Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
From a Traveler's Note Book.
A VISIT TO THE STARR FACTORY CONTINUED EXTENSION OK MANUFACTURING FACILITIES—
LAST YEAR THE BANNER YEAR FRANK A. LEE A STRONG PERSONALITY WHOSE
INFLUENCE PERMEATES EVERY PART OF AN ENORMOUS ESTABLISHMENT
THE HOLTZMAN FACTORY A WELL ORGANIZED CONCERN — THE
BICYCLE CRAZE—ITS EFFECT UPON THE MUSIC BUSINESS-
OTHER TRADES AS WELL DEALERS WHO HAVE
.
SOLD WHEELS.
rjr-
HE Starr factory at Richmond
H
L —factories would be better, as
\
in this case a plurality exists,
for if the gentlemen compos-
ing the Starr Co. continue to
erect new buildings with the
same degree of regularity which has charac-
terized their actions during the past two
years, or since the tire, they will soon have
covered the entire valley below the city of
Richmond with their buildings.
If they are ever visited by fire again, one
thing is certain—it will be difficult indeed
for the devouring element to sweep the en-
tire Starr plant, detached as are the build-
ings, off the face of the earth.
The day of my visit Ben Stair was super-
intending the erection of a large brick ad-
dition to their present facilities. This new
building will be something like 75x100 feet,
rhree stories high. The Starr plant of to-
day is perhaps the most eloquent argument
that one can bring in substantiating the
statement that the Starr pianos continue to
popularize themselves in all parts of the
country.
There are few manufacturers building
extensive additions in these times, and the
Starr may be reckoned among that few.
Last year there were more pianos turned
out from the Starr plant than any previous
year during the history of the concern.
1896 will undoubtedly mark a still greater
increase.
Of course, a large number of pianos is
consumed in the various branches through
the South controlled by the Jesse French
Co., but aside from this output quantities
of them are absorbed by dealers all over
the United States.
The matter of producing a cheaper grade
of pianos has been definitely settled by the
Starr Co., but just by what name this pro-
duct will be characterized is not as yet
stated.
*
There are few men in the music trade, or
in any trade for that matter, who have ap-
proached nearer the solution of manufactur-
ing and distributing enormous products
than has Frank A. Lee, of the John Church
Co.
It seems to me that one of Mr. Lee's
strongest characteristics is that he divests
all business transactions of superfluities of
every kind, and of all sentimentality.
Somehow in talking with him I am always
impressed with the idea that he gets perhaps
about as near the solution of complex busi-
ness intricacies as any man whom it has
been my pleasure to meet.
Notwithstanding the gigantic business
which Mr. Lee successfully conducts, there
is about him that candid air of American
frankness and sincerity which at once im-
presses me with the fact that I am face to face
with a thinker, a man who always looks be-
low the surface, a man who has a clear and
practical solution and analyzation of the in-
tricate business environments which are
closely allied with the conduct of great and
varied business enterprises.
One should understand that the matter of
conducting a gigantic piano business, both
in the manufacturing and retail depart-
ments, it> only one of Mr. Lee's many enter-
prises. Take the enormous music publish-
ing business which the John Church Co.
conduct, and see what a tremendous force
must necessarily be behind that enterprise
to give it the impetus which it has in all
parts of the country. One man, John
Philip Sousa, received last year from the
John ChurchCo. an amount which raninto the
tens of thousands for his compositions alone.
Then, if we consider the business carried
on by the Imperial Music Co., whi.h means
the manufacturing and selling of an endless
line of instruments which come under the
general head of "small goods," and you
will perhaps best- understand the many
business ideas which are constantly evolved
from Mr. Lee's teeming brain.
Notwithstanding the active supervision
which he maintains over this entire busi-
ness, he finds time to go minutely into the
practical department of building instru-
ments. I have seen and examined some
inventions in machinery which are largely
the result of Mr. Lee"s own inventive
power, which are at once interesting and
wonderful in their productive results.
* *
Probably there is no better systematized
piano stool and scarf business in the United
States than that conducted by Henry Holtz-
raan & Sons, at Columbus, O. I knew the
Holtzmans, father and sons, years ago in
Pittsburg, and visited them shortly after
their move to Columbus.
At the time of my last visit I was more
than ever impressed with the wisdom mani-
fested in their change of location. At Col-
umbus they are located in a magnificent
distributing center. The railroad commu-
nications East, West, North and South are
excellent. Their supplies in raw material
can be procured at a minimum of cost, and
in these times of close competition every-
thing must be considered in manufacturing.
The senior Holtzman remains at home,
attending to the supervision of the factory
and general oversight of the business, while
his two sons and one additional traveler
cover all points in the United States.
They have made a specialty of the stool
business, and some of their late patterns
which I saw are decidedly unique and tasty
in effect.
Wherever I travel the complaints are
many which I hear regarding the business
conditions. I find many dealers attributing
the dull business to the fact that the bicycle
craze which has swept and is now sweeping
over America, has drawn largely from the
music trade—that people who have had in
mind the purchase of a piano have delayed
such purchase indefinitely, having appropri-
ated their present available funds toward
the purchase of a wheel.
There is no
doubt but there is a great deal in this, be-
cause no one who looks into the matter can
fail to admit that the bicycle business has
not only cut into the piano trade, but into
other trades as well.
In the first place we know positively that
at a majority of the bicycle factories they
are not only extremely busy, but are run-
ning overtime, and have a multitude of ad-
vance orders. The bicycle manufacturers
are independent almost as to trade. In fact,
they have all that they can do. Now, with
such a condition existing with manufactur-
ers who are turning out wheels by the
million, it must mean a certain shrinkage
in other trades, considering the amount in-
volved in the purchase of a single wheel.
The encroach of the bicycle business into
other lines may be seen in the following:
A friend of mine in the wholesale
clothing business remarked to me the other
day that dealers were bitterly complaining
of trade, that the people were spending
their money for wheels instead of clothes,
/that they were having a big run only on
one line of suits—bicycle suits. He said
that in many parts of the country it was
a common thing for business men and their
attaches to come down to business dressed
in a bicycle suit, and when Sunday came in-
stead of attiring themselves in their "Sun-
day best" they would don the bicycle suit
and go off for a day's outing.
Multiply the individual cases with the
tens of thousands and we will readily see a
tremendous shrinkage in the clothing busi-
ness.
Again, a friend of mine in the jewelry
business repeats that chestnutty story of
the encroach of the bicycle craze on his line,
saying people buy bicycles instead of
watches and jewelry. So I may go on al-
most ad infin itu 111.
Well, if the bicycle people are getting all
of the business and all the money, they are
distributing quite some, and it would seem
to me that it must course out in other chan-
nels, as money has only a temporary stay
in business institutions.
Again, the bicycle craze will mean the
building of better roads throughout the en-
tire country, and, of course, the employ-
ment of labor in this enterprise. It is true
that the bicycle manufacturers can be
counted among those who are singularly
fortunate in these times of general depres-
sion, yet in a few years they will have per-
haps met their Waterloo.
In the meanwhile it cannot be overlooked
that while people are spending a vast
amount of money in the purchase of wheels,
yet the fact that such conditions exist