Music Trade Review

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JULY 5, 1919
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
11
REVIEW
ARMY OF EDISON DEALERS A TTENDS
VICTORY CONVENTION IN NEW YORK
Constructive Addresses on Trade Problems, Present and Prospective, Outstanding
Features of Fifth Annual Gathering of Edison Dealers Held Last Week
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The fifth annual convention of Edison deal-
ers, also known as the Victory convention, took
place at the Hotel Commodore, New York City,
June 24 to June 27, inclusive. It was the most
successful affair of its kind ever staged, both
from the standpoint of attendance, which ran
up to nearly 1,500, and in practical results ac-
complished during the business sessions. When
one stops to consider that the Edison conven-
tion was better attended than all of the piano
trade conventions recently held in Chicago put
together there is reason to look upon this gath-
ering as one of the greatest co-operative ac-
tivities of the music industry. All sessions, for
the first time, were open.
On Thursday morning, June 26, the convention
started with a popular concert by one of the
finest Edison orchestras. Thomas J. Leonard,
general sales manager of Thomas A. Edison,
Inc.,
opened the Victory convention with a
hearty welcome to the great host of Edison deal-
ers who had migrated to New York to join in
the convention proceedings. He introduced H.
E. Blake, Edison dealer of Philadelphia, as the
chairman of the convention, who acquited him-
self with distinction.
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better than you ever thought of making the
C-150.' We went through the entire line in
that way.
Inferior Work Rejected
"What happened? Of course, everybody said
'Yes,' and promised certain deliveries on cer-
tain dates. I suppose it was hard for the cabi-
net manufacturers to make their men and fore-
men realize that the war was over. At any
rate, the cabinets did not come through the way
we wanted them, and they were rejected. Liter-
ally thousands were thrown baok by our inspec-
tors. The cabinet men said: 'You claim you
are in urgent need of cabinets, that your deal-
ers are suffering for goods. There is only one
way to get cabinets and that is to lower your
standards and relax your inspection. You will
bankrupt us and put yourselves out of business if
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| William Maxwell Outlines
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|
Future Factory Plans §
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The business program opened with an ad-
dress by William Maxwell, vice-president of
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., the subject of which
was "What the Factory Plans to Do for You."
Mr. Maxwell contrasted the present situation
with that of a year ago by quoting the head-
lines from the New York Sun which appeared
the opening day of last year's convention and
the headlines from that day's issue. He told how,
while the United States was at war, the Edison
organization had wholeheartedly and volunta-
rily devoted its efforts toward war work and ex-
plained how this patriotic but not-to-be-regretted
policy had handicapped the Edison Co. as re-
gards production when comparison is made with
certain other manufacturers of the talking ma-
chine industry who did little or nothing to
help Uncle Sam win the war. He then went
on to say:
"However, I did not come here to prate of
patriotism or offer it as an excuse. There is
a temporary shortage of certain types of Edi-
son phonographs. What is being done to relieve
that shortage and when will it be relieved? Those
are the questions you want answered.
The Temporary Shortage
"The war is over, but you notice that the
hotels are still stingy with sugar, butter and
bread. The war is over, but most of the de-
partment stores continue to give us war-time
service. The war is over, but smokers are still
dodging behind buildings to get a light from
matches of 'war-time quality.'
"During the war, as you all know, it was dif-
ficult to get skilled labor in factories, if the fac-
tories were not engaged in war work. In some
of our cabinet factories we were obliged to close
our eyes to certain things that we would not
have tolerated in normal times.
"When the armistice was signed we said to
our cabinet people in effect: 'We have been
easy with you, because we knew what you were
up against. Now conditions are different. You
must meet specifications 100 per cent, on the
Chippendale. The new Sheraton is a real piece
of furniture. It's got to be made and finished
William Maxwell
you don't.' We said to the cabinet men: 'If
that is the case we might as well begin now to
get ready to go out of business, as the Edison
Co. will not lower its standards or relax its
inspection one iota.'
"We sent a neutral expert to several of our
cabinet plants to make an unprejudiced investi-
gation. He reported: 'You are enforcing the
most rigid standards that were ever in effect in
any furniture factory, but in view of the superb
design of your cabinets I believe you are doing
right'
"One of the best-known retail furniture deal-
ers in the country said to our general purchasing
agent recently: 'You folks are preparing to make
the Edison phonograph the finest piece of fur-
niture in a man's home. We handle some pretty
high-priced furniture, but nothing that we are
as particular about as you are about your cabi-
nets.'
Production Approaching Normal
"Well, we finally won out. It took courage
—it has given me a lot of new gray hairs—to
refuse cabinets when we knew you needed
them so badly, but it was necessary. To-day
I believe every Edison cabinet factory is work-
ing to our standards in good faith. Cabinets are
now flowing in fairly good quantities and the
flow is increasing every week. July should
bring material relief and August should place
us almost abreast of our orders. We have put
our own expert production men in several of
the outside cabinet factories and they are ac-
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complishing good results. We are doing every-
thing possible to co-operate with our cabinet
manufacturers. Recently we settled a strike
which threatened to put three of our cabinet fac-
tories out of business for a month or more. We
are sparing no effort and no expense to increase
cabinet production and the results will soon be
apparent.
"Our present cabinet specifications are so
high that wood-working concerns which pre-
viously had supposed they could not afford to
consider the manufacture of phonograph cabi
nets have discovered, as the Aimones did, that
they have never made anything finer than Edi-
son cabinets, and accordingly the ranks of our
cabinet makers are being recruited by concerns
whose work will correspond to that of Aimone.
There is no furniture maker in the world to-day
who is too exclusive or high class to make Edi-
son cabinets.
No Shortage of Motors
"You have noticed that I speak only of cabi-
nets in connection with the shortage of Edison
phonographs. There is no shortage of motors
and reproducers. We are making twice as many
motors and reproducers as we ever made be-
fore. Our factory organization was never so
efficient as now. The morale of our workers
was not lowered during the war. Most of the
war work which we did called for very fine
workmanship. We did some work that other
people couldn't do and I think the Government
came to rely on us a great deal. I recall the
case of a certain manufacturer who is inter-
nationally celebrated for the supposedly fine
character of his work, but who fell down in-
gloriously on a certain implement of warfare
which called for a high degree of precision. The
Government asked us if we thought we could
handle anything so fine as this particular device.
We replied that while there were lots of things
too coarse for us to make, there was nothing
too fine for us, and we proved it quickly, to the
Government's great relief and satisfaction.
"We are very proud of our manufacturing or-
ganization. We have good men. They feel that
they are getting a square deal and they are
happy. I don't believe any agitator could inter-
est them for a second. I don't believe you need
to worry about strikes at the Edison manufac-
turing laboratories.
Disc Re-Creation Production
"I suppose I should say a word about disc
Re-Creation production. All of you know by
this time that we can make plenty of Re-Crea-
tions. Production is not as yet scientifically
distributed, for the very simple reason that the
moulds give varying outputs. A new mould is
being introduced which will overcome this dif-
ficulty, and also provide a product of remark-
ably uniform quality.
"So much for what we are doing in the way
of producing goods for you, and I find I have
consumed nearly all of my time with that sub-
ject, without getting down to the topics about
which I expected to talk. Fortunately Mr.
Fuller is to talk to you to-morrow in detail
about our various plans for dealer co-opera-
tion.
"Already you know about the Diamond Am-
berola co-operative advertising campaign. The
dealer who doesn't push the Diamond Amberola
this fall is overlooking a good thing and every
dealer who is pushing the Amberola will cer-
tainly want to get in on the co-operative adver-
tising. Now for the new plans:
(Continued on page 12)