Music Trade Review
Issue: 1914 Vol. 58 N. 15 - Page 5
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
ANENT KINDS OF PROFIT SHARING.
(Continued from page 3.)
over his rivals, or to play the most unfair tricks, if his own ends were fostered thereby. As a
result, huge fortunes were built up—sometimes out of the life blood of the weak.
Of course, certain elements of this method of fighting business battles still exist, and will
always exist, but the next generation will see much less of this strife than we see to-day.
It takes a long time to bring about great changes in fixed methods, but the spirit underlying
it is far stronger than many persons imagine.
Take as an illustration the co-operative system which has been adopted during the past few
years by a number of the largest manufacturing organizations.
A decade or two ago people would have thought a man crazy if he proposed to share his profits
with those who helped him make them.
The company that suggested such an idea would have been regarded as socialistic. That is not
the way in which we regard such methods now.
On the contrary, we admit that co-operation is one of the vital laws behind success—that the
more closely an employer and employe can co-operate the more money will be made and saved. As
a result, the wisdom of the profit-sharing system of doing business is no longer a question, and
there are more and more concerns adopting these methods, or others similar to them, every year,
and as I view it these men who give away vast fortunes, like Carnegie and others, are actuated by
a spirit which tends towards co-operation.
Their methods may be questioned—their motives impugned, but nevertheless they are giving
away to humanity something which they do not have to give. Therefore, it is the desire to share.
In other words, a profit-sharing impulse which causes them to act in such a manner.
We must understand that there is a great change moving resistlessly along.
Times are changing and conditions change with them. New ideas
have come to the front to be built into new institutions with new
ideals and new aims.
The move must be onward and upward. Progress is the watch-
word, and civilization cannot rest on dead men's dogmas, but on the
living, enlightened reason of humanity!
ties as are the great universities of the country, when they see
their students go out and take their places in the various walks
of life. If we were in business only to build business, it would
be a poor satisfaction for more than half a century of toiling and
trying. "Unless we build business men and women we have fallen
far short of our ideal.
"If we have laid the proper business foundation in the minds
and hearts of our associates, no matter where they go later, they
cannot yield to any temptation, however strong, to depart the
least fraction of an inch from the standards, principles and honor-
able dealing which has always been a part of this piano business.
My best wishes are always with you and your associates, and
with all true piano salesmen, no matter where they may be
laboring, for the good of the industry and of the music-loving
public."
This letter is conceived in that broad spirit for which Mr.
Wanamaker has long been noted, and he uttered a great truth
when he said: "If we were in business only to build business, it
would be a poor satisfaction for more than half a century of
toiling and trying. Unless we build business men and women
we have fallen far short of our ideals."
This is truly Wanamakerian, for the great merchant prince
has, during his lifetime, always aimed to associate high ideals
with great mercantile enterprise and weld them inseparably to-
gether. He is ever a student who is seeking new ideas to apply
to his business. The deeply imaginative and poetic side to his
character is evidenced not only in the always interesting little
essays which are a feature of his advertising, but in his private
offices and music room on the seventh floor of the Philadelphia
building, where he often retires for privacy, art, music, books
and figurative reminders of the great men who have been leaders
in the nation's history and progress, both in political and literary
spheres, abound, giving stimulus, pleasure and recreation to a
tnind often burdened with great cares.
Mr. Wanamaker is a remarkable product of American enter-
prise in the mercantile field, and his many-sidedness is evidenced
in his letter to the piano salesmen of his New York establishment.
L
AST week marked the opening of the seven months' celebration
to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the granting of
the first charter by the United Netherlands for trading at the port
of New York.
While the city has become great through its natural advantages,
no one can overlook the tremendous part played by our great manu-
facturers, who, through the quality and volume of their products
have made New York known and respected in every part of
the world.
The history of manufacturing in New York reads like a
romance. It is a story of absorbing human interest in which many
notable figures in the piand trade have played their part.
This celebration of the commercial birth of New York, running
back three hundred years, brings to mind that every business in
the piano, as well as other industries, had an insignificant beginning,
compassed very likely by a single brain and earnest labor, with
many heartbreaking years of experiments and daily thought to win
out in the battle for success.
It is to those early and earnest workers in the piano trade in
the years agone that we Owe so much to-day. Through their efforts
the American piano has become a national product, containing dis-
tinctive improvements, which had their birth through American
effort and application.
Nothing is more true than that products or businesses which
are the concrete result of years of study and effort—of days of
hardest toil and thought, come at last to represent and stand for
the character, ambitions and ideals of their founders.
Little wonder, then, that those concerns in the piano trade of
to-day, whose history goes back to the early days of American
manufacturing, should develop a pride of production and perfection
cff workmanship and unswerving loyalty to the highest business
ideals.
/
"T > HERE are at least four cities in the West and South where
J-
player-pianos, according to what seem to be very reliable
reports, constitute from seventy-five to ninety per cent- of the
total sales of the dealers.
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
ANENT KINDS OF PROFIT SHARING.
(Continued from page 3.)
over his rivals, or to play the most unfair tricks, if his own ends were fostered thereby. As a
result, huge fortunes were built up—sometimes out of the life blood of the weak.
Of course, certain elements of this method of fighting business battles still exist, and will
always exist, but the next generation will see much less of this strife than we see to-day.
It takes a long time to bring about great changes in fixed methods, but the spirit underlying
it is far stronger than many persons imagine.
Take as an illustration the co-operative system which has been adopted during the past few
years by a number of the largest manufacturing organizations.
A decade or two ago people would have thought a man crazy if he proposed to share his profits
with those who helped him make them.
The company that suggested such an idea would have been regarded as socialistic. That is not
the way in which we regard such methods now.
On the contrary, we admit that co-operation is one of the vital laws behind success—that the
more closely an employer and employe can co-operate the more money will be made and saved. As
a result, the wisdom of the profit-sharing system of doing business is no longer a question, and
there are more and more concerns adopting these methods, or others similar to them, every year,
and as I view it these men who give away vast fortunes, like Carnegie and others, are actuated by
a spirit which tends towards co-operation.
Their methods may be questioned—their motives impugned, but nevertheless they are giving
away to humanity something which they do not have to give. Therefore, it is the desire to share.
In other words, a profit-sharing impulse which causes them to act in such a manner.
We must understand that there is a great change moving resistlessly along.
Times are changing and conditions change with them. New ideas
have come to the front to be built into new institutions with new
ideals and new aims.
The move must be onward and upward. Progress is the watch-
word, and civilization cannot rest on dead men's dogmas, but on the
living, enlightened reason of humanity!
ties as are the great universities of the country, when they see
their students go out and take their places in the various walks
of life. If we were in business only to build business, it would
be a poor satisfaction for more than half a century of toiling and
trying. "Unless we build business men and women we have fallen
far short of our ideal.
"If we have laid the proper business foundation in the minds
and hearts of our associates, no matter where they go later, they
cannot yield to any temptation, however strong, to depart the
least fraction of an inch from the standards, principles and honor-
able dealing which has always been a part of this piano business.
My best wishes are always with you and your associates, and
with all true piano salesmen, no matter where they may be
laboring, for the good of the industry and of the music-loving
public."
This letter is conceived in that broad spirit for which Mr.
Wanamaker has long been noted, and he uttered a great truth
when he said: "If we were in business only to build business, it
would be a poor satisfaction for more than half a century of
toiling and trying. Unless we build business men and women
we have fallen far short of our ideals."
This is truly Wanamakerian, for the great merchant prince
has, during his lifetime, always aimed to associate high ideals
with great mercantile enterprise and weld them inseparably to-
gether. He is ever a student who is seeking new ideas to apply
to his business. The deeply imaginative and poetic side to his
character is evidenced not only in the always interesting little
essays which are a feature of his advertising, but in his private
offices and music room on the seventh floor of the Philadelphia
building, where he often retires for privacy, art, music, books
and figurative reminders of the great men who have been leaders
in the nation's history and progress, both in political and literary
spheres, abound, giving stimulus, pleasure and recreation to a
tnind often burdened with great cares.
Mr. Wanamaker is a remarkable product of American enter-
prise in the mercantile field, and his many-sidedness is evidenced
in his letter to the piano salesmen of his New York establishment.
L
AST week marked the opening of the seven months' celebration
to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the granting of
the first charter by the United Netherlands for trading at the port
of New York.
While the city has become great through its natural advantages,
no one can overlook the tremendous part played by our great manu-
facturers, who, through the quality and volume of their products
have made New York known and respected in every part of
the world.
The history of manufacturing in New York reads like a
romance. It is a story of absorbing human interest in which many
notable figures in the piand trade have played their part.
This celebration of the commercial birth of New York, running
back three hundred years, brings to mind that every business in
the piano, as well as other industries, had an insignificant beginning,
compassed very likely by a single brain and earnest labor, with
many heartbreaking years of experiments and daily thought to win
out in the battle for success.
It is to those early and earnest workers in the piano trade in
the years agone that we Owe so much to-day. Through their efforts
the American piano has become a national product, containing dis-
tinctive improvements, which had their birth through American
effort and application.
Nothing is more true than that products or businesses which
are the concrete result of years of study and effort—of days of
hardest toil and thought, come at last to represent and stand for
the character, ambitions and ideals of their founders.
Little wonder, then, that those concerns in the piano trade of
to-day, whose history goes back to the early days of American
manufacturing, should develop a pride of production and perfection
cff workmanship and unswerving loyalty to the highest business
ideals.
/
"T > HERE are at least four cities in the West and South where
J-
player-pianos, according to what seem to be very reliable
reports, constitute from seventy-five to ninety per cent- of the
total sales of the dealers.
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).