PRESTO
8
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Published Every Saturday at 407 South Dearborn
Street, Old Colony Building, Chicago, 111.
C. A. D A N I E L L and F R A N K D. A B B O T T
•
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Editors
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Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29. 1896, at the
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1923.
AT THIS TIME
In New York the piano manufacturers
chorus the same complaint, and about the
only one. It is that they can't, by any method
of speeding up, fully supply their customers.
Orders are coming in as almost never before.
And this applies to the finer grades of instru-
ments as well as to the commercial class.
If you say to any manager of factory or
wareroom that perhaps one cause of the in-
tense activity may be due in part to the drop-
ping out of some of the long established in-
dustries, attention will be called to the num-
ber of new ones which have started up, and
which are already shipping to the limit of their
capacity. There have been times when the
New York piano factories have been just as
busy as now. But they have never produced
as many instruments at anything like the av-
erage cost to dealers and public. Which shows
that it is not a question of price that regulates
demand in this business. As a matter of fact,
as this trade paper has often said, a better
price will help to build trade more surely than
the lowest prices will do it.
It may be said that it is to a degree be-
cause of the slaughter of prices that the de-
mand for pianos exceeds the supply. We
don't believe it. Of course, there is a class
of trade that is influenced in the way im-
plied. But it is not the kind of trade that
keeps the manufacturers' and merchants'
financial heads above water. There has never
been a great group of wealthy piano manu-
facturers. The number of rich piano dealers
would not muster much of an army. Why not ?
Foolish to ask and more foolish to essay
an answer. The cheap piano industries are
not the substantial ones. There is not today
a single great factory devoted to the very
low-priced piano that has been in existence
for a quarter-century. Call over the list and
see. We have had a lot of them, from the
day of J. P. Hale to the present time. But
from the great New England Piano Co. to the
energetic piano makers of the present day, the
attempt to build fortunes upon the cheapest
possible piano product has not been either a
good instrument or a permanent success.
Pianos can not be sold at prices of popular
furniture with any degree of success to the
seller. A piano sold to the dealers on a mar-
gin of profit based solely upon quantity pro-
duction will, in time, be sold at retail for a
correspondingly small price. '\And in Iboth
transactions there will be no appreciable profit.
The manufacturer will multiply his overhead
and his financial risks, while the dealer will
exhaust his prospect list and in the end find
himself about where he started, or worse.
This is an old lesson. It is a preachment as
old as this trade paper—and that is older than
most of the piano industries. It may be re-
peated, but it will never convince a certain
kind of live men in business who must have
their own experiences and make or lose their
own fortunes. But there are others who will
give some heed to it, and who are making
some money out of their efforts and instru-
ments. And they will take advantage of such
times as the present for the making of more
money than ever before.
A CLEAN INDUSTRY
August 11, 1923
record. And that was not the fault of the
phonographs, but of penny-grasping politicians
in search of their commissions.
It is a clean business. Every time a piano
merchant delivers an instrument he performs
more than an act of business. 'He spreads
cheer, and helps to drive away the glooms,
and adds to the buoyancy of the spirits.
Mr. Wilson concludes that "our civilization
can not survive materially unless it be re-
deemed spiritually." If music is the only art
that defies defilement, as every poet and phil-
osopher tells us, then the man who sells the
things of music may congratulate himself. He
is a savior of our civilization. And, further-
more, as we all know, he not infrequently
makes sacrifices in its cause. He is one of
the business men who delivers the goods to
his neighbor's door and proves his trust by
waiting two or three years for payment for
his property. That is the "development of
moral integrity worthy of sacrifice" for which
Mr. Wilson is looking.
PROMPT ON THE JOB FOR
FIFTEEN THOUSAND DAYS
So Reckoned by Fred D. Weld Making Estey Organs
Speaking of the heartlessness of many
for 51 Years.
leaders in industry, in their relations with
Fred
D.
Weld,
of
the reed board department of the
workers subject to their dictates, former Estey Organ Co., Brattleboro,
V t , has been working
President Wilson wants to know why such for the company for 51 years and he states "in all
"offenses" can not be removed and business that time no one ever told me to rush a job through."
It is an interesting story, that shows the thorough-
be made "more honorable and cleanly." The ness
of the construction methods of this three-quar-
challenge often seems a fair one, and the ters of a century old industry.
"I remember well the first day I came to work
problem presented is one which has worried
the Esteys, more than half a century ago. From
thinkers for a long time and will probably with
that time to this my name has never been off the
continue to worry them for some time to Estey pay roll," said Mr. Weld. "In my time I have
served four generations of the House of Estey—
come.
Jacob Estey, the founder; his son, Julius; his two
But there is one line of business in which grandsons, and now his three great-grandsons. The
there has never been any noticeable degree management has changed, but the Estey policy has
of the spoils methods to which the former never varied one bit. The purpose has always been
to build the best organs it is possible to produce.
President refers. The piano industry has been Everyone and everything here works to that end.
a clean one from the first. In it there has Nothing else matters.
"They tell me that fifty-one years is a long time to
been only a little of even the discord between
stick with one company. But the days have passed
employer and employed which has marked so pleasantly that it doesn't seem like a long time to
most other lines. Bitter quarrels have sel- me. In all the years I have been here, not once have
dom marred the makings of the strings of 1 been rushed, even in the busiest seasons. Not
have I been told to 'let it go at that' or pushed
music, and usually the men in this branch of once
beyond the point where I can put the best that's in
the world's progress have displayed little or me into my work.
"And that is just why I have hung my hat and coat
none of the disposition to grab off a bigger
on the same old peg for more than fifteen thousand
share of the first-fruits than they are en- mornings!"
titled to.
Perhaps there are some people who will say NEW INCORPORATIONS
that the attitude of the men of music, in the
IN MUSIC GOODS TRADE
respect referred to, has been too clearly em-
phasized. That the aggression of the oper-
Secure Charters in Various
ators in some other lines might prove help- New and Old Concerns Places.
ful if adopted by the men who make the in-
The Grimes Radio Engineering Company, Man-
struments of harmony the means of their hattan, New York; $25,000; R. L. Bradford, C. A.
commercial existence. However that may be, Curtis and P. M. Payne.
The J. Schwartz Music Company, Manhattan;
it remains true that the business of making
$50,000; J. Schwartz, B. H. Schwartz and S. M.
and selling the things of music does not fall Schwartz.
within the limitations of Mr. Wilson's arraign-
The Radio Cabinet Company, Brooklyn, N. J.;
$10,000; J. E. Davis and H. Hirsch.
ment.
Joseph Weilcr, 121 N. Fifth street, Quincy, 111.;
Even in the social scandals, which so fre- $120,000, divided as follows: Charles Weiler, $56,000;
quently serve to enliven the daily newspapers, Alice Weiler, $49,900; Lenorc Weiler, $10,000; and
W. P. Martinde, $100. Pianos, talking machines and
it is seldom that the name of a music man jewelry.
appears in the headlines. The recent excep-
Walthall Music Co., San Antonio, Tex.; $100,000;
tion of Mr. Maxwell, who was charged with L. E. Walthall, M. W. Lemann and J. E. Merchant.
American Music Sales Co., Wilmington, Del.;
the "poison pen" habit, turned out to be unfair to The
deal in talking machines; $50,000.
to the sheet music publisher, in that it was
Mason Music Co.. Inc., San Antonio, Tex.; $20,000;
unduly exaggerated, if not wholly a fabrica- G. W. Parish, L. E. Robinson and J. W. Mason.
South Side Music Store, 3121 South State street,
tion. And in politics the industry of music Chicago;
$10,000; Edward Williams and others.
has equally clean hands. It has contributed
Reed & A wan Music Publishing Co., New York
congressmen, governors and mayors who have City, $10,000; W. Wynman, C. Holtzman.
served their constituents well. But there has
A line of musical instruments will be carried by
never been a suggestion of anything worse
the Heard-Bell Furniture Co., Atlana, Ga., which will
than an overcharge for phonographs in the open this week.
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