Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
- ^ . E D W A R D LYMAN
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 a special dis-
count i» allowed.
REMITTANCES, to other than currency form, should
%• made payabl* to Edward Lyman BilL
Bnttrtd mt th* Ntmt York Fast Offict as Second- Class Mmtttr.
NEW YORK, MAY 8, 1897.
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. — EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review
will contain a supplement embodying the liter-
ary and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a trade
paper.
THE TRADE DIRECTORY.
The Trade Directory, which is a feature of
The Review each month, is complete. In it ap-
pears the names and addressee of all firms en-
gaged in the manufacture of musical instruments
and the allied trades. The Review is sent to
the United States Consulates throughout the
world, and is on file in the reading rooms of the
principal hotels in America.
IS THE TARIFF TOO HIGH?
HE tariff bill submitted to the Senate
on Tuesday last may be considered a
new measure to all intents and purposes.
The symptoms of the original Dingley Bill
remain, but that is about all. The duties,
with the exception of a number of articles
influenced by Senator Jones of Nevada,
and strange to say musical instruments,
are, in the main, much lower than the
House or Dingley Bill.
In the schedule of "sundries" we notice
that the duties on musical instruments and
parts thereof, have been increased from
thirty-five to forty-five per cent. This is
an increase of ten over the Dingley Bill,
and fifteen per cent, over the present law.
In the metal schedule a new paragraph
has been added in regard to iron or steel,
or other wire not specially provided for,
such as piano and watch wire, which are
made dutiable at forty per cent, ad valorem
whether covered or uncovered. The duty
according to the House Bill was forty-five
percent; under the present law the duty
is forty per cent.
Of course, the amendments made in the
Dingley Bill by the Senate will be mate-
rially altered when the bill is considered
by the joint committee of both houses.
The appointment of such a committee will
follow as a matter of course, because the
T
House of Representatives will not accept
the bill in its present form.
In talks with some of the leading manu-
facturers interested in piano, organ, brass
band and small musical instruments this
week, almost unanimous opinions have
been expressed to the effect that there is a
marked danger in making the duty on
musical instruments as high as outlined in
the Senate bill. They would much prefer
to have the duty remain at thirty-five per
cent, instead of the increased rate pro-
posed.
Furthermore, they say it can only result
in shutting off exports to such an extent
that European manufacturers will estab-
lish plants and manufacture in this country.
One of the gentlemen interviewed said
further: " I would much rather stand Euro-
pean competition as it now exists than to
compete with transplanted manufacturers
who will bring with them workmen who
cannot realize for a long period that they
are working for a much lower wage than
Americans in similar trades. In the mean-
time these manufacturers will be able to
cut prices and sell at figures considerably
lower than their American fellow-manufac-
turers who have been striving for years to
build up a business on entirely different
lines."
Another manufacurer said : " Musical in-
strument manufacturers should come to-
gether and appoint a delegation to wait on
the Ways and Means Committee and pro-
test against the increase of duties on
musical instruments as proposed by the
Senate Bill. I am a strong protectionist,
but I believe that forty-five per cent, is
entirely too high and will work an injury
instead of a benefit to our industry. I
consider that the duty as proposed in the
Dingley Bill is entirely sufficient."
It is significant that the parties with
whom The Review talked are all protection-
ists; just the same they are thoroughly
opposed to the increase of duty as proposed
by the Senate Bill.
There is one matter in connection with
this tariff revision, and that is the poli-
ticians seem actuated solely by a sectional
or personal feeling in the construction of
the measure, and seem little influenced by
the fact that their wrangling and dilatory
action prevents the restoration of confi-
dence which is so essential to the advance-
ment and prosperity of the commercial in-
terests of the nation.
Wonderful changes since the days when
Hendrik Hudson swapped stories with In-
dians on the shore of the mighty river
which bears his name. A wilderness then,
where now stands the mightiest city, save
one, on the habitable globe. Chicago now
must look well to her laurels, and include
within her municipal territory a few States
like Wisconsin, Indiana, and Minnesota,
because it seems by no other process of
elongation can she approach the grandeur
of New York with its population well past
the three million mark. What was that you
remarked, Brother Fox, about New York
men going to the Windy City for a square
meal?
Rather a toothsome morsel right here in
our own Gotham, proud City of the Wa-
ters. Did you hear that pen drop that Gov-
ernor Black laid aside after attaching his
official signature to the marriage document
uniting Father Knickerbocker and Miss
Brooklyn ?
+
+
The enemies of the Senate bill, assisted
by the power of the organization, defeated
consideration of the Bankruptcy Bill passed
by the Senate last week, in the House on
Thursday by a majority of 24, the vote
standing 101 to 83.
The hopes of the friends of bankruptcy
legislation are therefore dashed to the
ground. Nothing will be permitted to
interfere with the program of the House
majority at this special session.
The /Eolian Pipe Organ.
In another portion of this paper, page
12, Clarence Eddy, whose fame as a con-
cert organist is world wide, testifies in no
ambiguous or halting terms, to the perfec-
tion of the Eolian principle of construc-
tion as illustrated in that wonderful crea-
tion of the organ builders' art which was
recently erected by the Farrand & Votey
Co., in the Great Northern Hotel of Chi-
cago.
Few men are better equipped than Mr.
Eddy, to express an intelligent opinion as
to the influence the iEolian exercises as an
educator, and a stimulator of all that is
helpful to the cause of musical art.
The great achievements of the Eolian
Co. in the pipe organ as in the reed
organ field are worthy of all praise. In
this connection it may be said that Mr. E.
S. Votey,head of the new Votey Organ Co.,
has played no unimportant part. His skill
and enthusiasm in applying so successfully
the Eolian principle to the pipe organ has
given great impetus to the use of pipe or-
H
h
gans
in hotels and prominent buildings.
New York has a right to feel proud.
The massive and handsome organ in the
Greater New York is now an established
Great Northern Hotel is certain to be fol-
fact. In this little old world of ours there lowed by the erection of such instruments
is only one city which exceeds her in pop- in all the great hostelries throughout the
country.
ulation.