Music Trade Review

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THE:
MUSIC TRADE
ROTO
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorial Stall:
GEO. B. KELLER.
L. E. BOWERS.
W. N. TYLER.
WM. B. WHITE.
F. II. THOMPSON.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER.
L. J. CHAMBERLIN.
A. J. NICKXIN.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. I', VAN HARLINGEN, 195-197 Wabash Ave.
TELEPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8013.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE: MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL : ST. LOUIS OFFICE
BOSTON OFFICE:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 173 Tremont St.
K. \V. KAIIPPMAN.
E. C. TORREY.
("HAS. N. VAN BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZGER, 425-427 Front St.
CINCINNATI, O.:
NINA 1'UGH-SMITH.
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
Lyman Kill.
Directory of Piano
Manufacturers
The directory of piauo manufacturing firms and corporations
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
for dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE—NUMBER 1745 GRAMERCY
t
NEW
YORK,
MARCH
17, 1906
EDITORIAL
T
RADE for the first two weeks in March has been typical of
ordinary March weather. It has been somewhat fitful, but
our reports show that the dealers are finding collections some-
what better than last month. Fair orders have been placed within
the past week with the manufacturers for early delivery and the
creative end shows accentuated aetivitv. There is no reason to
doubt that as the season advances trade will get materially better.
There are always a good'many people who delay making purchases
until later in the spring. ( )ur reports from the Pacific Coast show
satisfactory present conditions, with even* promise of a record-
breaking spring. The big concerns there are all actively engaged
in exploiting their business in the strongest possible manner. The
leading dailies on the Coast show that they believe in printers'
ink in liberal portions, and the dealers in some other sections could
take a lesson from them in this respect.
It pays in these days of strenuous business life to keep well
to the forefront, and not have the trade light hidden under the
bushel of indifference.
I
N the South conditions are looking somewhat better, and a
number'of new concerns have recently been started in that
section. Southern trade shows every prospect of a satisfactory in-
crease both in growth and character (luring the season. Xew Eng-
land trade has been a trifle quiet, and the retail business in New
York locally has not been up to the expectation of the dealers.
No good reason can be attributed for this state of affairs, but
New York trade is fitful, and, we may add. fickle. Sometimes
when every indication is of the most favorable character, business
will suddenly slow up, and then will turn with amazing activity at
an unexpected time. The situation as a whole, however, is re-
assuring, and activity promises to be steadily maintained through-
out the season.
The leading supply manufacturers are all busy, and none of
them have been able to accumulate a reserve stock. So, take it all m
all, the music trade field as we view it is in inanv wavs satisfactory.
U T S it harder to sell pianos than any other line of merchan-
J. dise?" asks a Review reader.
That depends largely upon the individual. There are some
men who will make hard work out of selling anything because thev
go at it the wrong way,
REVIEW
Xow in selling pianos, or any other product of human brains
and skill, nine-tenths of the success consists of plain, ordinary,
every-day, hard, intelligent work.
The great trouble is, some men do not wholly appreciate the
truth of this; they are lookiwg for the easy side to the business,
and therefore they consider piano selling a trifle hard. It always
is for such men, and it always will be. It was a long time ago
that philosophers gave up seeking for the principle of perpetual
motion, and there are still some men on earth to-day who are
seeking to discover some principles which insure them perpetual
rest. They, however, are soon retired to that down and out club
which has to-day a growing membership.
E
VERY industry has a certain percentage of men who are always
looking for the easy snaps, and they wonder how the other
fellows get all the good things that are going, when they, with all
their marvelous ability and keen perception, are permitted to drift
along, and have at times even to look for places. They are luck
seekers—drifters, but they cannot go through the gates of success
unless they have a propelling power, which comes through a desire
to work.
There is no easy position in this trade, or any other, and there
is no position in life worth the winning which does not require
hard work.
O
NE of the best-known members of the music trade was once,
when a very young man, the proprietor of a thrashing ma-
chine. He kept it in the best condition of any machine in the count}-.
1 fe worked hard day and night and captured a lot of orders. He
was not afraid of hard work—in fact he was looking for it, and
he thought the piano business had possibilities for a hard worker,
lie tried his hand, sold some pianos, thought he should like the job,
and. saw possibilities, provided there was plenty of hard work behind
the man.
He started in, he did not watch the clock, for he was work-
ing sales, and he was not considering whether piano selling
was easy or hard, and he proposed to sell goods and he did. By
and by he became a member of the manufacturing corporation,
was close to the chief, and became the vitalizing energy of a great
institution. He is alive to-day, in his prime, wisely saving his
strength for a good old age. and is worth probably a million. He
didn't think piauo selling was hard, but he thought if there was
plenty of hard work behind it success would come along in due time.
The winning for him was not easy, nor does he to-day look upon
the business problem before him as an easv one, but he revels in
hard work.
O
NE of the infamous conditions in business is the necessity to
contribute time and money for protection against unjust
legislation. It is outrageous, and such conditions should not be a
source of revenue to the legal professions.
In a number of States it has been necessary for music trade
associations to take action to counteract some proposed legislation
which would seriously affect piano interests.
There are plenty of "yellow dogs" hunting around the various
State legislatures. These pests are usually in excellent working
form.
T
RADK tongues have been busily wagging over the Wanamaker-
Knierson alliance, which was reported in The Review of last
week. There is a settled belief in the minds of many that it has
been the aim of the great merchant to gain control of a piano-
producing institution, so that he could have the world for his market
and not merely a limited territory adjacent to New York.
Wanamaker's mail order business, in a general way, is ex-
tremely large, and when he endeavored to purchase the Mason &
Hanilin interests some years ago it was believed that it was his
purpose to gain control of the factory and name of a famous old
piano, out of which to create a gigantic piano business built on the
slogan "from factory to the consumer."
It is denied in this recent deal that Wanamaker has gained
control of the Emerson interests. It has also been stated that it
was contrary to the established principles of the great merchant to
conduct a factory, that he desired to buy in the open market with-
out taking on the added worry of factory management.
This statement has been made so frequently that many ch'd, not