November 1, 1924.
PRESTO
TUNERS' ASSOCIATION
IT PAYS
TO BUY
TONK BENCHES
Figuring It Through-
out the Year What
D o e s the
Phrase
"Uniform Quality"
Mean in the Buying
and Selling of Piano
Benches
TONK MFG. CO.
1912 Lewis St.
CHICAGO, ILL
Manufacturers
K D 88
TONK BENCH
Publishers
TONK
TOPICS
IT PAYS
TO BUY
THE BEST
AFTER MORE MEMBERS
November Set for Nation-Wide Drive to
Bring Membership Up to or Over the
Thousand Figure.
Letters from piano manufacturers to the National
Association of Piano Tuners, Inc., promising co-
operation in the tuners' drive for new members, are
cheering elements in the efforts to strengthen the
association in numbers. But the letters, too, are
marks of approval of the work of the association
tuners' national body in eradicating inexperts in serv-
ice departments, unskillful pretenders whose bungling
methods prejudice piano owners against real tuning.
Important aid to the tuners' drive for increased
membership is being given by the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce which stimulates the drive by
articles in the Chamber bulletin. A blank form in
the bulletin to be filled out by applicants is a method
that assures good results.
A letter sent out this week by the National Asso-
ciation of Piano Tuners, Inc., to practicing tuners
who are not affiliated with the tuners' organization is
a strong plea that should awaken the interest of the
recipients and be productive of the desired results.
"Do you ever stop to think of the deplorable con-
dition of the tuning profession?" is asked in the let-
ter. "Tuning prices have not kept pace with other
commodities and service. Your income is not nearly
as large as it should be for what you know and do.
"No one is going to do anything to improve our
position except as we ourselves bring pressure to
bear on the trade and on the public. A lone tuner or
small group of tuners can do nothing toward influ-
encing manufacturers or merchants and they must all
be influenced mightily.
"Where we have been the strongest, prices for
tuning have increased, demand for tuning has so been
increased as to make less travelling necessary effect-
ing savings in time and traveling expenses. Our
tuners have the advantage of securing technical and
business information through our journal and through
meeting other tuners at local meetings and annual
conventions. Our emblem shown on this letterhead
identifies members as qualified workmen.
"If you want to become a member of a National
organization (association not union) and be a more
highly respected citizen with an income equal to that
of the average professional man, you have an oppor-
tunity to do so now."
For the month of November the usual initiation
fee of $20.00 has been waived and the monetary re-
quirement limited to the annual dues of $10.00 payable
up to Dec. 1, 1925. On the receipt of an application
an examiner is sent to judge of the expertness of
the applicant. Should he prove unqualified the money
is returned. Only qualified men of twenty-five years
and over are admitted to membership in the National
Association of Piano Tuners, Inc.
"Our national president receives no salary from the
association. He gave thirty-seven full days of his
time to association work last year without remuner-
ation. The national secretary receives $35.00 per
week and the stenographer a small salary. We are
sacrificing a lot for this proposition and w T e feel
repaid by what has been accomplished in bettering
conditions," is a bit of information that should dis-
prove the yarns about the colossal salaries of associa-
tion officials and show the unselfish character of their
services.
A letter to members this week urges individual
effort towards accomplishing the ends of the drive.
"We want 1,000 new members, and we hope that
each and every member of the association will appre-
ciate the importance of this move and that he will
be willing to make a personal call upon the tuners
in his immediate territory and elsewhere and make
a special effort to secure the application of as many
as possible."
'
MUSIC TRADE IN ENGLAND
ENJOYS GREAT PROSPERITY
Pianos and Talking Machines Especially Favored in
Sales According to Music Journal.
A vociferous election in England apparently did
not affect the placid ways of the music trade, accord-
ing to the London Music Trades Review, which says
in the issue of October 15 to hand:
"It is a pleasure to be able to record that the two
large sections of the industry, the gramophone and
pianoforte sections, are at present enjoying an almost
unprecedented prosperity. The gramophone trade
especially is reaping a wonderful sales benefit, partly
resulting from the efficiency with which trading con-
ditions within the trade were framed some years
ago, making possible a workable price-maintenance
scheme, and also from the very fine advertising propa-
ganda persistently carried on by the bulk of the man-
ufacturers. Apropos this, a tremendous pull must
have been attained as a result of the numbers of
front pages taken in the daily press of late, in which
the Gramophone Co., the Columbia Graphophone Co.,
the Aeolian Co., and Messrs. Barnett, Samuel have
prominently figured.
"In the pianoforte trade, in every factory we visit,
the same story is told—"we cannot cope with our
orders"—and, "our output is booked right up to
Christmas," etc., etc. On all sides we hear of the
growing popularity of the Miller scale overstrung, a
welcome sign that manufacturers are going all-out
to cater for the demands of the depleted purses of the
majority of the proletariat. In all trade union fac-
tories the full amount of overtime permissible is being
worked, and in others, where the trade union em-
bargo on hours is not maintained, astonishing efforts
of production are resulting.
"On the other side we hear of a stringency of col-
lections, but the prospects here indicate that some
easement is extremely likely to satisfactorily develop
within the next month or so."
ESTEY ORGAN FOR THE
AUDITORIUM, ST. JOSEPH, MO.
Final Arrangements for Purchase of $15,000 Instru-
ments Made Last Week.
An Estey organ, made by the Estey Organ Co.,
Brattlcboro, V t , is to be installed in the Auditorium,
St. Joseph, Mo. The final arrangements for the pur-
chase were made last week through a special commit-
tee of the Auditorium Company, headed by John I.
McDonald, with Lyon & Healy, agents for the Estey
Organ Company of Battleboro, Vt.
The details for the construction of the organ, which
will cost $15,000, have not been worked out. It will
probably be placed half on one side and half on the
other of the stage at the Auditorium. The organ will
be built and installed this winter.
The Auditorium Company has about $10,000 in the
organ fund now, which was bequeathed for the pur-
pose of purchasing an organ by the late Thomas
Lynds. It will be necessary to raise $5,000 more to
complete the payment for the organ.
CABLE PIANO COMPANY'S
NEW ATLANTA QUARTERS
Handsome Four-Story Building Provides Requisite
Space for Showing Fine Line of Instruments.
The new Atlanta, Ga., quarters of the Cable Piano
Company, in Cable Hall, satisfy the exacting require-
ments of the company. The handsome four-story
structure on Broad street provides an admirable set-
ting for the fine line of pianos, players and reproduc-
ing pianos. The location is most desirable and the
manner in which the new quarters have been fur-
nished and decorated is a tribute to the taste of the
management.
The arrangement of space provides a main ware-
room and a group of smaller rooms where the Mason
& Hamlin, Conover, Cable, Kingsbury and Welling-
ton pianos; the various types of Inner-Players and
Solo Carola instruments, Euphona Reproducing In-
ner-Players and Ampico reproducing pianos are dis-
played. A spacious mezzanine floor is also used for
display purposes, and there too is located the rest
rooms and parlors.
STEINWAY & SONS, LONDON.
During next month Steinway & Sons, London, will
move into the premises recently vacated by Broad-
woods at y> George street, Conduit street, W. 1.
Extensive alterations are at present being made, the
old Broadwood hall having its main entrance changed
to the George street side. It is interesting to note,
says London Music Trade Review, that Steinway
Hall, of which the firm has been in occupation since
1870, was once known as the Quebec Institute, and
Thackeray and Dickens were among the many nota-
bilities who lectured there.
J. V. DAY, ASSISTANT MANAGER.
L. Schoenwald, manager of the New York Division,
of the Story & Clark Piano Co., has appointed J. V.
Day as his assistant. Mr. Day, who is widely known
in the music trade, was formerly manager for Charles
M. Stieff, Inc., at Lynchburg, Va., and more recently
with the Aeolian Co.
NEW CLUB COMMITTEE.
The following members of the Piano Club of Chi-
cago have been appointed a speakers' committee by
President Schoenwald: Lionel Tompkins, chairman;
E. V. Galloway, E. I'. Lapham, Ed. A. Lavelle, Jas.
G. Pierson, Joseph Klinenberg.
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