Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
THE MAN W H O HOLDS THE HAMMER.
(Continued
from page 3)
ative. Certainly the charm of newspaper work does not lie in a financial attraction, for the salaries average
much smaller than in other lines requiring the same quality and ability.
It is not the ease of the work, for if there is an occupation that is a constant grind every working day
of the week it is journalism; but the love for it may be found in the fact that the journalist is in intimate
touch with the life of the day and age.
In the industrial line he is acquainted with inventors, with business builders—men who have ideas and
the courage to develop them; the sweep of events that are making history pass beneath his eye. He knows
personally men who are working for the betterment of humanity, and he knows other types who are en-
deavoring to make their selfish plans win; and his readers, whether they number a thousand or a million, re-
gard him with respect if he can issue an honest and progressive paper.
He is a man of influence, be he a reporter or an editor, and the work in which he is engaged is
inspiration.
As a class the newspaper men are not knockers. On the contrary, there is a spirit of camaraderie run-
ning through the profession which is broadening and elevating.
It is true that there are men who have used the honorable cloak of journalism as a shield to carry on
the most nefarious practices, but then such men would be a disgrace to any profession, for they are the buc-
caneers who float the black flag and who will scuttle any craft to which they can get near enough to engage
their mud batteries.
But some of these men are having unpleasant truths forced home upon them. They are learning that
the way of the transgressor is not only hard, but the path is packed with high explosives which render rest
for the guilty impossible. For the hand that wields the hammer hardest has
just struck dynamite.
Yes, knocking does not pay in any profession, and the man who wields
the hammer is quite likely to have a smashed thumb or a smithereened rep-
utation.
The Business Men and the N e w Adminstration.
*\ X 7 ITH the inauguration next week of Woodrow Wilson as
V V
President of the United States, interest is being dis-
played in the selection of his advisers—in other words, the mem-
bers of his cabinet, to represent various departments of our
Government.
The point that comes to mind in connection with the incep-
tion of every national administration—and it is somewhat of an
anomaly, too, in a republican form of government—is the inade-
quate recognition which the real business interests of the country
receive in a national administration. Ordinarily, business—and
we do not mean "big" business, but the real, every-day, honest
business—has been largely ignored by the heads of our Govern-
ment.
Meanwhile no great civilization has ever yet existed that did
not depend upon the influence of business men for its develop-
ment. The great institutions of learning, our great art galleries,
all the institutions that benefit mankind are the visible types of
energy and enterprise, the sagacity and generosity of business
men.
"Government of the people, for the people and by the peo-
ple" is a misnomer when the business man is not considered, for
all the live questions of the near future are closely interwoven
with business. There are the commercial, banking, labor and
other problems that directly affect business interests and which
invite the best thought of practical, successful business men, to
the end that right legislation be suggested for meeting the re-
quirements of a great commercial people.
Many business men who now ignore politics should recog-
nize the close link that exists between business and government
and take a greater interest in national affairs.
This is a business man's era—an era in which the very finest
brain and brawn of the nation is being drawn into the domain
of commerce. And the Government, after all, is merely a big
business institution and when run on correct business lines wins
the confidence and support of the people. Let us hope that the
new administration will promote a greater sympathy between
government and business, and that there will be needed consider-
ation and discrimination in passing laws affecting business.
There is no mistaking that the building of a business, no
matter how humble, is no longer a matter of chance and luck. It
calls for an intelligent comprehension of ideas and a knowledge
of how to battle with and master them.
The wide gulf which existed in the years agone between
business and so-called professions is disappearing fast. Business
to-day is a profession. To attain a complete success in the busi-
ness field requires many years of experience and hard work, and
as much technical training and as much study as it does in law,
in medicine or in science. This, of course, does not apply to
dabblers, but to men who are known as successful.
The old-time scorn which the great majority of those in the
professional field were wont to cast upon business men no longer
exists, and when it did exist it was born of ignorance and misun-
derstanding. The world would be in a sad plight without the
professional man, and it would be in a yet sadder plight without
the business man, for it is an accepted truism that it is on busi-
ness and trade that the world exists.
Products of National Reputation Sell Best
T
HERE is no question but that salesmen in every line of
trade find it much easier to dispose of products which
have a national reputation, which are broadly advertised, than
those which are comparatively unknown.
Manufacturers are beginning to understand this condition
more for it is undeniable that there is a distinct leaning on
the part of merchants towards nationally-advertised products.
Quite naturally merchants desire to affiliate in a business
way with those products which are known to the people in their
particular vicinage, and pianos that are broadly advertised,
naturally have a following which those do not possess which
are to a marked degree unknown.