Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
HMIW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
Quo. B. KBMJR.
W. N. TYLER.
F. H. THOMPSON.
BMILIB FRANCS* BADBE.
L. B. BOWKHS. B. BBITTAIN WILSON, Wit. B. WHITH. L. J. CHAMBKHLIN. A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
B. P. TAN HAHLINGBN, 195-187 Wabasb Are.
TELEPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8645
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS :
L. WAITT, 278A Tremont St.
PHILADELPHIA :
B. W. KAUBTMAN.
A. W. SHAW.
CHAS. N. VAN BUBBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. II. GRAY, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI. O.: NINA PUSH-SMITH.
BALTIMORE, MD.: PAUL. T. LOCKWOOD.
LONDON, ENGLAND:
69 Basinghall St., B. C.
W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office ms Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION.(Including postage), United State*, 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, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, 575.00.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporation
Directory ol Plaao
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
Manufacturers
for dealers and others.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Wand Prim
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1002
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal..St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold MedoLLewls-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NUMBER 174S GRAMERCY
Cable address: "Elbtll New York/*
___
NEW YORK, APRIL 6, 1907
EDITORIAL
J
UDCJNCi from the variety of methods used in endeavoring to
secure trade, it is sometimes puzzling to correctly classify
methods as "legitimate" and "illegitimate." It has been clearly
proven that some individuals in order to secure patronage have paid
certain retail floor salesmen so much per piano for selling their in-
struments. This kind of graft has existed for years, and the Piano
Travelers' National Association has endeavored to stamp it out com-
pletely. It is to be hoped that they will be successful in this work,
for such methods as these cannot be called legitimate. On the con-
trary, if such principles .are to be encouraged, then piano value
ceases to be a living force. It becomes a question of straight bribery,
and what a salesman is to get for selling certain instruments. The
quicker such methods are completely eliminated the better it will be
for the retail department of the industry.
I
NSTRUMENTS should be sold on their actual merits, and not
through the propelling power of bribes offered to floor sales-
men, and still it is said that some men of excellent reputation have
actually been engaged in debauching the trade by following these
practices. If they are to continue without being rebuked, in a little
while the practice will become general, because if commonly indulged
in we would grow to look upon the practices with a certain amount
of indifference, and when the salesmen all over the country learned
that there was more in it for them in dollars and cents by pushing
a special piano than offering instruments strictly on their merits,
their scruples would be gradually overcome, and many would be
found ranged alongside the instruments whose makers paid them
the biggest bribes.
T
HEN it is difficult to tell what methods in advertising are "legiti-
mate" and "illegitimate." Some reputable dealers whose
financial and moral record is perfectly clear before the world have
indulged in advertising which seems hardly fair, and still when
called upon to explain their unusual announcement they reply bv
saying it is purely a business matter, that there are no statements
absolutely untrue made in their advertisements, and that they have
REVIEW
not indulged in misrepresentation, because they have actually had
on hand the merchandise offered.
Hardly a week passes that we are not in receipt of communica-
tions from some subscribers enclosing advertising matter from local
papers, asking our criticism, and urging that these men on account
of methods which they have adopted be held up to general trade
condemnation.
O
NE thing is certain, methods which savor of misrepresentation
and fraud do not help the individual who practises such
rules, nor does it help the industry in which such work is carried on.
We are in sympathy with honorable business methods, but we do not
believe it necessary to invoke • the law against the other fellow's
methods, simply because it differs from ours. If there is a genuinely
logical reason why a man should not use every honorable means to
secure trade, we should like to get in touch with the reasons, and we
believe that there are sufficient opportunities to secure trade by-
adhering strictly to methods which are above reproach. And we
believe that the individual and firm who adheres undeviatingly to
correct principles will win out in the end. It is true, success may not
move with "Twentieth Century Special" speed, but it will move
surely to permanent success.
I
^HE more misrepresentation and fraud exists in any industry, so
much the worse for that particular trade, and it is because
there is a widespread public belief that some pianos have been sold
at enormous profits that people figure that there are huge profits in
piano selling. It all comes about through the action of some dealers
who have sold cheap instruments far out of their class and at prices
which should have secured the purchasers high grade, reputable
pianos. It takes a long time to eradicate from the public minds
beliefs when once they have secured a strong footing there, and it
will be some years before the purchasing piano public refuses to
believe that there are not abnormal profits in the piano business.
There are not, however, and that fact is proven by the history of
every firm engaged in the business. Of course, there are some men
who have won fortunes of goodly size from selling pianos at retail,
but there are many more who have simply won a modest compe-
tency, and others who through fortunate real estate investments
are to-day very wealthy men. Their large profits did not come
from piano retailing.
W
E might apply the above rule to the manufacturer of pianos,
because there are few millionaire concerns in this country,
and still piano making as an industry is not of recent birth. So
when we simmer the whole proposition down it will be seen at a
glance that the dealers who are making such lurid announcements
of slashes in piano values are working serious injury to the trade,
because they are spreading, a false doctrine. When a man offers "a
$400 piano for $175," the impression is given to every one reading
the advertisement that the bottom has not been reached at $175, be-
cause no man conducting a legitimate business is going to sell goods
for less'than cost. Possibly $150 may not be regular bottom, and
the difference between $150 and $400 would seem to give the im-
pression that the first asking price carried with it an abnormal profit
to the dealer.
C
ARE should be used in preparing advertisements, so as not to
mislead or to give the readers false impressions as to actual
profits on pianos. The man who is sending forth such kind of
advertising as we have indicated above is not only stabbing the
industry in a yital point, but he is injuring himself. His own stand-
ing in his local community suffers every time he exploits such ridicu-
lous, misleading, lying advertisements. Another point, he is esti-
mating his readers at a very low mental standard when he thinks
that they do not see through such flimsy, absurd announcements.
The casual reader, however, might not care to analyze the causes
which led up to the making of such a business offer, but the astound-
ing reduction from first cost would at once leave the impression
in his mind that a business which could show such profits must he
rich in millionaires.
HERE are no large profits to-day in piano selling, and the
quicker the general public is set right in this matter the better
it will be for the trade. Far from showing great profits, the busi-
ness to-day is conducted on too narrow a margin, and some of the
T