Music Trade Review

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THE
7VYUSIC TRADE
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
CBITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J. B. S P I L L A N E , MANAQINO EDITOR.
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
, EMILIE FRANCIS BAUER
Executive Staff: •{ WALDO E. LADD
GEO.
W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
PflHUsneg Every Saturday at 3 East 14th street, New Yoit
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage"!, United States,
Mexico arO Canada, $2.00 per year; all other countries,
$4.00.
ADVERTISErtENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special (HH-
couut is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00; opposite
reading matter, $75.00.
REniTFANCES, in other than currency form, should be
made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
' Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
NEW YORK, MAY 24, 1902.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-EIQHTEENTH STREET.
On the first Saturday of each month
The Review contains* in its "Artists' De-
partment" all the current musical news.
DEPARTMENT This is effected without in any way tres-
*
passing on the size or service of the trade
section of the paper. It lias a special circulation, and
therefore augments materially the value of The Review
to advertisers.
THE
ARTISTS'
rill
DIRECTORY OF
The directory of piano manufac-
PIANO
turlng firms and corporations found
MANUFACTURERS on page 2!) will be of great value as
a reference for dealers and others.
EDITORIAL
Every item of business, every arrange-)
nient for carrying on the enormous work of
last week was arranged for within one week,
and in this we have eclipsed all of our con-
temporaries and certainly maintained the es-
tablished position of The Review as a reli-
able medium. Promptness, efficiency and
accuracy are the characteristics of up-to-date
newspapers and when a paper is two or three
days late, or its service is imperfect, it only
exhibits its incompetency to grapple with
the situation.
does not necessarily follow that what mem-
bers of the industry know should be told to
the entire purchasing public when that
knowledge means discrediting the basic sys-
tem upon which piano retailing reposes.
\ \ J E have taken the position from the
start that it would be unwise for
either of the associations to admit the trade
press to their general discussions. If they
could trust all newspaper men to use intelli-
gence and fairness in their manner of treat-
ing the subjects under discussion all would
be well, but there is one man engaged in
trade journalism who is a spy and intriguer
and who would betray the industry upon
which he has long fattened.
It would indeed be difficult for the asso-
ciations to exclude a portion of the trade
paper representatives; therefore the just must
suffer as well as the unjust, and all are ex-
cluded.
As matters are at the present time this is
by far the best way, and one fatal mistake,
—and we so stated at the time—was to admit
the daily press at the general discussion when
the two associations met last Thursday.
We remarked to two manufacturers at the
time when Mr. Currier was urging that reso-
lutions be passed that the sentiment of the
meeting be recorded in favor of establishing
one price, that it was injurious to the indus-
try, becaue it was placing the best kind of
an argument in the hands of the department
store, and what was the result?
Invitations are extended as a matter of
courtesy to the representatives of the trade
press to be present at the banquets. These
invitations do not include business sessions,
neither do the association officials ask them
to make a report of the proceedings of the
convention. The paper men ask from the
press committees such reports as they may
consistently give out. They are free to print
them or exclude them as they so elect and to
comment upon them, but association work
and discussions should be carefully held from
the press when we maintain a Judas Iscariot
within our own profession.
1
TOPICS OF THE HOUR.
TH J US newspaper institution published mare
than one hundred pages of matter last
week, and the Saturday's edition of eighty-
four pages was not an hour behind the reg-
ular schedule time.
The Review was the only paper published
in Xew York, or in the entire country for
that matter, which was delivered Saturday
containing the complete report in every de-
tail of the Convention doings and the banquet
sjx'eches up to the end. All of these events
were treated purely in a newspaper way,
carefully avoiding all semblance to huge spe-
cials.
The Convention story of The Review was
complete, varied and prompt. It was carried
through without the fuss and feathers which
characterized other trade papers, and it was
something of a journalistic triumph to be the
only paper presenting a complete report in
every detail and absolutely on time. The
vast amount of matter required much addi-
tional space in order to be intelligently pre-
sented to our readers and this was done with-
out trespassing upon our regular news ser-
vice in the slightest degree.
We do not believe in specials of any kind;
the individuality of the advertiser is lost
where fifty or sixty more of the same indus-
try are grouped together in the same issue,
and while there may be exceptionally good
opportunities for a few to advertise, there
is no reason why the value of such mediums
should 1)0 depreciated by crowding together
all patronage possible, thus reducing the
value to every advertiser.
REVIEW
I T is true that the trade press may be cred-
ited with originating association work
and extending it along lines of publicity.
The constant exploitation of these matters
in the columns of the press has made asso-
ciation existence possible, but in doing this
papers have only performed the proper func-
tions of trade journalism.
I T is difficult indeed, as emphasized in Col.
Conway's address, to find tangible results
from organization work, and on the same line
the retiring president said: "Not the least
of these are the harmonious relations that
already exist and the knowledge that we as
manufacturers and dealers respect ourselves
and appreciate the virtues in our competitors
to a ten-fold greater extent than before our
association came into existence."
Associations are incubators of good feeling
and there is no question but that both of the
associations are doing much to encourage a
better understanding not only between manu-
The associated press reports all over the facturers, but between the manufacturers and
country contained statements to the effect the men to whom they sell.
that the piano men, both manufacturers and *T" H E whole discussion, as reported in last
week's Review at the joint convention
dealers, had agreed to favor one price and
of manufacturers and dealers was upon the
try to maintain it.
What an absurdity! The members of a department store. One thing is certain, all
great industry going before the general pub- department stores will not follow dignified
lic with an open admission that they had not lines in the conduct of their business. They
run their business on correct lines in the past, will find easy loop holes to evade the agree-
that there had been no stability to piano ment made in their contracts that they will
prices, but that they proposed to remedy this not cut prices by offering the "slightly used"
instruments, "pianos scratched with a dia-
in the future.
Why should this admission have been mond ring," "pianos that were jostled by
their neighbor," "pianos a trifle roughly
made public?
If this discussion had been behind closed handled," like the recent Wanamaker adver-
doors—as it should have been—and simply tisement, or in the store of Looser & Co. in
between members of the piano family, the I Brooklyn, who have recently announced in
statement would not have been made broad- their "vigorous piano news column" that
cast that piano merchants were not as good "fifty-five dollars will be saved" on a well-
business men as those engaged in other lines known Western make of instrument which
of merchandizing. And it cannot be denied ihey have recently taken on. This cut, they
that the very admission of this into public allege, they are able to make because they
print is a reflection upon this industry. It have secured the instruments at considerably