Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
FEBRUARY 1,
1919
Validating of War Contracts Will Aid Music Trade
Washington Correspondent of the Review Outlines Developments Which Seem
to Indicate That the Government Will Validate Wartime Contracts, Thereby
Insuring Stability in General Business Circles, and Also Increasing Trade
WASHINGTON, D. C, January 29.—Probably no
other one development will do as much to bring
about readjustment in the music trades as the
validating of the informal contracts made by
the United States Government incident to carry-
ing on the war. Millions upon millions of dol-
lars are involved and, more than that, the whole
structure of business confidence is affected. The
situation has been growing more acute week
by week, but a solution may be said to be at
hand.
If remedial legislation has not been
finally enacted by the time that this issue of The
Review reaches its readers it probably will be
very soon thereafter because the U. S. Senate
ahd House of Representatives are not in reality
so far apart on the proposal as might be sup-
posed from the difference in the bills in the re-
spective bodies.
As many men in the music trades have reason
to know, the cancelation of war contracts has
been disturbing enough to business conditions,
but that factor has been overshadowed in its
unsettling influence by the doubt, uneasiness
and uncertainty that have existed ever since the
Comptroller of the Treasury exploded his bomb-
shell to the effect that Uncle Sam would pay no
money on contracts that did not conform to
the letter as well as the spirit of the law. This
brought to a halt with a jolt the plans of the
War Department for "adjustments" on the in-
numerable contracts where material is in proc-
ess.
The unexpected turn of affairs has left
"up in the air" numerous piano manufacturers
who have been working on war contracts, and,
worse yet, the effect has been communicated to
not a few firms in the industry who have no
war contracts, but who are more or less de-
pendent for business upon the firms whose
money has been thus held up. Many plants are
loaded up with material which they cannot move
pending the straightening out of this tangle,
and scores of firms have their working capital
so tied up that they, figuratively, cannot move
hand or foot. The net result has been to pre-
vent almost all firms, save those with the most
ample financial resources, from getting back to
their regular lines of production.
This annoying mix-up has been due, as some
of our readers doubtless appreciate, to the
eagerness of the War Department to speed up
deliveries on equipment and supplies when the
war was at its height. With imperative need
for haste and yet more haste the war managers
did not, in every instance, go through all the
prescribed routine in making a contract.
In-
stead orders were placed verbally—as, for in-
stance, by long distance telephone, by telegraph
and by letter. Even when a manufacturer had
a first-hand conference with Government pur-
chasing officials it was customary to settle only
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the main points of the contract, and then the
business man would hurry away to get the
operation started, leaving the execution of the
formal contract to be completed later—perhaps
two or three months later, as often happened.
This short-cut method of providing for Uncle
Sam's war needs was in full cry when the armis-
tice was signed and when, immediately there-
after, the Treasury Department served notice
that it would make no payments on the great
numbers of contracts that were accounted in-
formal in one way or another.
To business men the wheels of whose com-
mercial machinery has been locked this past
two months by this snarl of red tape it must
appear that Uncle Sam is hopelessly and scan-
dalously slow in doing the right thing. It must
be recorded, however, that there are officials
in Washington who have fully appreciated the
gravity of the situation and have urged Con-
gress to get busy, as is attested by the predic-
tion of Assistant Secretary of War Crowell that
unless relief is quickly given there will be a
wave of bankruptcy in this country.
Few of the business men that are embarrassed
by Uncle Sam's tardiness in paying his bills
have the slightest doubt that they will get their
money eventually. What the average business
man in this predicament has chafed at is the
prospect of having his case drag through the
Court of Claims for five, ten or twenty years.
He wants his money now in order to get back
to his regular line of production and distribution.
Indeed, in business circles, certain misgivings
were prompted when the Senate amended the
liouse bill by providing for an arbitration body
to be known as the War Contracts Appeals
Commission, the misgivings being due to a fear
that the effect of the exercise of the power of
review by this tribunal would be to delay settle-
ment.
At the War Department, however, it is in-
sisted that it does not so much matter what sort
ot a scheme is approved for validating the in-
formal contracts so long as the business deals
are legalized. The theory here is that in the
great majority of cases there will be no dis-
pute or difference of opinion anyway, and that
the big thing is to get the permission of Con-
gress to "allow us to pay what we owe," as the
Assistant Secretary of War puts it. He figures
that in nine-tenths of the cases there is no dis-
agreement whatever, but merely the need for
authority to go ahead and settle a just obliga-
tion.
Furthermore, if any contractor is dissatisfied
with the amount allowed him he can forthwith
collect 75 per cent, of the amount awarded to
him—which advance will enable him to get his
regular business under headway—and then he
can at his leisure sue the United States in the
Court of Claims for such further sum over and
above that 75 per cent, as he considers himself
entitled to. In the music trades the advent of
a definite system of adjustment and contract set-
tlement will be especially welcome in that it
will be made possible to arrange for the dis-
position of material stocks that were accumu-
lated at some of the instrument factories in an-
ticipation of war needs.
ACTIVITY IN BUFFALO TRADE
S. J. Butler, manager of J. N. Adam & Co.'s
piano department, met Mr. Godowsky at the
train and after a luncheon at the Hotel Iroquois
took the noted musician for an auto ride. He
was accompanied by C. Clay Cox, of J. W.
Martin Piano House, Rochester, and Mr. Ewell,
one of Rochester's best organists. He played
the Knabe piano, which he uses exclusively.
George McNally, of the Estey Piano Co., of
New York, was a caller this week.
The Koenig Piano Co. has been doing a suc-
cessful business in January. Mr. Koenig was
on a trip to Boston, where he ordered thirty-
six players which he selected while going
through the factory of the Hallet & Davis Co.
Callers at the Koenig piano store included Mr.
Mayer and H. C. Bay, of Chicago; also Mr.
Tidmarsh, interested in the Pathe phonograph.
Among the new officers of the Buffalo Retail
Merchants' Association are: R. C. Hudson,
president of J. N. Adam & Co., piano and Vic-
trola dealers; Edward L. Hengerer, president
of the William Hengerer Co., Victrola dealers,
and T. M. Gibson, of Adam, Meldrum & Ander-
son Co., Pathephone dealers.
In page advertisements placed in the Buffalo
newspapers by the Victor Talking Machine Co.
this point was emphasized, "Don't blame the
dealer for the shortage of Victor products—the
Government needed us."
Post-Holiday Trade Has Maintained Excellent
Volume—Godowsky Recital Attracts Much
Attention—Honors for Local Piano Men
BUFFALO, N. Y., January 29.—Buffalo piano men
are still talking about their 1918 holiday rush,
and even right up to the end of their lives they
will probably refer occasionally to this activity.
So far as their year-end trade was concerned,
they consider it a fitting finish for a year that
will stand out in bold relief on history's pages.
"During- the Christmas selling, Buffalo's piano
stores were as busy as the cigar or department
stores," said a local piano merchant. "You
would expect to see plenty of people in a cigar
store, buying 6, 12 or 15 cent smokes, because
it takes an army of customers to produce a
volume of trade at such stands, where each
individual purchase is small.
"At a piano or talking machine store it's dif-
ferent. Not many customers are needed to
swell the day's receipts to the desired propor-
tions. During the holidays of 1918, however,
many customers rushed in on us, and no mat-
ter how we kept plugging we could hardly
handle the drive. As war was over the people
seemed eager to express their enthusiasm in
some way and many of them used the best
means at their disposal, that of buying players,
pianos or talking machines.
"You have often seen level-headed men lose
their reserve at a ball game, shout and throw
their hats in the air. Similar exhilaration was
displayed by our customers during holiday time.
They showed good fellowship to the dealers,
and were not disposed to shop around or pull
down prices or—kick. They also had money
in their pockets."
Leopold Godowsky, world-famous pianist,
gave a recital at Elmwood Music Hall, Tues-
day evening, January 21, before a large au-
dience. Mr. Godowsky arrived in Buffalo on
Tuesday over the New York Central from
Rochester, where he gave a. splendid recital.
JANSSEN
The Most Talked About
Piano in the Trade
BEN H, JANSSEN
Manufacturer
82 Brown Place
New York