Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
RMLW
W M , B. W H I T E ,
GEO. B. KELLER,
W. L. WILLIAMS,
G I O . W. QUERIPEL.
CHICAGO OFFICE :
ERNEST L. WAITT, 255 Washington St.
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
EMILIK FRANCIS BAUER,
A. J. NICKLIN,
BOSTON OFFICE:
PHILADELPHIA OFFICBs
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 36 La Salic St.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
E. C. TORREY.
5 T . LOUIS OFFICE :
CHAS. N. VAN BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZGEB, 425-427 Front St.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SVBSCRIPTION (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, $76.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
THE ARTISTS'
DEPARTMENT
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
"Artists' _ Department" all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or service of the trade
section of the paper. It has a special circulation, and therefore aup
ments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
DIRECTORY of PIANO ^"' lc directory °* P>ano manufacturing firms and corporations
uoi.»>««•... . _ -
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference for
MANUFACTURERS
dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NUMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORR, JAN. 28. 1905.
EDITORIAL
H E special brands which are sold outside their class are gradu-
ally becoming a menace to the medium grade of legitimate
products.
Then, too, some dealers push their own brands as the just as
good.
Fixed prices and those prices fixed by the manufacturer will do
more to strengthen and broaden the industry than any single move
that could be made.
The manufacturers of all other products which are trade-marked
dictate the prices at which they shall be offered to the public.
It would do away wholly with piano misrepresentation, wipe out
the special brand business to an innocuous point and give stimulus
to the entire industry.
No dealer like our subscriber could long sell pianos out of their
class.
i
Whether this move conies this year or next it must come ulti-
mately to preserve the integrity and stability of the trade.
T
HERE is no good reason that can be advanced why trade for
the new year should not exceed that of the past year by a
generous per cent. No clouds are visible upon the business horizon,
which threaten a detracting influence upon the volume of business
which men should bank upon with reasonable certainty.
Wall street influence counts for much less than formerly, and
men in the great West do not scan the Wall street reports with the
same nervousness that was noticeable years ago. The divorcement
between the gambling and legitimate business interests of the country
is more ckarly established than ever before in the country's history.
A
DEALER writes, "I have been interested in reading The
Review's expressions upon the subject of one price for pianos
and that price established by manufacturers. Now I have been
working up a reputation for the S
in this locality, and I have
won for it a good reputation and I get as much for it as some of
my local competitors do for their high grade pianos. I claim I am
entitled to my profit which is a result of my own talking and adver-
tising. Suppose the manufacturers should decide to place a hundred
dollars less as a regular price to be asked for this piano, it would
hurt my business, and I claim it would not be fair to me after what
I have done for the piano."
T
T
UR small investors are no longer blinded to the same extent as
formerly by the marvelous reports of miraculous accumula-
tion of wealth by some of the great gamblers of the Street. Jamas
R. Keene is one of the greatest speculators which the world has ever
seen, and yet with all his genius and ability to know the inside he has
made mistakes and suffered losses, so that now there are hundreds
of legitimate tradesmen whose wealth largely exceeds his own. The
Astor wealth was at first a creation of trade, piano trade at that—
for the old sign of John Jacob Astor bore the words, "Skins and
Pianos."—subsequently of growth in the value of real estate holdings
on Manhattan Island.
H E piano sold by our subscriber is one of moderate value, as it
conies in what is colloquially termed the commercial line. There
are more than thirty factories producing instruments of similar grade,
and sold at reasonable margins of profit, therefore our friend is only
securing ordinary market values in his factory purchases.
His letter would seem to indicate that he is securing from his
customers unusual prices, prices which he feels are somewhat in
excess of fairness.
H
IS communication somehow gives rise to the opinion that he is
not delivering the piano value that he asks the customer to
pay for. If the pricings were in accordance with the actual values
which he delivers why should he fear that the manufacturer would
cut under his price a hundred dollars. He says that he secures as
much for his cheap piano as his competitors ask for a high grade
piano., which is equivalent to admitting that his pianos are sold at
prices not in accordance with their worth and standing.
I
N other words that he is selling his pianos out of their class and not
at honest prices.
He fears the honesty of the manufacturer would compel him to
reduce the price in. harmony with the value of the piano. Another
admission that he is getting more for his piano than the regular rules
of trade would permit.
He does not consider that his purchasers will find out that they
have bought commercial pianos at high grade prices, and will form
no small influence against him and that ultimately his piano must
find its true level.
.
F the manufacturers should fix the prices at which all legitimate
products should be sold at retail, they would be performing an
incalculable service to the industry and to the piano dealers them-
selves. It would, by a single stroke, put the selling of pianos on a
business foundation which is needed to strengthen it.
It would place the stencil products which more properly may be
termed special brands outside the line of legitimate pianos whose
parentage is easily traced. They then would be sold in their special
place with the bar sinister across them.
T
J. D. S r i L L A N E , Man.rflntf Editor.
EXECVTIVC STAFF :
CAMPBELL-COPELAND,
I
Cditor a n d Proprietor.
EDWARD LYMAN DILL.
THOS.
REVIEW
HE popular impression that the most of our wealthy men have
made their fortunes by stock speculation is becoming rapidly
dissipated. As a matter of fact very few men have amassed riches
merely by guessing correctly on the course of stock prices, and
backing their opinions by purchases and sales.
Of course there arc exceptions but these are few and far be-
tween, and for one man who has played the game successfully, there
are thousands who have drawn out or have been forced out much the
poorer for their ventures.
The people are beginning to realize this, and as a consequence
are putting their savings into legitimate enterprises.
O
H E N the wealth of D. O. Mills came from small investments in
industrials and real estate. John Mackay made his money in
mining. The wealth of Armour, Swift and Pullman was made in
legitimate business enterprises. The fortune of John Wanamaker,
who, by the way, is one of the greatest retail distributors of pianos,
was made in merchandising. Carnegie's millions came from the
iron and steel industry, and so we could enumerate scores whose
vast fortunes were made outside of Wall street. The millions of W.
W. Kimball were made in the making and selling of pianos.
T
O if we scan the list, the coterie of men known as successful Wall
street gamblers is indeed small when compared with the number
of men who have won permanent and distinguished success in the
regular channels of trade and commerce.
S
While Wall street may be looked upon as a necessary institution