Music Trade Review

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THE:
MUSIC TRADE
his own prices, and this idea will probably prevail. A number have
already advanced prices, and dealers in order to make good will
have to mark up retail prices, and so on down the line it goes until
the consumer is reached, who in turn can afford to pay more
because the salaries and wages have been advanced according to
statistics supplied in many industries.
N
OTWITHSTANDING the enlarged factory facilities for pro-
ducing pianos during the past year, many manufacturers
have been unable to supply their trade with that promptness which
is pleasing to them and to their customers. Many plans are being
made for increased facilities for the new year. This applies not
only to the piano industry, but to all others, for in these times of
great prosperity manufacturers generally are endeavoring to in-
crease their producing capacity. It is probable that before many
weeks have passed plans will have been prepared for a larger num-
ber of new buildings than ever before in the country's history.
Viewing the trade of the country broadly, it must be admitted
that such an expansion as seems to be contemplated will necessi-
tate the transportation of an additional tonnage of both raw mate-
rials and finished products, increasing the freight which has already
congested the railroads to an extent that they will acknowledge
their inability to move it promptly with the present equipment.
This congestion will be liable to injure their shipments of all kinds,
of course, including pianos.
T
HE result of the present railroads to cope successfully with
the demand has meant the closing down of some handsome
plants for want of raw material and the congestion of other plants
for the finished product. The plants which seem to suffer most
for want of proper freight transportation are those located on only
one railroad. Only recently a large piano corporation has deferred
the building of a new plant on property purchased for the purpose
because the land was situated on a single line, they having found
by actual experience that it was almost impossible to get proper
transportation for freight from plants located on a single railroad.
The problem of freight transportation in busy times has caused
more than one manufacturer to change the proposed location of a
plant, and to those who contemplate erecting new works will do
well to give the matter serious consideration.
S
UCCESS in modern business depends largely upon how well
men study methods. It used to be said of the late W. W.
Kimball that the success of his great enterprise was due in part to
the fact that he always kept in touch with live people, subjected
them to analysis and close scrutiny, and wherever he saw points that
were adaptable to his own business he utilized them.
It is a question of fine business discernment to be able to sepa-
rate the wheat from the chaff; in other words, to copy that which is
best in others and make it applicable to one's own system. Really,
success doesn't put a man in a cla"ss by himself, or make him inde-
pendent of the brains, the information and the good will of others.
Some men are marooned on a little reef of self-conceit. Their own
opinions and prejudices have to do them for mental food. But
men must be open to new ideas, facts and theories which are the
commerce of the world, of brains.
Success consists largely in acquiring knowledge of one kind
or another, and not in guarding a locked-up hoard of facts which
may mould on your hands.
EAL success should strengthen and extend contact with all
sorts and conditions of men. To get the wisdom of others
and apply it to the conduct of one's own business is a pretty safe
proposition for any business man. In this way the failure of others
may be avoided, and men should not continue to go stumbling along
the paths which others have found impracticable. It pays to be
receptive and to keep -in touch with live men, and not despise what
the humblest men have to say. If there is a fact in it which is new
your memory may need a jog. Make men living books; brush up on
past lessons, and look out for more.
The piano business is undergoing constant changes, and those
who have been the most successful have fully realized the truth
of this, and they have shaped their business to conform with chang-
ing conditions, and in that way they have gone Pn from success v
success.
R
REVIEW
S
YSTEM and attention to details are necessary in every depart-
ment of business. It is necessary in these days of sharp com-
petition to exercise the greatest care in watching details, because
it is the smaller parts which go to make either a total showing
which will create satisfaction or great unhappiness.
Take the history of the department stores. If they had
strewn everything about indiscriminately, the business never would
have developed in such an astonishing way. But by departmentiz-
ing and having each division under the charge of an expert who
devoted his time and thought to its development, gradually stores
within stores were evolved. Woodford, of Wanamaker's, hasn't
devoted much of his time to the solution of problems which con-
front the manager of the clothing department, or the toy department,
but he has been bending his energies toward the development of
the piano trade, and that he has succeeded in a large way is at once
not only a credit to his business ability, but it shows conclusively
the value of specializing and centralizing.
S
OME pretty smart, snappy advertising has reached us from the
various music trade centers of the country, which shows that
some of the men are putting every effort forward to capture the
biggest kind of a holiday business.
This is the time for advertising, and the people who are more
progressive and believe in up-to-date methods are the ones who will
capture the biggest piano patronage. It is hardly necessary to
mention that the piano man who is the most progressive in his
methods is the one who is doing the greatest amount of business
right along. Advertising, too, it must be remembered, is a splendid
thing for every store, and there is not much hope of success for the
business establishment that does not advertise.
But there are other things aside from advertising that count in
the summing up of business methods. There is the selection of
stocks; very important, of course; the display in the store and the
kind of salesmen employed. If these three are not properly attended
to the best kind of advertising will be of no avail.
T
HERE will be few mourners of phonetic spelling which died
recently in Washington, having expired in the House of Rep-
resentatives when Representative Lan'dis introduced and the House
passed the resolution barring it from all kinds of Government pub-
lications during the life of the present Congress. The Supreme
Court had already declined to allow it to be used in quoting from the
law, and Congress did not seem disposed to accept it in any form,
although the Senate has not yet acted on the question. In his order
encouraging the phonetic spelling the President made it entirely
plain that if the opposition to the new idea should prove popular he
would not hesitate to withdraw it at once, so hereafter we can con-
tinue to follow the rules of orthography established by Webster and
other generally accepted dictionaries of the English language. Some
of the papers which immediately followed the President's sugges-
tion, and whose pages have savored some of the Slavonic tongues
can now return to the good old English as she is writ.
R
ECRUDESCENCE to rosewood is strongly marked, and,
without doubt, rosewood pianos will be in greater vogue
during 1907 than ever before. It has come back into favor gener-
ally, and so popular is it that old attics are being ransacked for
pieces of it, and people who possess it are counting themselves for-
tunate. Rosewood is the fad of the hour. One large veneer mer-
chant remarked, while discussing this matter with The Review,
that he was preparing for a larger trade for rosewood than ever
before, and he expected that manufacturers of pianos of the better
grade would clamor for it within the near future. The price, of
course, will be high, and it is said that the forests were almost
exhausted when rosewood was at at the height of its popularity
years ago.
\ T OTWITHSTANDING the fact that the holidays and the
1 1 end of the year are close at hand, there is little diminution
in the presence of orders, and with the difficulty and delay in
getting goods in almost every line this pressure is intensified by
the efforts made to hurry shipments. But owing to the un-
precedented congestion of freight and shortage of cars those who
have delayed order? until the last moment will meet with keen dis-
appointment,