Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
doing business in the various States, would have to apply to the
administration officer at Washington for a right to do business, first
submitting reports and returns to see if it possessed the necessary
requirements.
This is concentrating governing powers with a vengeance, for
Garfield would center in Washington the power which is now being
vested in the legislators of forty-five different States. He would
place the supervision of the great business corporations in the hands
of practically one man at Washington.
This is not evolutionary legislation, but revolutionary legisla-
tion with a vengeance, and it is not improbable that in days to come
we might not be able to elect as successors to Roosevelt men who
possess as high-minded and honorable intent.
E hardly think that our people would be in favor of placing
the corporate industries of the country into the control of
possible cranks, visionaries and demagogues of various kinds. If
Congress may authorize the granting or withholding of a corporate
license to do business under conditions established by itself, it would
manifestly have a power to control the operation of railroads and
the conduct of corporate business down to the smallest detail. It
would say what rates should be charged by transportation com-
panies, what wages should be paid; it could control output and
prices, say how many trains railroads should run, and compel the
adoption of mechanical devices which interested lobbyists might
press upon the country. It could impose the last degree of publicity
as to affairs which every corporation, for its own security, keeps to
itself and its stockholders. The right to do many things involves the
risk that some of them may be done wrong, and it would be a wise
proposition to go a little slow on such a revolutionary measure as
Commissioner Garfield suggests.
W
A
PIANO manufacturer, while chatting recently, expressed the
belief that if the present duty were lowered on pianos that
Germany would make serious inroads upon our trade here.
There no doubt was a time when German pianos could have
become strong competitors in the American market, but we do not
believe to-day that any European country could successfully
compete with our home producers for a large share of the domestic
trade even if our tariff barriers were not so high. The American fac-
tory system eclipses the world, and a number of German piano
manufacturers have sent representatives to this country to inspect
our leading plants and to glean what ideas they could which could
be incorporated with advantage in their own system. They have
been producing American machinery, and in many ways have been
copyists, having appropriated many of our plans. Unquestionably,
Germany would be a stronger competitor than England, and it is not
to be denied that the Kaiser's people have entered the field of foreign
commerce with an energetic and aggressive activity which has
resulted in making serious inroads upon England's foreign trade.
HERE was a time when it was considered that England was our
only serious competitor. That was a few years ago, and
recent years have been history-making ones and record breakers as
far as America-growing foreign trade is concerned. Probably a
large majority of Americans labor under an impression that Eng-
land still leaves us in the lurch in the contest for export business,
and that effort to compete with her is little short of hopeless. The
fact is that the British exporter stands in greater fear of our com-
petition than an)' of us do of his. Any careful analysis of world
trade conditions will reveal the ample ground for British apprehen-
sion and the weakness of the American doubt of competitive ability.
This is clearly shown in our increasing trade with Canada in the
face of a Canadian tariff preferential in favor of many English
wares. But, recognizing the essential force of the argument, it may
be admitted that, in the case of Canada, a considerable trade comes
to us in response to laws of geographical contiguity which could only
be overcome by a prohibitive tariff.
This argument, however, cannot be advanced in reference to our
competition with England in South Africa. There, also, we en-
counter a barrier of preferential tariff in favor of England, yet we
succeed in surmounting the obstacle. In 1894 our sales to South
Africa were $4,000,000. For the fiscal year 1903 they were $34,000,-
000, this increase alone being about one-third greater than our total
trade with the Chinese Empire.
South Africa is a British magazine published in the interest of
T
the country whose name it bears. It is a paper of recognized stand-
ing, and its tone is zealously, and even jealously, British, as might be
expected.
N a recent number this publication says, editorially: "Like the
poor, American competition for trade in the sub-continent is
always with us, and the subjoined figures go far to prove the success
of American enterprise in exploiting South African markets. A
general comparison amplifies former statements in these columns
that the expansion exhibited in America's exports to the sub-conti-
nent is in nearly every instance far greater than anything Great
Britain can show."
The paper then submits a table of increase in specific items,
among which appears musical instruments. The demand for musi-
cal instruments in South Africa for 1902 was nearly 333/3 per cent,
greater than the previous year, and in 1903 it was three times as
large as in 1901. Musical instruments, however, are the smallest
article enumerated in the list. In the table were represented manu-
factured goods which called for the highest skilled workmanship in
their production.
I
T
HEY represent the labor of our best classes of mechanics, men
who earn good wages and who spend their money for good
food, decent clothes and comfortable homes. Our trade with Can-
ada presents the same desirable feature. If we can thus sell to Can-
ada and South Africa, in spite of British preferentials, no more
conclusive evidence is wanted that we can meet British or any other
competition in any market open to all on equal terms.
The sooner the American mind is disabused of the present preva-
lent notion that our export trade is handicapped by our tariff, or that
it is helpless without reciprocity treaties or other political devices for
commercial incapables, the sooner will it be realized that the way to
increase our exports is to go after foreign business in the same way
that we go after domestic business. The foreign market waits only
for intelligent and businesslike solicitation and for the adaptation of
methods to the requirements of trade.
I
F our piano manufacturers desire foreign trade and will pay seri-
ous attention to it, they can secure it, but they must follow out
the idea which has been successfully pursued by Germany and South
America, and that is to build instruments which the people in the
various countries desire, and not by a long and arduous process try
to cultivate among them a liking for our American models.
A number of piano manufacturers have recently seen the neces-
sity of building special instruments for export trade, and they are
getting business.
OME years ago The Review called editorial attention to the fact
that, owing to the unsatisfactory conditions of labor in Chicago,
piano manufacturers in due time would be driven to outside
towns for manufacturing purposes; that they would gravitate to
points where they would be free from the arbitrary demands of men
of the Dold type.
Our utterances aroused considerable adverse criticism, and we
were in receipt of several communications wherein our prediction was
alleged to be wholly untrue.
Now, have subsequent events demonstrated the fact that our
predictions were incorrect?
The answer is found in the suburban towns in Illinois, in In-
diana, in Michigan and in Wisconsin, which contain new and splen-
didly appointed plants of many Chicago piano manufacturers. There
has been a steady removal from the great metropolis of the West to
points where the piano men could conduct their business enterprises
free from outside dictation. It has been proven that piano manufac-
turing in the smaller towns can be carried on under much more
pleasing conditions than in Chicago. The exodus is not ended by any
means, for there are others who are contemplating removals.
S
T
HE Aeolian-Steck deal, the details of which appear in another
portion of this paper emphasizes the tendency of the age
towards combinations in all lines. The Steck is a good old name, one
which has always stood well in pianodom, and under the new ar-
rangements it is undoubtedly destined to achieve a greater degree of
fame than ever before. Naturally this move means that there will be
changes in existing agencies, as it is but logical to assume that the
entire Aeolian representation in the various cities wiflfe in order.