Music Trade Review

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THE:
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPflLLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall i
0BO. B . KCT.T.BB,
L. D. BOWERS,
W. H. DYKES,
F. H. THOMPSON.
J. HATDEN CLARENDON.
B. BBITTAIN WILSON,
L. J. CHAMBBRLIN,
A. J. NICKLIN.
••STON •FF1CE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINQEN. 195-197 Wabash Ave.
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A D O U EDSTDN.
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CINCINNATI. O.i NINA PUGH-SMITH.
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LONDON. ENGLAND:
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Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
Enttrtd
at the New York Pott Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION. (Including postage). United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50 ; 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
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REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Dlraetwy ot P l o o
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporation!
~
~ ~
found on another page will be of great value, as a reference
Msinlieturcri
f o r dealers and others.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prim
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal. Charleston Exposition 1902
Diploma.Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal.. . S t Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. ...Lewis-Clark Exposition. 1905.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
Connecting all Department*.
Cable address: "Elblll New York."
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 1 5 , 1908
~~
EDITORIAL
WELL-KNOWN member of the piano trade, while discuss-
ing business conditions with The Review recently, said:
"We have lost nothing but confidence." True, but that "nothing"
in this case is a very important essential in the business life o'f the
country, and are the men high up in the nation's councils doing
what they can to restore that confidence ?
Now, admitting that there may be a great deal to criticize in
high financing; admitting that gold bricks have been handed out
to the people by these manipulators of great corporations, whose
proper place is behind the bars; admitting all that, but why because
a few men in the community have gone wrong should the distrust
of everyone be continued? It is all well enough to talk about the
"malefactors of great wealth," as Mr. Roosevelt terms them, or
the "criminally rich," as Mr. Bryan designates them, but does the
discrediting of our business interests help matters in the way of
restoration of confidence? Ejaculatory sentences, even though they
may be fierce and even dripping with oratorical lava, do not bring
about a revolution. They may disturb conditions, but they do not
help them.
A
A
FTER all, what is the common dogma that unites Roosevelt
and Bryan, and is echoed by the various papers throughout
the country ? It is not that here and there are diseased spots which
need to be cut out. It is not that we have the usual average out-
breaks af the sinful heart of man and that the world old struggle
among men for material possessions leads now as always to seizure
of unfair advantages.
T
H E dogma is none of these. It is that confidence has much
less basis for foothold than at times past, and distrust infinitely
more. That is the meat of the business cocoanut. Did not men sin
before corporations were invented, and how is this charge against
the general character and integrity of our business and financial
establishments supported ? By a comprehensive survey of the facts ?
Not as we view them. It is established by that weakest of all
methods of demonstration—the citing of particular instances.
Would it be fair if, because some men committed burglary, that all
REVIEW
men should be accused of being thieves? Suppose we have had
some dishonest men in the piano industry, should it follow that all
are tarred with the brush of dishonesty?
L
AST year the percentage of trusts respected and obligations
fulfilled was probably as great as any year since recorded
history began, and yet this great essential is ignored. What do the
reformers say of this fact? Is it scare headed over the country?
We hear nothing about the good that men have accomplished—of
how they have lived up to their moral and financial obligations.
No, there is nothing said about that, but because the two per cent,
of thieves have carried on a gambling game the whole country must
suffer. When we come to figure upon these utterances against the
integrity of the country coming from those whom we should expect
better things, is it strange that the commercial affairs of this country
should have suddenly collapsed ?
Getting back to the statement of the piano manufacturer, "we
have lost nothing but confidence." That is true. We have had no
plague, nor succession of bad crops, but that same confidence is- the
necessary arterial blood of modern industrial civilization, and its
healthy flow has been interrupted. We are distrustful. We have
lost confidence in each other. We are afraid to do business on the
same terms as before. It is all well enough to say that we were going
too fast a pace ; that we were spending too much money; that we
were living beyond our means, but why not say that to-day there
are more people, better housed, better dressed than ever before
in the history of the world, showing that the great world heart of
man is in the right, place; that there are more institutions of learn-
ing, more refuges for the unfortunate, more dollars expended to
alleviate human suffering than ever before. Why do we not say
that millions upon millions are given by these "malefactors of great
wealth" for the cause of education and science? That money
taken from the people is given back to them? Why is it not well
to 1 emphasize the good that men have done instead of pouring out
these rattling volleys of abuse which shake the confidence of the
people in each other? The misdeeds of the few should not dis-
credit and injure the many.
A
S long as there are inequalities of brains there will be inequal-
ities of wealth, but there are always some who abuse their
position. But why breed distrust which is sure to destroy confi-
dence, that confidence so necessary to business success ? Yes, "the
only thing we have lost is confidence," and we shall not fully regain
it until we recognize the good that men have done; recognize the
honesty of purpose; recognize the higher accomplishments of in-
dividuals just as completely, as publicly, as vociferously as we
condemn dishonest principles. "Nothing lost but confidence," but
that is a great deal, and are we doing what we should do, each one
of us, to win it back ? Are we not talking too much of the evil and
too little of the go'od that men do ? Everyone is affected by existing
conditions, whether he is laboring by the day or whether he is an
employer of labor. There is no enterprise of any nature in this
land which has not been stricken by this business slump which was
created by the destruction of confidence.
T
H E piano player proposition did not develop until special
emphasis was placed upon it. Some dealers who sold players
for years in an indifferent manner, and whose stock was carried in
a most unattractive style, complained bitterly of their lack of sales
and became disgusted with the player outlook. Hut there were plenty
of shrewd intelligent men who saw that the player proposition must
be treated separately. It must be properly wareroomed and sales-
manized in order to produce results. As a consequence special
rooms were fitted up and player experts were placed in charge and
the business gradually grew into very large proportions. It never
would have reached its present position had it not been carefully
nurtured and specialized. It must be the same with talking ma-
chines, for that cannot be said by dealers if treated in a slipshod
manner. One or two talking machines displayed in a window
together with a lot of pianos will not draw trade, particularly when
a customer finds upon entering the store that no proper environment
is given them.
Special rooms should be fitted up and men placed in charge of
the talking machine department who know something about the
wonderful powers of entertainment of the up-to-date talker. It
should not be placed in the hands of a piano salesman who has given