Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-SECOND YEAR.
ture far as human eye can see, that
these same satisfying conditions are rea-
sonably assured for some time to come.
There can be no great upheaval which
will overthrow public confidence to an ex-
tent which will threaten the destruction
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
even temporarily of the splendid business
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J . B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
edifice which we have reared in this
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER,
country.
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
There can be no great disturbing ques-
WALDO E. LADD
Executive Staff :
GEO.
W. QUERIPEL
tions agitated during the next few years
A. J. NICKLIN
such as tariff and finance which strike at
PnDlisheii Every Saturday at 3 last 14th Street, New YorK the very heart of business. They are set-
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico
and Canada, $2.00 per year ; all other countries, $4.00.
tled, and for a number of years the busi-
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount
ness interests of this country will be com-
is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite reading matter
$75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be
paratively free from the depressing effects
made payable to Edwai d Lyman Bill.
of great national issues along political
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
lines. It is true we have some knotty
NEW YORK, DEC. 29, 1900.
problems on hand for solution, but the
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIQHTEENTH STREET.
abiding faith which we have in the party
On the first Saturday of each month The
Review contains in its "Artists Department"
in power to bring about a condition of
all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or
reasonableness and peace is of that charac-
service of the trade section of the paper. It has
a special circulation, and therefore augments
ter that immediately lends encouragement
materially the value of The Review to adver-
to the early settlement of the existing
tisers.
problems.
THE PAGE CLOSED.
We have had in this country four tariff
/GREETINGS to all! May the first year
eras, and the question has been the main
of the new century be rich in good
one in our politics with few exceptional
things for Review readers everywhere.
years when the money problem took prece-
A S far as The Review is concerned, its dence. With both of those happily out of
business year closes with this issue, the way as disturbing elements, the ques-
and 1900 becomes at once retrospective. tion of running this great big business in-
In an industrial sense it takes high rank, stitution which we call the United States
for notwithstanding the fact that we had Government becomes vastly simplified.
to face a red-hot presidential campaign,
T"HUS as we view the situation the pros-
business did not show the depression which
pect for the opening years of the new
usually comes from contact with national
century are roseate with rich promises for
politics. It is true that many expected a
the people of this energetic young nation
tremendous boom in all kinds of enter-
of ours.
prises immediately after the lingering
We are too practical a people to devote
echoes of the campaign thunder had died
much time to retrospective thought. It is
away, but take the year as a whole, it
the ceaseless onward grind of energy that
has been a most prosperous one. The
compels no halt of any great period, there-
horn of plenty has been tipped gen-
fore with the American piano manufac-
erously for piano manufacturers and
turer the only breathing spell will be the
merchants, as well as all others in this
short time required for stock taking and
great big expanding country of ours.
talking over a little the opening campaign
Many men have been prosperous in the
for the new year. There will be no pause.
affairs of this world, and the overflow of
bounty has found its way into the laps of We are too matter-of-fact to indulge in any
the poor as well as the rich; and so on the long periods of business contemplation.
last Christmas of the century joy and It is up and on, spurred by new ambition,
plenty entered many homes and many and fired by new ideas which are almost
faces seamed with the tracery of life's daily applied to business enterprise.
cares have been made to smile and hearts T H E year has been remarkable in many
ways. Of failures of consequence in
which have been steeped with disappoint-
the
industry
there have been practically
ment have been made glad.
none. Of course business smash-ups are
indelibly
associated with trade, but it is
the music trade interests of this coun-
try it may truthfully be said that they with gratification that we turn to the
never were in such a firmly entrenched posi- leaf of trade history now closed and point
tion as to-day—buttressed around as they to the few figures made upon the page of
are with the generous earnings of the past 1900 of trade failures.
three years of plenty, and it would seem
Then, too, we cannot recall a year where-
as we take a prospective dip into the fu- in trade has been conducted on what we
may term more cleanly lines than during"
1900.
It is true we have had sporadic
cases wherein the reprehensible practices
of yore have been indulged in to a certain
extent, but taking the retail department as
a whole it may be truthfully said to have
advanced several notches along lines of
business honor and decency.
It is hopelessly impossible to change the
natures of some men who will resort to
methods of deceit which the honorable
most heartily condemn. The music trade
has not been exempt from such creatures
who have found therein a fertile field for
plying their nefarious vocations. They are,
however, becoming lessened as time rolls
on. Boston has taken a splendid position
towards the elimination of this class of
merchants and trade morality is steadily
advancing. There is too a strongly pro-
nounced effort on the part of a certain
element of the trade to take a decided stand
against unbusinesslike and deceitful meth-
ods.
|Vj ATURALLY the means adopted to sell
pianos must change with the chang-
ing times, and there is to-day a strongly
emphasized desire on the part of piano
merchants to be frank with their patrons.
This may be evidenced in the class of
piano advertising which appears in the col-
umns of the daily papers throughout the
land.
Most of the men are beginning to real-
ize that there has been abundant room for
reform in trade methods, and they have
gotten out the knife and have removed cer-
tain excrescences which heretofore have
been prominent upon the trade body.
T T is true the large profits of years agone
no longer abide with us. Competition
has changed materially, and the whole bus-
iness world has gone through an economic
change, and some of the old piano men
of the middle century days would not
recognize the scene of to-day if they
should chance to revisit us.
""THERE are many merchants who have
emphasized strongly during the past
year the large cash payments rather than
the small installment feature of the busi-
ness, and as far as The Review man at the
masthead views the situation, it is just
this class of dealers who have the fattest
bank account during this holiday season,
and whose trade is most eagerly sought by
manufacturers.
Matters relating to the business world
travel on electric wings, and a dealer's
methods are known to all in a compara-
tively brief space of time. The ones who
are exploiting the dollar payments are
the ones whom piano manufacturers as a