Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PUTTING THE TRADE HOUSE IN ORDER
(Continued from page 3)
and at the reports of the supply markets, will give the reason. He cannot figure ahead and fix prices and terms
on any basis that is likely to be permanent. His financial assets must be more or less liquid to enable him to meet
existing conditions, and when the manufacturer endeavors to keep his affairs in shape by insisting upon reason-
able terms from the retailer, the latter should recognize the precarious position of the manufacturer and work
with him instead of against him.
The manufacturer, in a large degree, is the keystone of the trade. If he is unable to continue business, the
retailer will have nothing to sell to the public, and the piano supply man can find no market for his goods.
Credits in the piano trade have been in a more or less unsatisfactory condition for many years past, and the
conditions confronting this country at the present time make imperative the necessity for placing the financial
status of the trade in general on a firmer, more secure, and more businesslike foundation than it has ever been
before.
faced facts and boldly took up subjects that although sometimes
not very pleasing, nevertheless required adjustment. The music
publishers and dealers followed the same course, and the talking
machine men will probably adopt the same policy at their meet-
ings in the near future.
When the several associations reach the point where they
will combine their forces, either through the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce or by some other arrangement, they will
be in a position to accomplish real things, not alone for their own
particular divisions of the trade, but for the industry as a whole.
The manner in which the trade organizations have endorsed and
arranged to combine their efforts in support of the campaign for
the advancement of music proves that united action is not only
possible, but is also practical.
another page of The Review, this week, there is told the
O N story
of a piano manufacturer who received a draft for a
substantial amount from a dealer in South America but who has
not yet received the order which the draft is to cover. South
American business has hitherto been a business of long credit
and if the habit of paying for goods, not when they are ordered,
but before they are ordered, is developed out of the war, it will
be a habit worth watching and cultivating.
T
HE death of Paul G. Mehlin, announced in The Review last
week, marks the passing of one of the best known of what
may be termed the "old school" of piano makers. Mr. Mehlin's
love for piano making was not built on a dollars and cents basis.
There was something deeper that held his interest. To him the
piano was something almost alive, something that would respoad
to the efforts of the maker, not alone as a profit producing
item, but also as tangible proof of accomplishment and of the
The
ability and knowledge that made it possible. Although numerous
changes in trade conditions have taken place since Mr. Mehlin
first started making pianos, although the piano has been taken
off the pedestal and transferred from the luxury to the necessity
class, he never lost faith in his ideals—ideals, we are glad to say,
that are cherished by his sons who now head the business which
he founded.
HE trade as a whole has apparently taken the matter of
T
the coming military draft too lightly, from a business point
of view, and has not stopped to consider the ultimate effect
upon business of the withdrawal from industry of a million or
more young men for Government service. The piano man should
exercise care in looking over the personnel of his establishment
and endeavor to lay plans that will protect him in a measure at
least if more than an ordinary proportion of his employes are
taken. He should be able to estimate properly those who through
physical condition or otherwise will probably be disqualified or
exempted from service, then a study should be made of the par-
ticular work done by the remaining members of the staff, and
plans laid for taking care of their duties in the event that they
are drafted. The business man in any line owes it to himself to
take precautions.
HE purchase by Christy Mathewson, the noted baseball
T
pitcher and manager, of a specially designed player-piano,
with pilasters and trusses carved in the form of a baseball bat
surmounted by a baseball, opens a new range of possibilities for
the sale of special pianos. The author can have his pilasters
carved in the form of a pen, a soldier can have a gun upended, the
automobile fan can have a pile of tires and so on. It looks like
Christy has started something.
Public
tnmfo
more than ever before, is keenly alive to extraordinary piano values.
That is why the
now leads the way to bigger sales. It attains maximum quality at mini-
mum price. Customers are impressed with this fact —and they buy.
STRAUBE
PIANO
235 S. Wabash Avenue, CHICAGO, ILL.
COMPANY
Factory, HAMMOND, IND.