Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
- ^ . E D W A R D L\MAN
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East 14th St.. New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage) United States and
Canada, $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts. special dis-
count ta allowed.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
0* made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Bntered at the New York Post Office as Second-Class Matter.
NEW YORK, JULY 4, 1896
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. — EIGHTEENTH STREET.
••THE BUSINESS MAN'S PAPER."
THE NECESSITY \FOR PROTECTION
LL fair-minded men — men w h o
rigidly adhere to lines of decency,
of honor, of truth and of self-respect—
need not carefully study the statutes in
order that they may not overstep the divid-
ing line between honesty and dishonesty.
They are governed by a certain feeling or
principle which we are prone to designate
as conscience. If all men possessed this
human attribute to even an ordinary
degree, there would be no need or necessity
for making our statute books overcumber-
some by steadily adding to their size and
unwieldiness.
The same rules apply to every sub-divi-
sion of employment in life. Business men
who conduct establishments make them-
selves respected and their names of weight
in the commercial world by adhering to
certain lines of principle and honor in the
conduct o( their affairs, so that they fairly
earn the respect and esteem of their con-
stituency.
Do they consult the statute books in or-
A
der that they may conduct their business
honestly ?
No. They are governed by conscience,
and what in the innermost depths of their
heart they consider to be the principles of
honor.
It is true there are instances wherein
men have overstepped those lines unknow-
ingty and unwillingly as well.
It is true also there is a class of men who
endeavor by certain sharp practices to gain
supremacy in their own peculiar walks in
life. Sometimes these methods succeed
temporarily. And again, men run the
whole gamut of life without once being
called to account.
The same laws and variations apply to
every sub-division in the commercial, and
we may add, in the journalistic world, hav-
ing as a sub-division of the latter—trade
journalism.
In the latter we find men who adhere to
certain lines which they believe fair, equit-
able and just. These by the conduct of
their business on legitimate lines have
fairly earned the right to the esteem of the
particular trades of which they are expo-
nents.
Unfortunately, this class as in the busi-
ness world, is invaded by men who seek
under the misapplied name of journalism to
carry on certain unfair, dishonorable and
oftentimes dishonest operations. Their
works have had an effect to taint what other
wise would be the pure stream of journalism.
Journalism, like manufacturing, is in it-
self a noble enterprise, but it has its abuses
as well as uses. But take as in the case of
the self-respecting business man, the honest
journalist does not consult the statutes of
the country or the mandates of any particu-
lar body of men. Why?
He conducts his business fairly, he is
guided by that inner consciousness—that
is, he is working on correct lines. Know-
ing this, and strong in his own convictions,
he works on for the right regardless of the
storms which beat around him, or the reso-
lutions which may have been passed to ex-
ercise a certain censorship over his craft.
He realizes, as in the case of statutes,
that all men are not fair men; that all men
are not honest men; therefore, it is neces-
sary to make laws for the law breakers and
to see that they are enforced for the protec-
tion of society.
Laws are not primarily made in a re-
vengeful spirit, they are made for the pro-
tection of society against evil doers; thus
we may consider that the resolutions of the
New York Association were passed not as
a menace to trade journalism, not as an in-
terference with the legitimate functions of
a paper, but as a matter of protection for
its members against the unwarrantable, in-
solent and dishonest methods which have
obtained in the past.
Is it not a wise protection?
We say most emphatically, yes.
This is precisely the position we have
taken unqualifiedly from the start. We,
with others, believe in honest, free,
independent trade journalism. We do not
believe in the supplicating, or in the men-
dicant style. We believe that journalism
when run on dignified lines dignifies the
trade which it represents.
We have expressed ourselves in no un-
equivocal language regarding this matter,
and propose to the end to work on the same
lines to which we have closely adhered for
many years.
We never have hesitated to speak boldly
concerning any trade or firm. We never
have hesitated in the slightest when the
occasion has arisen for criticising work of
any one engaged in our particular field of
journalism when their work or expression
deserved censure. In fact, we have always
exercised a degree of fearless independence.
Possibly others may criticise our work.
They have that right and privilege.
If we interpret correctly the meaning of
the Association's resolutions, it is not to
bring to trial a publisher for alleged
offenses committed m the past, but that
the resolutions are to apply to any act
which a conductor of a trade paper may
make in the future which is offensive to
any member of the Association.
With this clearly in view we say this,
would not some of our contemporaries do
well by refraining from their attacks upon
the paper which they directly accuse of
being the cause of the action of the Associ-
ation?
Granting that this may be tiue, then
why not, as journalists, accept the ruling
of the Association in the same broad spirit
in which it is given and let the dead past
bury its dead. In other words, why rake over
the dying embers of the past to fan into
life some alleged offense committed years
ago?
It might be well for the one who is loud-
est in his denunciations of the past record
of the alleged offending paper to halt—to
consider that if the Association were to try
trade paper editors on their past record,
that about the first thing necessary here in
New York would be the purchase of a com-
petent disinfectant in large quantities.
The re-publication of the life of one of
those who is loudest, most persistent in his
abuse and mouthings would certainly not
read pleasant in all its varied phases, and