Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
us. Labor is necessary everywhere, not
a kind of half-hearted labor, but steady,
unremitting, persistent labor if achieve-
ments are to be won.
|£ACH succeeding year there seems to bean
appreciable removal of what in the old
Editor and Proprietor
days we used to term sentiment, and the
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
nearer we approach the end of the century
3 East 14th St., New York
the more forcible the demolition of senti-
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year ; all other countries,
ment, as applied to the conduct of business,
$3.00.
ADVERTISE/IE NTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
becomes. The mist is removed—the age is
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
a cold, commercial one, and the man who
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
gives the most for the least money is the
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
one whose pole reaches the highest per-
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Clast Matter.
simmons of patronage.
NEW YORK, JANUARY 8, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745—EIGHTEENTH STREET
This is not the time for idle dreamers or
speculative theorists; the thing is to pro-
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
duce something quite as good if not a little
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
better than one's neighbor. That is the
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing kind of work which wins business success,
on our regular news service. The Review will
and sends the trade ninepins of competition
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
tumbling.
The old world will spin down the ring-
GLEANINGS BY THE WAYSIDE.
ing grooves of change notwithstanding
E question, if at any time during the
some objections that many of us may inter-
past four years, there could have
pose as to the changes wrought. In every
been collected such a symposium of opti-
period in the world's history, men have
mistic views regarding the music trade
been brought face to face with certain
outlook as has appeared in The Review
problems, either governmental, military or
during the first two issues of the present
economic. To-day it is the industrial
year.
problem. This is really the industrial
Now these opinions count for something age.
—they may be rightly interpreted as
meaning that the men who express them- REACHING out as she is to-day, America
selves as believers in the ascendency of
is to be the dominating industrial coun-
good times will do all in their power to try of the world. With her natural re-
assist towards that end.
sources, with the intelligent activity of
As we look over the trade field in every her people, and the apparent removal of
direction we find the signs most encour- listless apathy from all lines of industry,
aging—in fact, in no January since '92 and she is destined to make enormous strides
'93 has there been such a promising out- ahead in every line and every branch of
look as is apparent just at the present manufacture. To-day we are underselling
time. Of course there is a regular slack- England at her own doors in our iron and
ening down of business during the first ten steel products. In fact it is American com-
days of January, which in the main are petition which the nations of Europe to-
largely devoted to stock-taking, adjusting day are dreading.
accounts, talking over matters, and ar-
Why will it not be the same in the manu-
ranging a definite campaign for the New facture of pianos and organs?
Year. In fact there is really a laxity on
Will not America control the music mar-
the part of our business men in pushing kets of the world, assuming that she moves
business for the first half of January, and ahead in the same remarkable way in the
the result is, trade is materially lessened.
development of this industry, that she has
This condition of affairs should go a during the past decade?
No such factories exist in Europe for the
long ways towards demonstrating the fact
that when there is indifference mani- production of musical instruments as here.
fested on the part of the merchant who There they adhere closely to the slow, crude
offers his wares there is immediately a methods of manufacture, and it will be in-
deed difficult for them • to adopt the
falling away of public patronage.
In these close of the century days, there methods wkich will make them keen com-
should be no languishing by the wayside. petitors "of American progress. Some of
We must be up and doing and at the same our factories to-day are planning for
time have our hearts well hardened for an output of from five to ten thousand
any fate which incidentally may vertake pianos during the year. This means that
EDWARD LY/YIAN
W
every possible cost in construction is care-
fully weighed. It means that there is no
waste of material—it means further that the
power of production is so vast—that Ameri-
can development is so phenomenal—that it
can be easily pressed beyond the assimi-
lative power of this country and as a natu-
ral sequence, dominate the markets of the
the world.
Think what a revolution there has been
in the manufacture of instruments since
1890 and at the same ratio of increase and
of change what can safely be predicted by
1910!
JV^ONE of our contemporaries have thus
far been able to bring the slightest
argument in favor of the use of the name
of New York upon the pianos manufac-
tured by the A. B. Chase Co. of Norwalk,
O. They have, however, been constant in
their slurs and innuendos, without once
approaching the matter in a fair or in an
argumentative way.
Now we are either right or we are wrong;
if wrong, the other side should certainly
be heard in the matter, and should be able
to advance some sort of argument in de-
fense of their position. If we are right, it
- only is the proper course to emphasize that
right.
Two or three of our contemporaries have
mentioned the fact that the Krell Piano
Co., Cincinnati, O., now use the name of
New York upon their instruments, and
that their action in this matter is subject
to criticism at our hands. The cases are
not parallel, and let us briefly touch upon
the position of each firm.
The A. B. Chase Co., Norwalk, O., came
to New York a number of years ago, and
opened a branch store on Fifth avenue.
This was maintained for one year, under
the direct superintendence of the parent
house in Ohio. Then the premises were
abandoned, and the agency for the instru-
ments was placed with a local agent, Geo.
W. Herbert, who, by the way, is a most
estimable man, but Mr. Herbert is not, as
far as we are able to ascertain, owned or
controlled by the A. B. Chase Co. in the
slightest degree.
Now what we continue to persist in
maintaining, is that if the A. B. Chase Co.
had a right to place New York upon their
instruments when they opened their branch
at this point, that right was forfeited when
they abandoned it; that simply a year's
lease of a store in New York did not give
them the right to use the name of our city
in perpetuity.
That's all there is about the case—the
whole thing succinctly embodied in a few
words.