Var-
nishing backs, 3 times. Setting up, 5% times.
Some Comparisons.
The fact must be borne in mind that the percent-
age of increased cost of labor during the war in
other branches of industry was in many instances
greater than that of piano manufacturing. This
caused a tendency on the part of labor to forsake
the piano trade for fields that yielded more money.
To offset this tendency and to fully cope with this
problem necessitated a higher increase of wages on
the part of piano manufacturers in order to retain
the efficient labor that is so necessary to piano
building and to keep their production up to the
maximum. This, with the natural increased de-
mand for labor, owing to abnormal conditions, cur-
tailed considerably the profits which manufacturers
were justified in getting. It therefore followed that
the employment of more labor, at extremely high
wages, was imperative to increase production so
that piano builders might enjoy the more stable po-
sition that marked other lines of industry.
Labor in Readjustment.
Labor is the one outstanding factor in the present
readjustment situation, for two reasons. The first
is because labor is the last to have its wages ad-
justed upward to meet a rising commodity price,
and of necessity is last to come down to meet a
FRE§TO
lowering commodity price. In other words, up-
ward prices must precede a raise in wages, and
downward prices always precede a fall in wages.
Hence it would indeed be a wise man who could
give any intelligent indication when there will be any
appreciable downward adjustment of wages in the
piano trade.
The second reason is because labor plays such
an important part in determining the cost of raw
materials and supplies. Lumber as lumber in the
tree may not cost but little more than it did in 19K.
But to cut the tree, saw it into lumber and put it
through the hundred different hands through which
it must pass before it finally finds itself in the
mill room of a piano factory, costs double and treble
what it cost six years ago. And who is there among
us who can say when these costs will come down?
Vital Questions.
When will the lumberjack, the sawyer, the loader,
the hauler and the planer get less wages for hib
labor? When will the railroads charge less for
transporting these materials? When will interest
rates and taxes be reduced?
When one can answer these questions intelligently,
then one can foretell a downward readjustment of
wages: and when one can experience a downward
readjustment of wages, then the trade will experi-
ence a reduced wholesale price.
LONG ESTABLISHED HOUSE ON
CHICAGO'S NORTHWEST SIDE
W. H. Sajewski's Store the Center of a Live Trade
for Many Years.
15
For a
Bigger and Better
Business
There is nothing to compare
with the complete line of
M. SCHULZ CO.
The Players are RIGHT in
everything that means
money to the dealers and
satisfaction to the public.
You will never do anything better
than when you get in touch with
M. SCHULZ CO.
711 Milwaukee Avenue
CHICAGO
•OUTHERN BRANCH: 730 Candle* Bldg., ATLANTA, GA.
One of the steadily-going music stores in Chi-
cago is that of W. H. Sajewski, at 1017 Milwaukee
avenue. Located in a section far from the "loop"
section and its crowds. Mr. Sajewski has lo,ng con-
As
ARTISTIC
•i
I
II
IN EVERY
DETAIL
HADDOKFF PIANO CO.
ROCKFORD,ILL.
s
W. H. SA.TEWSKF.
BOHEMIAN 132 ROLL
(For 65-note Rewind Electric
Pianos)
1. Kvitko. Valcik.
2. Na Pankraci na malem
vrsicku. Valcik.
3. Kralovna Vitezxtvi. Po-
chod.
4. Cerveny Satacek.
5. Roztomila. Polka.
6. Siva Holubicka. Valcik.
7. Na Vyskocilce. Polka.
8. Zpiva Zivot. Valcik.
9. Zlata Praha. Polka.
10. Vtesely Zivot. Valcik.
A November Release!
Place your orders now to insure
prompt delivery.
CLARK ORCHESTRA ROLL CO.
De Kalb, Illinois
ducted business of varied interests and has done it
successfully. Mr. Sajewski is a musician and an
artist as well as a music publisher and photographer.
He has stuck to it through the years, and his ideas
are original and progressive. His customers are
drawn largely from the northwest section of the
city and he has the confidence of all who deal with
him. His establishment on Milwaukee avenue is
between Noble and Augusta streets, and it is well-
equipped in all its departments.
THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT.
In featuring the Ampico in the Knabe this week
the J. W. Brown Piano Co., Canton, Ohio, says:
"The charm of distant music! From the music
room comes the tones of a beautiful Christmas
Hymn, played by invisible hands! Each rich chord
as delicately executed as if a great artist were seated
at the piano—this is the miracle of the Ampico,
which reproduces in all its charm the very spirit of
the master pianist's art. The perfect gift for Christ-
mas."
Every want is supplied in the "Christmas Sug-
gestions" of B. S. Porter & Son. Lima, O. The
stock of "The Old Reliable Music House" includes
everything musical.
II
The Grand Is a Revelation
No Skilled Pianist Will Challenge
The Supremacy of
MBRADBURY
It Has Been the Lead-
ing American Piano
for Sixty-five Years.
It Is More Artistic Today
Than Ever
Make the BRADBURY Your Leader
Manufactured Only By
F. G- SMITH, Inc.
450 Fifth Ave., NEW YORK CITY
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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