5'
PRESTO
January tO, 1928.
which was founded by Jonas Chickering in 1823, has arrived at a place
of wonderful power and dignity, especially when considered that every
one of the hundred years has added to the fame and honor and the
progress of one of the greatest triumphs of the world of music.
As the only trade journal associated with pianos that has on its
staff one who was also, in his early days, associated with Chickering
& Sons, the only man who can claim the unique good fortune of hav-
ing put forth a paper designed to sustain the Chickering interests,
Presto will have a special Chickering Number to commemorate the
one hundredth birthday of the famous Boston piano. It will be the
issue of April 14, the very date of the founding of the house of Chick-
ering & Sons, a hundred years before. It will be an issue of Presto
in which the Chickering industry will have no direct participation,
but in which every Chickering dealer must have an interest in a very
large sense.
It will be a Chickering Number because we have a great deal of
Chickering history to recall—history of almost exclusive nature and of
peculiar trade interest and instructiveness.
When an American piano attains to its centenary majority it
seems to be a duty of the American Music Trade Weekly to make
something more than passing note of so significantly important an
occasion.
PIANOS IN WORK SHOPS
A piano man has advanced an idea which at first seems heretic
but may, after all, be meaty with truth and commonsense. It is that,
in the intense efforts to create a greater love for music, and to force it
upon the public, there is danger of tipping the scales the wrong way
and killing the end in view. While it is impossible to surfeit the
world with music, it may be possible to cause the instruments of
music to become so familiar, in a way, as to dull the desire for them.
"All objects lose by too familiar a view," says Dryden. And an-
other writer has said that "familiarity and satiety are twins." Apply
this thought to the propaganda of pianos in factories and workshops,
and you get the meaning of what the piano man said.
It is commonly repeated that the buyers of pianos are the "work-
ing people." The daughters of the average homes are the best pro-
moters of the piano business. They stimulate the sales. It would
not long be a business if the piano dealers were obliged to wait for
buyers of expensive reproducing pianos for the exercise of their
everyday activities. While today the elegant and really marvelous
instruments that "re-enact" the pianistic wonders of the great artists,
make a considerable share of the business, it is the average piano, and
the upright pianoplayer, that keep the dealers active and alive. To
kill the desire for those instruments would be to put an end to the
piano trade. And the way to kill the desire is to spoil the ambitions
of the average home to own one of them.
And who can think other than that the introduction of the piano
to the factory and workshop will work to the killing of piano desire
on the part of the workers? Make the piano a part of the sordid grind
of the daily toil, and, while it may in some degree stimulate the
workers to toil, harder, it will become, by reason of its association with
the day's sordid work, so familiar as to lose its charm. The familiar-
ity will breed almost distaste. The toiler will not care to bring the
companion of his day's toil into the home, where it will keep up the
EILERS PIANO HOUSE ACCOUNTS
APPEAR TO BE IN BAD SHAPE
Best Asset Is the Portland Branch, But May Take
Time to Figure Conditions.
The report of the auditor to the receiver of the
Oregon Eilers Music House, of Portland, Oregon,
shows that there are about 480 creditors, only three
of whom have secured claims, while thirty-four are
not found listed on the ledger of the concern, and the
balance of the claims, amounting to about 445, are
unsecured. The schedule was filed by the receiver in
the Federal court, and it was stated that the ac-
counts of the firm were in such shape that it was ab-
solutely impossible to compile an accurate schedule.
According to the report of the receiver, the liabili-
ties amount to approximately $128,488.12, while the
assets amount to $102,913.20, but the receiver ad-
mitted that the finding was only tentative.
According to the report, "the books are in very bad
condition, there being no postings since September
30, and the accounts of creditors have been ignored
tuneful record of the day's drudgery, now grown discordant, often,
because of the mental pictures it conjures up.
Music may be a good tonic. It may cause the toiler's lingers to
move nimbly, and it may not do any harm to the interests of the em-
ployer. But it may do harm to the cause of music, and it is almost
certain to hurt the business of the piano dealer. It even may be "too
much piano." Who doubts it ?
There is, they say, "a place for everything. The sweat-shop, the
abattoir, the shoe factory—any of the day-grind places of toil, are not
good places for pianos. They do not belong there. They have a
blessed influence in the workers' homes. Don't let the silly senti-
ment of music-mad enthusiasts, who know little or nothing about
shop conditions, "get away" with such rubbish as that pianos in
places of toil are soul-savers or energy creators. It isn't so. Pianos
breed refinement in the homes. In cabarets and work-shops they do
almost anything else. And, if nothing worse, in such surroundings
they may deaden the desire of possession, "dull the edge of percep-
tion" and "breed contempt."
History keeps on doing its stunt of repeating. At the recent
music teachers' convention in New York, Mr. Williams Arms Fisher,
of the Oliver Ditson Co., told of his successful expose of the fake song
publishers' trick in the "poems wanted" fraud. He told of sending a
set of verses to the pretenders, with the customary result. The same
thing was done by Presto more than ten years ago, and the result
was described in this paper. In our own case, however, the "verses"
were so palpably absurd as to make the song fraud publishers so
ridiculous as to clearly show up their nefarious purposes and arrests
followed.
* * *
The intricacies of the Income Tax were illustrated by the true
story of a Chicago music concern which, upon having its 1917 re-
turns gone over by a government expert, was found to have paid
more than twice the amount that Uncle Sam's representative could
find. A rebate was entered in behalf of the honest music concern.
Don't you go and make the same mistake, you honest piano dealers!
* * *
Several piano dealers have written to Presto for the address of
"cheap" pianos ready for prompt delivery. They're iiot easy to find.
Piano manufacturers are about tired of trying to see how cheap they
can sell their products. Perhaps in time we may have a few mil-
lionaire piano makers. Some of them desire the wealth they have
never gathered.
* * *
Have you noticed how completely the fads in piano manufacture
have faded out? We hear no more of the "tunerless" piano, and the
"harp attachments" have ceased to create bewonderment. Even
Platt Gibbs' Circus Grand seems to have become silent.
* * *
There is no sign of a decrease in the demand for small Grands.
The marvelously small prices asked by some of the manufacturers is
the best possible evidence of what perfect facilities of production
may do, even in an art industry.
* * *
And now the joys of filling out the income tax report have come
again. It will keep some piano men busy a week. Others know in
advance just how little they owe.
since August. The papers are in confused masses in
different parts of the offices and a part of the books
have not yet been located."
The report states that the lease contracts were kept
up in the accounts until November. Many entries
were found which had no support of notes or papers
of any kind.
"A balance of $63,908.42 in Spokane is the one large
account," says the auditor, "that may have a definite
value as an asset. It is impossible to make an ap-
proximately correct schedule of the assets."
The unsecured claims against the bankrupt house
range all the way from a few cents to thousands of
dollars.
NEW YORK SCHOOL PIANOS.
Twenty-seven grand and twenty-eight upright
pianos were recently contracted for by the Board of
Education of New York City. The award for the
twenty-seven grands went to Hardman, Peck & Co.,
New York, and Krakauer Bros., New York, received
an award for fourteen uprights, a similar number
being ordered from Vissner & Sons, Inc. It is ex-
pected that deliveries will be made early this coming
spring.
NEW MACHINERY FOR
HENRY G. JOHNSON PIANO CO.
Active Plant in Bellevue, la., Gets New Sanding and
Rubbing Machines.
;-'
The social distractions of the week between Christ-
mas and New Year did not disturb activities in the
factory of the Henry G. Johnson Piano Co., Belle-
vue, la. Not only was there no let-up in the en-
deavors of the various departments of the new model
factory to catch up with orders, but improvements of
an important kind were added to the facilities of the
plant.
During the week between Christmas and New
Years, the company installed three new sanding ma-
chines and one rubbing machine at a cost of $7,000.
Henry G. Johnson, president of the company, says
he expects to turn out at least 5,000 pianos during the
year 1923, which will mean nearly 100 pianos a
month. He expects to increase his force of employei
to 200 by February 1 in order to complete this num-
ber of pianos.
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