PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
- Editors
T«l«phonet, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," 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, f4.
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., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1924.
GOING OFF HALF-COCKED
The case of the American Legion and the
Aeolian Company presents a fine illustration of
the danger of going off half-cocked. It also
shows the ease with which the greatest of all
explosives may work for ill as well as for good.
The explosive in this case is the press—the
great newspapers which too often spread a kind
of disaster in the name of enterprise. In the
case of the Aeolian Company the criticism and
editorial abuse was based upon the thought-
lessness of one man, and that man an employe,
whose personal zeal was made to reflect upon
the entire great industry.
The Aeolian Company is, of course, famed
for its musical instruments. It is also noted
for its patriotic impulses and loyalty to Ameri-
can institutions. At its head is a gentleman
who has more than once been marked for his
public^spirit. To charge him, or the house in
his care, with anything like lack of sympathy
with the veterans of the war, or to attempt to
besmirch his company with ink from the pots
of politics seems incomprehensible to members
of the music trade who have followed his
career and know the traditions of the Aeolian
Company itself.
When the stir of the alleged attempt to
coerce the Aeolian Company's employees in
an effort to influence legislation in the tax
problem, and to stop the soldiers' bonus, was
made public every member of the music trade
who is at all informed concluded that there was
a mistake somewhere. And they were reas-
sured just as soon as Mr. H. B. Tremaine
could get his explanation into shape. That did
not take long. The offender against the prin-
ciples of the Aeolian Company was promptly
removed from his position and the newspapers
were almost as free to correct their quick-fire
mistake as they had been to create a sensation
in advance of the information they might have
had by applying at Aeolian Hall before pub-
lication.
Going off half-cocked may be a habit pecu-
liar to the newspaper business. It should not
be a practice with business men, and especially
in the music trade there is no possible excuse
for it. And, while there may be a class of
piano dealers who think that such an incident
as that of the half-cocked performance of Mr.
Swords, late of the Aeolian Company, affords
opportunity to "knock" the instrument's of
the New York industry, we advise against any
such notion. It will prove a boomerang and
will react against the prosperity of any dealer
or salesman foolish enough to attempt it.
Politics and half-cocked sensations and slan-
der can have no good results in selling musical
instruments. And sometimes the newspapers
may as well be handled carefully as any other
kind of explosive. The wise business man will
await "further particulars," or a later edition,
before believing anything he may read which
may reflect upon the principles or purposes of
a great industry.
ADVERTISED PRICES
February 23, 1924.
own methods, except that Presto never has,
and never will, devote two pages, or even one
page, to boasting of what it will not do.
It is enough to do things, in this world of
absent treatment that is good and visible
treatment that is often cruel and wrong. And
just now the piano trade is picking up so fast
that only good things should be said, anyway,
even of the weather, which has been very bad
of late in most places, causing deliveries to
be hard and prospect-chasing especially un-
welcome.
The methods of the music trade papers have
changed greatly. Most of the old time piano
manufacturers, who knew and sustained the
music publications devoted to abusing them
and their products, have died or retired. Some
of the trade editors have also died and the
others have reformed. Changes in the piano
industry and trade have created a very differ-
ent journalistic atmosphere, and we are now
all heading the right way, with silver-lined
clouds sailing smoothly above and expecta-
tions fixed upon them, with the pious assur-
ance of a cannibal observing the devotions
of a praying missionary.
Seriously, there is nothing to boast about in
the fact that a trade editor will not abuse his
friends and competitors. He should not even
believe that such a thing could be done by any-
one associated with the honorable piano trade
—not even in the retail end of it—in these ad-
vanced and enlightened days.
The Better Business Bureau, and a good
many other trade reformers, have discussed
the rights and wrongs of cut-price advertis-
ing which has disturbed the piano trade not
a little. It has been pretty generally under-
stood that there was something wrong in a
dealer advertising instruments at a low price
and denying the "prospect" the right to buy
at the cut price on some evasion obviously on
the bias.
In some places there have been law suits
based upon the facts here stated, and the piano
associations have criticized the dealers who in- W. G. HAY'S VOCAL PIBROCH
dulge in the price baiting practice. But, ac-
AROUSES CLAN MacRADIO
cording to the legal department of the Chicago
Tribune, there appears to be no legal recourse Hastings, Neb., Piano Man and KFKX Announcer
in the matter. Here is the decision of the
Scratches the Ether with Surprising Results.
Tribune, as recently presented in answer to a
W. G. Hay, treasurer and a sales manager of the
correspondent, who asked: "Must a depart- Gaston
Music & Furniture Co., Hastings, Neb., is
ment store sell goods at prices that they ad- musical director and announcer for KFKX, a broad-
vertise in their space in the newspapers?" and casting station in the city named. Mr. Hay, when
formerly secretary of the Brinkerhoff Piano Co., Chi-
the Tribune answers:
cago, was widely known in and around that city for
"No.
Such ads are regarded legally as his splendid baritone voice.
Radiophans who have become familiar with An-
merely invitations to the public rather than
nouncer Hay's peculiar phrase "Stand by, please,"
as offers."
have in their communications to the Chamber of
That statement of the newspaper's legal de- Commerce frequently asked if he has not been a
partment is at variance with the understand- mariner some time in his career. He varied this on
one occasion last week and closed with: "Nae mair
ing of some of the business bureaus, and it is the nicht, freends, and 'tis verra sweet drames I'm
not at all in accordance with the understand- wushin' ye."
The result was amazing. It seemed to the Cham-
ing of many prominent members of the piano
of Commerce that the listeners-in were strongly
trade. We have not investigated beyond the ber
Scotch. From all over the country and Canada came
office of the newspaper the legal department letters, telegrams and long-distance phone calls from
of which we presume must understand the na- people with Caledonian names inquiring about the
of the announcer who had so pleasantly
ture of the advice it hands out to anxious in- identity
scratched the ether with the delightful burr.
quirers. There seems to be need of some regu-
"Mr. Hay is Scotch and has a Scotch accent, but
lation at this point, for it is one in which he suppresses it in ordinary conversation," said Will
Brinkerhoff, president of the Brinkerhoff Piano
there is plenty of opportunity for unfair prac- T.
Co.. this week. "It is only in a stress of feeling, when
tices in piano advertising. This fact has been he fails to close an expected piano sale, for instance,
demonstrated often and frequently commented that he relapses into the brogue. Will must have
been feeling excited that night when he spilled that
upon in these columns.
Scotch wordball on the aerial waves."
ALL KNOCKING BARRED
NEW CABLE-NELSON TRAVELER.
One of the New York trade papers devotes
two full pages to eulogizing itself and pro-
claiming that it never abuses its contempo-
raries in the field of journalism—never could
and never would do such a contemptible thing.
The halo with which the New York editor sur-
mounts his noble brow outglitters everything
else that shines in the columns of his paper,
slops over into self praise exceeding all the
puffs it has ever bestowed upon its best-paying
advertisers.
Nevertheless, we pause to applause. We
clap and stomp our admiration, for the prin-
ciples set forth are in perfect accord with our
Roy A. Burgess is now a traveler for the Cable-
Nelson Piano Company and is covering Missouri and
other regions of the Southwest and West. He is a
twin brother of Ray Burgess, traveler for the Smith,
Barnes & Strohber Company. These enterprising
piano men are sons of Robert Burgess, formerly of
the Wegman Piano Company, Auburn, N. Y., now of
the Christman Piano Company, New York.
GEORGE P. BENT KEEPS BUSY.
George P. Bent, whose home is in California, who
was in Chicago in the latter part of last week and
left for a short trip Saturday, is expected back in
Chicago today, Saturday. He has been active selling
the George P. Bent pianos. The Bent store on Wa-
bash avenue, Chicago, is now doing a very good busi-
ness in radio-set selling. It handles the Zenith and
Atwater-Kent radio sets.
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