Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-SECOND YEAR.
RMDV
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J.
B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER,
Executive Staff
:
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
GEO. W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
PnDlishefl Every Saturflay at 3 East 14m Street, New York
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NEW YORK, OCT. 27, 1900.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIGHTEENTH STREET.
On the first Saturday of each month The
Review contains in its "Artists Department"
all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or
service of the trade section of the paper. It has
a special circulation, and therefore augments
materially the value of The Review to adver-
tisers.
foolishly surrendered to the dictation of
selfish and arrogant leaders of the Dold
type.
The Piano Maker's Union as a national
organization never will receive recognition
at the hands of manufacturers unless it
shows itself more worthy than it has in the
past.
Instead of having a cigar maker at its
head like Chas. Dold, it should have a
skilled piano maker, a man versed in every
department of the business, one, who by
his own qualifications should have won the
respect of at least the owners of the factory
wherein his work has been carried on.
Such a man, skilled in all departments
of the business, would exact from every
other member a certain qualification which
would raise the standard of the organiza-
tion. Then, if the men would turn about
and grade the work, we will say into about
four classes, establishing a standard of
wages for each class, they will have made
a stride in the right direction and one
which would win for the organization at
least the respect of the piano manufactur-
ers, because at the outset they would have
established the principle that a certain
standard of excellence, a certain knowl-
edge of work, is necessary even to enter in
the fourth class of workmen.
Then, by having gradations there is also
an incentive for the man who receives the
lowest wages to reach the point where he
may receive greater returns, and this he
can only do by perfecting himself along
certain mechanical lines, thus raising an
educational as well as intellectual standard.
The serious objection to the Union as it
now stands is that it assumes all men are
equal, which they are not, never were and
never will be. For as long as there is an
inequality of brains there must exist in-
equality regarding the possible accom-
plishments of individuals.
Unions to-day have a tendency to hold
back the ambitiously energetic workman
and reduce him by their organization rules
to the standard of the drone, and by hav-
ing the applicants for membership in
the union pass no examination, they are
really raising ignorant workmen to be
the equal of skilled workmen.
This position cannot be maintained ex-
cept at the sacrifice of union success, and
the intelligent men of the unions will see
this and break away from the shackles
which bind them to the unworthy
and to the leaders who are too often inter-
ested in fomenting labor troubles in order
that they may draw their weekly stipend
from the organization.
INVITING DISASTER.
/ ^ H A S . DOLD is indulging in his usual
flamboyant utterances in Cincinnati.
He is making all sorts of claims, and
says that the national organization of piano
workers will uphold the Cincinnati strikers
to the end. He alleges that there are ten
thousand men in the international organi-
zation each one of whom will contribute
fifty cents a week to support the members
who are now on strike and that they will
continue the fight until the sun goes down
on their lives.
We have all heard of Dold's mouthings
before.
Mr. Dold and many other men of his
class overlook the most important point in
organization work. They wish their unions
recognized but seek to dictate terms of set-
tlement to manufacturers. In the latter
their position is un-American and will not
be countenanced by independent manu-
facturers.
One thing, however, which must impress
the average piano workman who is bolster-
ing up tile union cause, is what little for-
ward movement the International Piano-
makers' Union has accomplished in the way
of promotion of the interests of the men.
There is no question but that organiza-
tion can be effective if manipulated prop-
erly and confined to the legitimate func-
tions of organization work.
Take the history of the Piano Maker's
Union and thus far it has scored only-
lamentable failures and instead of advanc-
ing the cause of the workmen it has been
instrumental in causing them vast losses
and entailing upon them and their famil-
There is a union existing among elec-
ies much suffering all because they have tricians, and we understand they have cer-
tain grades dependent entirely upon the
educational qualifications of individual
members. No man can reach the ele-
mentary stage even until he has passed a
suitable examination.
When the workmen of the piano indus-
try exhibit a desire to advance on educa-
tional lines, maintaining a certain individ-
ual standard for admission to the craft,
they will then have made a move in the
direction which will dignify their union
in the eyes of all manufacturers.
When they operate along lines where
ignorance and knowledge are placed upon
the same plane, then they are working on
principles which can only end in disaster
for them. The blatant, abusive utterances
of such men as Dold only have the effect
of creating a feeling of antagonism on the
part of manufacturers, and the men by fol-
lowing such teachings are pursuing lines
which must lead to inevitable disaster.
/~\NE of the oldest piano travelers in the
industry remarked, while in The Re-
view offices this week, that never in his ex-
perience has he seen business maintain
such a satisfactory condition during a
presidential year. In fact, he expressed
surprise at the size of the orders he had
recently taken.
No one can deny the truth of the state-
ment that politics has had but slight effect
upon business. There is activity every-
where, and the result of the election is al-
ready being discounted by business men.
For the next six weeks the power of the
mercantile brain should have its profit-
earning reward without resort to clap-trap
or specially cheapening methods in the dis-
position of the retail product. Leave those
things, the big drum, the loud horn and
the red fire to the dull season. The live
piano merchant will find that it will re,-
quire effort on his part only along dignified
lines to bring trade into his doors during
the next eight weeks.
MR, DEALER!
TTAVE you bought the right pianos?
Is your entire stock good as a profit
earner?
Don't wait too long to find these things
out.
You are busy, perhaps, but are you mak-
ing money? Are you not selling pianos
too cheaply? Are you educating people
on the upward or downward grade regard-
ing piano prices?
Are you exploiting in large type a hun-
dred dollar piano at retail?
Is your business gravitating largely to
the small installment plan? Are you fill-
ing your books with a lot of accounts that
will not improve in value as time rolls on?