Music Trade Review

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THE
MU3IC TRADE
REVIEW
The Strength of the Standard Instruments.
The Rehabilitation of the Selling System—Why is Not the Present the Proper Time to Surround
the Piano Industry With Every Safeguard—The Great Names Must be Properly Considered
by the Merchants and Treated Accordingly—Why Not a Narrowing Down of Selling Terms,
a Closer Scanning of Credits —The Giving of Notes Should Mean That Obligations Must
Be Met—Why Not Piano Leases as Commercial Currency—The Value of Leases Depends
Upon the Character of the Pianos—The Non-depreciable Value of the Leases of Pianos of
Standing and Reputation—The Encouragement of Sound Business Methods—Character Sales
Would Aid Every Department of the Business—Always Worthy Consideration.
W
HY is not the present the proper time to drive the thought
deeply into the mind of every merchant that his future—
if he has a business future—is in maintaining name standards?
Why is not the present the proper time to rehabilitate piano sell-
ing systems, both wholesale and retail.
There is a steady accumulation of proof that we are going to
enjoy a fall business of fair proportions.
The farmers are practically out of debt. Their buying capac-
ity is the greatest that has ever been known.
The amount of acreage under cultivation is constantly in-
creasing.
Farming and fruit raising in the Middlewest are probably in-
creasing 20 per cent, per annum and farming is no longer a starva-
tion life but a life of comfort and ability to spend money to any in-
telligent person that engages in it in a suitable locality.
There is no good reason to believe that fall business will be
poor, the predictions of the pessimist to the contrary notwith-
standing.
In every decade since the war the country has seen three fair
years, three good years, one panic year and three years of recovery.
We had our panic in 1907. We had three years of slow re-
covery, 1908, 1909 and 1910; and, according to all previous indica-
tions the present year should not be a good one, and to make it
good we will require good business activity during the remaining
months.
There is a difference of opinion regarding the real cause of
the panic of 1907: and some of the best posted business men do not
hesitate to say that it was not on account of rotten business con-
ditions, but it was due wholly to the fire and earthquake of San
Francisco, that disaster actually destroying more than $400,000,000
worth of property, not alone in the shape of actual physical property
but in office rentals, loss of business and loss of earnings.
Now, $400,000,000 is five times the amount of precious metals
dug in the United States for five years.
Is it to be wondered at that, when every part of the United
States, either by merchandise, fire insurance, assistance of customers,
contributions to funds, had to contribute to that loss of $400,000,-
000, a shortage had to follow?
The panic would probably have followed more quickly on the
fire had it not been for the long delays in the payment of their
losses by the insurance companies.
Rich as this country is, it requires some time to work out from
a condition forced upon it by reason of that great catastrophe.
But we have worked out from under; and it will be seen that
fair purchases are being made in all lines.
Some of the piano factories have materially exceeded their
output of last year.
Others have not come up to the point reached by the two
previous years.
But indications point to a fair business—a business which will
show material improvement as the fall advances.
There is a tendency in all lines of trade, however, to exercise
more caution than heretofore in the extension of credits.
The piano men to-day, in some instances, grant too liberal
credit and there is a determination evidenced in many quarters to
cut down credits.
Why should a man who cannot obtain credit for a suit of
clothes in his home town be given pianos amounting to thousands
of dollars?
No good argument can be advanced showing why credits
should be so granted; and as time rolls on and selling terms are ex-
tended it is going to make it more and more difficult to do business.
In some cases the giving of notes means a series of constant
renewals.
Now there is no reason why there should not be reasonable
security back of business transactions.
If a piano merchant is not able to meet his obligations when
due why should he not put up piano leases?
If he makes sales and secures good leases why should they not
be turned over to the men to whom he is financially obligated?
Leases might be properly termed the currency of the trade.
There is no reason why a man who is unable to pay cash should
hesitate to pay leases; and leases will secure manufacturers.
There have been cases of great failures when it has been proven
time and time again that the leases have been passed over to secur-
ity companies, banks and outside parties when the men who sup-
plied the wares were left entirely outside of the financial breast-
works. That is wrong entirely.
There should be a general overhauling of the whole credit
system and men should be compelled to live up to their obligations
in a straightforward business sense.
Then there would be security all along the line and there would
be a new confidence instilled in all departments of the business.
It is absurd for one manufacturer to outbid another in selling
terms simply to gain unfair trade which in the end may not prove
profitable; and it is absurd for a dealer to pass his piano leases to
banks and outside parties instead of handing them over to the men
to whom he is owing heavy obligations and to whom he is indebted
even for the creation, perhaps, of his business.
The value of piano leases is of course determined by the stand-
ing of the instruments and the character of the parties to whom
pianos are sold and a nondescript piano, or what we colloquially
term a special brand, that is, a piano without any standing and not
having a traceable origin, if sold at a dishonest price is usually sold
to parties who will not continue to meet their regular instalments.
And later they find out they have obligated themselves to pay say
$300 for a piano which was not worth more than $200, and they
will find that it is useless to continue payments over a period of three
or four years when they can walk into a nearby store and get a new
piano for a greatly decreased figure over what they are paying—
not only a new piano but a decidedly better piano.
But on the contrary, if pianos of standing and reputation are
sold at fair pricings those leases constitute valuable assets. They
are worth their face value and if offered to any local bank or secur-
ity company their value is practically non-depreciable, whereas in-
struments of the special brand class have no national standing and
such leases are looked upon with more or less suspicion—hence the
putting up of leases would mean a building up of a better character
of leases and in the end it would work out to the benefit of all
concerned.
There is after all nothing like sound business principles to be
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