January 10, 1925.
PRESTO
ONE OF WORLD'S
RICHEST CITIES
Center of Vast Industries in Which Pianos and
General Musical Supplies Stand Forth
Conspicuously Among the Still
Greater Things.
THE CITY OF DETROIT
every dealer
knew what
successful
SEEBURG
dealers know
about conduct-
ing and oper-
ating auto-
matic piano
businesses,
every dealer
would be en-
gaged in the
business!
J. P. SEEBURG
PIANO CO.
CHICAGO
"Leaders in the
Automatic Line"
First Complete Review of the Music Trade in the
Michigan Metropolis, the Second Heaviest
Income Tax Payer.
BY HENRY McMULLAN.
Detroit is a city of energy and strength; of im-
mensity of strength; a city of dreams, and with the
practical ability to make the dreams come true. In
piano manufacture, in the manufacture of commercail
chemicals, in the making- of automobiles and all the
parts and accessories thereto, in making stoves and
articles of grass and glass, and in hundreds of other
lines of production this old-new, new-old city is only
doing practical things.
All that lias been done so far probably means less
to the human race than what is being studied out
for the future in its wonderful laboratories. Neither
Chicago nor New York can throw a scare into a
city that is working out its own salvation and doing
its own thinking, and evaluating every issue that
arises by its own methods of appraisal.
Spirit of Detroit.
All investigation, all experiment, here is pursued
in the light of reason. In other words, the investi-
gators are intellectually hospitable. Here men are
studying to take advantage of the forces of nature.
Here they depend on education; on what they can
ascertain by the use of their senses, by experiment
and reason. In this they are pioneers, just as were
the men who have given us the instruments of music,
and the great composers and performers who have
changed the common air to tones and harmonies that
intoxicate, exalt and purify the soul.
The spirit of Detroit is to help others to help them-
selves. To arouse the worker until his faculties gather
strength by opposition, and the habit of self-depen-
dence v/hich putting responsibility upon him en-
courages.
The Leading Industry.
Detroit's motor industry furnishes employment to
an army of more than two hundred thousand men,
whose yearly pay aggregates approximately two
hundred and fifty million dollars. Thirty-one auto-
mobile and motor truck plants and 105 automobile
accessory manufactories give Detroit unquestioned
precedence as "Automobile Capital of the World."
Detroit's population has more than doubled in the
past decade. It is now between a million and a
quarter and a million and a half, and now, even in
the dead of winter, thousands of new houses are
going up in Detroit and its suburbs.
In one experimental plant at Dearborn, a suburb
of Detroit, there is a single room 804 feet long. This
wonderful laboratory will delve into mysteries of
much wider scope than pertains to automobile ere-
tion; the purpose of its existence is a kind of chal-
lenge to that limitless universe of natural law and
science which man so far has been unable to explore.
A City of Wealth.
Detroit is the richest city of its size in the world
and the second richest in the country, if the record
of taxes paid into the U. S. treasury for the last fiscal
year and just released by Wm. A. Stancil, chief
deputy collector of internal revenue for this district,
may be accepted safely as a criterion of wealth.
New York City is first on the list of taxpayers, with
a total of $369,753,605.50. Detroit, although fourth
in population, follows with a total of $207,131,389.50.
Then comes Chicago, with a total payment of $198,-
287,627.12, and Philadelphia, with $164,704,047.90. Mr.
Stancil said:
"The figures indicate that a larger volume of busi-
ness is done in Detroit than in any other city in the
world, with the single exception of New York."
Detroit's latest slogan is "The Most Humane City
in the World." That claim is keyed in modesty, not
meaning that it has the largest and best hospitals or
that it does the most for tramps and ne'er-do-wells.
2.
General Offices: 1510 Dayton St.
Factory 1508-16 Dayton St.
PIANO NAME PUZZLE.
(See Page 50.)
Some vessels have but one,
While others have them double,
But ours has two, and one's a son—
You've guessed it without trouble.
It simply means that in no place in the world is the
industrious man treated with greater respect.
And as well try to suppress the indigenous fiction
of children as to cramp the people of Detroit in their
desire for music and the instruments of its production.
C. A. Grinnell on Conditions.
"The first part of the year seemed to be very
promising," said Clayton A. Grinnell, head of Grin-
nell Bros., to Presto's correspondent. "The summer
was a little disappointing—I don't know as the elec-
tion had much to do with it.
"Trade has been fair this fall; no boom
Trade
runs singularly to very high-priced merchandise. We
have had difficulty in getting Steinway Grands and
Duo-Art goods.
"We are not in the radio business like a good many
of the merchants. We do a little radio selling in our
Victor jobbing department, but have never handled
any of the devices in our retail department.
"We have two companies here—Grinnell Bros, in
the music business and the Grinnell Realty Company.
We have large holdings of property we have owned
for the last twenty-five years; a considerable part of
it has been used in our business for factories, stores,
etc., and we have handled also quite a number of land
contracts. We have just increased oar capital stock
in our realty company by $900,000, so that now the
capitalization of the realty company is about
$2,000,000.
A Complete Music House.
"Our line in the music business includes the Stein-
way and the Sohmer pianos. As you are aware, we
build the Grinnell pianos, our own make, in our fac-
tory at Holly, Mich. We also, handle the Yose, the
Steinert, the Ltidwig and the Premier.
"We deal in sheet music, in small instruments of
all kinds. Several months ago we changed our offices
from the first to the sixth floor, which gives roomier
and quieter facilities for office work.
"The new year seems to give promise; I do not
look for a boom or anything of that kind, but I'm in-
clined to think that it will be a fairly good year."
Mr. Grinnell spoke of slackness in factory work
that had caused some hardship in Detroit and partic-
ularly in Flint, Mich., but expressed the belief that
those conditions were beginning to ' lift He took
pride in referring to the breadth of charity in Michi-
gan and spoke of the effort of the old newsboys of
Detroit in trying to raise $70,000 on December 18 to
give to the poor of the city. These old newsboys,
some of them now millionaires, sold papers on that
day on hundreds of corners in Detroit and kept the
change from purchasers, even when they gave a
twenty-dollar bill. Many of the well-to-do averaged
as much as $5 apiece
Cable Piano Company.
The Cable Piano Company, 1264 Library avenue
at Grand River avenue, is doing very effective adver-
tising of the Mason & Hamlin with the Ampico. One
of the ads says: "Modern business is built on con-
lidence. Confidence in Cable's is built on a firm
foundation. The public has come to know that
'Cablequality' means quality merchandise plus fair
dealing, reliable service and a binding guarantee.
Under the leadership of Mason & Hamlin, Ampico,
Conover and Cable we have a grand piano, player-
piano or upright for every home and every purse—
over sixty different styles and makes. Our terms are
generous—the most liberal consistent with good busi-
ness principles."
The Cable Piano Company at Detroit is under the
management of G. L. Hall, local vice-president; and
the credit manager is K. R. Shepard. Mr. Hall was
formerly with the main Cable Company offices in
Chicago, working as Yice-President H. L. Draper's
assistant, and it was there that this writer first met
him some years ago.
Bailey Bros. Music House.
llailey Bros. Music House is a new concern in De-
troit, having started last June. This enterprising
firm, which is located at 206J4 East Grand River
avenue, consists of two brothers. John and William
Bailey, and they deal through jobbers mostly. Their
customers are largely from the ranks of the profes-
sional musicians, and in addition they conduct a
school of music at the premises mentioned.
Considering the adverse trade conditions that pre-
vailed during the presidential campaign, John Bailey
told Presto's representative that he considered the
firm had made a very fair start. The concern deals
in Leedy drums and Ludwig drums, from Chicago.
Their Conn instruments are secured from the De-
troit Conn house and their King instruments through
Grinnell Brothers. They buy their Olds trombones
direct from the manufacturer in Los Angeles, Calif.
In addition to C. G. Conn goods, they handle small
goods from Fisher, of New York; from Fred Gretz,
of Brooklyn, and from Bruno & Co., of New York.
They buy at wholesale from Willard Bryant, of De-
troit; from Grinnell Bros.; from Cole & Dunas, Chi-
cago, and from Targ & Dinner, Chicago.
At Starck Piano Co.
G. S. Lewis, retail manager of the P. A. Starck
Piano Company's Detroit store, was a very busy man
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