Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President, J. B. Spillane,
373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President. J. Raymond Bill, 373 Fourth Ave.,
New York; Secretary and Treasurer, August J. Timpe, 373 Fourth Ave., New York.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
J. RAYMOND BILL, Associate Editor
AUGUST J. TIMPE
Business Manager
Executive and Reportorial Stall:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, CARLETON CHACE, L. M. ROBINSON, WILSON D. BUSH, V. D. WALSH,
W H . BRAID WHITE (Technical Editor), E. B. MUNCH, A. J. NICKLIN, L. E. BOWERS
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
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E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, Consumers' Building,
Telephone, Main 6950.
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LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
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REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill, Inc.
PlaVPP Piann anil
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Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
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Tpphnfoal f l o n a r l m o n t c
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
I C l l l l U i a i VKpal IHIKlllS. d e a l t w j t h > w fn be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900
Diploma ...Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1902
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal
Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982—5983 MADISON SQ.
Connecting all Departments
Cable address: "Elbill, New York."
NEW
YORK,
MAY 1 2 , 1917
EDITORIAL
HERE have been a number of instances recently where
T manufacturers
and merchants in other lines of business
have referred to the piano or player-piano in a manner that
serves to cast discredit upon those instruments and to arouse,
whether intentionally or not, a certain amount of antagonism
that will do no good to the industry as a whole.
Recently there came into the hands of The Review an adver-
tisement of Endicott-Johnson & Co., of Endicott City, near
Binghamton, N. Y., published in the Binghamton Press, and
which was referred to by C. M. Tremaine, director of the National
Bureau for the Advancement of Music, in his address before the
Connecticut Association. The advertisement read as follows:
A PLAIN STATEMENT OF FACT
As long as the world's madness continues—as
long as two-thirds of the world are seeking to de-
stroy rather than produce, the world's food supplies
will go higher and higher in cost, will grow shorter
in supply, and harder to secure. Do not look for nor
EXPECT any lower living costs or easier condi-
tions. On the contrary prepare in every way you
can think of for higher cost living and rougher .
times.
Stop fooling away your money. Begin to save.
Don't buy anything you can get along without.
Make the old shoes and the old clothes wear a little
longer. Get along, for a while at least, without the
new piano, without refurnishing t?he old house.
Get busy and plant all the backyards and vacant
lots in your neighborhood. Prepare for hard times.
Save and not spend. Economize and not waste.
We are not writing this to frighten anybody,
but to urge our neighbors and friends, especially
the workers, to look facts in the face. Get ready for
higher cost living, sure to come. For ourselves, we
REVIEW
hope and expect to run, as usual, full. We hope and
expect to pay as much or better wages. We hope
and expect to make living conditions better and
easier, but living is bound to be higher—conditions
are bound to be harder, as long as the world is at
war.
The italics are our own but the whole attitude of the com-
pany as shown in its advertisement is most reprehensible. A
great volume of buying, whether confined to one line or scat-
tered over several lines, cannot but affect every industry in the
country. Endicott-Johnson & Co. themselves, who it is under-
stood employ several thousand people, declare that they plan
to keep going with full force.
Should they succeed in discouraging the purchase of com-
modities other than those they manufacture, they are simply
curtailing the buying power of the men engaged in producing
those other commodities, and therefore lessening the demand for
every product other than they have a desire or demand for.
It has also been alleged that the arguments presented in the
advertisement were also enclosed in the pay envelopes of the
company's employes, and that local dealers have been called upon
in several instances to take back pianos purchased by such
employes, on the plea that owing to the high cost of living they
were afraid they would be unable to make their payments.
Why the purchase of pianos should be singled out for con-
demnation is hard to understand. The piano offers entertain-
ment, amusement and solace in time of trouble, and offers a
genuine means of economy by providing entertainment in the
home for which, were it not for the piano, the family would be
compelled to go out and spend money.
No sane man would advise wastefulness. At the same time
no sane man would advise false economy—a spirit of niggardli-
ness that if it became general would simply disrupt the entire
industrial fabric of the nation. It is just as essential for the
welfare of the country that every line of business go on with
as little interruption as possible, as it is for the armed forces
to be properly provided for.
Another advertisement that comes to the attention of The
Review and which uses the player-piano as an argument in
connection with another line of business is published by Frank-
lin Simon & Co., men's clothiers of New York. The advertise-
ment, whose general outline resembles the better class of piano
advertising, had at its top an illustration of a pianist holding at
a distance the lady of the house bearing a music roll in her
hands. The first paragraph read : "Cranks. Better a crank at the
piano than a crank on it—better an hour with a master than
three with a mechanism—better a touch of human melody than
a perforated cycle of song." The essence of the advertisement
came in the second paragraph, which read: "We are cranks on
hand-tailoring." The talk was then shifted to the Simon Co.'s
products.
Probably the genius who wrote the advertisement has the
misfortune of dwelling next door to one of those player-piano
owners whose conception of good music is that of the type pro-
duced by a hurdy-gurdy and who considers the expression levers
on his player simply as an ornament.
AST fall The Review sensed that there was an unmistakable
L
desire for a local association of retail piano men to represent
the interests of the trade in Greater New York, and immediately
took up the work of crystallizing this desire. The opinions of
various trade members regarding the association idea were pre-
sented through the columns of The Review, which resulted in
a meeting being held at the Murray Hill Hotel to discuss the
matter. The committee appointed at this meeting worked so
earnestly that a fortnight ago the Piano Merchants' Association
of New York came into being, with E. Paul Hamilton as
president.
So far so good, but it is no time to rest on the oars. It has
been said that there are already too many associations in the
trade. There are too many if they are all going to lie dormant,
but there is room for a live association that maps out a de
campaign, and engages in both corrective and constructional
work. Let the Piano Merchant's Association of New York repre-
sent them in more than the name.