Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
six million bushels of wheat and sixty-five million bushels of corn,
as well as millions of bushels of other grains, and tens of thousands
of bales of cotton.
S a natural sequence there is good healthy piano business to be
done there—business which should command the atten-
tion of the whole country, for it has wealth, enterprise and busi-
ness possibilities.
Into this new Southwest are being shipped more barbed wire
fences, cast iron pipe, engines and boilers, agricultural implements,
building materials than to any other section of the country. It is
this territory that is building up the great railroad systems of the
Santa Fe, the Rock Island and Frisco roads. It is this territory
which will supersede the partially exhausted districts of the East
and steal away many of the glass and metal industries of the Middle
West. It is this territory that, favored with more adequate rain-
fall, will move the center of population of the country a hundred
miles west of where it now reposes in Central Indiana. It is this
territory which will furnish a market for thousands of high-grade
pianos and organs. It is this territory which should receive the
careful attention of piano manufacturers in all sections of the Union.
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ORE goods have been ordered for the Southern and South-
western roads than for all other railroad systems together.
More people emigrate to the South and Southwest than to all the
rest of the sections together. More cities will be built, more im-
provements made, more money earned and spent from this time on,
and it will do no harm to recognize that fact.
The greatest activity in agricultural, industrial and municipal
development of our whole domain is right down .in the Southwest,
and our piano men should not overlook it. It is not only worth
watching, but there is a trade there worth spending money to get.
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N the midst of the changes which are steadily taking place in every
department of the trade, one of the characteristics which forces
itself upon the attention and has much to do with changing methods
is the tendency towards narrow margins of profit. While in some
lines of specialties there are here and there some articles which yield
fairly good returns, yet these retain exceptional advantages but for a
short time.
The rule holds almost universal that the manufacturer and mer-
chant alike must look to a large volume of business at a small margin
rather than to restricted sales at more remunerative prices.
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T is a commonplace experience for manufacturers to recall the
days perhaps only a few years ago when with quite a limited
business they were able to show at the end of the year a much greater
percentage of profit, perhaps even a larger profit, than is now possi-
ble with a vastly increased output.
These conditions are not liable to change, for all indications
point to a continuance of narrow margins in manufacturing and
merchandising, and it is the part of wisdom for those immediately
concerned to shape their course accordingly.
Assuming that the character of the competition by which the
manufacturer is concerned leaves but a meagre profit, there is at
once an imperative call for the adoption of the most improved meth-
ods and the most careful economies in the production of goods.
HIS we have seen in many of the leading piano factories where-
in have been introduced all possible appliances in the way of
labor-saving devices and machinery for the facilitation and rapid
completion of work.
It is owing to the full sway of progressive principles, to the
creation of marvels of organization and direction, that it is possi-
ble to produce pianos at such prices at which they are being sold
to-day. While the dealers are constantly crying for lower prices,
perhaps in this they are following a natural inclination, because it
seems that every one is trying to get the lowest market price on all
commodities, but when we consider the wholesale price at which
the majority of instruments are sold it is surprising that dealers can
expect lower rates and extended terms to suit.
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HERE are no other articles manufactured to-day requiring the
skill, the capital, the intelligence that is necessary in success-
ful piano making that are sold on such meagre margins of profit.
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Manufacturers have had to face a steadily rising tide in everything,
material as well as labor, and then they have" had to face as well
the unceasing cry of the dealer for lower prices.
Then, besides", they have innumerable claims made upon them
which manufacturers in other lines would not tolerate for an instant.
Piano manufacturers should not accede to many of them, and they
will not a few years hence, for there is no good reason why a man
who manufactures a piano and delivers it in perfect condition should
be put to any further expense by the negligence or ignorance of the
people into whose hands his instruments may fall. It is cracked
varnish, keys that stick and a thousand other absurd and ridiculous
claims which are forced upon the piano manufacturer and which
he ofttimes concedes rather than lose a customer.
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HEN, again, there are claims which amount to nothing more
or less than blackmail by certain dealers who ask allowances
for imperfections which they know do not exist and who have fig-
ured that a manufacturer, rather than to come to the parting of the
ways with them, had rather allow a few dollars here and there, cut-
ting down his thin margin of profit a little nearer the breaking point.
Now, when a manufacturer of any kind of furniture or any
other article save pianos delivers his goods his responsibility ceases,
and so it would be in the piano world were it not for the existence
of a lot of absurd traditions which were incorporated early in the
piano business.
ANUFACTURERS have adhered to them simply because
others before them did likewise. Now it is high time to
break away from these absurd traditions. Thousands upon thou-
sands of dollars in unjust claims could be saved yearly if the piano
men will take a determined stand and resist to the utmost all unjust
claims. Of course, there are some claims which are rightful and
should be allowed, but they form indeed a small percentage of the
whole.
The piano manufacturer's lot is not at all times an easy one,
and many dealers who are constantly making threats and unjust
demands are not adding materially to his happiness.
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to meet the competition of to-day all material must be
{ N order
purchased after careful and intelligent study of the market
and at the most advantageous terms obtainable. Machinery must
be constantly replaced with better, for processes of manufac-
ture are changing almost continually.
A reduction in the working hours of men demand that care be
taken that every minute of the workman's time be utilized. An idle
machine is idle capital—an unused capacity. Nothing must be per-
mitted to go to waste. There is an unremitting search for economies
and for improvements in the business system of the factory. All
this is forced upon the manufacturer by the constantly narrowing 1
margins of profit, which under the stress of trade tend, unless there
is the best management, and sometimes with it, to diminish and per-
haps disappear.
ECOGNIZING the need of some technical instruction for the
young men who are growing up in the industry who desire
to gain knowledge of scale drawing and acoustics we have com-
menced a series of articles entitled "The Problems of Piano Scale
Design."
These articles are prepared from a practical as well as scientific
viewpoint, and should be carefully perused by those who are desirous
of securing knowledge along technical and closely allied lines. The
series was commenced last week and those who have lost or mis-
laid the paper of that date may secure additional copies by advising
us. Salesmen as well as dealers can learn something by a close
perusal of the entire series. They will obtain a more intimate knowl-
edge of piano making, consequently can talk from the vantage
ground of one that knows.
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HERE is nothing so valuable to the good salesman as a
knowledge of the basic principles underlying piano con-
struction. It is all very well to be able to talk about case de-
signs and other superficialities, but these are almost always
self-evident to the intelligent purchaser. The salesman who
knows more than the purchaser, however, is a stronger man,
and a careful perusal of these articles will give him the desired
equipment.
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