Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
G»o. B. KOT.T.MI.
W. N. TTLBK.
F. H. THOMPSON.
BKILIII PKANCM BAD BE.
L. E. BOWBRS. B. BBITTAIN WILSON, Wir. B. WHITB. L. J. CHAMBBKLIN. A. J. NICKLIN.
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
B. P. VAN HABLINGKN, 185-187 Wabash Aye.
TELEPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8643
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
L. WAITT, 278A Tremont St.
PHILADELPHIA :
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
A. W. SHAW.
CHAB. N. VAN BUHBN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. II. GRAY, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI. O.: NINA PUGH-SMITH.
BALTIMORE, MD.: PAUL T. LOCK WOOD.
LONDON, ENGLAND:
69 Baslnghall St., E. C.
W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office *s Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION,(Including postage). United States, Uexlco, 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, $76.00.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should be made payable to BSdward
Lyman Bill.
Directory ol P l s a o
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations*
"
' I
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
Minnlietorcri
f o r dealers and others.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Wand PrU>
Paris Exposition, 1800 Silver MedoI.Charleston Exposition, 1802
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal..St. Louis Exposition, 1804
Gold Medal.Lewls-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE—NUMBER 1745 GRAMERCY
Cable address: "Elbill N e w York."
NEW YORK, APRIL 20, 1907
EDITORIAL
T
HE first day of the present week the piano manufacturing house
of dickering & Sons reached the eighty-fourth milestone in
their business career. Tt is far cry indeed, from April 14th, 1823, to
April 14th, 1907, and Jonas Chickering perhaps had but little idea
when he commenced piano making in a modest way, the length of
time which the institution to which he gave his name would endure.
All of the earlier piano makers succumbed, and their names gradu-
ally dropped out, but Chickering seems to stand forever, a fixed star
in the piano firmament.
There are few concerns in any line of trade, and none in the
piano business, which has endured through all the varying changes
for eighty-four years, and the entire trade will congratulate the
house of Chickering upon the number of years which it has reached,
upon the excellence of the product, and upon the high standard of
trade ethics to which this concern has undeviatingly held since its
inception.
Tonas Chickering was a leader and an inventor in his day, and
it seems as if his business heirs in each generation had caught the
spirit which he instilled into his creations.
•,
There has always been in the Chickering business a strict regard
for high ideals, and the principles staunchly maintained by the house
of Chickering have had a beneficial effect upon the entire industry.
The vitality of a name and of a principle is well exemplified in the
history of Chickering.
J
ONAS CHICKERING was not only a man of remarkable
achievements, but he had a marvelous, a prophetic insight into
the possibilities of the piano business of the future.
When we consider that the splendid Chickering factory, which
is occupied by the Chickering house to-day, was designed by the
founder of the business, it will be well understood that years ago
he correctly diagnosed the growth of piano making as an industrial
force. When he built the great Chickering factory there were
many who believed that it would never be wholly occupied, that the
vast factory space would never be required to produce Chickering
REVIEW
pianos, but he was a man who saw with prophetic vision, clearly,
the position which the instruments bearing his name would occupy
in the future, and he built it well, and the great Chickering factory
to-day is a splendid memorial to his business enterprise. The very
beams of the factory, and the rooms seem to radiate his presence,
and the workmen there have caught the old-time spirit, revere it,
and are proud of it. They delight in their profession as skilled piano
makers, and look upon it as indeed an industrial art.
There has been no halting with the forces of Chickering. Splen-
did victories have never swerved the directors of this enterprise from
a belief that there were still higher points to win, and as a result
the Chickering piano has gathered fame and glory with the passing
of the vears.
P
EOPLE are not going to believe that all the piano stores in
town are constantly making a practice of selling goods at less
than cost in spite of the fact that an advertisement says so. They
know very well that such a business cannot exist. There are some
advertisements, however, which give excellent reasons why a big-
slash is made in the regular retail price.
An advertisement which gives reasons appeals to the thinking
people, because they know that it becomes necessary every once in
a while according to the magnitude of the business to close out
certain lines at prices heavily cut from the original marks. But
they know that a house which is eternally cutting is not just the
house to do business with. They do not have confidence in the
values offered.
S
OME time ago a new Zealand subscriber of The Review called
at the home office of the paper to pay his respects and to dis-
cuss various items which will be of interest to our readers in that
far away country.
In the first place, the piano business in New Zealand has been
particularly good, the demand, however, being almost wholly fin-
medium grade instruments, and the dealers in that far away land
handle almost exclusively the cheap German and English pianos.
This particular dealer has tried a number of American makes,
but he found them too large in size, and the volume of tone,
too great. In other words, the people in that land are accustomed
to the small sized instrument which is commonly termed in Europe
the "Cottage piano," possessing a thin, undeveloped tone. ()f
course, these may be purchased for much less than American in-
struments, but they also satisfy, and the dealer said that he was
interested in supplying his clients with what they desired rather
than to attempt to talk them into something which was distasteful
to them.
T
HIS New Zealand dealer said that conditions in that country
have changed very materially during the past few years, and
that previous to 1890 that country had most of the evils that con-
front us to-day, facing them, but some in even worse forms; al-
though the competition of the catalogue house never reached the
growth it has here. In 1890 the people, that is, all classes, got to-
gether at the ballot box and changed the constitution and the laws
so as to make equal opportunity for all people, and special favors to
none, except the very poor. They made laws which enabled them
to take over all the railway lines, express companies, telegram and
telephone lines, adopting the zone system of rates. All manufac-
turing, jobbing and other interests are under the control of the
Government. Whatever the Government licenses, it also protects,
keeping in mind at all times the welfare of the whole. Rich and
poor are treated alike and arc obliged to conform to the same lines
as far as conducting any kind of business is concerned. It is the
laboring man's paradise, and if our friend desires to discharge a
drunken porter in his piano store, he says that it takes him about
two weeks to accomplish the act. as there are numberless forms to
go through before the proper time arrives for kicking out the
drunken incumbent.
O
NE feature of the New Zealand law that will appeal to the
traveling man is their system of voting by mail. No man
must lose his vote because he is away from home. New Zealand
is the only country that was not affected by the panic of 1893. The
eight-hour law is enforced as well as a half holiday every week,
and all men must obey the law. There are practically no poor