Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1924 1972

Page 7 Text:

PRESTO
May 10, 1924.
THE PROBLEM OF
BUSINESS ETHICS
IT IS A FACT
That SEEBURG ELECTRIC
PIANOS can always be
relied upon.
The Age of Associational Systems, and How
Business Organizations and the Exchange
, of Views in Trade Help to Lift to
Higher Levels.
SECRETARY HOOVER'S SPEECH
IT IS A FACT
that SEEBURG ELECTRIC
PIANOS are dependable.
IT IS A FACT
that SEEBURG ELECTRIC
PIANOS are durable.
IT IS A FACT
that SEEBURG ELECTRIC
PIANOS when sold on in-
stallments bring back the
money quicker than any
other piano sale.
IT IS A FACT
that SEEBURG ELECTRIC
PIANOS are real pianos,
built to stand the hard
usage a c o i n - o p e r a t e d
piano gets.
IT IS A FACT
that your stock is incom-
plete without SEEBURG
ELECTRICS.
IT IS A FACT
that you ought to write
to-day for catalogue and
particulars.
Do it!
J. P. SEEBURG
PIANO CO.
CHICAGO
ILLINOIS
Pointed Extracts from an Address Delivered by the
Secretary of Commerce at Cleveland This
Week Wednesday.
In-these times of muddled thought it is sometimes
worth repeating a truism. Industry and commerce
are not based upon taking advantage of other persons.
Their foundations lie in the division of labor and ex-
change of products. For through specialization we
increase the total and variety of production and secure
its diffusion into consumption. By some false anal-
ogy to the "survival of the fittest" many have con-
ceived the whole business world to be a sort of
economic "dog eat dog."
,
We often lay too much emphasis upon its com-
petitive features, too little upon the fact that it is in
essence a great co-operative effort. And our home-
made Bolshevist-minded critics to the contrary, the
whole economic structure of our nation and the sur-
vival of our high general levels of comfort are de-
pendent upon the maintenance and development of
leadership in the world of industry and commerce.
Any contribution to larger production, to wider dif-
fusion of things consumable and enjoyable, is a serv-
ice to the community and the men who honestly ac-
complish it deserve high public esteem.
What Business Needs.
The thing we all need to searchingly consider is
the practical question of the method by which the
business world can develop and enforce its own stand-
ards and thus stem the tide of governmental regula-
tion. The cure does not lie in mere opposition. It
lies in the correction of abuse. It lies in an adapta-
bility to changing human outlook.
The problem of business ethics, as a prevention of
abuse, is of two categories: Those where the stand-
ard must be one of individual moral perceptions, and
those where we must have a determination of stand-
ards of conduct for a whole group in order that there
may be a basis for ethics.
The standards of honesty, of a sense of mutual
obligation and of service were determined 2,000 years
ago. They may require at times to be recalled. And
the responsibility for them increases infinitely in high
places either in business or Government, for there
rests the high responsibility for leadership in fineness
of moral perception. Their failure is a blow at the
repute of business and at confidence in Government
itself.
The Question of Ethics.
The second field and the one which I am primarily
discussing is the great area of indirect economic
wrong and unethical practices that spring up under
the pressures of competition and habit. There is also
the great field of economic waste through destructive
competition, through strikes, booms and slumps, un-
employment, through failure of our different indus-
tries to synchronize and a hundred other causes which
directly lower our productivity and employment.
Waste may be abstractly unethical, but in any event
it can only be remedied by economic action.
If we are to find solution to these collective issues
outside of government regulation we must meet two
practical problems:
First, there must be organization in such form as
can establish the standards of conduct in this vast
complex of shifting invention, production and use.
There is no existing basis to check the failure of
service or the sacrifice of public interest. Someone
must determine such standards. They must be deter-
mined and held flexibly in tune with the intense
technology of trade.
Second, there must be some sort of enforcement.
There is the perpetual difficulty of a small minority
who will not play the game. They too often bring
disrepute upon the vast majority; the}' drive many
others to adopt unfair competitive methods which all
deplore: their abuses give rise to public indignation
and clamor which breed legislative action.
An Industrial Revolution.
I believe we now for the first time have the method
at hand for voluntarily organized determination of
standards and their adoption. I would go further; I
believe we are in the presence of a new era in the
organization of industry and commerce in which, if
properly directed, lies forces pregnant with infinite
possibilities of moral progress. I believe that we are,
almost unnoticed, in the midst of a great revolution—
or perhaps a. better word, a transformation in the
whole super-organization of otir economic life. We
are passing from a period of extremely individualistic
action into a period of associational activities.
Practically our entire American working world is
now organized into some form of economic associa-
tion. We have trade associations and trade institutes
embracing particular industries and occupations. We
have chambers of commerce embracing representa-
tives of different industries and commerce. We have
the labor unions representing the different crafts. We
have associations embracing all the different profes-
sions—law, engineering, medicine, banking, real estate,
and whatnot. We have farmers' associations, and we
have the enormous growth of farmers' co-operatives
for actual dealing in commodities. Of indirect kin to
this is the great increase in ownership of industries by
their employees, and customers, and again we 4iave a
tremendous expansion of mutualized insurance and
banking.
Economic Associations.
Although such associational organizations can trace
parentage to the middle ages, yet in their present im-
plication they are the birth of the last 50 years, and
in fact their growth to enveloping numbers is of the
last 25 years. We have, perhaps, 25,000 such asso-
ciational activities in the economic field. Member-
ship, directly or indirectly, now embraces the vast
majority of all the individuals of our country. Ac-
tion of wide import by such associations has become
an important force of late in our political, economic
and social life.
It is true that these associations exist for varied
purposes. Some are strong in recognition of public
responsibility and large in vision. Some are selfish
and narrow. But they all represent a vast ferment
of economic striving and change.
Ever since the factory system was born there has
been within it a struggle to attain more stability
through collective action. This effort has sought to
secure more regular production, more regular em-
ployment, better wages, the elimination of waste, the
maintenance of quality or service, decrease in de-
structive competition and unfair practices, and oft-
times to assure prices or profits. Yet underneath all
these efforts there was a residuum of objects which
were in public interest.
On a New Road.
Associational activities are, 1 believe, driving upon
a new road where the objectives can be made wholly
and vitally of public interest. The legitimate trade
associations and chambers of commerce with which 1
am now primarily concerned possess certain charac-
teristics of social importance and the widest differ-
entiation from pools and trusts. Their membership
must be open to all members in the industry or trade,
or rival organizations enter the field at once. There-
fore, they are not millstones for the grinding of
competitors as was the essence of the old trade com-
binations. Their purpose must be the advancement
of the whole industry or trade, or they cannot hold
together.
The total interdependence ofiall industries and com-
merce compels them in the long run to go parallel
to the general economic good. Their leaders rise in a
real democracy without bosses or political manipu-
lation. Citizens can not run away from their coun-
try if they do not like the political management, but
members of voluntary associations can resign and
the association dies.
The Industrial Democracy.
1 believe that through these forces we are slowly
moving toward some sort of industrial democracy.
We are upon its threshold, if these agencies can be
directed solely to constructive performance in the
public interest.
All this does contain some dangers, but they will
come only from low ethical standards. With these
agencies used as the machinery for the cultivation and
spread of high standards and the elimination of abuses,
I am convinced that we shall have entered the great
era of self-governing industry and business which has
been a dream to many thinkers.
A self-governing industry can be made to render
needless a vast area of governmental interference and
regulation which has grown up out of righteous com-
plaint against the abuses during the birth pains of an
industrial world.
CABLE SALESMAN'S DEATH.
James C. Welch, whose death occurred last Satur-
day in Jackson, Mich., was well known in the musi-
cal and theatrical world, having been a successful
manager and director for more than a quarter of a
century. Seven years ago, Mr. Welch went to Jack-
son as manager of the Lou Whitney Stock Company.
For the past four years he has been connected, as
salesman, with the Cable Piano Company.
The Stafford Springs, Conn., branch of the United
Talking Machine Co., recently added a new piano de-
partment. The store has secured the agency for the
entire line of the Weaver Piano Co., York, Pa.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

Page 8 Text:

May 10, 1924.
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
Telephones, 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, $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., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
makers of musical instruments, as well as with,
radio specialists.
If Pavlowa has the right idea then it must
seem that radio is as much a part of the music
trade as any other of the things that concern
the dealers. For her plan would take away
the merely toy-house feature of radio and
make it the link between the concert hall and
the home. It would commercialize radio in the
same sense that other musical instruments are
commercialized. Radio would be a "combina-
tion of radio manufacturers, orchestra and
concert artists." It would carry into the home
the best work of the great performers ami
singers, and it would, of necessity, eliminate
the advertising features and the political
speeches, and other intrusions upon domestic
harmony and happiness.
The head of the Ballet Russe may have A
dream. It may be long in its realization, but
we are inclined to think that she has hit upon
a solution of a problem which has been en-
tangling the trade and confusing the music-
loving public which has not been able to fully
decide whether radio as an aid to art is really
a blessing or a sort of nuisance in disguise.
GERMAN
PIANOS
IN
ENGLAND
MAKING LITERATURE
OUT OF ADVERTISING
Highly Readable Specimen of Printer's Pro-
motion of the Steinway Piano by Big
San Francisco House,
The literary touch in piano advertising has been
brought to an almost fascinating point in the printed
publicity of the Steinway piano. Presto has, before
now, reproduced some of it from the big New York
City dailies. Following is a good one which no doubt
had also appeared in the East, but which is copied
from a Sherman, Clay & Co. advertisement in San
Francisco. It's well worth keeping:
At a great majority of all concerts this season, as
for two generations past, the programs state: "The
piano is the Steinway."
I am the Steinway piano. I do not believe that
Sherman, Clay & Co., my Pacific Coast representa-
tives, print this statement in a spirit of boastfulness.
1 believe that they use it, as I accept it, in a spirit of
deep responsibility.
For consider what it means to me, the piano, thus
chosen—not occasionally, but almost universally—to
be the companion of all these artists on the concert
stage. Violinists and vocalists trust me to provide the
canvas against which they, as painters, may fling the
colors of their art. Pianists invite me to render into
gracious sound, those vast chords and melodies which
exist only within their own brains and souls-—until I
speak for them.
Far, far more than the audiences realize, do the
triumphs of the artists depend upon the fidelity of
their instruments.
Nor is it sufficient that I simply perform as well on
this occasion as on the last. Art does not stand still;
neither may I. Every concert on every occasion is
a new test, a new crisis, and a glorious new oppor-
tunity for me.
That is why it meant so much to me when the
great Theodore Thomas wrote of me, in 1879: "1
consider the Steinway piano the best at present made,
and that is the reason why I use it in private and also
in all my public concerts," and was able to say of me
again in 1898, "I gave the above testimonial nineteen
years ago, and will only change it in so far as to say
that the superiority of the Steinway piano to all
others that 1 know of is even more apparent today
than it was nineteen years ago.''
That is why it means so much to me to have Pader-
ewski say: "Whenever perfection is attained, prog-
ress is stopped; for there is no room for climbing
when the summit has been reached. And yet, in
your case, this law of nature seems to have been
defied . . . Such a thing can only be accomplished
by a sincere love of profession, and it is to this love
of profession that I wish to pay my tribute of high
esteem and admiration."
This is my responsibility, to see that every con-
cert season finds me more gracious, more responsive,
more endearing than the last. And always, I hope,
shall 1 continue to be a very human piano.
Such is the meaning of the phrase, ''the piano is the
Steinway," and such is the spirit in which I stand
upon this concert stage before you now.
There is something about Captain Cecil's
article this week that suggests that the gal-
lant soldier and writer may "have it in" for
the
British piano. But perhaps we are wrong
A REMARKABLE LETTER
about this, and the German manufacturers
Nothing could be more stimulating- to the may have so far advanced as to be making
piano trade than the letter which forms a part pianos so much better than Britain as to prove
of the page advertisement of The Cable Com- all the menace to the London trade that is
pany in this issue of Presto. It is very rarely implied by our correspondent at Paris.
that this trade paper makes any such use as
Before the war the cheapest pianos dis-
this of any communication, or other publicity
played in London were from Germany. The
matter which may seem to bear especially
English capital was flooded with them. They
upon the interests of some particular indus-
bore all sorts of names, and they were sold
try. But in this case the interest is general
at retail for little more than $50. on the three
in its character.
years plan of payment. When the war started
The letter is from a prominent, and very the London dealers hurriedly removed the
successful, piano merchant to one of the great- German piano names and every other sign of
est of the American piano industries and bears their origin.
the kind of testimony which concerns every
And then came the announcement from the
ambitious piano dealer. It presents the sort
British Piano Trade Association, that never
of testimony every manufacturer must prize
again would a German piano be permitted on
and, in some instances, covet. There are other
LEWIS H. CLEMENT IN ROLE
the floor of any London music dealer.
very large piano industries whose products
OF ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR
But the war ended, and with the signing
present even a larger number, or variety, of
of
the
armistice
came
the
unwritten
promise
great piano names. But is there another which
As Leader and Secretary of Organization He Has
can produce a letter of like power, covering of forgetfulness and condonement of past
Been Potent in Its Success.
instruments which, by the very reason of their wrongdoings. The German pianos returned
Lewis
H.
Clement,
once widely known as an active
old and famous names, if nothing else, are sup- under nearly as many disguises as before. And force in the piano trade, is conductor of the Toledo
posed to rank among the highest? If so, Capt. Cecil now says London might as well Symphony Orchestra, season of 1923-24. In the
concert of the season, April 27, the orchestra
there could be no better or more useful piano be asking: "Sha'1 the Battle of Waterloo con- sixth
was assisted by the Eurydice Club and the soloist was
tinue
forever?"
as
to
exclude
the
opportuni-
trade literature.
Hermann E. Gunther, 'cellist.
ties offered by German pianos.
The wide range of Mr. Clement's abilities is shown
It is our judgment that, while The Cable
But it does seem strange that the English in the historical and analytical notes provided in the
Company's publicity department is credited
program.
with having carried off the honors for good people so far prefer the German pianos as to
The Toledo Symphony Orchestra is kept up by
advertising in years past, it has never before endanger a great industry of their own. It supporting members of the orchestra association, by
and by life membership gift of $2,500
produced so forceful and conclusive an adver- is strange that so soon the German piano box-holders
from Grinnell Bros. And of course the managerial
makers
could
have
surpassed
the
English,
not
tisement as the page which appears in this
well as the musical ability of Mr. Clement has had
only in the economy of their productiveness, as
a powerful influence in making the orchestra some-
issue of Presto.
but also in the quality of their musical instru- thing of which all Toledo people are justly proud.
ments—of their pianos. We are inclined to
GOOD CANADA REPORT.
await
the gentle denial of our amiable Lon-
A RADIO SOLUTION
C.
W.
Lindsay was re-elected president and gen-
don contemporary, The Piano Maker, before
eral manager of the C. W. Lindsay Co., Ltd., Mon-
A Russian danseuse has given it as her opin- accepting what Capt. Cecil says as final.
treal, Canada, at a recent meeting. B. A. Edward was
ion that radio and music must combine. The
elected secretary and W. A. Robinson, treasurer.
suggestion might have come from some one
The report of the president and secretary told of a
NEW COMMITTEES APPOINTED.
very successful year with collections better today
equally prominent in the profession or indus-
than a year ago. The regular dividends of 7 per cent
Following
the
annual
meeting
last
week
of
the
New
try of music, but Pavlowa has been long as- York Piano Merchants' Association, C. T. Purdy, who on
the preferred stock and 8 per cent on the com-
sociated with musical affairs, and her nimble was re-elected president for the third time, appointed mon stock were declared as well as a 2 per cent
feet have taught her active brain what is the following committees: Membership—Homer de bonus for the year to common stockholders.
wanted in things associated with her phe- Anguera, chairman; H. S. Bardenheuer, and George
Sexton. Grievance—C. A. Laurino, chairman; A. L.
Dan & Knife is the name of a new concern to en-
nomenal performances. So that what she says Spoerl and Charles W. Paul. Program—John J. gage
in the music business at 137 East Fourth street,
must have weight with music makers, and Glynn, chairman; H. E. Brown and E. J. Winterroth. Long Beach, Cal.
SATURDAY, MAY 10. 1924.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

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