Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
While it may be true that a number of things said, or a speech or
paper are familiar to a merchant of twenty years' experience, yet
it is true, on the other hand, that all of us have not had twenty years'
experience, and.should only be too glad to learn of the man who has
had the privilege of being so long in a most honorable calling.
I
T is evidently going to be more and more difficult for the Ameri-
can piano manufacturers and others to obtain a strong business
foothold in Canada. The protectionist movement in Great Britain,
after slumbering for many months, seems to have awakened to new
life and vigor. At present tariff reform, which means a higher
scale of duties, and not lower schedules, as with us, is a leading
topic among editorial writers and political orators in London and
other British centers. The main feature about the agitation at
present is that it is practical, not academic—a condition, not a theory.
This, owing to the fact that the colonies are demanding preferential
tariff arrangements with the mother country. In other words, they
want a higher tariff against foreign countries, with their own pro-
ducts admitted on more favorable terms. Thus the call for an
abandonment of free trade now comes from without instead of
within, and moreover it comes from a source which the British
Government cannot afford to ignore. The colonies, which, of course,
include Canada, have a knife up their sleeve, one that might threaten
dismemberment of the Empire, and their demands can hardly be
ignored. A change in England's fiscal policy would have an imme-
diate effect upon American manufacturers, not in the music trade
alone, however, but we are all more or less connected. Many of us
who have studied British conditions have predicted that England
must change her policy, else go down to ruin. The German piano
manufacturers, with their perfect factory system, can land pianos
in London and beat the British manufacturers to a stand-still, and
now Canada is looming up as a piano producing nation; she not
only wishes to build a tariff wall so that the American manufacturers
cannot get within her own preserves, but she also wishes the mother
country to raise a preferential tariff so that she can have an advan-
tage in the British market over the American and German piano
manufacturer.
OMPLAINTS are being frequently made in music trade circles
regarding the high rate of premiums paid for fire insurance.
Few of our readers, perhaps, can realize that the fire loss in
this country and Canada during 1906 amounted to nearly five hun-
dred millions of dollars, and that even if from this immense sum one
deducts the entire San Francisco loss—in itself nearly three hundred
millions—there remains nearly two hundred millions of dollars abso-
lutely lost—wasted—during last year alone.
We are glad, therefore, that on every hand there is to be noted
a growing appreciation of the need for improved methods in the
way of building construction, and in the use of approved fire pre-
ventive and fire retardant equipment. And nowhere more than in the
music trade is this growing appreciation observable. In almost every
instance, in the new buildings that are being erected for music stores
and factories, practically every tested and reliable device for the
prevention and retardation of fire is being availed of.
But it should be remembered that it is not only in the case of
new buildings that these appliances are available. Also in old build-
ings there is much, very much, that can be done to bring them into
line with up-to-date methods.
As a matter of fact the insurance companies are now demanding
stricter regulations than ever.
C
T
HOROUGHNESS in business is a tremendous advantage to
the possessor of this desirable quality. Perhaps in the truest
sense few men are really thorough, and that is one reason why
success comes only to a select few. Thoroughness is a mighty hard
thing to have in later life unless the habit has been formed early,
and few, if any, acquire it, save such as have been driven under the
tight rein of poverty and discipline. The graduate from the school
of "hard knocks," who doesn't lose his head at first successes, owes
to this his promotion to front rank, and continues there. Perfection
in merchandizing of any kind is an elusive will o' the wisp, the
chasing of which, though not successful, is never fatal, as its pursuit
leads ever in the right direction, and to those earnest in the chase,
shows a vantage ground whereupon to plant the banners of success,
and thereby distance the sluggard who faintly tried and soon dis-
appeared.
N
O merchant has yet perfectly succeeded in solving every
problem, and there is always plenty of room for further
effort. One piano man can gain a certain supremacy in his particular
locality, but if he has got the real stuff in him he never abandons
leadership; he never says that he knows it all, but he goes straight
on striving to win higher points. A great many make the mistake
in thinking that it is a great point to undersell all competition, and
that it never pays to let a customer go out when he has got money
to spend.
That is a false belief, and the quicker it is abandoned the better.
We know of one piano man in Detroit who has amassed a snug
fortune in selling pianos, who has permitted customers to walk out
of his store, simply because he would not lower his prices to meet
certain competition. But he has steadily developed a trade which
has been easier handled all the time, because his reputation for
fairness and mercantile probity has been steadily growing.
I
T is all nonsense to say that price is everything. It is not. If
some of the men would talk quality with a little more firmness
they would win in a much larger degree. Tricky retailing in every
line of trade has no place in the twentieth century. It is but a sur-
vival of the fakir of old, who expected to see his customer but once,
and then hie himself to pastures new. There was a time when
buying and selling was a war of wit and skill, in which one price
was asked, another offered, and a conclusion deviously reached gen-
erally to the dissatisfaction of both parties. We are coming, how-
ever, out of all of those matters into clear business sunlight.
r
I A HE belief in the advantage of one price is steadily growing. It
-L is not through any particular publicity that this principle is
gradually being extended. We have advocated it for years in these
columns, have offered prizes for the best one price articles, and all
that sort of thing, and yet we are not egotistical enough to think
for one moment that we have been anything more than simply a
modest contributing element to general trade good. One price is
growing in this and all other industries, »because prominent mer-
chants everywhere have incorporated it as a fixed principle in their
business system. No one trade or industry can remain uninfluenced
by what is going on in other lines. If the principle is right, and it
is adhered to by the general business interests of the country, sooner
or later all special lines must follow along similar paths.
RADE for the month of April was somewhat sporadic, and it
ran very uneven. Business in certain cities was ahead of that
of a year ago, while in other towns in close proximity trade lan-
guished much behind that of the past year.
Another thing that was peculiar was the fact that some manu-
facturers were rushed to the utmost of their capacity, while others
who were supplying instruments of a similar grade and enjoyed
good business connections, seemed to have been hard hit by a trade
slump. Such a condition was somewhat unique, and May starts in
with business running more on an even keel. Collections, too, for
the past month were not quite up to the standard, although consid-
erable betterment was manifested the latter part of the month.
T
B
UT one of the gratifying features of the trade situation is the
fact that business is of such, a character as to justify its
earnest prosecution by manufacturers and merchants.
Apart from the questions which naturally suggest themselves,
and are indeed forced upon the attention by constant reference to
them in regard to the outlook for the future, and the length of time
the existing activity in trade and prosperity among the people will
continue, it is important to note that business moves along in fair
volume, and that both purchasers and distributors of goods are
occupied in such a manner that it would seem as if there is indis-
putable evidence of the continuance of good times. The strength
which characterizes prices, and the fact that it is the sellers' market,
inasmuch as it is rather a question of getting goods than the price
which is to be paid for them, gives rise to a condition in which
ample profits should be realized. Manufacturers in a general way
may be referred to as more nearly caught up with the demands upon
them than was the case a few months ago, but in some lines the
difficulty in getting goods continues without much abatement.
It should be noted that no halt has been called in the upward
movements of prices. In most lines scarcity is still apparent, and
the labor and raw material conditions are such that no relief to the
present condition is in sight.