Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportoiial Staff:
W. II. DYKES,
F.H.THOMPSON,
J. HAYDEN CLAHENPON,
B. BRITTAIN WILSON,
I,. J. CHAMBERLIN,
A. J. NICKLIN.
OEO. R. KELLER,
L. E. BOWERS,
CHICAGO OFFICE:
BOSTON OFFICE:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 100 Boylston St.
PHILADELPHIA:
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 195 197 Wabash Ave.
TELEPHONES : Central 414 ; Automatic 8t>43.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
It. W. KAUFFMAN.
ADOLF EUSTEN.
CHAS. N. VAN BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 2407 Sacramento St.
CINCINNATI. O.: BERNAKD C. BOWEN.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 69 Basinghall St., E. C. W. LIONEL STURDY, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION, (Including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada. $:i.">o : 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. $75.00.
REMITTANCES. In other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Music Publishers*
An interesting feature of this publication Is a special depart-
Department ^ V ment devoted exclusively to the world of music publishing.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Orand l'rix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal. ...St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. . . .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Departments.
Cable a d d r e s s : "Elbill, N e w York."
NEW
YORK, MAY
2 , 1908
EDITORIAL
T
HE surprising success which has attended recent bond dealings
in this city proves conclusively that there is ample money
seeking profitable investment. There is an improved tone in the
bond market emphasized by the heavy over-subscription to the
Pennsylvania Railroad loan. Quieter conditions in business result
in one way—in larger accumulation of funds or cheap money.
This condition, too, presages healthful industrial recovery. There
is no mistaking the fact that general business conditions are im-
proving. Of course, pianos and musical merchandise are not mov-
ing quite as rapidly as most of us desire, nor do we believe that
there will be a pronounced activity until the fall. Merchants every-
where and of every class are now considering the problem, "how
long is the depression going to last?" "When will we recover
from the effects of the panic?" "How slow will the wheels turn—
how will readjustments affect my particular business?" and conse-
quently are buying to meet present requirements only. When we
speak of panic in the ordinary use of the word we mean the depres-
sion or economic crisis which is sure to follow. Now this crisis
may be turned to a man's advantage if he understands and will
apply the fundamental laws of business and credit to his own in-
terests. Credit and money which are directly and summarily
affected by the panic do not of themselves bring a man success or
failure. They are useful mediums, as they help and support trade,
but credit is the force on which the business of the world is done.
Trade is the exchange of one surplus for another. It is supplying
the needs of one man with the overplus of another. It is an ex-
change for mutual good. The keynote of trade then is service.
REVIEW
volume of business, lower prices and curtailments of loans, must
curtail their accommodations. The merchant and manufacturer will •
be able to borrow for their legitimate needs, but it is well for them
to understand that a new law over which the banker has no control
will force the latter to curtail lines for new enterprises. The mer-
chant must shape his business to meet these new conditions of the
commercial and financial world.
In a time of contraction the first thing to do is to trim the
sails to meet the storm, let it be light or heavy. To do this the indi-
vidual must get ready to be reasonably independent of credit asking.
And under the present conditions can anyone expect the same ac-
commodations in the near future which he had in the past? Re-
adjustment means bringing living down to a basis of rational,
wholesome living. To meet this condition requires study on the
part of business men who deal with the masses. Success in spite of
panic comes to him who makes service his motto through all the
deviations of his business.
H P HERE is really no need for a man to get pessimistic in times
J.
like the present. There is always business to be secured if
we go at it right and there is more to business than the mere ac-
cumulation of dollars. Commerce is a great civilizer and the man
who has performed his task well in trade has helped humanity.
Dollars merely measure activity and good work for self and others.
Therefore, it is best for men to study the situation. To serve is to
help and the man serves best who studies the interests closely of
those with whom he comes in contact. There are some who never
look on the philosophic side of business. If they did they would
understand more. Industrial crises come and men in their
eagerness to get rich and enjoy wealth and power overstrain the
capacity of credit to serve and over expand the possibilities of com-
merce. The present condition is one which is the result of our
own over living and over spending. The consumer is the gauge
on the business of the world. When everything is flush all along
the line men are prone to have the best. When wages and profits
are reduced they may buy the same at a lower level and it is in-
evitable that they must select the needful and pass by the luxuries.
Here is the safety of those who are in ordinary lines of business
to-day.
W
E have accustomed ourselves to an expansive condition and
so we are prone to find fault with a trade reduction, but we
still have to endure these conditions whether we like them or not.
Business cannot go on at all times expanding. If it did even in an
unbroken way for a number of years and prices kept going steadily
up, what a fall there would be when the parting suddenly came.
There must be periods of depression and expansion and contraction
will come automatically, and no matter how carefully we may plan
we cannot avoid meeting them. They teach man after all, with all
his boasted power, that he can't control even temporary matters.
They teach us, too, to be more careful. A characteristic of the
present condition is the number of small orders placed. This indi-
cates a disposition on the part of merchants to keep stock down and
to purchase very guardedly for actual needs. While on general
principles this may seem the wisest policy, yet it entails necessarily
a good deal of expense upon the piano manufacturers who are com-
pelled to carry a complete stock on hand subject to the varying
whims of the trade. It seems to be up to the manufacturer to bear
the heavy burden in these times, and under present conditions there
seems to be no way out of it.
S
OME men are in the habit of saying that they do not buy ad-
vertised products because they do not care to pay for the
advertising. We have heard some piano salesmen state that they
sold certain instruments cheap owing to the fact that there were no
large advertising charges included in the price of the pianos. These
salesmen argued that because a piano manufacturer is not a large ad-
E do business not wholly with money, and it may be said now
vertiser, for that reason he can sell cheap. Some time ago Franklin
that when banks have gotten back to their normal condition
Hobbs, a well-known advertising expert, began an investigation, in
it will be no more a question of money that will affect trade. It will
which he made tests of various advertised and unadvertised goods.
be a question of credit. It is to this, through the banks that we are Full and complete comparisons were made of their respective quali-
to look for our mainstay. Credit makes the wheels turn. It fur- ties. This man priced goods and bought goods in stores which
nishes the sinews for new enterprises and carries us over hard times.
did not advertise and in stores which did advertise and compared
Credit will be a somewhat diminished quantity for the present year.
prices and qualities, and after all this he stated: If asked the
But this is one of the things we cannot control, since the banks
question, who pays for the advertising. I would answer the question
losing their volume of deposit—because of the reduction in the in a word. But as the cost of advertising is distributed among so
W