Music Trade Review
Issue: 1900 Vol. 31 N. 15 - Page 5
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
at once turn over a new leaf. If efforts
and energies are directed along other
channels, the result will prove much more
satisfactory.
An instrument at a low price is not such
a drawing card to-day as it was four years
ago. The purchasing public is more dis-
posed to pay a fair price for a reliable
product that it wants, than to buy some-
thing it does not want, because it is of-
fered at a cut or reduced price.
It does not require brains or fe enius to
dispose of pianos by cutting prices or mis-
representing cheap instruments. Better
results will unquestionably be obtained if
the character of the goods is made the
drawing card instead of the prices. One
method results in business for the.day, the
other in business for the future.
The piano dealers of this country to day
who have made, and are making, the most
headway are those who are giving atten-
tion to the pushing of meritorious prod-
ucts. This is logical and based on com-
mercial principles, for the lower the grade
of goods sold, the more it costs to do busi-
ness ; hence these merchants are wisely di-
recting their efforts along profitable lines.
In speaking thus we do not mean to con-
vey that there isn't a place for the low-
priced piano. There is. But. it should
never be forced upon the public, nor should
it be misrepresented. Those who want it
will ask for it, and then it should be sold
in its class.
If the dealers study the tastes and re-
quirements of their trade thoroughly they
will at once conclude that a cheap, unat-
tractive instrument could not make the
impression upon the public that a good,
artistically designed, well finished instru-
ment would. Cheap products lead to
"cheap" methods in selling. This, how-
ever, cannot be accepted as an axiom, for
the folly of price cutting is unfortunately
not confined alone to the cheap pianos.
Travel where yoii will and it is the one
subject of complaint. It can only be rem-
edied by a higher conception of the seller's
obligation or duty to truth, "honor" and
his fellow men.
And speaking of "honor" brings to mind
what a valuable asset it is to the business
man. It is virtually a part of his capital
and stock in trade, for it is honor that
makes the business world go around.
Into all transactions of the present day
reliance on a business man's mere word or
his willingness to carry out his agreements
largely enters. The personal equation is
recognized as one of the most vital fea-
tures in the granting of credit, and at no
time were men's characters considered so
important in this particular.
The ONLY music TRADE paper which
received any award at the Paris Exposi-
tion of 1900 was The Husic Trade Review
which was given the GRAND PRIX, the
MIQHEST official recognition obtainable
for any exhibit in any division of art, me-
chanics or industry.
Reputation for honor, for fair dealing,
for aversion to taking mean advantages,
will always stand a house and its repre-
sentatives in good stead.
The merchant who has "honor" marked
behind his name always gets the first
chance at a good thing—the first opportu-
nity to secure special values. The tem-
porary advantage which the less broad-
minded merchant obtains through sharp
tricks, unwarranted deductions and other
questionable methods, is many times offset
by the benefits derived by the man or house
doing business on honor.
OUR EXPORT AND IMPORT TRADE.
TN the figures relating to imports and ex-
ports of musical instruments which
appear elsewhere in The Review, a decline
is noticeable, particularly in the exports of
organs, 8,530 having been sent aboard dur-
ing the eight months ending August, as
compared with 10,974 organs which were
exported during the same period in 1899.
This decline can be attributed, without
doubt, to general disturbance of conditions
in England owing to the Boer-British war,
and the consequent falling off of shipments
of organs to the Cape.
On the other hand there is an increase
in our foreign trade in pianos and other
instruments which come under the popular
designation of "small goods." The in-
crease alone in the latter field for the
eight months' ending August amounts to
little over ico millions in the corresponding
months of 1896, and the exports of manu-
ufactured goods were 304 million dollars,
against 163 millions in the corresponding
months of 1896. Thus in both importation
of raw materials for use in manufacturing
and in exportation of the finished product,
the figures of the present year are nearly
double those of 1896.
The total imports of the eight months
just ended exceed by 93 million dollars the
imports of the corresponding months of
1896, while the single item of manufac-
turers' materials itself shows an increase
of 37 millions. Raw materials for use
in manufacturing formed in the eight
months of 1896 but 23^ per cent, of the
total imports, while in the corresponding
eight months of 1900 they formed 35.2 per
cent. Manufactures formed in the eight
months of 1896, 28.7 per cent, of the total
exports, and in eight months of 1900
formed 33.8 per cent, and in August 1900,
35.2 percent, of the total exports of do-
mestic products. In 1896 the average im-
portation of manufacturers' materials was
13^ million dollars per month, and in 1900
it is 25 million dollars per month.
DATING AS CAPITAL.
A MUCH debated question which de-
serves the most careful consideration
of merchants, large and small, is the use
which is made of extra dating. Like
many things that are good and wholesome
in themselves and highly beneficial if used
rationally and in moderation, this practice
of dating ahead, while overdone and abused
until it has become one of the most serious
evils with which manufacturers and whole-
salers are forced to contend, has a legiti-
mate function to perform and is of great
$78,349-
The imports of musical instruments con- advantage in business if confined within
tinue to show a decrease, the decline for its proper bounds.
The question, then, is not shall dating
the eight months amounting to $65,651.
In exports during the past eight months ahead be abolished, but shall unreasonable
the most noticeable increase is in the dating be done away with? and if so, what
"small goods" branch of the industry. constitutes unreasonable dating ?
In the piano business there are innumer-
American specialties such as harps, musi-
cal boxes and stringed instruments of all able instances where dealers, through the
kinds seem every month to be winning a lack of backbone on the part of manufac-
larger market abroad. In former years turers, have been enabled to secure a dating
ahead that is outside the bounds of
such goods were imported exclusively.
reason.
This liberality on the part of man-
In reviewing broadly the field of Ameri-
can manufactures as illustrated by the sta- ufacturers has had a highly injurious ten-
tistics given in the volume just made pub- dency, inasmuch as it has given those se-
lic by the Treasury Bureau of Statistics, curing such terms the idea that they can
we find that general trade activity is well run their business on other people's capital.
Where instruments are purchased in the
revealed by the imports of manufacturers'
materials and the exports of manufactured height of the season and where the possi-
goods. In the eight months ending with bilities for early sales are bright, it is un-
August, 1900, imports of raw materials for fair for dealers to ask for a long time of
use in manufacturing amounted in round dating on such a bill of goods. It is unjust
numbers to 200 million dollars, against a to the manufacturer, for long before the
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
at once turn over a new leaf. If efforts
and energies are directed along other
channels, the result will prove much more
satisfactory.
An instrument at a low price is not such
a drawing card to-day as it was four years
ago. The purchasing public is more dis-
posed to pay a fair price for a reliable
product that it wants, than to buy some-
thing it does not want, because it is of-
fered at a cut or reduced price.
It does not require brains or fe enius to
dispose of pianos by cutting prices or mis-
representing cheap instruments. Better
results will unquestionably be obtained if
the character of the goods is made the
drawing card instead of the prices. One
method results in business for the.day, the
other in business for the future.
The piano dealers of this country to day
who have made, and are making, the most
headway are those who are giving atten-
tion to the pushing of meritorious prod-
ucts. This is logical and based on com-
mercial principles, for the lower the grade
of goods sold, the more it costs to do busi-
ness ; hence these merchants are wisely di-
recting their efforts along profitable lines.
In speaking thus we do not mean to con-
vey that there isn't a place for the low-
priced piano. There is. But. it should
never be forced upon the public, nor should
it be misrepresented. Those who want it
will ask for it, and then it should be sold
in its class.
If the dealers study the tastes and re-
quirements of their trade thoroughly they
will at once conclude that a cheap, unat-
tractive instrument could not make the
impression upon the public that a good,
artistically designed, well finished instru-
ment would. Cheap products lead to
"cheap" methods in selling. This, how-
ever, cannot be accepted as an axiom, for
the folly of price cutting is unfortunately
not confined alone to the cheap pianos.
Travel where yoii will and it is the one
subject of complaint. It can only be rem-
edied by a higher conception of the seller's
obligation or duty to truth, "honor" and
his fellow men.
And speaking of "honor" brings to mind
what a valuable asset it is to the business
man. It is virtually a part of his capital
and stock in trade, for it is honor that
makes the business world go around.
Into all transactions of the present day
reliance on a business man's mere word or
his willingness to carry out his agreements
largely enters. The personal equation is
recognized as one of the most vital fea-
tures in the granting of credit, and at no
time were men's characters considered so
important in this particular.
The ONLY music TRADE paper which
received any award at the Paris Exposi-
tion of 1900 was The Husic Trade Review
which was given the GRAND PRIX, the
MIQHEST official recognition obtainable
for any exhibit in any division of art, me-
chanics or industry.
Reputation for honor, for fair dealing,
for aversion to taking mean advantages,
will always stand a house and its repre-
sentatives in good stead.
The merchant who has "honor" marked
behind his name always gets the first
chance at a good thing—the first opportu-
nity to secure special values. The tem-
porary advantage which the less broad-
minded merchant obtains through sharp
tricks, unwarranted deductions and other
questionable methods, is many times offset
by the benefits derived by the man or house
doing business on honor.
OUR EXPORT AND IMPORT TRADE.
TN the figures relating to imports and ex-
ports of musical instruments which
appear elsewhere in The Review, a decline
is noticeable, particularly in the exports of
organs, 8,530 having been sent aboard dur-
ing the eight months ending August, as
compared with 10,974 organs which were
exported during the same period in 1899.
This decline can be attributed, without
doubt, to general disturbance of conditions
in England owing to the Boer-British war,
and the consequent falling off of shipments
of organs to the Cape.
On the other hand there is an increase
in our foreign trade in pianos and other
instruments which come under the popular
designation of "small goods." The in-
crease alone in the latter field for the
eight months' ending August amounts to
little over ico millions in the corresponding
months of 1896, and the exports of manu-
ufactured goods were 304 million dollars,
against 163 millions in the corresponding
months of 1896. Thus in both importation
of raw materials for use in manufacturing
and in exportation of the finished product,
the figures of the present year are nearly
double those of 1896.
The total imports of the eight months
just ended exceed by 93 million dollars the
imports of the corresponding months of
1896, while the single item of manufac-
turers' materials itself shows an increase
of 37 millions. Raw materials for use
in manufacturing formed in the eight
months of 1896 but 23^ per cent, of the
total imports, while in the corresponding
eight months of 1900 they formed 35.2 per
cent. Manufactures formed in the eight
months of 1896, 28.7 per cent, of the total
exports, and in eight months of 1900
formed 33.8 per cent, and in August 1900,
35.2 percent, of the total exports of do-
mestic products. In 1896 the average im-
portation of manufacturers' materials was
13^ million dollars per month, and in 1900
it is 25 million dollars per month.
DATING AS CAPITAL.
A MUCH debated question which de-
serves the most careful consideration
of merchants, large and small, is the use
which is made of extra dating. Like
many things that are good and wholesome
in themselves and highly beneficial if used
rationally and in moderation, this practice
of dating ahead, while overdone and abused
until it has become one of the most serious
evils with which manufacturers and whole-
salers are forced to contend, has a legiti-
mate function to perform and is of great
$78,349-
The imports of musical instruments con- advantage in business if confined within
tinue to show a decrease, the decline for its proper bounds.
The question, then, is not shall dating
the eight months amounting to $65,651.
In exports during the past eight months ahead be abolished, but shall unreasonable
the most noticeable increase is in the dating be done away with? and if so, what
"small goods" branch of the industry. constitutes unreasonable dating ?
In the piano business there are innumer-
American specialties such as harps, musi-
cal boxes and stringed instruments of all able instances where dealers, through the
kinds seem every month to be winning a lack of backbone on the part of manufac-
larger market abroad. In former years turers, have been enabled to secure a dating
ahead that is outside the bounds of
such goods were imported exclusively.
reason.
This liberality on the part of man-
In reviewing broadly the field of Ameri-
can manufactures as illustrated by the sta- ufacturers has had a highly injurious ten-
tistics given in the volume just made pub- dency, inasmuch as it has given those se-
lic by the Treasury Bureau of Statistics, curing such terms the idea that they can
we find that general trade activity is well run their business on other people's capital.
Where instruments are purchased in the
revealed by the imports of manufacturers'
materials and the exports of manufactured height of the season and where the possi-
goods. In the eight months ending with bilities for early sales are bright, it is un-
August, 1900, imports of raw materials for fair for dealers to ask for a long time of
use in manufacturing amounted in round dating on such a bill of goods. It is unjust
numbers to 200 million dollars, against a to the manufacturer, for long before the
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