Music Trade Review

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THE MU3IC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
Cditor and Proprietor.
J. B. SPILLANC, Managing Hdit.r.
EXECVT1VE AND REPO1TOKIAL STAFF:
W. N. TYLER,
EMILIE FRANCIS BAUEB,
GEO. B. KELLER,
W. L. WILLIAMS,
A. J. NlCKLIN,
GEO. W. QUERIFEL.
Wu. B. WHITE,
CHICAQO OFFICB
BOSTON OPFICE:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 255 Washington St.
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 1362 Monadnock Block.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICB:
It. W. KAUFFMAN.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
E. C. TOBREY.
5T. LOU 15 OFFICB
CHAS. N. VAN BUKEN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFBED METZGEE, 425-427 Front. St.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
year ; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS. $2.00 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $50.00; opposite
reading matter, $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
I.yman Bill.
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
THE ARTISTS' "Artists' Department" all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or service of the trade
DEPARTMENT section of the paper. It has a special circulation, and therefore
augments materially the value of The Kevlew to advertisers.
n i i r r m n v * PIAMA T n e directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
UIK.LC I OKI «r riANO found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
MANUFACTURERS
f 01 . dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORK, JUNE 24, 19O5.
I
T must be considered as we view the official roster of the Deal-
ers' Organization for 1905, that all parts of the country are
1 airly represented, that sectional lines have been wholly eliminated.
The officers of the Manufacturers' Association, too, have been
chosen from various sections of the Union, all of which shows a
fairness in the conduct of association work which is to be highly
commended.
There are no sectional lines in this trade, and the associa-
tions have done much to wholly eliminate them.
J
AMES C. MILLER, retiring president of the Dealers' Associ-
ation, has been an indefatigable worker for the welfare of
the association, and he has brought a ripe experience to bear in all
his official work.
Mr. Miller may well view the success of the convention at
Put-in-Bay with pride and satisfaction. It was the successful cul-
mination of a very satisfactory official career. The newly elected
president, Philip Werlein, is young, talented and ambitious. He
has the oratorical talent with which so many Southern men are
endowed, and there is no doubt but that President Werlein will
create a very pleasing record in office.
T
HERE is ample evidence that the arguments presented by The
Review in favor of the establishment by the manufacturers of
a maximum retail price at which their pianos shall be offered to
the public have had the effect to cause this subject to be seriously
considered by thousands of men, many of whom realize that it is
the real solution of one of the most vexatious problems which has
confronted this trade for years. The dealers themselves have taken
a greater interest in this matter than the manufacturers, judging
from the prominence which this topic occupied in the discussions
at Put-in-P>ay. A fixed price by the manufacturers settles for-
ever the arguments of the one-price question, for it establishes the
right price, and if the dealers slash that price they themselves are
the losers.
T
O illustrate: Suppose a manufacturer places a price of $500
on a particular piano style. This price being catalogued and
advertised. It is the honest price set upon the instrument by the
manufacturer himself, and if a dealer cuts that price, he is cut-
ting his own profit, and he cannot ask a price beyond that placed
by the manufacturer.
This, in truth, amounts to the true grading of pianos, and the
instruments are graded by those who best know their values, the
men who make them and stand sponsor for them, place their own
values upon them. And who is better qualified to estimate values
than the man who produces these values?
T
HE more this subject is considered from every viewpoint, the
more obvious it becomes that it is the real sokttion to the
one-price problem as applied to pianos, and at the same time will
regulate most effectually the position of the special brand pianos.
There is no other way in which the position of the special
brand instruments may be so thoroughly and completely defined
as by the manufacturers placing upon their own legitimate products
the retail prices at which the instruments may be offered to cus-
tomers.
It strikes, too, at the root of the "just as good" evil, because
no dealer can place a valuation which he knows is beyond the limit
of a customer's pocketbook on a high grade piano, simply to dis-
suade him from purchasing that in order that he may dispose of
one of his special brand pianos to him.
I
T is the only practical solution of three problems which con-
front this trade: One-price, piano misrepresentation, and the
encroachment of special brands upon the domain of the regular
instruments.
Whether this principle is put in force this year or next, it is
bound to come ultimately, for it is the real salvation of the in-
dustry.
Why should manufacturers hesitate to place an honest val-
uation upon their own pianos, when, by so doing, their interests
may be best conserved? Byron Mauzy, one of the leading dealers of
San Francisco, and a manufacturer himself, in calling upon The
Review last week, stated that he had read with much interest our
editorials upon this topic, and that he was thoroughly convinced
that The Review's argumentative campaign was based on the sound-
est logic, and the quicker the industry realized that the manufac-
turer himself should establish his own retail prices the better it
would be for him.
M
R. MAUZY said unqualifiedly that if this were generally
adopted, it would do more to eliminate piano misrepresen-
tation and to maintain the one-price standard than any other action
that the industry might take. He stated that it is too important
a topic to be easily passed by; that it meant too much to the indus-
trv, to manufacturers and to reputable dealers everywhere.
MANUFACTURER of special brand pianos remarked the
other day that he was convinced that not only were our
views correct in this matter, but that he should in future place
upon his instruments the prices at which they should be offered to
retailers. He stated that he found that unscrupulous dealers were
using his instruments in such a way that he was suffering as a
result of their actions.
To illustrate: His instruments were sold regularly at whole-
sale at about $100. Some dealers placed a retail price upon those
of $250, which was entirely out of harmony with the values which
they offered. It was a dishonest price, and their competitors would
place a piano that was worth wholesale $150 in competition with
his at the same retail price and invariably lost by the transaction.
A
H
IS idea was to place a retail price of from $160 to $180 upon
his piano, and then to advertise it as the best piano in the
world at such a price. He wound up by quoting The Review's
argument that a piano man should not hesitate to safeguard the
retail purchasers a= well as cigar manufacturers, and if a man
wanted a five cent cigar there were plenty of such brands to sat-
isfy his taste. If he wanted a ten cent cigar, he trusted absolutely
to the honesty of the dealer and manufacturer who had created
cigars to retail at that price.
I
T is absurd for the manufacturers of the lowest grade pianos
to claim their oroduct is first-class in every respect, because
by so doing they :.re helping along the dealer who misrepresents
their true values.
There are various grades in every line of trade from cigars