Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
6
MUSIC TIRADE
RE™
EDWARD LYMAN BILL.
Editor and Proprietor
J. B . S P 1 L L A N L , Managing Editor.
EXECVTIVE AND REPORTORIAL STAFF:
GEO. B. KELLER,
W. N. TYLER,
EMILIK FRANCIS BAUER,
WM. B. WHITE,
W. L. WILLIAMS,
A. J. NICKI.IN,
GEO. W. QUEHIPEL.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAOO OFFICE
ERNEST L. WAITT, 255 Washington St.
K. P. VAN IIARLIXGEN, 1362 Monadnock Block.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS OFFICE.
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
E. C. TORBEY.
C H A S . N. VAN BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZGER. 425-427 F r o n t . St.
Published Every Saturday at 1 M&dison Avenue, New York.
.Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Glass Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (Including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
tear; nil other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS. $2.00 per inch, Blngle column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount Is allowed. Advertising Pages, $50.00 ; opposite
leading matter, $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lymnn BUI.
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 Review to advertisers.
DIRFCTflRY rf PIANO T h c d i r c c t o r y oi P^no manufacturing firms nnd corporations
uiK.ci.iUKi tf riANU f o u n d on another page will be of great value, as a reference
MANVFACTUR.ER.S
f or dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
NEW YORK, AUGUST 26. 19O5.
J
UDGING from present trade conditions, we may say that rarely
ever have piano merchants been able to begin the fall under
more favorable conditions than are promised at the present time.
Crop prospects all over the country are exceptionally bright. Our
Northwestern correspondents write of bumper wheat crops and
general trade conditions full of hope and promise. The corn crop,
it is believed will be the largest ever raised in this country. Winter
wheat has to a considerable extent been harvested, proving of ex-
cellent quality, and as to spring wheat, the lastest Government and
individual reports emphatically characterize statements regarding
damage as gross exaggerations. While the cotton crop will show
a material reduction from early estimates, prices are so high that
the purchasing power of the South will be greater than at any pre-
vious period. New Orleans and the immediate locality has had
the yellow fever plague to face, which means, of course, a curtail-
ment of piano sales as well as all other lines of merchandise in that
particular section. However, the latest reports from that city indi-
cate that the yellow fever is now well under control, and the mer-
chants report to our correspondents that they do not view the future
in a pessimistic vein. They are full of healthy optimism, and believe
that they are going to have a fair chance at the later fall trade. We
trust that thev will.
I
N Oklahoma and Indian Territory our reports indicate a splen-
did condition of trade, and in those countries the output of
pianos will be particularly large. And organs, too, for that matter,
for in the Southwest, the demand for organs is holding up surpris-
ingly well. In fact it would astonish those uninformed who are
prone to look upon the organ trade as a dead industry, to note the
large output from some well-known factories.
The most important feature' however, of present conditions,
lies in the fact that the bountiful yields of crops follow a prolonged
period of prosperity. We have already accumulated splendid assets,
as a people, and this year adds materially to them. The country is
richer than it ever was, and the added wealth supplied bv the har-
vest will go to the increasing of surplus.
L
ET us cite, for example, the July bank clearings in ninety-four
cities, which exceeded-by 6 per cent, the largest heretofore
recorded, viz., those of July, 1902. Again, the national banking cir-
F?£VIEW
culation has practically doubled since the close of the Spanish war
and at the end of last month stood at $503,000,000. Iron production
is expanding, the demand for structural shapes for cars, bridges,
and buildings being unusually heavy. Speaking of building, if
New York City be any criterion there never was a season of such
prosperity in that branch of industry. The number of new flat and
apartment houses, to say nothing of dwellings, that are in course of
construction in Manhattan Borough alone is staggering; one
wonders how they can be filled? Yet the general advance of rents
shows that the thousands of new habitations thus provided will not
lack occupants.
Not only is there great purchasing power among our people
and the number of consumers, as producers through emigration
and natural causes, is increasing by-leaps and bounds.
I
N addition, the foreign demand for our products, more espec-
ially wheat and cotton, will increase the national wealth, and
add to the general prosperity. Yet despite the glowing outlook,
there is not the slightest approach to a boom. Never were conditions
apparently more stable. Collections, in spite of a few complaints,
have been generally satisfactory.
It is surprising when we view the conditions in their true light
that the piano merchants have not placed advance orders in a more
general way than they have. It seems that many of them believe
that if they delay until the last moment, they still can get completed
stock in time to meet their local demands.
T
HIS seems to us to be an unwise course of procedure as well as
an unfair one, to the piano manufacturers. It cannot be ex-
pected that the manufacturers will take all the chances in the trade
game, that they will go ahead and lock up vast capital in manufac-
tured stock by putting on extra hands and working overtime in mid-
summer unless they have the actual orders for the instruments in
hand. It is not right that the brunt of battle should be borne entirely
by the manufacturing-end, and dealers who are holding back are to
our mind acting with undue caution, and sure as fate, many of them
will be disappointed in not being able to get the instruments which
they desire at the time when the pressure comes.
HERE is every reason to believe that there will be a large
demand, for our people are better supplied with money than
ever before, and a well assorted stock cannot fail to bring to the
piano merchant both business and profit.
We are now upon the last half of August, and fall trade will
soon be here, and indications point not only to a banner year, but
a year of unprecedented trade. Piano merchants should recollect
that delays are dangerous, and it will be disastrous to delay placing
orders until a late day. It should be understood that few of the
factories have accumulated any large amount of stock during the
summer months, so where will the big surplus come from when
the retail demand conies on with a rush? Pianos cannot be cut out
and put together in a night like clothing and boots and shoes. It
requires a good deal of time to complete the finished product. There-
fore get ready—be in line.
T
ONEIDENCE, after all, is a business necessity. Primarily, it
is the foundation of business. Confidence gains credit where
it is required. Every legitimate business is dependent for its con-
tinuation and success upon the confidence of those whom it would
serve. Permanent confidence must be based upon truthful repre-
sentation. Whatever success a man or business concern maintains,
it not because of its lies and deceit, but in spite of them. A good
business will thrive upon truth, and the closer its representatives
adhere to truth in making statements to their "customers, the better
it will be for them.
Of course, it is indisputable that great fortunes have been
built up through fraudulent means, and men are winning great
fortunes to-day through practice of it, but the whole question of
whether or not it pays to be honest, is easily decided. If one is con-
ducting a legitimate business and depends upon the same people to
buy month after month, or year after year, successs will only come
with telling the truth, and it is no use to deliberately elongate the
truth when speaking of a competitor, because it usually acts like a
boomerang 1 .
C
time ago an ambitious and effervescing representative
of a rival publication thought it necessary, in order to bols-
A SHORT