Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
6
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
immediately follow the holidays, it is interesting to note that
already January is making a good record for itself, as liberal orders
are being received by manufacturers.
This was experienced by a number of prominent houses, who
tell us that last week their orders by mail broke all records. Trade,
however, here locally, still feels the effect of the holidays and the
turn of the year which brings with it attention to the closing of
accounts and getting things in order rather than the aggressive
carrying on of business.
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
A
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
Executive and Reportorial Staif:
GEO. B. KELLER.
L. E. BOWEKS.
W. N. TYLER.
F . II. THOMPSON.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUEH.
ffM. B. WHITE.
L. J. CHAMBEBLIN.
A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. VAN IIAMLINHEX, ] S02 Monadnock Block.
TELEPHONES: Harrison 1521 ; Automatic 2004.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE: MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL: ST. LOUIS OFFICE:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 173 Tretnont St.
> It. W. KAIFFMAX.
E . ('. TORUEY.
CIIAS. N. VAN BCKEN.
SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE: ALFRED METZOER, 425-427 Front St.
CINCINNATI, O.:
NINA I'UUII-SMITH.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Sccmd 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 Bill.
Directory of Piano
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
~
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
Manufacturers
f o r dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NUMBER 1745 GRAMERCY
NEW
YORK,
JANUARY
13, 1906
EDITORIAL
I
T looks as if the trade orchestra would play some pretty lively
tunes during the present year, for a glance at the business con-
ditions disclose nothing but optimism everywhere.
Of course we
can at all times hear the wail of pessimists, for there are some men
who see nothing but indigo shades all about them when the sun is
shining its brightest.
The business atmosphere is clear. There is no gloom apparent
anywhere, and one of the best indications of the big demand for
manufactures in all lines the present year, is found in the fact that
there is no accumulation of manufactured products in any of the
important lines on which the country's prosperity depends so largely.
The great factories are rushed to the utmost, and there is a steady,
accentuated demand for every kind of manufactured product. So
long as there is no accumulation of stocks, so long as there is no
possibility of goods being forced on the market at cut rates, simply
to tide over temporary emergencies, there seems to be no reason why
men should not make their plans in a liberal manner for the new
year.
F
ORTUNATELY the progress represented by the past year and
the past half century has not been checked, and the music
trade enters upon the new year with activity everywhere. There
is no relaxing in the business pace. There are no overstocked
establishments. Piano manufacturing is increasing in volume and
in the variety and usefulness of its product. Business has to do
with greater transactions, and is more complex in its relations than
ever. The field is constantly enlarging as the country is opening up
and being occupied.
There is a growing demand for piano players and musical in-
struments in every community, and there will be an increasing trade
with far-off markets, the most distant of which, with existing facil-
ities of communication and transportation, is afour doors.
NE of these days there may come something to interfere with
our commercial and financial well-being, but a continuing and
apparently growing prosperity is the still dominant characteristic
of the opening of 1906. The opportunities for enterprise and for
successful work on larger scale are far from being exhausted, but
are apparently more numerous and inviting than ever before for
those who have the ability to improve them.
Notwithstanding the generally predicted slackness which would
O
REVIEW
VERY hopeful feeling pervades the trade and commercial
circles generally, and there are anticipations of an excellent
trade unless some disturbing factor, of which there is at present no
indication, should make its appearance. Prices are still going up,
and recently a number of piano manufacturers have announced that
their schedule of prices would be raised.
We do not see how dealers could reasonably expect a different
attitude.
Collections thus far in January have been surprisingly good.
The early part of 1906 will certainly eclipse the same months of the
past year. Piano stocks generally are considerably depleted, and
the indications point to the lively placing of orders for some time.
O
NE manufacturer stated recently that he considered the average
dealer w T as too ready to listen to complaints, real or imag-
inary, from retail piano purchasers, always figuring that he could
put them up to the manufacturer, so to speak, and in the end make
him stand an expense which in many cases was unreasonable and
unfair.
There is, without doubt, a great deal of truth in this assertion,
and we may say that the evils and abuse of the complaint depart-
ment have their origin in the guarantee system which we have long
since outgrown, and ere long piano guarantees will be relegated to
an unhappy past.
Any reputable manufacturer will make good any defects which
may be developed in his products when they have been subjected to
reasonable usage. He does not need a handsomely embellished
guarantee in an imitation of a bond certificate with a beautiful gold
stamp bearing the seal of his company thereon to compel him to
live up to his guarantee. He will stand by any defects just as any
good business man in any trade will insure purchasers against de-
fective workmanship which will develop in their wares within a
reasonable time. The usual guarantees as they are written amount
to nothing unless the manufacturer himself wishes to live up to
them. It is not, therefore, an insurance to the customer, because
the manufacturer can escape penalty, if he so elects, by a clause,
which is in almost every guarantee; for, as they are written, guaran-
tees are valueless to-day. Protection to the purchaser is a question of
honor with the manufacturer, and all of the manufacturers, to our
knowledge, have ever been ready to supply any deficiency or weak-
ness which may have developed in their instruments after they
have been shipped from the factory. The general proposition of a
piano guarantee, however, has been misunderstood, consequently
its strength has been greatly exaggerated, and it has been due
largely to a willingness on the part of the dealers themselves, who
have permitted themselves to fall back upon the guarantee when the
slightest complaint has been made. They have become easy vic-
tims to purchasers' complaints regarding certain defects which they
allege appear in the instruments purchased.
T
HIS system of putting complaints up to the manufacturer has
been pursued for years, and it has led up to a certain laxness
on the part of the dealers, many of whom have listened too easily,
and without remonstrance or resistance, to the most absurd claims
that have ever been made in the history of the industrial world.
The belief that the manufacturer, through fear of losing an agency ;
or that his instruments should obtain a reputation far from help-
ful, has caused them to accede to all sorts of demands for years.
Now it will be a pretty good time at the beginning of the year to
educate the customers not to find fault, and in this way both dealers
and manufacturers would be saved untold annoyances and vast
expense.
S
UPPOSE the plan were adopted generally to meet a complaint
with a forcible argument showing that the customer had n 1
real cause for fault-finding. In nine cases out of ten the complaint