Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
say telling how the industry would be either
benefited or demoralized if a piano trust
were to become an established fact.
ADVANTAGE OF EARLY ORDERS.
W I T of H
the passing
Schaffer's
strike, considerable dan-
ger is removed and the
possibility of labor trou-
bles to this and other industries is now re-
mote. Everything points now to a fall full
of business promise. Very shortly now, the
busy season will actually open up in the
retail lines as well as the wholesale. Many
dealers have considered it to their advant-
age to place orders early, and for them the
situation is very satisfactory, for they are
assured of securing stock without delay.
We repeat, our advice to many who have
written us and who have been holding back
on account of crops and possible labor trou-
bles, is to conclude their arrangements for
stock as speedily as possible. There is going
to be a demand which will shortly manifest
itself in no uncertain manner for all kinds
of pianos, and it will not be so easy to get
just what is desired on rush orders later.
Our advices during the past week, ex-
cepting in sections, happily small in area,
where crops have been pretty well destroyed,
is that dealers are anticipating a big trade
this fall, and a good many of them are back-
ing up their opinions by placing substan-
tial orders. Extreme caution in a fall like
this is not particularly desirable, for, while
men have the strongest kind of a belief
in a good season to come, they would be
doing nothing that savors of plunging by
getting in substantial orders at once, and
getting ready to capture trade in generous
slices.
A big b u s i n e s s
counted upon now that
the strike is adjusted
—The person plans
wisely who places or-
ders now—Ready for
business.
ently a greater necessity among the ranks
of retailers, particularly among piano men,
where feuds and fights have existed for
many, many years. As Colonel Hollenberg
remarked at the meeting in New York, it
is not expected that the Dealers' Associa-
tion would revolutionize the industry, or
would attempt the impossible, but would
work along for mutual betterment and ulti-
mately would be of material good to all
piano men.
As a matter of fact, local organizations
will be of more assistance to the individual
than will the national dealers' organization,
with which, of course, there will be a natural
sympathetic relation.
Following out other lines of organization
work, each retail association in the various
cities should elect delegates to the National
Dealers' Convention, which will be held next
year in Baltimore. It will be impossible
for every one of the members of that organ-
ization to be present, but if principal cities
are represented through local organizations
who have their own delegates, it will be a
decided move in the right direction. They
cannot all go on to extend their pedal ex-
tremities under Baltimore's mahogany and
eat terrapin, but they can furnish able-bodied
representatives who will give a good ac-
count of themselves.
M EW ORLEANS is
FEEDS AMBITION'S FIRE.
'"T HIS industry has
One of our devel-
opments to competi-
made tremendous
tion—The spur to am-
bition—The chance for progress, brought about
the independent man-
in the main by com-
ufacturer n e v e r so
good as to-day.
petition. The progress
of the world in everything has been made
keen by competition; in schools as well
as in industries. Men need the stimulus
of competition to do their business. To it
we owe our developments. It is the fuel
which feeds the fire of ambition, and up to
a certain point it is a good thing if the com-
petition is intelligent rather than ignorant.
But, like almost any other good thing, it
can be abused. There must always be com-
petition. To stamp it out, were such a
thing possible, would mean business stag-
nation. It would mean that there was no
progress, and it is no compliment to the in-
telligence of the business men who have
done so much for the progress of the busi-
ness world, to suggest even that they are so
short-sighted as to believe that business it-
self would prosper if competition were prac-
tically eliminated.
the latest of our
important piano distri-
buting points to declare
itself in favor of a lo-
cal organization among piano dealers. Slow-
ly but surely this idea is gaining ground,
and organization becomes each day appar-
If there were no prizes to be obtained
men would cease to put forth the effort
which stands for progress and growth. If
there were no larger prizes ahead of a young
man than simply a day laborer's wages,
the likelihood is that a good many would
not put forth the effort necessary to become
Personal observation, too, tells us that
retail lines are down to a comparatively low
point, and there is no reason why immediate
steps should not be taken by those who have
been holding back to verify their business
position.
This is going to be a year of good business
and good profits, because when times are
good, people are always liberal buyers, and
the retail profits on pianos should not be
like Bob Sawyer's profits, "So small that
at the end of the year you could put 'em
in a wineglass and cover 'em over with a
gooseberry leaf."
ORGANIZATION~~GERM THRIVING.
Dealers' organiza-
tions increasing — A
move in the right di-
rection—Trade hatch-
ets to be buried and
an era of harmony in-
augurated—I n t e r e s t
aroused.
9
anything more than a day laborer; but be-
cause there are prizes to be gained by com-
petition, men are willing to become prac-
tically slaves to their business or profession,
and in gaining those prizes for themselves
they make large contributions to the sum
of human progress and happiness.
We need competition if we would grow,
but it ought to be honest and intelligent
competition.
The way to meet competition is not to
abuse the man who creates it, but to meet
it. Without a healthy competition this in-
dustry would not have reached its present
stage of development; and the future of the
intelligently progressive independent piano
man never was so full of brilliant promise
as to-day.
Brains never received higher wages than
now.
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY APPLIED.
Piano men may read
papers at sea—Jour-
nals published on the
ocean may be the next
novelty introduced—
What leading m e n
may do.
r \ VER-BURDENED
piano men have
hitherto looked upon a
sea voyage as a sure
escape to days of rest,
and many annually journey across the water
each season for the recuperative effects of
the sea air and ocean rest; but wireless
telegraphy now opens up the possibility of
daily papers printed upon ocean steamships,
and receiving news from both going and
coming ships.
The ocean then will afford no rest for the
weary business man, because he will be stu-
dying the ocean papers with the same in-
terest that enthused him while on shore.
Chas. H. Steinway, who, perhaps, has
crossed the ocean more times than any other
member of the industry, while steaming
across will be able to read of new royal
honors bestowed upon Steinway & Sons,
and through wireless telegraphy may be
enabled to send some instructions back to
the home office some days before he lands
in Europe.
W. W. Kimball will, perhaps, while re-
turning from one of his European trips,
learn that another Kimball plant has been
completed some little time before he steps
upon American shores.
Wireless telegraphy opens up such possi-
bilities that the business man will be tempt-
ed almost to keep up an unbroken system
of communication with the home office while
on his way across the seas for rest and re-
cuperation.
\\7
HERE shall we look for smaller men
than those who, having achieved,
much prominence through the courtesy, gen-
erosity and good nature of newspaper men,
turn upon them, sneer at their work, and
go out of their way to insult the entire craft ?