PRESTO
March 24, 1923
prices for, pianos that display names wholly strange and unknown to
either themselves or their friends.
What has just been said is frequently shown, also, in the classi-
fied advertising columns of the newspapers. Last Sunday's Chicago
Tribune had the following in the crowded column of "musical instru-
ments" :
The American Music Trade Weekly
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), " P R E S T O , " 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 United States possessions. 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.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used. If of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
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-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co.. 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1923
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY P^ANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
ON THE FALL=BOARD
There was a time when some of the piano manufacturers, aided
by a New York trade paper, advocated a system of nameless fall-
board. They proposed that pianos be finished with no indication of
origin, so far as the customary golden transfers are concerned. The
idea was to omit the fall-board decalcomania, and let the name cast
upon the iron plate give all the visual evidence of origin—of credit, or
the contrary, as the character of the instrument might suggest.
And the trade paper that sustained the plan published articles to
prove that the omission would be ethically correct and commercially
fair to the piano buying public. The chief argument was that the
parlors of the people were not the proper places for sign-board ad-
vertising. In other words, that the only purpose of the name on the
fall-board was to advertise the manufacturer.
And right there was the big mistake. For the piano's name is
one of the protections to its purchaser. If the name is a good on. 1 ,
signifying artistic quality, it is at once a source of pride of ownership
and money value as property. It is, furthermore, a strong protec-
tion against the inroads of the so-called "stencil" piano. Not all sten-
cil pianos are worthless, but all worthless pianos are stencils. The
name, if one of distinction and advertised value, is certain to be a good
one. The public has, at least, become conscious of this and, in count-
less instances, pianos are selected because of the names they bear.
People of musical intelligence are very slow to buy, and pay good
WANTED—STEINWAY PIANO.
D. E. 467, Tribune.
Will pay spot cash.
Address
That advertiser knew what he wanted because he had knowledge
of pianos in general. He was satisfied that if he could find a Stein-
way at a price within his reach, he could part with his cash in perfect
security.
In the old days there was, however, just one justification for the
demand that the piano names be left off the fall-boards. It was that
in many instances the manufacturers employed sign-board letters.
The transfers were too large to be sightly, much less artistic. The
purpose was defeated in the seeming ambition to get some display
advertising. This has now been overcome, and the fall-board names
are no longer in any sense subject to criticism. In many cases they
are daintily beautiful and add just the needed touch of color to the
otherwise too broad expanse of glittering surface.
As almost nowhere else in the industrial world, the name of a
fine piano has cash value. To the dealer the name is often half the
fight in selling against instruments of unknown names. With the
piano it is, as Thomas Fuller said of people, "A name is a kind of face
whereby one is known; wherefore taking a false name is a kind of
visar whereby men disguise themselves."
Every wholesale piano salesman understands that. He knows
that his card, bearing the name of Steinway, or Mason & Hamlin,
or Cable, or Kurtzmann, or Steger, or Vose—any of the widely
known and standard instruments—is alone enough to fix his own
status. And the degree of his success rests, not so much upon price,
or the blandishments of his salesmanship, as upon the real needs of
the dealer and his ability to sell pianos that are really worth selling.
TRADE EVILS
An item in this issue tells of the effort of the New York Commit-
tee on Trade Relations to improve relations between manufacturers
and retailers. It is probable that the kind of evils calling for im-
provement or eradication do. not effect the music business in the same
degree as some others. Nevertheless, all business is essentially the
same, and the troubles of one may be expected to exist to some degree
in all the rest.
One of the evils aimed at is that of treating lightly the counter-
manding, or cancellation, of orders given by the dealer in seeming
good faith. That is something familiar to the piano trade. Very few
of the piano manufacturers have had no troubles under that head.
And it means a great deal, not only in money but in other ways just
as important.
The unjustifiable countermand rebounds upon the salesman, also.
It may upset the factory operations. It destroys the credit of the
dealer, and it unhinges the financial plans of the manufacturer. No
piano dealer who values the faith imposed in him by the source of his
supplies will place an order with a factory representative unless he
intends to carry the transaction through. It is unfair to the sales-
man in more ways than one. It puts the traveler's employers to a
needless expense and may even create doubt in the capacity of the
salesman's judgment. For a very important part of a traveling sales-
man's capacity and worth rests in his ability to judge human nature
and to accurately weigh the character of his customers.
The piano dealer who habitually uses his whim in placing orders,
and cancels at his own sweet will, can not long hold the respect and
confidence of the manufacturer. Better no order at all than one
given with the mental reservation of a probable cancellation. Busi-
ness "with a string tied to it" is seldom worth while. And the order
which may be yanked back as soon as the salesman leaves town is
worse than nothing.
The New York Committee on Trade Relations is trying to com-
pile a list of the evils of business. It is not promised that any com-
pilation of names of the merchants who indulge in Indian tactics in
trade will appear. But it is certain that the movement will make con-
spicuous some of the bad habits of certain merchants to the better-
going of the manufacturers in all lines of industry.
In the piano business one of the evils may come under the head
of disloyalty. For in this trade, as nowhere else, there must be loy-
alty if the best results are to follow. It is not uncommon to find re-
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