Music Trade Review

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V O L . LVII. N o . 2. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, July 12,1913
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HE man who has met with no big handicaps usually is the one who has never progressed
far enough afield to find them. Serious obstacles, serious trials and serious criticisms
invariably come to men who do things, but rarely ever to those who sit back expecting
an easy victory—they are the camp followers of civil life.
The dark hours in the history of some men never are known. They bare only their courage
to the crowd, who never know what is going on behind the breastworks.
It is easy to criticise the men who are in the forefront of battle, but it is quite another thing
to be in line fighting for victory—then things are viewed from a different angle.
Some men, trifling amateurs, can sit back and criticise the great generals of the world for not
having accomplished more. They could tell what they would have done at the. right time, and how
a greater victory could have been easily accomplished, but they were not the ones on the firing line
doing the fighting or the planning, when prompt action was necessary. The non-combatants can
easily figure how greater victories could have been won.
During the first part of the month thousands of veterans from the North and the South gath-
ered on the battlefield of Gettysburg, where fifty years ago the contending hosts of the dismem-
bered Union met in the greatest battle ever fought on the American continent, when the forces of
Meade and Lee met in the hot July sun, and rivulets of red trickled through the ungarnered grain,
trampled by war's iron heel, while regiments and divisions were moving like pawns in the red game
of war.
The story of the battle of Gettysburg has been told many times, but who will ever tell the story
of the real, the vital battle that took place in General Meade's mind that night of July 3 after Pickett
had made his gallant and ever to be remembered charge across the open fields and Lee had gathered
up his forces for the return to Virginia?
Meade has been criticised for not following up his great victory, but who knows what he was
saying to himself as he stood on the hill and saw the evening shadows engulf the retiring forms of
Lee's men on the opposite ridge? He knew one thing above all others—that he had won, and he
knew that Lee was a mighty general who had led his army successfully against the Army of the
Potomac, which he himself had commanded but five days. He did not know what condition Lee
was in. He did know that he had guns and men in plenty, and he did not know but that he might
move around his forces and march towards Baltimore in spite of the severe check which he had
received at Gettysburg. He did not know but that he would endeavor to attack him again where
he stood. He figured that it was better to be safe and ready than to risk everything in pursuit with
his wearied men, so he waited and he was criticised!
In fact, a cry went up all over the land against Meade for not following up his great
victory, but it is to be observed that he was not criticised by the men who were on the field—men
who were acquainted with the actual conditions, but by those outside—in Washington and else-
where.
And so it is usually in the business battle—the men who sit on the outside and watch the plays
of the great leaders in trade are too free with their criticism, and yet they know nothing about the
condition of affairs or what supplies, financial and moral, are at hand.
The men on the firing line have to plan by foresight, while the critics invariably are working
on the hindsight principle. That is always easy, but the men who are on the red firing line know
(Continued on page 5.)