Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
6
A CRITICISM A N D THE REPLY-(Continued from page 5).
We might retaliate by saying that there are many dealers
who resort to all sorts of unfair methods in competition, and
yet we cannot at all times write up all the disgusting details,
because we have a duty to perform to our clients and our
subscribers.
The Review will at all times be progressive, will be fair,
will be straightforward, and it will seek to uphold the principles
which make for business betterment; but to expect that all of
our readers will at all times approve of all of our acts is rather
inconsistent, and our friend, who is a business man of high in-
telligence, we believe will be willing to withdraw some of his
criticisms upon further consideration.
. We do not, however, blame some of the men for having a
prejudice against music trade journals, because we have seen
journals in this industry conducted on lines which were a dis-
grace to the times in which we live. The conduct of these
papers reflected upon the trade itself, because it supported an
abusive journal which should not have existed, and some of the
dealers themselves have used defamatory articles in certain jour-
nals in their own local territory in their aims to defeat the sales
of pianos which have been perniciously assailed in the black-
mailing press.
Surely our friend would consider our criticism rather unwise
if we should say that all of the piano merchants in the country
were tainted because some few used unfair and dishonest
methods, and we rather think that it is unjust for him to accuse
the trade press as a whole of unfairness and insincerity, when
certain sections at least have been working steadily along lines
of business uplift.
Trade journal conductors are interested in the upbuilding of
the trade, and if it had not been so they could not have made the
advance which they have in the past ten years.
The trade newspapers are securing more and more of the
best brains in the country, and every trade and technical news-
paper office is a sieve through which young men of ability are
passing every year. Only those who show a special aptitude
fcjjvthe work are retained.
j It takes energy and it takes a reasonable amount of common
sense to succeed fn the trade newspaper business, for the de-
•
mands made by the industry and the competition, which is
always growing keener and more unrelenting, compel the pub-
lisher in any line to employ the best talent available.
Go into the leading trade newspaper offices to-day and note
the organizations which exist; note the caliber of the men employed
there, compare them with the makeup of the organizations of ten
or fifteen years ago, and it will at once be apparent that the trade
newspaper is moving ahead, quite up with the procession.
Unquestionably there could be freer criticisms made in the
columns of honest-intentioned papers, were it not for the fact
that the existence of conscienceless sheets, controlled by men
absolutely without morals, has placed the honest papers in such
a condition that free and fair criticisms might be misconstrued
by some as a method of bringing* about larger advertising
appropriations.
In other words, so low and so contemptible have been some
of the papers in the music trade that their efforts have created
an influence which has tainted to a certain extent the entire pro-
fession, as well as the entire trade, because dishonest journalistic
methods have encouraged dishonest methods among piano
merchants.
Dishonest newspaper men have not entirely disappeared
from the field, but the blackmailing and holdup methods have
received their knockout blow, and those who still hang on will
find less encouragement in working along abusive lines than
ever before.
They may hang on for a while, picking up a little money
here and there, but at no time can they make progress. The
incompetents and holdupists and men of mediocre ability in
the trade newspaper field are fewer in number than can be found
proportionatley in any other profession.
The trade newspaper, although limited in circulation, covers
an entire industry, and it will be more or less subjected to
criticism which the individual will not, because it speaks to
thousands where the individual can only talk to those who are
present, and its utterances will always be open to the criticism of
the many.
We welcome criticism—invite it—provided it is honest and
sincere.
ELIMINATING DESTRUCTIVE PIANO ADVERTISING.
PROTECTION OF CREDITORS
In Detroit This Species of Publicity Has Reached the End of Its Rope—Unsuccessful Attempts to
Revive It—How National Association Membership Is Weakened.
By Means of Adequate Insurance on Stocks the
Mark of a Trustworthy Merchant, Say Credit
Men—Serves to Develop Confidence.
DETROIT,
(Special to The Review.)
MICH., September 30.—It
looks
as
though destructive piano advertising had absolutely
reached the end of its rope in Detroit. An attempt
made last week to revive it was a dismal failure.
Both houses which formerly were addicted to it
had advertisements in the papers. They ran just
one day, then disappeared. They were in a new
guise, the enforcement of a State law having made
the old style too dangerous, but they had the same
old "Was $500—now $50" misinformation so
familiar last year.
The reason for their sudden withdrawal is not
actually known, of course, but some obvious facts
furnish great deductions. One of the institutions
formerly occupied two entire floors of a building.
.Instead of expanding it has given up half the
space.
The other one, with the exception of that lone
advertisement, seems to have entirely changed its
method of doing business. Its windows are no
longer decorated with pianos marked at ridiculous
prices, which always "had just been sold" when a
prospective buyer entered to ask about them. It
has no more catch-penny schemes of any kind, and
traveling men who come to the city say that its
branches in other cities have undergone similar
transformations. They say also that the Detroit
branch is to be closed, as well as the branches in
several other cities. Seeming substantiation of this
is seen in the fact that a line of pianos which has
been handled by that store for a couple of years
was this week transferred to another Detroit store.
In fact, the traveler who made the transfer was
among those who have, tipped it off that the store
is to be closed.
Detroit dealers make no bones of saying they
are glad to hear it. J. Henry Ling pretty well ex-
pressed the sentiment when he said to The Re-
view : "The effects of that company's price de-
stroying campaign in this city will be felt for
twenty years, even if it closes up now and quits.
The campaign has brought nothing but loss to its
originators, and the straightforward, legitimate
houses must suffer as well. The fact that that
company, when its methods were so well known
throughout the country, was permitted to retain a
membership in ,the National Association, violating
its highest rules and precepts, was pretty good evi-
dence that the National Association didn't amount
to much; it cheapened its membership by allowing
such parties to remain; it didn't really stand for
what it professed to. That is the underlying rea-
son for the lack of interest at the national conven-
tions of the last few years. You may quote me on
this just as loudly as you please."
FRED C. LONG RESIGNS.
Fred C. Long has resigned as manager of the
piano department of the H. S. Barney Co., Sche-
nectady, N. Y., which position he took shortly
after the department was established, three years
ago.
BURST BOILER J 1 E S UP FACTORY.
(Special to The Review.)
NASSAU, N. Y., September 29.—The factory of
Kosegarten Bros., the piano action manufacturers
this place, has been tied down for several days
owing to the bursting of a boiler that had only
recently been added to the company's power plant.
It is fair to presume that there would be no dif-
ference in opinion among credit grantors as to the
proper attitude to take when confronted with the
case of a merchant whose assets were limited strict-
ly to his stock of merchandise, but who frankly
confessed he carried no insurance as a buffer be-
tween him and bankruptcy; yet a member of the
association on objecting to the shipment of goods
to a certain merchant receives in reply a letter ac-
companied by a statement of assets and liabilities
at the foot of which appears these words, "You
will notice that I do not carry insurance yet." Fur-
ther on in the letter "If you decide not to ship me
(he goods I have ordered, you will be the only
linn I have done business with which has ever
even mentioned the question of insurance to me."
Ts it not fair to ask whether our member who
points out the necessity of this merchant carrying
insurance is not a more genuine friend than the
other creditors, especially when one considers how
great are the chances of burning in this country?
—The Bulletin of the National Association of
Credit Men.
PIANO MAN AS COMMISSIONER.
F. Ernest Watkins, of Watkins Bros. Co., who
handle the Steinway and Sohmer pianos in Hart-
ford and other cities in New England, is putting
up a strong fight to retain his office of County
Commissioner, from October 1 until the convening
of the General Assembly in 1915. Major Edward
T. Lyons is one "of the active contestants for the
office.