Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
the outlook for the future is much brighter. During the last few
months we have witnessed the reconstruction of many businesses.
The mistakes of the past are being corrected and business is on a
sounder basis now than at any time during the last decade. The
Federal Reserve System has exercised a quieting influence, and the
fact that the people understand the banking system better than ever
before has been largely-instrumental in maintaining confidence in
our ability to successfully solve the problems of the day. The
bankers and business men of the country are co-operating as never
before in the upbuilding of our industries. They foresee the
approach of a period of peace, prosperity and plenty."
Executive and Reportorial Staff:
B. BRITTAIH WILSON,
A. J. NiCKLiN,
CARLETON CHACE,
L. M. ROBINSON,
AUGUST J. TIMPE,
WM. B. WHITE,
BOSTON O F F I C E :
JOHK H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Main 6950
GLAD HSNDEKSOK,
L. E. BOWERS.
CHICAGO O F F I C E :
£. P. VAN HARLINGEN
Consumers' Building,
^20 So. State Street. Telephone, Wabash 5774.
HENRY S. KINGWILL, Associate.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED W E E K L Y BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN T H E LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA. , '
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York '
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
'
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $3.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages $110.00.
HUMrri'AIVCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
Player-Piano and
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating
and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
T
«
dealt with, will be found in another section o this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information cone rning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal. .Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
1 0 » O DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982—5983 MADISON SQ.
Connecting 1 all Departments
.
Cable iiddreM: "ElbiU, New York."
NEW Y O R K ,
SEPTEMBER
18, 1 9 1 5
EDITORIAL
NE of the most convincing signs of improved business condi-
tions is to be found in the reports made by the leading rail-
roads, particularly the Pennsylvania and New York Central, within
the past week, of the increased earnings for July, and the fact that
traveling men who have returned recently from the West report
that hundreds of smokestacks which have been idle for months are
spreading prosperity broadcast along these lines between New York
and Chicago.
In connection with the Pennsylvania's good report came also
the statement that practically every piece of equipment on the
Pennsylvania lines East and West is in use. Several months ago
the Pennsylvania reported 75.000 idle cars. In spite of this, the
company with its usual confidence in the future, ordered new
equipment.
While the basic movement underlying the freight increases is
due in some measure to the production of war supplies which must
be moved to the seaboard, yet every indication points to a steady
improvement in industrial conditions, and an increasing output in
all branches of manufactures. Tt must be remembered that more
than 22,000,000 persons, or nearly one-fourth of the entire popula-
tion of the United States, depend directly for their support upon
manufacturing industries. The total investment in industrial plants
in this country is $24,000,000,000. and their annual product is
$28,000,000,000.
In this connection it is worth noting that the American Ex-
change National Bank has just summed up business conditions,
based upon the general outlook as reported by more than a thou-
sand representative bankers and business men. This information
is summarized as follows:
"Taking the country as a whole, it is in a prosperous condition.
There is convincing testimony as to this in almost every report from
which we quote. It looks as though we will continue gradually
into better times. The distribution of the money received from
abroad covers a great range of territory. Our farms, mines and
forests have all been drawn upon to supply the needed material.
People in all parts of the country must share in the profits derived
from our export trade. The railroad situation is improved and
O
I
T becomes more and more apparent that advertisements must
not be misleading in character.
State after State has passed laws which will make the path
of the man who misrepresents advertising more and more difficult.
The Legislative Committee of the Association of Piano Mer-
chants of America has gone squarely on record as opposed to mis-
leading advertising, and it has recommended that the association
use its influence toward the incorporation in the Federal statutes
of a strict law against all forms of false and misleading advertising.
All other associations are going into this matter broadly, so
that it is only a question of a comparatively little time before every
State will have, through its Legislature, passed laws making mis-
leading advertising illegal.
Some of the important publications have taken up a campaign
against deceptive advertising, notably The New York Tribune.
This publication has put an expert on the trail of various adver-
tisers and has published a series of articles showing up the methods
adopted by some local concerns in their advertising policy.
Such work no doubt has had a deterrent effect and it does not
require a great stretch of the imagination to see advertising in all
lines purified within the very near future. It certainly is a move
in the right direction, and piano merchants all over the country
should hail the day with joy when deceptive advertising is com-
pletely eliminated.
Abusive advertising, while not in the same class with deceptive
advertising, is harmful to a degree, and it is not conducive to build-
ing up the business establishment which adopts such a policy in any
community.
We have seen some kinds of publicity put forth by piano mer-
chants which amounts to nothing more or less than an attack upon
competitors. This kind is out of date, and should be abandoned
entirely.
There are still places in America where the coupon, prize
offering style of advertising is followed up, but not to any appre-
ciable extent.
We received a communication recently from a Montana dealer
in which he made some statements which are now being looked
into concerning the method of advertising adopted by a competing
house. Whether or not this move will bring them into conflict
with the Government authorities later on is yet to be determined.
Men cannot make all kinds of declarations in their advertising
matter as* in days of yore.
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I
N view of the successful campaign being waged against "fake"
advertising in the piano and other trades, and the passage of
remedial laws by many of our State legislatures, it is interesting to
note that the German law against unfair competition contains some
unique provisions. For example, it is not generally known that in
Germany such expressions in advertisements as "best and cheapest
place to buy," "sold at factory prices," etc., are inadmissible unless
true; that actions have been sustained against merchants who dis-
played signs "English spoken here" when the assertion was not in
accordance with fact; that it is unlawful to attempt to entice away
prospective customers standing in front of a competitor's windows;
and that the owner of a factory may be enjoined from describing
his establishment as "first class" when he pays his workers accord-
ing to the fourth class in the scale of wages of the local guild.
T
HE days of sudden opportunities for great business may be
over, according to logical business reasoning, but you can't
always tell. We thought the days of great wars were over and
suddenly all logic and reasoning had gone to the winds, and the
same thing may happen to business opportunities.