Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
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Our critic was kind enough to say that the editorial was
just, and should have a stimulating effect upon a class of salesmen
who figure that "they are indispensable to the business enter-
prises with which they are connected."
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OW, it is but fair to our leading and most successful sales-
men to say that they never have believed themselves to be
"indispensable." The successful men are too brainy and too
level headed to run away with any such foolish notion. They
realize that no man is doing his work so well that somebody
could not be found that could do it better, and when a man comes
to regard himself as "indispensable," there are few who do it so
badly. The salesman or manager who really accomplishes the
good work in this world is the one who is always trying to do it
better, and when he becomes "indispensable*' it is time for him
to die.
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T is frequent that we hear in this trade, and out of it, that some
man is indispensable to the success of some great enterprise,
and there are certain men inflated by a measure of temporary
accomplishments who come to regard themselves not only as the
king pins, but the whole running gear of a machine of which they
are a part. Writers who like to deal in ponderous platitudes to
young men, urge their readers to make themselves indispensable
to their employers, and many an otherwise clever youth has had
his usefulness destroyed by getting to imagine that he had ar-
rived at the state of indispensability. When the men reach a
position where they consider they are indispensable it is a sure
sign of mental decadence.
EN drop out of important institutions where they occupy
positions of responsibility, and their places are filled, and
the great machinery of the organization moves on without the
slightest stop.
Indispensable to a business! It is tommy rot, and the
quicker that idea is eliminated from the brains of salesmen and
managers the better it will be for them.
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LOCAL department store, celebrated for its dollar a week
and nothing down system, announces in an advertisement,
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"Don't buy a piano that does not bear the maker's name, for who
is to be responsible otherwise. Every piano we sell bears the
manufacturer's name. This means a guarantee to you when pur-
chasing a piano."
Now, that is good piano talk, straight from the shoulder,
no question about it. It embodies a principle which we believe
;n encouraging among the dealers in every way, but the peculiar-
ity of this particular announcement lies in the fact that out of six
pianos included in the list contained in the offer, five were what
is colloquially known as stencil pianos—that is, instruments hav-
ing no definite origin. They might be made in any one of a dozen
factories producing instruments of that grade.
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RADE paper criticism should be specific. It is glaringly unfair
to denounce the entire trade press for any particular weak-
ness which might be associated with the individual paper. It would
be unfair to say because some men have been associated with the
piano industry whose reputations have been above suspicion, that
the whole industry is tainted.
We have in this industry papers which are honorably conducted,
and have fairly earned their right to legitimate existence by their
thorough and competent service.
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HEY are to-day the pulse of the trade. They are the medium
of bringing into close touch the numerous and widely separ-
ated members of this industry. From telling what is going on in this
trade from one end of the country to the other, retailers as well
as manufacturers have constantly before them a comprehensive view
of the entire piano industry in all its branches which otherwise they
would not have. If a movement of importance is set on foot the
trade newspapers at once acquaint the whole trade of it.
URTHERMORE it is the constant aim of the better trade
journals to elevate the general standard of whatever industry
they are devoted to. And it is through trade journals that manu-
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REVIEW
facturers and retailers have been brought into closer relationship,
into a better understanding and appreciation of each other's interests.
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HE progressive trade paper should not be merely an exponent
of news, but a leader as well in thought and ideas. There is
a vast difference between trade newspapers, just as there is between
pianos, and the better papers in this industry are gotten up at an
expenditure of a great deal of effort and money. They contain much
valuable information which should be carefully perused by every
dealer. The papers in this industry are produced more attractively
and at a greater expense than any like publications of any other
industry, barring none.
N the show windows of certain stores of St. Louis may be seen
placards announcing the fact that union salesmen sell the
wares within.
It would seem from such announcements that the day has
gone by when the retail merchant can regard the question of
organized labor and its demands as one which does not apply
to him, and is unlikely to affect his interests
It is no longer a question of a manufacturer or contractor,
but the department store proprietor has been dragged into the
struggle which is more or less a continuous performance between
the employers and the unions.
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HERE has been no attempt thus far to organize the piano
salesmen. It was believed by many that some sort of a
union proposition lay back of the move to bring the salesmen
together a short time ago, but it did not succeed, and the piano
salesmen are too sensible to be drawn into an organization which
has a tendency to level individuality to a common plane.
In the unions of to-day the individuality of each man is lost,
and personal ambition has but comparatively little show for
development, and if unionism with such aims is to endure, the
dangers of socialism must be taken into consideration.
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INDIVIDUAL development must be allowed full play, and
1 special abilities must be acknowledged. Instead of trying to
keep all down to a dead level every man should be put upon his
merits, and not limited as to his capacity.
If one of the functions is to insure fair play, it should then
enforce a system which should grade up and not down. No limi-
tations should be placed upon capacities except for reasons of
health.
T seems rather odd for the department store men to-day to deal
with the walking delegate rather than the individual, but the
clerks' unions are now attempting to regulate hours to say when
their early closing shall go into effect, and to decide other matters
in regard to which only a year or two ago most firms would have
been unwilling to submit to any form of dictation.
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HERE is every indication that within a short period the
labor question will become as vital in at least a large
section of the mercantile world as it is in the industrial. Leaders
in trade unions are more and more turning their attention to the
organization of store employes. It is significant, for example,
that John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers, has
taken a personal interest in a strike recently initiated by the
clerks in one of the department stores of Chicago.
The progress of this movement cannot but bring about an
important change in the relation between employers and clerks,
and deserves the most careful consideration of merchants throughout
the Union.
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O one can honestly criticise store employes for wishing to
improve their position, and were labor organizations as a
whole conducted on broad and progressive lines, and with due
regard to the mutual interest of employers and employes no one
could cavil at the extension of the system. If it extends to all
lines of retail merchandising there is no reason why in time it
should not reach piano salesmen as well. It is certainly up to
the department store men, some of whom sell large numbers of
pianos.
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