Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THORNS OR ROSES—WHICH?
(Continued from page 3.)
sense. New York to-day is the money market of the world. For the first time the dollar of Uncle
Sam has become the money yardstick by which the world's currency is measured.
Success of any kind is due to the exercise of certain mental qualities, almost all of which may
be easily acquired.
The most important of all is a strong will power, for without it one could scarcely hope to
succeed.
As a practice to strengthening the will, nothing could be better than the act of doing things that
require a certain amount of mental pressure.
Agreeable things are cheerfully performed. In pleasant duties one acts almost intuitively,
because there is no mental opposition to the act; but disagreeable tasks—tasks which we fear—are
usually approached in the wrong mental attitude, and we develop a feeling of fear which defeats
success every time. It is always thorns for the man full of fear.
Now, then, if we fear a certain defeat in business, it would be a mighty good practice to perform
our tasks regardless, and fear will be shortly overcome.
By training the will men acquire a mastery over themselves so that they are able to make an
impression upon the world, and will power is a powerful factor in the success of a business
enterprise.
The man who is developing will power is cultivating the roses which will bloom later and charm
him with their fragrance.
Why not develop the will power as applied to business development? The conditions are favor-
able, and if the individual will cast out fear from his heart and go ahead and perform his business
tasks with determination and vigor he will win. No doubt of it.
With the country so rich in varied resources, success is always
possible for the individual. Likewise defeat — always defeat for the
man who can see nothing but thorns in his path when there are roses
to be culled at every step. Which is it, thorns or roses?
Approve Review's National Advertising Campaign.
T
HE Review seed has been scattered on fertile soil and is begin-
ning to show results.
It will be recalled that last year three State associations passed
resolutions favoring the position taken by The Music Trade Review
in the advocacy of a national policy towards pianos taken in ex-
change, or, what The Review colloquially termed, "trade-ins."
This was a high compliment to this trade paper, because no
other paper to our knowledge had ever taken up in detail and han-
dled the trade-in issue before The Review, and months of advocacy
of the new policy toward traded-in stock resulted in the three State
associations of piano merchants indor.-ing T h : Review policy.
It is known that the editor of The Review for months past has
suggested a broad educational advertising campaign which should
be formed for the purpose of promoting the education of millions
of people in the entertaining powers of the piano and player-piano.
This paper has urged the creation of a fund of approximately
a quarter of a million for the purpose of advertising T H E piano—
not any particular piano—but a strictly impersonal campaign con-
ducted for the purpose of reviving interest in the piano, by impress-
ing upon readers everywhere the necessity of owning a piano for
personal and family enjoyment.
Communications received at this office from leading manufac-
turers have favored this move, and it will also be recalled that this
plan has been suggested by no other trade publication.
Last week at the convention of the Ohio Piano Merchants'
Association, held in Cincinnati, J. G. Corley. the recently elected
president of the National Association of Piano Merchants, indorsed
the policy of The Review in the strongest possible terms. He said:
"Tt is a fact that we are drifting away from the piano, and it
is a fact that the talking machine is being pushed very strenuously.
You can go up and down any street and find the pianos on the second
floors, with the main floor windows devoted to talking machines,
that is, in nine out of ten ca-es. Let us do both. Don't kill the
game. We have lived on it for a long time and it can be continued
in a prosperous manner.
"Here's my proposition. I would like to see a national cam-
paign of advertising conducted three years on the player-piano and
we will eliminate all reference to names "of manufacturers. It won't
be Smith's, Jones' or any other, but when you pick up a publication
have the ads read to the effect that 'you should have a player-piano
in your home,' and then tell them something about the piano. As
soon as that national advertising campaign has started and it soaks
in, you are going to find the piano business come back and the
player following up that demand, and you will find it entirely dif-
ferent, and I hope some day we will do it."
It will be seen that The Review advocacy of this important
matter has received the serious attention of piano merchants who
realize the good that would come to them through a revival of in-
terest in the piano and player-piano, and that this is the logical way
to bring it about—to create a national educational fund.
President "Reinkamp of the Ohio Dealers' Association also in-
dorsed The Review policy when at the conclusion of President Cor-
ley's address he said that he believed in the sam ' policy of creating
a fund for the purpose of advertising the player-piano, and dealers
and manufacturers should subscribe to a national advertising cam-
paign in magazines, or something of that sort, to place the piano in
its proper position before the public.
Resolutions were also passed favoring the policy outlined.
When Philip T. Clay, former president of the National Asso-
.ciation of Piano Merchants, prepared his annual report for the July
. convention, he called attention to the serious phase that is now con-
fronting piano merchants, and he said that he was not prepared to
sav that concerted action should not be taken bv the association to
stimulate public interest in creating a desire on the part of the pur-
chasing public to own a piano, and later in his statement he touched
upon the very arguments which had been advocated by The Review.