Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
"The business of religion is now giving place to the religion
of business; and'the trade paper is the evangel of the true broth-
erhood of co-operation and self-respect.
"Show me the company a man keeps and I will tell you what
he is.
"Show me a man who subscribes to and reads his trade paper
and you will show me a man who will 'show me'—a man alive,
alert, ambitious, educated, successful. He has learned to ask, to
seek, and to find."
manufacturers and merchants have not risen to
A MERICAN
their opportunity to capture the import trade of neutral
countries, despite the handicap of war against European export-
ers, according to O. P. Austin, of the foreign trade department
of the National City Bank. Addressing the New York chapter
of the American Institute of Banking recently, he said:
"We have showp a moderate increase in our exports to all
the neutral sections and most of the neutral countries, but the
growth has been little more than normal.
"V$ry little of this increase in our exports to the neutral
European countries can be expected to be permanent, and as for
neutral countries in other parts of the world, we have evidence
that every country now at war will at the return of peace enter
upon an active campaign to regain any part of their foreign trade
which we may have absorbed.
"It must be admitted that our manufacturers have not risen
to the opportunity offered by conditions in the neutral countries
during the last two years. They have devoted their attention
to the momentary opportunity offered by the war demands of
Europe, rather than to plodding, persistent effort to obtain for
themselves a proper proportion of the neutral markets opened
to them by the war."
There is considerable basis for this arraignment of our manu-
facturers by Mr. Austin. We are not doing as much as we might
in connection with the development of foreign trade—we mean
legitimate trade, not war needs.
Despite the terrible catastrophe in Europe, it will be noted
that Germany, England and France have not neglected prepara-
tions for a larger trade with foreign countries. As a matter of
fact, despite the war, England has made a showing in legiti-
mate exports of goods, other than war necessities, that empha-
sizes how indifferent our manufacturers have been to the great
opportunities that present themselves in the matter of foreign
trade.
It is true we have made a tremendous showing in exports
of war materials, but we are not doing as much new business
in legitimate merchandise as we ought to with those countries
hitherto so largely supplied by Germany and England. An oppon-
tunity that will never rise again has presented itself to the
manufacturers of this country, and up to date they have not
taken advantage of it as they should. It is not yet too late to
get busy—but it will be too late when the war in Europe ends.
Of course, this situation may be attributed in a large degree
to increased domestic activities, due to the increased prosperity
of this country.
The purchasing public has kept our factories busy, and
manufacturers have had little time to accumulate a surplus to
provide for foreign needs. But if we intend to play a part in
the world's commerce, provision should be made now, for the
time will come when we will need foreign markets, and when
that time arrives, we may find that we are shut out.
URING the winter months with their variable temperature,
D
there is always more or less complaining on the part of dealers
that pianos are not received in proper condition—that the varnish has
lost its lustre, or is checked; in fact, complaints of this nature are
numerous. This is particularly and especially true of fine case work,
and it is pretty difficult to adjust matters of this kind in a satisfactory
manner.
A piano merchant in a Western state recently wrote The
Review that a shipment of pianos had reached him from the East
which, when opened up, were actually perspiring. The moisture
on them looked as the dew on the grass on a summer morning. The
cases had been frozen, with the result that the finish of the instru-
ments was in bad shape when opened up after a long period on
the road, delayed, moreover, through congested freight conditions.
Pianos are manufactured and finished in factories where the
temperature ranges from seventy-two to seventy-five Fahrenheit.
They are absolutely perfect in finish when shipped, but they are
packed in railroad cars which oftentimes take from two to four
weeks in reaching their destination. They may leave New York
when the temperature is around the fifties, and reach a Western
city when the temperature is below zero.
Now in a matter of this kind dealers must use common sense.
Instead of placing these instruments in moderately heated quarters to
undergo the thawing process, they mostly always remove them into
warerooms where the temperature is that of summer heat. The
pianos naturally begin to thaw and perspire, the varnish suffers,
and dealers begin to complain. Now complaints along these lines
are entirely without reason. Piano manufacturers can do a great
many things, but they have not as yet found out any way in which
they can regulate the climate of the various states through which
piano shipments pass during the winter months.
It might be possible to remove the source of these complaints if
there were enough, steam-heated cars to go round, but there are not,
and dealers should use extreme caution in removing pianos from
ice-cold cars to warm rooms. Better let them stand for a few days
in a cold, or moderately cold storage room adjoining the wareroom
so that they may become seasoned gradually. The sudden moving
from a cold car to a hot room would ruin the finest finish in the world.
GETTING DOWN TO PLAIN PLAYER FACTS
The education of ihe public along player lines is a necessity for the expansion of the player business.
There is no doubt of that; and education of the piano merchants and salesmen is also a vital necessity,
because through them will come a powerful force in the education of the public; and right here we wish to
remark that we have produced a line of books upon the player-piano which comprehensively covers the
entire player situation.
In this respect this trade newspaper stands alone, for it has been the principal source from which player
information has been available for piano merchants and salesmen for a period of years. Our latest book,
"The Player-Piano Up to Date"
is the best of the series. It contains upwards of 220 pages of matter bearing directly upon the player.
Every piano merchant and piano salesman should have a copy of this book within easy reach. It
gives to readers a fund of information not obtainable elsewhere.
It contains a series of original drawings and a vast amount of instructive and educational matter, as
well as a detailed description of some of the principal player mechanisms.
It costs $1.50 to have this book delivered to any address in the United States, and your money will be
refunded if you are not satisfied with the book after examination. No one yet has availed himself of this
opportunity. Foreign countries, 15c. to cover extra postage, should be added.
Estate of EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Publisher
373 Fourth Ave., New York
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