Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
our continent in which their instruments are
established favorites, and the season now opened
will bring them an increased business.
All this success not simply speaks for the
commercial and sterling value of Vose pianos—
which have been always foremost in the march
onward—but also for the business shrewdness
and capacity of the members of the firm, their
able attaches and the effective representation
they have established in every corner of the
Union. The foregoing facts may have been
said before, but good things are always worth
re-telling, and always entitled to emphasis.
SHAW PIANO CO., through its able
Secretary, Mr. Harry Raymore, writes
this week to our ethical contemporary upon the
subject of advertising ethics, a subject on which
Mr. Blumenberg is known to be an authority.
Mr. Raymore asks :
" Now, what are advertising ethics? If The
Musical Courier claims all that is good for the
Shaw piano cannot its senior editor do likewise ?
Do you not personally scan every line that is
intended for publication ?
Are you not aware of the many good things
you have said about the Shaw piano ?
Are they true or are they merely ' advertising
ethics? ' "
Mr. Raymore is then reminded that every-
thing appearing in the Courier represents the
Courier, not its individual editors. This is jus-
tified in the following argument:
4
' Mr. Dana does not sign his editorials, nor
does Chester Lord sign his ; they are Sun edi-
torials. It is impossible to tell when Mr.
Bennett publishes anything in the Herald, if
he ever does, and yet he could have every article
signed with his name if he wanted it. Mr.
Miller's name does not appear under Times
editorials, and we might go on ad infinitum, for
it is the universal custom in America for the
great newspaper to obliterate individuals."
But while C. A. Dana and James Gordon Ben-
nett, Richard Watson Gilder and Mr. Blumen-
berg may represent the highest side of intellec-
tual culture, and constitute a court of appeal on
all important questions of literary precedent
and procedure ; while this notable group may
stand as equals in the republic of letters, Mr.
Blumenberg must be regarded as first in all
questions of advertising ethics and business
morals. Shallow people, incapable of calculat-
ing Mr. Blumenberg's qualities in this respect,
fail in all cases to take him seriously; they
look upon him as a successful humorist, but
they do not comprehend the earnestness and
depth of the man. Perhaps the following may
raise a laugh, but it should not:
'' The Shaw Piano Company asks us what
advertising ethics are : The first law in adver-
tising ethics is the one that refuses to make
advertising the basis of editorial commenda-
tion." That in itself ought to be convincing
to our good friend Raymore. He has been
answered in words full of truth, wisdom and
independence. But he must not laugh. We
repeat that Mr. Blumenberg is a serious and
earnest man, and not a humorist.
THE INJUNCTION.
|N another page we publish particulars of
the injunction which has been applied for
against Mr. John Boyd Thacher and the judges
on musical awards by one of the best known
Western houses. It is, to our mind, a lament-
able action on the part of a firm occupying such
a dignified position in the music trade of the
West and East, and this view is shared by many
of the leading members of the trade at large.
To make vague charges is one thing, and to
prove them is another thing. The petitioners
for the injunction have in their bill echoed the
sensational charges of a certain music trade
editor against the members of the jury. And
what is the basis for the allegations made ?
Where are the proofs ? As for Mr. Carpenter,
he has already answered the Courier Xo the satis,
faction of the large majority of exhibiting
houses. Confidence has been formally express-
ed in his integrity as a judge, he has fully ex-
plained the incidents in his career which have
been so unfairly distorted to injure his personal
character as a citizen. The charges of a notori-
ously untruthful music trade paper, edited by a
man who is himself a bitterly disappointed'
place hunter, amount to nothing. Their very
author is an object of suspicion, and his obvious
spleen against Dr. Ziegfeld, Dr. Clarke, Mr.
Steck, and particularly against Mr. Carpenter,
damns itself.
But here we have an honored and respected
firm taking up these vague charges, and using
them to temporarily paralyze the functions ot
the judiciary on awards. What can be gained
by this course ? It is surely rash and ill-
advised ? We are exceedingly sorry it has
occurred. What is more regrettable still is that
this firm should have, through their status and
their manner of procedure in the courts, given
to these charges an air of support and veracity,
and thus strengthened the hands of a venomous
and disappointed libeler. The whole proceed-
ing is lamentable.
the Courier, or any other paper for that matter.
As to " knocking out the Courier,'' that only
can be done by the combined action of the firms
and individuals who support its advertising de-
partment. While we deprecate, as we have
always done, the methods of Mr. Blumenberg,
we must admit that he has many times proved
himself the superior of Mr. Freund. He may
not be as effective a writer as Mr. Freund—in
fact, he is a poor writer, with no knowledge of
English composition and a limited education—
but in the game of getting the best of dignified
musical instrument manufacturers, by bluff and
bluster, he has played the late editor of the
Dolgeville Herald with his own weapons in the
past and beaten him ingloriously. It is not so
long ago either. We have some pity for the
editor of the Music Trades, because he has been
foolish enough to resign a position for which he
showed capacity, to re-enter a field in which he
left a cemetery full of blighted hopes and buried
failures, and in which he now stands a poorer
chance than ever before.
When Mr. Freund joined fortunes with the
late Mr. Quigg, five years ago, the Courier was
a weakling, compared to what it is now, T H E
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW was a fortnightly, the
Indicator was in an embryo condition, and
Presto was not known. His chances were then
exceptional, yet what was the result ? We are
all familiar with the story of the American
Musician, how it was boomed into a semblance
of prosperous life by inciting business rivalries
for selfish ends, by egotism and the self inflation
of its editors, until the gas which gave it an
apparent but fallacious vitality, burst and shat-
tered it to nothingness. The editors were rent
and torn by the shock.
John C. Freund has not yet quite recovered,
although he has been living in the Adirondacks,
and the half-martyred air of supplication with
which he is now appealing to the trade tells the
tale. Even his pen thrusts at Mr. Blumenberg
are weak and feeble as compared with his mag-
nificent daring of the past.
The truth is—and it has been abundantly
A BACK NUMBER.
HB appearance of another music trade paper proven—that Mr. Freund is mis-placed in music
in our midst within the past few weeks trade journalism. That is his fad, but it has
was not an unexpected event, for it was hinted been a ruinous fad. He is better adapted, and
some time ago that Mr. John C. Freund would very well adapted, for other departments of
cut another eccentric figure for a little time in newspaper work. His abilities could command
the field of music trade journalism. Mr. a dignified livelihood on any one of our dailies
Freund's mission just now is to "down The but as a music trade editor his stock is just now
Courier," and incidentally to have "some fun." very much below par. And as a personality he
As for '' downing '' the Courier, we all have a is almost forgotton. Since the American Musi-
distinct recollection that when Mr. Freund tried cian fiasco Mr. Freund has, in the natural
that game a few years ago, when he had better sequences of evolution, fallen so far behind the
facilities than he now enjoys, or can hope to en- procession that he can never again catch up
joy, the Courier " downed " him in a most un- with it. Again, we have no words of commend-
mistakable fashion.
The Courier, however, ation—and this feeling is largely actuated by
has since then been attempting to '' down '' a regard for business ethics—for a paper which
starts out by flagrantly depreciating legitimate
T H E MUSIC TRADE REVIEW and its other con-
temporaries, but it has failed in all cases. How business advertising values. Mr. Freund can-
is this ? If others succeed where Mr. Freund not claim exemption from censure for violating
has so often failed, what is the logical deduc- business principles which obtain in every de-
partment of the music trades, and in music
tion ? Do the facts prove that Mr. Freund has
trade journalism. Dummy advertising, as now
any qualifications to conduct a successful music
evidenced in the Music Trades, is glaringly in-
trade journal ? And it stands that Mr. Freund
consistent with some of the tenets its editor
should be the last man to talk about'' downing"
preaches.
§