PRESTO
June 23, 1923
HENRY Q. JOHNSON'S
SECOND PIANO FACTORY
NOTABLE M. SCHULZ EXHIBIT
New Company to Manufacture Pianos With
$500,000 Formed in Ottumwa, Iowa, With
Local Men Interested.
Convincing Evidence of Extent and Admirable Selling Qualities of a
Great Line Presented in Convention Display
Incorporation papers for the Johnson & Sons Piano
Manufacturing Company at Ottumwa, la., were
tiled last week with the county recorder, a temporary
set of officers selected, downtown headquarters opened
and Ottumwa's newest and one of its largest manu-
facturing industries set on its way.
The capital stock is $500,000. The incorporators
are Carl T. Haw, W. R. Daggett, J. F. Powell, E. H.
Emery and E. C. Manning. All stock is to be com-
mon. The minimum number of directors is five, the
maximum, ten. Until the annual meeting, the follow-
ing will serve: Henry G. Johnson, president; W. R.
Daggett, vice-president; E. C. Manning, secretary
and treasurer.
The directors are Henry G. Johnson, J. F. Powell,
Carl T. Haw, E. H. Emery and W. R. Daggett.
These men were delegated to sign the original
papers out of a list of twenty-eight of the original
subscribers, which follows: Charles E. Fahrney, G.
B. Baker, J. H. Anderson, Charles Hallberg, O. H.
Michael, Phillip P. Phillips,. Walter H. McElroy, G. F.
Spry, C. L. Graham, T. J. Madden, Horace A. Brown,
C. D. Evans, John Wormhoudt, Giltnore and Moon,
James C. Taylor, E. H. Emery, P. J. Donelan, C. G.
Merrill, Frank von Schrader, Homer H. Harris, R. W.
Harper, E. C. Manning, H. W. Merrill, James F.
Powell, W. R. Daggett, C. S. Harper, Carl T. Haw
and W. I. Gladish.
Temporary offices have been secured at 117-119
East Second street, Ottumwa, in charge of Leo S.
McDonald and S. W. Storey.
NEW NELSON=WIGGEN CO.
MODELS SCORE SUCCESS
New Automatics and Orchestrions Exhibited at the
Recent Convention Gain New Dealers.
The new models of automatic pianos and orches-
trions exhibited at the Drake Hotel during the con-
vention by the Nelson-Wiggen Piano Co., of 224 N.
Sheldon street, Chicago, made a remarkable success
and secured many new dealers to represent the Nel-
son-Wiggen line, reports O. Nelson, president of the
firm.
Three new automatic pianos are especially being
featured by the Nelson-Wiggen Co. They are the
Pian-O-Grand, style 2, with pipe and mandolin at-
tachment; the Pian-O-Grand, style 3, with xylophone
or bells and banjo attachment; and the Banj-O-Grand,
a small, keyless automatic finished in the popular
two-tone effect. The last instrument is only 50
inches high, 35 inches wide, and 19 inches deep. It
is fitted with an attachment which produces a' sound
similar to a banjo, hence the name—Banj-O-Grand.
The four-way pump, new model spool frame and
rewind system, and the location of the rolls at the
top of the instrument are other features of all Nelson-
Wiggen pianos.
The accompanying cut
commemorates the suc-
cessful exhibit made at
the recent convention by
the M. Schulz Co., at the
Drake Hotel, Chicago. It
shows Room M 15, on the
mezzanine floor, the same
suite occupied by the
company in t h e trade
convention at the Drake
in 1920. The room was
found so desirable on the
first occasion of its use
that it was then engaged
in advance by the com-
pany. It was another in-
stance of an admirable
habit of looking ahead
which is one of the rea-
sons for the progressive
growth of the M. Schulz
Co.
The exhibit of the M.
Schulz Co. was as pleas-
ant a place to be as it
was advantageous to the
piano man to visit. The
extent of the line shown
was suggestive of business and profit opportunities
to the observant dealers not previously familiar with
the products of the big Chicago industry. The pleas-
urable opportunities included a greeting from Fred-
erick P. Bassett, the genial vice-president; Henry D.
Hewitt, general traveling representative, or Otto M.
Heinzmann, eastern representative.
The exhibit was one of the most attractive in the
convention headquarters. It attracted all the M.
dustries of America, Silk Association, Fifth Avenue
Association, Merchants'
Protective
Association,
American Association of Woolen and Worsted Man-
ufacturers, National Association of Worsted and
Woolen Spinners, American Clothing Manufacturers,
Inc., National Association of Clothiers Credit Bureau
Association, Woolen and Dress Goods Merchants'
Association, Wholesale Merchants' Association, Cot-
ton Garment Manufacturers of New York, Wholesale
Coal Trade Association, National Jew r elers Board of
Trade, Paper Trade and Pulp Association, Paper
Trade Association, Rubber Association of America,
Tobacco Merchants' Association of the United States,
Toy Manufacturers of the United States, Fur Mer-
chants' Credit Association, Associated Dress Indus-
tries of America, and many more. The music indus-
tries do not seem to have been considered.
The Federal judges, it is said, are greatly interested
in the meeting and will assist in every way to solve
problems incidental to the administration of bank-
ruptcy, which has been so much criticized.
FOR BETTER POSTAL SERVICE.
TO CONSIDER CHANGE IN
THE BANKRUPTCY LAW
Credit Men Would Bar Counsel for Creditors from
Representing Trustees and Receivers.
Many lawyers, representatives of. trade organiza-
tions, and merchants, will attend a hearing in the Fed-
eral Court building, in New York City, at 10 o'clock
on June 30 to consider changes in court rules govern-
ing the administration of bankruptcy. A suggestion
made recently in a report by the Committee on Bank-
ruptcy of the New York Credit Men's Association
that a rule be adopted preventing receivers and trus-
tees from retaining as counsel the attorneys for peti-
tioning creditors in bankruptcy proceedings, will be
considered at the meeting and other suggestions made
by various interests for the betterment of bankruptcy
practice will also be discussed.
Formal notice of the hearing, issued by Alexander
Gilchrist, Jr., clerk of the Federal Court, contains an
invitation to everybody to attend and present his
views. Notices of the meeting are being forwarded
to a number of commercial credit and legal organiza-
tions including the following:
The Merchants' Association of New York, Ameri-
can Bankers Association, Alphabet Association,
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York,
New York Credit Men's Association, Wholesale Shoe
League, New York Bar Association, New York
County Lawyers' Association, Associated Dress In-
The dissatisfaction of business firms with the
United States postal service may possibly be re-
moved following the meeting in Chicago last week
of the joint congressional postal commission, which
listened to the results of a three-year investigation of
post office methods. The commission said its goal is
to transform the services from an out-of-date, cum-
bersome, wasteful and inefficient system into an up-
to-date, efficient, economic business organization. The
investigation has found it to be in "bad straits," the
commission reported.
HARDMAN, PECK & CO. PATENT.
A patent issued recently by the Patent Office,
Washington, to Reinhold Bukow, Astoria, Long
Island, N. Y., for a tracking device, has been assigned
to Hardman, Peck & Co., New York. The patent,
which is numbered 1,454,621, covers improvements
for tracking devices for player pianos and by its
means the tracking mechanism not only retains the
correct register between the music sheet and the
tracker, but also accommodates itself to variations in
the width of the music rolls.
ASSETS, TWENTY-FIVE.
A voluntary assignment for creditors has been made
by Arthur M. Lawson, salesman, 462 Mott avenue,
New York; liabilities, $67,315; assets, $25. Principal
creditors are Manufacturers Trust Co., $19,216; Jacob
Bros., $14,191; Alice F. Worden, $15,562. His lia-
bilities were incurred as indorser on paper for the
Lawson Piano & Phonograph Co.
Schulz dealers, of course, but it also brought crowds
of other dealers who had heard of the highly organ-
ized and extensive Chicago industry and desired to
view the grouped products that had gained such an
enviable name for quality of tone and beauty of de-
sign in its instruments. The complete line of pianos,
players and electric expression playerpianos was
shown and the distinctive merits of each instrument
of the M. Schulz Co. were convincingly pointed out.
B. H. BALENSIEFER'S DEATH
SHOCK TO HIS FRIENDS
Assistant to Ernest Urchs, of Steinway & Sons,
Taken 111 on Train, Succumbs in Cleveland.
The news of the death last week of Benjamin H.
Balensiefer, assistant to Ernest Urchs, of the whole-
sale department of Steinway & Sons, New York,
came as a shock to his associates in business and to
his many friends among Steinway dealers in all parts
of the country. When he had become sick on the
train returning from the trade convention in Chicago
he w r as removed to a hotel in Cleveland where his
condition grew worse despite the best efforts to
help him on the part of the physicians.
Henry Dreher, of the Dreher Piano Co., did
everything possible to aid Mr. Balensiefer and to
make him comfortable, but he died late Wednesday
afternoon. Mr. Dreher apprised Steinway Hall of his
death by telephone.
Mr. Balensiefer, who was about forty years of age,
began work with Steinway & Sons in a clerical ca-
pacity as a boy. He was later assigned to the sales
forces in the retail department at Steinway Hall where
he achieved marked success. It led to his appoint-
ment as assistant to Ernest Urchs in the wholesale
department and he soon began road trips, visiting
Steinway dealers. He was very well liked and in
two years had made a host of friends. He is sur-
vived by his widow and two children, a boy and a
girl.
ILLINOIS STATE TAX KILLED.
The proposed state income tax bill was defeated
last week in the Illinois Legislature. The bill pro-
posed a tax of 1 per cent on incomes not exceeding
$10,000, "1 per cent on incomes of from $10,000 to
$50,000 and 3 per cent on incomes above $50,000. It
would allow exemptions of $1,000 for unmarried per-
sons and $2,500 for heads of families. It was charged
that if the bill was passed and the larger industries
moved to states less tax greedy, the tax burden
would have to be borne by the small home owner and
toiler.
MOTORED FROM MANISTEE.
Thor Anderson and Mr. Bestor, of Thor's Music
Shop of Manistee, Mich., motored to Chicago a few
days ago and visited the Culbransen-Dickinson fac-
tory at Kedzie and Chicago avenues. They made the
trip in their machine overnight. The Thor Music
Shop represents the Gulbransen in Manistee.
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