March 24, 1928
PRESTO-TIMES
TRAVELERS RESENT
THE SURCHARGE
THINGS SAID O R SUGGESTED
WALL STREET STATIC
'Twas normal time in stocks one day,
And R. C. A. serenely lay
At eighty-five, a figure sane,
With no lost motion to regain.
Then Michael Meehan, best known as Mike,
Rampaged along the Finance Pike,
A hold, bewildering, crafty bout,
That ended with the bears in rout.
He rasped his orders, stacked his chips,
In juicy, million-dollar clips.
Durant, Cutten, Fisher, Klaw,
Veteran traders, gasping, saw:
With static impetus inspired,
Up, up, up the points aspired
Radio Corp. in rapid strike
One-fifty touched, impelled by Mike.
* * *
A STRAUBE TESTIMONIAL
Yankee baseball teams perform. The batting of
Wagner we remember with pleasure, but as for his
music the less said the better. No offense to Miss
Amy though."
E. R. Jacobson, president of the Straube Piano Co.,
can point to files stuffed with testimonials for the
Straube piano but he also will take the reaction of the
frank Mississippi editor as a compliment to the merits
that make the piano esteemed by the dealers, musi-
cians and Straube owners generally. The letters in
the files are properly worded and elegantly typed but
they are not more sincere than the spontaneous opin-
ion of the Straube printed in the report of the "sing-
, ing" at Summit.
* * *
De Stiff—"I realize now I was a confounded fool
when I entered the piano business."
O'Biff—"Well, it hasn't changed you any."
* * *
STORY OE WORDS.
"It takes an auctioneer to give the alluring art
For genuine, spontaneous and whole-hearted sin- character to a commonplace piano and get away with
cerity you must vote the three-story layer cake to the it," said W. P. Geissler of the W. P. Geissler Music
editor of the Slaterville Independent of Slaterville, Co., Evansville, Ind., in a chat with a Presto-Times
Miss., who in a recent issue printed a valuable testi- man during his recent visit to Chicago. He cited an
monial for the Straube piano. The honest tribute is incident in proof.
found in the report of a musical:
Neal Donevan, who got rich as a teaming con-
"There was lots of doing at Summit last night when tractor in Los Angeles, returned to Evansville last fall
the Ladies' Aid Society gave the singing at the for the purpose of taking his blind old mother and
schoolhouse to make up money to buy Preacher
sister out west to share his fortunes. He disposed
Morgan an automobile. There was enough folks of the little cottage and the lot readily, but the prob-
standing outside as would make another singing and
lem of getting rid of all the old-fashioned furniture
Billy Brett, Ed. Brinker and the fair performer on the and truck was not so easily solved. The bids of the
piano done themselves proud.
second-hand dealers were considered ridiculously low.
"At the first scratch on his fiddle Billy was solid
To sell the stuff piece by piece was impossible. Neal
with the White River contingent, who whooped-er-up wanted to wind up things quickly and get back to
in great shape and kept agawping until the judge making more money. Somebody proposed an auction
called for order with his umbrella. Big Ed was a of the household effects and that was decided upon.
good second and was as nifty with the harmonica as
The auction drew a big crowd. At the knocking
Billy was with the fiddle. A blind man could see down of every revered piece of furniture, the blind
who was the most popular with the fair sex when the mother was dissolved in woe. When the old rickety
blond boy put his mouth to the music.
tin-pan stencil piano was put up she stopped crying
"The event of the evening though was the piano to listen to the auctioneer's eulogy. It was a wonder:
playing by one of Slaterville's most charming young
"We now come to the chef de ow 7 fer of this taste-
ladies, Miss Amy Semple, who performed on the ful family's collection," he began, in loud speaker
instrument to the queen's taste.
tones. "This solid mahogany pianner which can add
"The piano was made in Hammond, Ind., by a grace to a millionaire's mansion and cause it to
man named Straube and it was the best the judge's re-echo with melody is for sale, but, there's a reserve
money could buy in Vicksburg. That Indiana piano price. A piano virtuoreum of New York City has
maker knew his business when he made that piano. telegraphed a bid. You cannot sell an objeck de art
We never heard a better one nor a sweeter. Nobody Hke this pianner without exciting desires for its pos-
session amongst the cultured and the collectors. I
could handle it better than Miss Amy, either.
"We don't know much about music, although we have the town pride. I don't want to see this mag-
know a good piano when we hear it. We hate to be nificent triumph of tone and structure go out of
Evansville. I—"
over critical but we must say we didn't like Amy's
selections. For the most part she played pieces com-
"Neal, alanah," whispered the blind mother, "do
posed by a man named Wagner who would have they be havih' other pianys besides ours' here today?"
done much better had he stuck to playing baseball.
* * *
"During occasional vacations we have visited the
The faculty to distinguish nerve from gall is a
r
north and part of our pleasure w as watching the happy one.
National Council of Traveling Salesmen's As-
sociations Which Include Piano Travelers'
Association, Issues Important Statement
of Conditions.
The National Council of Traveling Salesmen's As-
sociations has issued from the executive headquarters,
Hotel Pennsylvania, New York, a statement of im-
portance to piano travelers, due to the recent an-
nouncement of other passenger-fare reductions volun-
tarily granted by the carriers, and because Senate
Bill No. 668 for repeal of this unjust surcharge on
travel is now pending in Congress.
The music trade generally, throughout the country,
will sympathize with the precarious plight of the
nation's army of 912,000 commercial travelers who
are compelled, year in and year out, to face this oner-
ous SO per cent "war-time tax" upon the performance
of their necessary service to and in behalf of the
commerce of the country.
A Burden to Business.
"The Pullman surcharge is not only a serious bur-
den to business, and a daily annoyance to all who
travel, but it is also a positive deterrent to passenger
volume of the carriers, and as such, its '"imagined
revenue advantage"' really results in actual losses to
the carriers and therefore defeats its apparent pur-
pose," says the National Council.
The so-called Pullman surcharge was originally in-
stituted by the director-general of railroads under
government operation of the carriers, during the re-
cent war, in order to discourage unnecessary civilian
travel, and to leave transportation facilities more free
for war operations—as has been publicly stated by
the then director-general—and this charge was
promptly discontinued by the director-general in 1918,
immediately after the Armistice.
A War Relic.
Two years after the war was over, however, the
Pullman surcharge was reinstated by the Interstate
Commerce Commission, following the close of hear-
ings in increased rates, 1920, without any hearing
whatsoever to justify such charge as a legal rate, but
purely on its own voluntary motion and merely as a
temporary expedient to counter-balance in part an
expected increase in wages tentatively announced by
the railroad labor board and estimated at $618,000,000
a year.
The National Council of Traveling Salesmen's As-
sociations has conducted a continuous effort for the
past six years, to bring about the repeal of this un-
just tax on travel, through proceedings before the
Interstate Commerce Commission by direct appeal to
Congress.
E. PAUL HAMILTON'S TASK.
E. Paul Hamilton, who recently returned to Fred-
erick Loeser & Co., Brooklyn. N. Y., now performs
the important duties of sales promotion manager for
the entire store. While he does attend to the mer-
chandising of pianos and the other commodities in
the music department, Warren L. Smith is buyer and
manager of pianos and Aubrey Gibbins buyer and
manager in the radio department.
BOWEN PIANO LOADER HELPS SALESMEN
Outside Salesmen must be equipped so as to "show the goods." The season for country piano selling is approaching. Help your sales-
men by furnishing them with the New Bowen Piano Loader, which serves as a wareroom far from the store. Tt is the only safe
delivery system for dealers, either in city or country. It costs little. Write for particulars.
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
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