Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
instrumentalists, is not so easily to be limited
in its production.
That the piano manufacturer of to-day has
not exactly a flower strewn path to traverse we
will all admit. Competition, fierce competi-
tion has denuded the business of many of its
pleasing features of years ago, and has re-
duced it more and more down to the plane of
commercialism.
However, it is not the attitude of the trade
itself which has placed it there. It is the in-
fluence of the age upon this trade which has
wrought the changes. It is in truth a com-
mercial age, and this country is not like the
far Orient, sleeping under indolent rule and
ground down in the depths of ignorance. It
is a giant in industry and in aggressiveness,
and every sub-division of industry has felt to
a large degree the onward spur of commercial-
ism.
In the days when George Washington used
to lead the reel in old Virginia we were strict-
ly an agricultural country. We have now be-
come one of the greatest manufacturing
countries on earth, and an investigation of
the records in the Patent Bureau at Washing-
ton will disclose the fact that the inventive
ability of this country exceeds all of Europe
combined, and we are still in the furnace, as
it were, as a nation.
There are many elements yet to be welded
together before America stands with its per-
fectly tempered blade to carve the industrial
world. It has always been so in the history
of all nations, the greatest of which have been
first fused, then welded, then hardened to
their final strength.
The Romans, the English, the Germans,
followed that great rule in their path of pro-
gress towards civilization.
We are only
standing upon the threshold—upon the open-
ing doors of a coming age. And who shall
now speak fully of the destiny of this great
Continent?
Talking about limiting the product of a
trade. It is the expression of an idle dream-
er, of a pessimist. There is no limit to-day
nor any in sight to the productive powers of
this trade when properly marshaled and offi-
cered. Success and greater development
are sure to come, but they will not
come out of idle waiting, nor by the regret-
ful criticisms expressed on conditions which
are not entirely to our individual liking. Out
of this all must come a civilization higher
and broader than all that has gone before.
" THERE is no possibility of concerted ac-
tion on the part of the trade or any part
of it on vital questions."—Courier Annex.
This sentence appears among others of
equal strength in the columns of our, once
upon a time, contemporary.
The Courier Annex should not be too san :
guine over this fact, because there may be
concerted action on the part of the trade on
several matters which are now pending. But
then Mr. Blumenberg's spells are vague and
symbolical. He fills the circumambient air with
a whirling phantasmagoria of words. His
adjectives drip with the molten streams of
latent fire, and his irregular verbs gleam along
the horizon like comets. Indeed, his voice
is very large. Recently he let loose the lava
of his invective and, strange to say, the trade
is still here, and his little play with the
Haines Bros, matter has not proven to
be a colossal success, but as an ejaculatory
projector of shimmering generalities, he has
demonstrated the fact that he is a Kohinoor
of the first magnitude.
AT the banquet held at the Waldorf-Astoria
last Thursday night by the National Associ-
ation of Manufacturers, the East and West
touched glasses over the return of prosperity.
President McKinley left Washington at his
busiest season to be present at this banquet.
His address was replete with sound logic and
wise counsel to the manufacturers. He said:
"The country is now emerging from trying
conditions. It is only just beginning to re-
cover from the depression in certain lines of
business long continued and altogether un-
paralleled. Progress therefore will naturally
be slow, but let us not be impatient, rather
let us exercise a just patience, and one which
will in time bring its own reward. . ."
The Manufacturers' Association, which had
its inception in Cincinnati in '95, embraces
now a thousand members, representing every
important industry in the country. The
work of the Association pertains to the home
interests of manufacturers and the develop-
ment of American trade with foreign coun-
tries.
Among the objects which pertain to home
interests are the conservation of the home
market, the creation of a Federal Depart-
ment of Commerce and Industry, the im-
provement of the patent laws, the unification
of railroad freight classification, the enact-
ment of a uniform bankrupcy law and the im-
provement of internal waterways.
The chief features of the foreign policy of
the association are described as the ad-
vocacy of the investigation of foreign mar-
kets, the establishment abroad of warehouses
for samples, the improvement of the Consular
service, the restoration of the American mer-
chant marine and the restoration of the
treaties of reciprocity.
It will be seen that the objects of the Asso-
ation are broad, comprehensive and patriotic.
Among the delegates from Cincinnati to
attend the Convention this week were Frank
A. Lee and Geo. W. Armstrong, Jr. These
gentlemen have taken a warm interest in the
organization which had its inception in their
home city, and have labored assiduously to
promote its interests in every way. Their
interests have not been personal or selfish
ones, but through a general desire to promote
the welfare of America on the logical basis
that national prosperity is a patriotic motive
which interests us all.
Geo. P. Bent is also a member of the asso-
ciation and was present at the banquet.
In the East among its staunch supporters
in the music trade is Alfred Dolge. Mr.
Dolge readily grasped the great scope of the
organization, and anything which promotes
national welfare always interests him.
Rudolf Dolge, who has charge of the
manufacturers' warehouse in Caracas, Venez-
uela, was cabled by the president of the As-
sociation, and he immediately took a steamer
for New York and read a paper before the
Convention last Thursday, stating the advan-
tages won by the manufacturers' exhibit in
Venezuela, and the possibility of future ad-
vancement in our trade relations with that
country.
pORCIBLY stated, the more advertising you
do, the more power which you do has.
But that is not all. Cumulative advertis-
ing means more; it is retroactive. The more
advertising which you do, the more power
what you have done has.
The first insertion in a medium usually
makes a little impression. The second in-
sertion helps to deepen the impression of the
first. The third goes still deeper and so on
ad infinitum.
If constant rubbing wears away the stone,
then persistent and intelligent advertising
wears away the masonry of business obstruc-
tion and makes the entrance clear for the
business vehicle.
The day has really gone by for circulars, as
the average citizen pays little attention to
circulars which may be sent to him. Of
course in some cases a neat brochure is effec-
tive, yet there are few people who spare the
time to peruse every circular which reaches
them.
They are not won by attractive head-lines
and an illusory opening, neither do they
wade through a dreary wildnerness of hyper-
bole that is usually encountered in these
gratuitous sheets. It pays better to advertise
in legitimate mediums which reach the par-
ticular class of people desired than almost in
any other way. It does not pay to press the
advertising button and then let go becaus^,
the rest is not done. It is the steady ringing
which brings about the desired results.