Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-FIRST YEAR.
.EDWARD LYMAN
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada. $2.00 per year ; all other countries,
$4.00.
ADVERTISEflENTS, $2.00 per Inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman BilK
Entered at the STao York Pott Office at Second Clou Mattw.
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 10, 1900.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1743—EK1HTEENTH STREET
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
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 CONDITION OF TRADE.
'"THE volume of trade transacted during
last month in both manufacturing and
retail circles was surprising even to those
whose hopes were tinged with rose color
regarding the business possibilities of the
early months of the first year of the new
century.
It is a fact that in piano manufacturing
circles January was a record breaker, and
it was hardly expected that the volume of
business would assume such large propor-
tions so early in the year. The retail deal-
ers generally continue to do an excellent
business and there is little doubt that the
most progressive and enterprising houses
will find plenty of means to keep the busi-
ness hopper of January quite as busy.
The market price for lumber and other
materials is steadily advancing, and even
veteran lumbermen have given up guess-
ing as to where it is going to end. Some
kinds of lumber have more than doubled in
price during the past few months, and
prices on all commodities are soaring up-
ward as far as market values are concerned.
Piano manufacturers have been the last
to join in the popular movement, and it
does seem more than passing strange when
we come to analyze it, that the manufac-
turers of the finished product—the men
who have gathered from all parts of the
country material for which they have paid
a tremendously advanced price and blended
it together in a completed whole, are re-
ceiving practically the same for the finished
product as they were before the advance
of materials began.
Naturally this failure on the part of
manufacturers to make a concerted ad-
vance on their product to conform with the
raise in the different parts which enter in-
to its construction has its origin in the fear
of the disturbing effect that it will have
upon their business relations with the deal-
ers. In many instances the dealers have
accepted with exceeding grace the fair ad-
vance made by the manufacturers. We
have in mind one well-known dealer to
whom a substantial advance was made on
his entire line, who recognized immediate-
ly the justice of the manufacturer making
the advance and accepted it gracefully.
Another who was a large customer for a
well-known Eastern house refused to pay
an advance in the price of pianos which
the manufacturer felt compelled to ask in
order that he might not come out the loser
in the deal.
Of course there will be sporadic cases
where dealers will refuse to pay any sub-
stantial advance for pianos. These cases
will be rare, however, for go where they
will they will be confronted by the same
conditions. The independent dealer is a
sort of free lance, and he will buy where -
ever he can secure the best bargain.
That is quite natural, and there will al-
ways be some manufacturers who for cer-
tain reasons will sell for a trifle over or
under the actual cost of the instrument.
The manufacturing world to-day is full of
intricate problems, and the piano manu-
facturer has not had an easy one to solve
in the matter of adjusting himself to the
advanced prices, and holding his trade
without a break. These things will right
themselves, however, and we will all
feel better.
The publishers have encountered a few
thorns along their ordinarily rose-strewn
path in the shape of an advance of fifty
per cent, on all white paper. It is one of
those little affairs which prick and
oftentimes draw a drop of blood, but still
we must accustom ourselves to it.
Certainly nothing like this widespread
upward move of values has occurred
in late years. The production in every-
thing has been enormous, and will
serve to make 1899 a standard by which
succeeding years will be measured. Com-
mercially the outlook is impressive, and
while we have a few little knotty problems
to unsnarl, yet there is reasonable assur-
ance that the year in business certainly
will be a memorable one.
PIANOS AND BICYCLES.
T H E trust craze has materially subsided
and a strong reaction has set in al-
ready. There has been a number of recent
trust collapses, and there promises to be
plenty of trust opposition during the next
few months. In the cycle trade the inevi-
table war between the combination of man-
ufacturers familiarly known as the cycle
trust and those wheel manufacturers who
are on the outside of the combination, is
assuming definite shape, and some men
who are well posted on cycle affairs tell us
that the cycle trust is in serious danger of
disintegration.
The direct bone of contention is over
some patents which the trust is trying to
prevent the independent concerns from
using without first securing a license from
the American Bicycle Co., which is the
trust. It only shows how the best laid
plans often miscarry, for the cycle trust
started out with the boastful statement
that it owned and controlled all patents
necessary in the construction of bicycles.
It intended to defeat competition by mak-
ing all outside manufacturers subordinate
to the trust, in that they should become •
licensees of the trust or retire from busi-
ness.
It seems they did not have that pleas-
ant sailing they expected, for the inde-
pendent wheel makers, who are quite as
numerous as the makers in the combina-
tion, have banded together for mutual pro-
tection and have openly defied the cycle
trust.
The trust has issued a number of circu-
lars which have been of a semi-threatening
nature stating that litigation would be the
outcome if certain patents were used with-
out the taking out of licenses.
The independent makers are not to be
beaten so easily. They state that they
have retained lawyers and they propose to
test the legality of the trust action, and
that it is not intended that the independ-
ent makers shall in any way become li-
censees of the trust.
This is of particular interest to the piano
industry in that it was stated to the piano
manufacturers who were asked to join a
trust at the time the wheel trust was organ-
ized, that it would completely dominate
everything in the industry—that it was
one of the sure things in the trust field.
It was claimed that it was one of the easi-
est trusts to control through a combina-
tion, and it would quickly crush out all
kinds of competition. Competition to-day
is more active and virile than ever and
really threatens the life of the wheel trust.
Piano manufacturers who refused to listen
to the song of the trust siren are now con-
gratulating themselves that they are well
out of the trust snare and are running
their affairs on independent lines.
We could name other lesser combina-
tions, some of which are indirectly related
to this industry, which have failed com-
pletely to absorb what they anticipated
and internal troubles threaten to destroy
the usefulness of a certain organization.