Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
and it still affords an excellent opportunity
for the remunerative exercising of busi-
ness talents.
CONCERNING PROFIT-SHARING.
JUDGING from the recent misfortunes
which have befallen profit-sharing en-
terprises, it would seem as if the ideal had
not been reached by considerable as yet.
In Europe as well as America there have
been a number of attempts by employers
of generous impulses to bring together in
a more satisfactory manner the interests of
employer and employee.
It would seem from the developments
of the past twenty years, that while some
of the moves have been thoroughly appre-
ciated by interested parties, yet the very
men who founded them have become in
later years objects of abuse by the ones
whom they sought to benefit.
In this country the enormous growth
of the trusts and the promotion of colossal
business enterprises, has to a large extent
eliminated the individual, and as these
corporations have in many instances be-
come stock-jobbing enterptises, the desire
to promote their employees' interest
has been further removed. As Peter
D. Strauch once remarked that "the pro-
motion of great corporations was entirely
doing awaj 1 - with individual pride in a
name and business success," and it cer-
tainly is apparent that there has been no
desire on the part of these great corpora-
tions which have absorbed entire indus-
tries to permit the working man to enjoy
more than his weekly wage of the profits
of his industry.
The profit-sharing idea gives to the
workman, who is supposed to be a partici-
pant in the profits, a certain interest in
the manufacturing enterprise. This would
appear to be an ideal theory, but is this
theory gaining ground in a practical way?
In this industry we have had the Dolge,
Conn and Steger profit-sharing principles
and large sums of money have been dis-
tributed directly to the workingmen, but
studying America as a whole, it cannot be
said truthfully that the profit-sharing idea
is gaining ground. But the very fact that
men are to-day endeavoring in sporadic
instances to have their workingmen share
in their profits is decidedly commendable.
Still is it practical?
There are those who believe thatno sys-
tem of profit-sharing can be devised which
will be fair to the manufacturer, because
some years he might be a large loser in
his enterprises; would he then in return
expect his men to contribute pro rata to
reimburse him for his losses?
Some clear-headed biisiness men think
the best solution of the labor problem is to
pay as good wages as the profits of the
business will permit to their employees,
and to create in addition a yearly fund
when the business demonstrates a goodly
profit which shall in later years be used in
the maintenance of unfortunate and de-
serving workmen. But, after all, does not
this very system of pensioning a man re-
move from him a certain ambition to
achieve higher results? Will not the
knowledge that he is to be pensioned have
a deterring influence upon his achieving
higher results in his own particular depart-
ment?
HOW TO WIN FOREIGN TRADE.
YX/HILE discussing the possibilities of
foreign trade with a well-known
member of the craft who has recently re-
turned from Europe, he remarked: "I am
confident that as soon as American piano
manufacturers pay serious attention to the
development of foreign trade they can get
it in good, generous slices, but, as The Re-
view has frequently stated, they must
build pianos which conform to the ideas
and especial tastes of the residents of those
countries to which we especially desire to
cater. Our factory system far eclipses
anything that I have seen in Europe. Our
skilled laborers are unequalled in the
world. We can manufacture as cheaply
and as well as any other country, for we
have the materials at hand."
There is no doubt that there is a whole-
some truth in this, and this fact is gen-
erally recognized abroad and since 1898
the commercial nations of the world have
been paying us considerable attention.
English and German piano manufacturers
have sent representatives to inspect some of
our American plants, for great as has been
the increase in our export trade in all lines,
it is not so much the volume of growth
which has astonished the nations as it is
the causes which brought about this condi-
tion. Our marvelous success in all indus-
tries has led Europe to study American
methods of manufacture.
To give some idea of these opinions, we
have translated the following article from
the Berlin Deutsche Warte:
America declares larger dividends, pays
higher wages, has shorter hours of labor,
manufactures cheaper, delivers in quicker
time, shows a greater adaptability in con-
forming to the wishes of the purchaser
than any European country. Thus far
our manufacturers have looked upon Amer-
ican competition with complacency. We
can only say that such a policy is the pol-
icy of fools.
No one knows better than the American
how to help himself. His ability to invent
and to utilize, accounts for his superiority in
nearly all the paths of material progress.
To him the railroad, telegraph and tele-
phone are as indispensable as his daily
bread. His whole feeling and thought are
so interwoven with the products which his
mind has wrought out of the ores of the
earth that they have come to be an insepa-
rable part of his existence.
LABOR TROUBLES.
""THE piano industry is just now entirely
free from labor troubles. How long
this state of affairs will continue is prob-
lematical. Whether the labor unions will
forget the lesson taught them so recently
by the piano manufacturers in Chicago, re-
mains to be seen. Labor troubles usually
occur during the summer months and it is
possible that the summer of 1900 will not
be exempt from them. The danger from
labor unions was exploited this week by
Secretary Thompson, of the Southern In-
dustrial Convention who said in the course
of his remarks before the Industrial Com-
mission in Washington:
" Labor organizations are to-day the
greatest menace to this Government that
exist inside or outside the pale of our na-
tional domain. Their influence for dis-
ruption and disorganization of society is
far more dangerous to the perpetuation of
our Government in its purity and power
than would be the hostile array on our
borders of the armies of the entire world
combined.
"I make this statement from years of
close study, and a field of the widest op-
portunities for observation, embracing the
principal industrial centres both of the
North and the South; I make this state-
ment entirely from a sense of patriotic
duty and without prejudice against any
class of citizens of our common country.
"If I could make this statement any
stronger or clearer I would gladly do so,
for it is not until an evil or a danger is
made strongly apparent that adequate
measures of relief are likely to be applied.
"That such a menace is real and not im-
aginary the most casual investigation of
existing tendencies among the laboring
classes will make the fact discernable. On
every hand and for the slightest provoca-
tion, all classes of organized labor stand
ready to inaugurate a strike, with all its
attendant evils, or to place a boycott for
the purpose of destroying the business of
some one against whom their enmity has
been evoked.
"In addition to this, stronger ties of con-
solidation are being urged all over the
country among the labor unions with the
view of being able to inaugurate a sym-
pathetic strike that will embrace all classes
of labor, simply to redress the grievances
or right the wrongs of one class, however
remotely located or however unjust may be
the demands of that class."