Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Grinding of the Mills £>
E
VERY . industry is vitally interested in its journalistic ex-
ponents, and it is admitted by all fair-minded men that con-
structive trade journalism has aided in the development of indus-
trial enterprises. In the music trade, however, there has existed
for several decades a kind of journalism which has a most per-
nicious influence upon the entire industry, for no matter how much
we may wish to avoid the subject we cannot deny the fact that
hold-up journalism has thrived to a greater or lesser degree in this
industry for a long period of years.
We say a long period of years—yes, for it was more than three
decades ago when one of the most respected piano manufacturers
first paid a sum of money to a man to discontinue attacks upon the
character of his products. It would seem that this hush money or
blood money had an immediate effect upon the future acts of the
cur who received it, because his career immediately became domi-
nantly identified with that kind of work, and at irregular intervals
from that time on we have seen manufacturers maligned and abused
—until thoroughly disgusted with the conditions and fearing the
result upon their enterprises they finally succumbed—walked up
to the captain's office and paid the price.
The hold-up methods became so general that trade journalism
was tainted by this influence—tainted in such a way that it became
thwarted in its growth and has never reached the proud position
which it should have acquired in the piano industry.
The acts of the exponents of hold-up journalism have polluted
the entire profession, for while men may respect an individual jour-
nalist and his paper, yet it must be frankly admitted that as a pro-
fession music trade journalism has been looked upon with grave
suspicion.
It is not pleasing for a trade newspaper to utter such senti-
ments, but nevertheless they are true and there is no use of denying
the facts as they exist.
We have seen some of the most respected and honorable men
of the industry forced into a position of paying tribute to a venal
press, and we have become to a certain extent so hardened—so
accustomed to this plan—that men shrug their shoulders and say
at some fresh attacks: "Well, I wonder what he will pay?" or
"How long will it be before a settlement is reached?" Is it not
amazing that respectable business men should have submitted to
such dishonest and unholy tactics?
Is it not a reflection upon the industry itself, as well as upon
the journalistic profession?
How is it that men can go on and pay tribute to men who have
plied the bludgeon and wielded the knife under the mask of trade
journalism?
We have earned the undying enmity of the kind of vermin
who hold up piano manufacturers because we have done what we
could to thwart and check their influence as far as possible, and
they resent interference—they do not wish their game stopped.
But it is only up to a certain point that a paper can go. Beyond
that action must be taken by the men who make the existence of
such a piece of demoralizing machinery possible.
So long as men continue to pay tribute to abusive journalism
just so long will it exist unless crushed out through legal
process.
Withdraw that patronage and down it goes, and its poisonous
life will become extinct.
It seems incredible that such an influence could have existed
all these years in the piano industry and that men have been forced
to resort to the courts of law to protect themselves from assault
from journalistic thugs. But there must be an end to such condi-
tions, and it would seem that the end is drawing near, for the mills
are grinding—they are grinding with unerring force, and without
doubt ere long illicit journalism will become but a blackening
memory in this trade.
Every man who believes in trade decency should stand with the
men who to-day are doing their utmost to defend the right—not
merely extending sympathy, but a support best emphasized by with-
drawing patronage from abusive journalism.
How can an advertisement be of value to anyone in a paper
which damns or praises according to the money paid?
Every intelligent reader in this trade knows that some men are
to-day still paying blood money, and how long will they do it?
How long will they sit indifferently by and see their fellow
workers in the trade call to their aid the legal machinery of the
State and the Government to crush out the influence which has
been such an ulcer spot on the industry?
An advertisement in a characterless sheet can be of no aid to
a legitimate enterprise, and no business support should be given any
publication which has villainously abused a reputable business man.
If the violators of journalistic decency are caught in the toils
of the law they are entitled to no sympathy from their fellowmen,
and if they spend a few years peering through grated bars they
will perhaps for the first time in their lives know what dishonor
means.
Men who work under the dictation of a dishonest chief are just
as base and just as low as the man whose dictates they obey, be-
cause if they were not in sympathy with such work they would re-
fuse to perform it.
They are not entitled either to the sympathy of their fellow-
men ; nor should such lepers be received in the offices where only
the presence of gentlemen should be tolerated.
Let the mills grind, and let them grind so fine that there will
be a complete annihilation of all of the influences which have so
long tainted the music trade and degraded the journalistic pro-
fession.