PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 407 South Dearborn
Street, Old Colony Building, Chicago, 111.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones. Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial 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. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter 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 current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 407 So.
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1923.
DISGUISED HOUSE ORGANS
The trade papers sell more pianos for the
manufacturers than all other kinds of public-
ity combined. Nearly every reader of a trade
paper makes his living by selling- pianos or
other instruments of music. There is no rea-
sonable argument, therefore, against the ac-
curacy of the opening statement of this edi-
torial. All advertising is good. But for the
manufacturer who sells to dealers who sell by
personal contact with the public, trade paper
advertising is the best—by far the best.
But, if one were to depend upon some of the
music trade papers for his judgment of piano
values, and the possibilities of piano selling
as a business, it might lead to the notion that
only a very few instruments exist that are
worthy the salesman's efforts. For the trade
papers of today not infrequently suggest that
they are conducted for the exclusive benefit ot
one or two, possibly sometimes three, indus-
tries. The rank and file of pianos have no
show at all. They are just "stuck in" to fill
some small corner that is not needed by the
manufacturers whose elaborate displays over-
shadow their perhaps smaller competitors.
. That is a modern trend of music trade "jour-
nalism." The "large advertiser," possessed of
the means and the space-buying skill to subsi-
dize the publication, gets all of the advantages.
The lesser advertisers merely chip in to help
produce the publicity for the larger space-user.
It can be shown that trade papers, boasting of
loyalty to the whole industry alike, have "car-
ried" six or eight pages of flamboyant "pro-
motion" of certain pianos, bearing as many
names, and all from the same sources. It af-
fords a poor return for the other supporters
of the trade papers thus turned over, body,
boots and breeches, to the concerns which, for
comparatively small investment, gain all of
the advantages for which other instruments
must pay their earned but very uneven propor-
tion.
The late Mr. Hobart M. Cable was an astute
advertiser. He once said to a prominent trade
paper man that he "would not pay his money
to promote a rival's piano at his expense."
And, to use a term of the common debate, Mr.
Cable "said a mouthful." The ''house organ"
is sometimes a good thing. But no well con-
ducted piano trade paper can afford to be any
one's house organ.
PIANO OPPORTUNITIES
One of the younger members of the piano
industry, in a large city, told a Presto rep-
resentative of his success and some of its
causes. He is not a man generally known
personally, because he has not made much of
the annual conventions and has stuck pretty
closely to his own offices and factory ever
since he embarked in the industry about fif-
teen years ago. But what he said contains,
under the surface, a fine lesson for others who
may go into the same business at any time.
The piano manufacturer said that he had no
capital to speak of when he decided to try
piano making. His investment was principal-
ly in pluck and hard work. He began with an
arrangement with three retail concerns to
take a weekly aggregate output of six instru-
ments for cash. He gradually added to the
list of regular buyers and so created a line of
cash customers at a fair profit—sure, but slow
perhaps.
In time he opened his confidence to a prom-
inent action maker who had extended credit.
The action man was glad to extend his line
of credit and the piano industry has grown
steadily until the man who, fifteen years ago,
was not able to employ a typewriter, is mak-
ing between 4,000 and 5,000 instruments a
year and has never borrowed a dollar from
any bank since he started, has never renewed
a note, and is free of debt save current
monthly accounts.
And yet there are piano men who seem to
think that there is something the matter with
the piano business. But there are enough of
the other kind to present all needed enthusi-
asm to newcomers who have the foresight to
take advantage of opportunities due to the
flying of the white feather. And such oppor-
tunities exist, as scarcely never before. Any
who mav be interested can ask us.
HELPLESS CREDITORS
Another fine illustration of the way the
creditors' money is thrown away in bankrupt-
cy cases is disclosed in a report this week from
the New York referee in the matter of the
F. G. Smith, Inc., failure of a year and more
ago. After the customary delays, and the
usual piling up of costs and lawyers' fees, no-
tice is given of the filing of the "final report,"
and that the "remaining uncollected accounts"
will be sold at auction.
There is no schedule of collections already
made, nor any hint of the probable returns to
the unfortunate creditors. But there is a
careful assurance that the neat little sum of
$15,334.96 is assessed for attorneys' fees and
commissions. Of course, the attorneys must
have money. They need it, and probably they
have earned some of it. What the creditors
will get will pay the postage, and possibly a
little more. It usually does in these bank-
ruptcy cases.
The point is that some better way should
be discovered. The legal talent required to
settle a bankrupt piano industry's estate isn't
exactly what might be called a specialty.
September IS, 1923
Piano men know more about values in such
cases than lawyers do. Last week's Presto
contained some plans of a recently formed
New York league of business men designed
to ease the way for bankrupts, and in the
event of its being impossible to save them,
then to conserve the property of creditors.
Better yet, if piano concerns which may
happen to find themselves caught in the quick-
sands of financial bogs, would notify the or-
ganized forces which regulate the trade af-
fairs, and which sustain a legal department for
the purpose, things might move more smooth-
ly and save a lot of money to creditors who
possibly sometimes need it as much as the
lawyers do. The bankruptcy methods are all
out of plumb with reason, and the waste is
monstrous. The creditors are helpless.
THE STRAUBE LINE AT
THE OHIO CONVENTION
Display of Instruments from Hammond, Ind., at Cin-
cinnati, This Week Attracted Attention.
Unusual interest was manifested in the Straubc
players on display at the Hotel Gibson during the
Ohio Convention held Tuesday and Wednesday of
this week in Cincinnati. The Straubc line is handled
in Ohio by forty of the liveliest dealers in the state
and, if the interest shown in the instruments by other
dealers is of any significance, the Straube line will
soon be sold in every nook and corner of the state.
E. R. Jacobson, president of the Straube Company;
J. R. Adams, advertising manager; and the concern's
two Ohio travelers, W. S. Robertson and D. L. Ster-
ling, were in charge of the Straube exhibit and were
kept busy explaining the special Straube features to
interested persons.
As was the case during the Prosperity Convention,
held in Chicago this year, the Straube display rooms
were crowded all the time. The Artronome player
action, with which all Straube players arc equipped,
came in for an unusual amount of praise.
The Straube line is sold in Cincinnati by George P.
Gross, one of the livest and most enterprising dealers
in the country.
WALTHAM PIANO CO. BUSIER
THAN BEFORE IN YEARS
Milwaukee Industry Receives Six Carload Orders
Within as Many Days.
Carload orders for Waltham pianos and player-
pianos were received by the big Milwaukee industry
within four days last week. This refers only, of
course, to carload orders, and the lesser quantity
orders have been coming in with unusual regularity.
As a matter of fact—we have it from Sales Manager
R. N. Wilson—the demand for Waltham instruments
just' now exceeds the ratio of demand for several
years past.
According to General Manager Paul Nctzow, also,
the outlook is that business will be especially good
throughout the balance of the year. There are more
orders on file in the Waltham shipping rooms and
offices than have been on file since the rushing days
following the armistice. It looks well for the Wal-
tham Piano Co., and the new styles of that industry
are having a particularly lively call.
A PROPITIOUS OPENING.
John A. Cartwright formally opened a new music
store in Greencastle, Ind., recently. The new store,
in which he is ably assisted by his wife, is in a fine
location on the south side of the Square. The extent
of the acquaintances and friends of Mr. and Mrs.
Cartwright was proved in the big and continuous
crowds which enlivened the store during opening
day. Both are prominent in musical circles and Mr.
Cartwright has earned fame as a successful piano
salesman.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION PLANS.
Robert N. Watkin, president of the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants is arranging for a meet-
ing of the various Associations in the state of Texas
to be held at Dallas the last of this month, at which
time Matt J. Kennedy, secretary of the association,
will be in Dallas to co-operate with Mr. Watkin in
formulating some big plans for the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants for this year's work.
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