17
P R E S T O
June 14, 1924.
KILL ELECTION
YEAR BUGABOO
Don't Let the Obsession of Presidential Year
Dullness Prevent You from the Efforts
That Always Stimulate Trade
and Reap Profits.
ADVICE OF CHAS. E. BYRNE
Vice-President of Steger & Sons Piano Mfg. Co.
Sends Out Bulletin in which Solid Facts
Are Stated.
In a bulletin mailed to dealers this week a letter
from the Steger & Sons Piano Mfg. Co., Chicago,
signed by Vice-President Charles E. Byrne, facts
about business generally are told, which tend to dis-
courage the perpetuation of the classic bugaboo of
cold business in equal ratio to heat of politics during
the year of presidential election. Following is the
way Mr. Byrne states his case:
A Sales Bulletin.
You know there is a great deal of talk going around
just now to the effect that, in a presidential year we
cannot expect to have as good business as in other
years.
My good friend, Wm. H. Rankin has told me about
a talk he had with W. J. Flynn, of the Simmons
Bed Company, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mr. Flynn had
just returned from a trip throughout the Middle
West. While in Chicago someone told him that
Henry Ford had laid off 32,000 men; so when he
reached Detroit he called on Henry Ford, and found
that the Ford plant not only had not laid off 32,000
men, but that they were employing more men than
they ever had in the history of the Ford Motor Com-
pany; that during the months of March and April
they had sold over 400,000 Ford cars. They are not
only selling all the Ford cars as fast as they are
turned out, but also Lincoln cars.
Hudson and Essex as well as Maxwell and
Chrysler are selling their output and running to
capacity.
All of the companies attribute their present good
business very largely to the fact that they have not
only the right product but the right kind of adver-
tising.
Big Advertisers.
Mr. Ford, as perhaps you know, is spending about
$12,000,000 this year (1924) in all forms of advertis-
ing, and this is the first time in the history of his
business that he has done so, and he is getting good
results.
E. D. Gibbs, advertising director of the National
Cash Register Company, said yesterday that after a
trip to the various branches of the N. C. R. he found
business better this month than any month during
the past twenty-four—even better than last month,
which was their record month.
The General Cigar Company, the leading cigar
Schumann
PIANOS and PLAYER PIANOS
GRANDS and UPRIGHTS
Have no superiors in appearance, tone
power or other essentials of strictly
leaders in the trade.
Warning to Infringers
This Trade Mark la cast
in the plate and also ap-
pears upon the fall board
of all genuine Schumann
Pianos, and all infrlngers
will be prosecuted. Beware
of imitations such as Schu-
mann & Company, Schu-
mann & Son, and also
Shuman, as all stencil
shops, dealers and users of
pianos bearing a name in
imitation of the name
Schumann with the inten-
tion of deceiving the public
will be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law.
New Catalogue on Request.
advertisers (Wm. Penn 5c cigar, White Owl, 2 % for
15c, and Robert Burns, 2 for 25c) report not only
good bifsiness during the first four months of 1924,
but say that the month of May was one of their
very best months.
In talking over all these things, we came to the
conclusion that concerns that go after business just
a little harder during a presidential year than other
years can make that year better than the preceding
year.
Mr. Flynn checked up all the presidential years
since 1896, and he said that every presidential year,
with the exception of 1896, was a better business year
than the preceding year.
Wise Publicity.
I believe it is very important to give this fact as
wide publicity as we can. It was really news to me;
and if we can get that sort of feeling into the minds
of the dealers and salesmen, it will help business
materially during the balance of 1924.
In the New York Times was published the report
of John Moody, head of the Moody Investors Serv-
ice, made before the American Iron, Steel and Heavy
Hardware Association, in which he said: "The pros-
perous financial conditions throughout the country
have made the 1924 dollar as good as the dollar of
1923."
This is particularly true in the matter of automo-
biles and accessories. Just at the present time the
tire dollar is worth $1.25 as compared with 1913; and
the automobile dollar about $1.12.
Secretary of Labor Davis in his very fine May Day
interview showed that the laboring men of the coun-
try were really more prosperous and had more money
to buy advertised products today than at any time
during the last three years, and that "the country
faces a great building program, with employers and
workers co-operating for its success."
Farm Conditions Better.
This fact and the fact that the condition of the
farmer is gradually getting better should help all
business during the balance of this year and next year
as well.
Let's kill this "presidential year" bugaboo, and
make 1924 better than 1923, just as 1920 was better
than 1919, 1916 better than 1915, 1912 better than
1911, 1908 better than 1907, 1904 better than 1903, and
1900 still better than 1899. These are the facts, so
1924 must be better than 1923—and we can all help
make it so.
If you can send me an optimistic report I wish you
would—or if you are not in accord with the Bulletin
please write me—or, better still, I would like to talk
with you personally.
BRANCH FORMALLY OPENED.
A new music business was opened recently in Col-
umbia City, Ind., at the Homer Schinbeckle Jewelry
store. It was a branch of the Will A. Young music
store in Fort Wayne, Ind., and is in charge of Miss
Mary Bodley. Miss Clarice Sweet, violinist, took
part in the musical program and a vocal program
was also given.
For a
Bigger and Better
Business
There is nothing to compare
with the complete line of
M. SCHULZ CO.
The Players are RIGHT in
everything t h a t means
money to the dealers and
satisfaction to the public
You will never do anything better
than when you get in touch with
M. SCHULZ CO.
W. N. VAN MATRE, President
711 Milwaukee Avenue
CHICAGO
Rockford, 111.
OUTHERN BRANCH: 730 Candler Bldg., ATLANTA, GA
Schumann Piano Co.
GIVES SOUNDING BOARD
FACTS FOR PIANO OWNERS
J. Clark Easton, Prominent LaCrosse, Wis., Tuner,
Writes Interestingly for Newspaper.
The relation of the sounding board to the tone of
the piano is explained in an untechnical way by J.
Clark Easton, a prominent tuner, in the LaCrosse/
Wis., Tribune. The construction of the sounding
board and the materials used are other items of in-
formation for piano owners, and very important in-
formation concerns the atmosphere changes that
affect that important piano part.
The sounding board, says Mr. Easton, is influenced
by the same atmospheric changes as your dresser
drawer or the closet door. Air that will cause the
drawer and door to swell will cause the sounding-
board to swell and expand. Very dry air will cause
the board to shrink. Every movement of the sound-
ing-board registers its effect immediately on the
tension of the string. When the string is out of tune,
its tension and pressure upon the sounding-board is
either greater or less than the scale designer intended.
The nice balance that should exist between pres-
sure and resistance is upset: and, if an abnormal
strain is allowed to occur in one section of the scale,
as it often does, the result may be a split sounding-
board, a cracked plate, a broken string, coupled with
a serious loss of resonance." In other words,-your
piano is seriously injured, if not ruined, and a new
sounding-board, plate and strings will be required,
which is usually an expensive matter.
The only thing that will obviate this danger is
frequent and adequate tuning, which, as we have seen,
is "not only a matter of keeping the piano at pitch,
and the tone agreeable to the ear . . . but of bal-
ancing the fifteen or sixteen tons pressure on the
frame of the instrument," which "is of equal if not
greater importance to the piano owner.
QUALITY
in Name and in Fact
TONE, MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION,
WORKMANSHIP, DESIGN—all in ac-
cord with the broadest experience—are
the elements which give character to
Bush & Lane Products.
BUSH&LANE PIANOS
BUSH & LANE CECILIAN PLAYER
PIANOS
take high place, therefore, in any com-
parison of high grade pianos because of
the individuality of character which dis-
tinguishes them in all essentials of merit
and value.
BUSH & LANE PIANO CO.
Holland, Mich.
ESTABLISHED 1854
THE
BRADBURY PIANO
FOR ITS
ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE
FOR ITS
INESTIMABLE AGENCY VALUE
THE CHOICE OF
Representative Dealers the World Over
Now Produced in Several
New Models
WRITE FOR TERRITORY
Factory
Leominster,
Mass.
Executive Offices
138th St. and Walton Ave.
New York
Division W. P. HAINES ft CO., Inc.
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