Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
10
TWENTY-FIRST YEAR.
•EDWARD LYMAN BILL-
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage), United States,
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$4-oo.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
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REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
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(
Entered at the iVew York Pott Office as Second Clou Matttr.
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 24, 1900.
TELBPHONE NUMBER, 1745--E1OHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
~~
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"
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.
ASSOCIATIONS AND COMBINA-
TIONS.
A T the recent Boston Trade Banquet
Henry F. Miller made some very ap-
propriate remarks concerning corporations
and trusts. Mr. Miller believes in the
enactment of a uniform law regarding cor-
porations which shall be operative in all
states. In other words to make it as easy
for corporations to do business in New
York as in New Jersey, Maine or West
Virginia.
Under the present laws a concern may
be incorporated for a million dollars under
the laws of some of these states with only
a trifling amount paid in.
Is this not done primarily to deceive the
public regarding the real standing of the
firm? Laws should be enacted which would
make it impossible for corporations to
float schemes behind which there is no ac-
tual capital, nothing but inflation of the
worst kind.
The enactment of laws regarding corpor-
ations is something which affects manufac-
turers and merchants in all industries.
This country certainly should protect its
citizens and at the same time make it im-
possible for a trust or corporation to de-
ceive the public as well as its own stock-
holders, misrepresent its capital, gamble
with prices and strangle all kinds of com-
petition.
Our own Governor has some decided
views upon the question of trusts and he is
evidently striving to accomplish something
along those lines. It is proposed by him
that a corporation should be required to
tell in fullest detail in a public prospectus,
what it means to do, who are all the parties
to it, and what are all its resources, assets
thirty-five years since the close of the Civil
War. During the past twenty-five years a
revolution has taken place in extent and
more far-reaching in its beneficial effects
than ever was accomplished by wars or
conquests.
Industry and commerce, supplied by
invention with new resources, have
advanced at a rate hitherto impossible.
Their forces have grown from mere squads
to battalions and armies in which great
numbers of workers of many classes and
capacities have been brought from the con-
dition of uncertain employment and des-
tructive competition to an economical and
effective co-operation.
Not only has skilled labor become more
productive, but unskilled labor has been
made more available through improved ma-
chinery and better administrative methods
in carrying on manufactures of nearly
every kind.
This indeed is one of the signal triumphs
of this century—the effective utilization of
that vast resource which in earlier times
went to waste, the energy of the unskilled
masses.
Invention by the creation of new in-
strumentalities has opened the door to op-
portunity, has brought to the homes of
the artisan advantages formerly beyond
the reach of Prince or potentate.
In this industry as in many others there
are still many problems unsolved and
many matters relating to capital and labor
to adjust. If capital is merely the ac-
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
cumulated product of labor, then education
TT is easy to say of that man who is run- and skill are among the highest forms
ning, why doesn't he run faster?
of capital, for they are acquired at the
It is easy to say of the next man, why cost of much labor, and also the immense
doesn't he accomplish more? But try it fund of inventions already accumulated is
ourselves and see how far we progress a principal item—if not the principal one—
along the very lines which we are criticis- of the vast capital now employed in the
ing in our neighbor. It is easy to criticise service of mankind.
the National Association for not having
The work of an adjustment is going
accomplished more in the labor troubles steadily on, and in the meanwhile piano
which have agitated the Chicago trade dur- manufacturers as well as those engaged in
ing the past three months or more, but we other forms of industry will be compelled
have not yet heard among the Associa- by existing conditions to suffer more or
tion critics a single utterance as to just less during what we may term the final
how the Association should have accom- adjustment of matters relating to employ-
plished results as affecting the labor trou- er and employee.
bles.
The laborer of the present day is
It is one thing to criticise, and quite an- too prone to think that because the manu-
other thing to accomplish. The labor facturer lives in a better house, smokes
problem is indeed a complex one, and more cigars, wears better clothes, that he
some of the greatest minds of the age are is the one specially favored. He little
endeavoring, in a measure, to contribute to realizes what tremendous mental and phy-
its solution.
sical outlay was necessary in order to reach
We have undergone such a number of re- the manufacturer's present position. He
markable changes industrially during the little knows the manufacturer, seemingly
past few years, that parts of the great ma- happy in the full enjoyment of his cigar at
chine are not in accord with all other parts. his desk, is racked with that kind of anxiety
At no time in history has industrial prog- which comes to those only whose interests
ress been so rapid or general as during the are vast and upon whom many depend.
and paid in stock. Explicit reports must
also be made to stockholders, and if the
corporation be a large one looking to the
general public for support, full reports
must also be given to the public. These
reports will follow examination by an au-
ditor not in control of the corporations.
It would seem to us as if such a law
would meet with the hearty approval of
the people. It would certainly be a death-
blow to all of the highly-watered organiza-
tions and give the people an opportunity
of knowing just exactly what is behind
these enormous consolidation schemes
which are floated nowadays, usually by
Wall street brokers. Every business will
be aided by the enforcement of such a law.
Only corporations that work in the dark
need fear, and if New York is successful in
this move there is no reason why other
States should not move forward along
these lines. The reports required will,
besides throwing immediate light upon
trust operations, educate an intelligent
public in many business forms which are
now shrouded in darkness.
If the different industrial organizations
throughout the country, of which the Piano
Manufacturers' National Association is
one, should take up the matter of national
legislation regulating corporations and
trusts, it would no doubt add to public in-
terest in the matter and would help to
bring about remedial action, which is
necessary.