Music Trade Review

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AUGUST 2,
13
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1919
OurTECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WTLMAM BRAID WHITE
THE MANPOWER OF THE TRADE
It has been said that the American people
have been accustomed in all the years before
the great war to think in terms of localities.
The hope is being expressed now, more and
more, that they may come to think in terms
of nations, and, perhaps, some day in continents
and hemispheres. For it is evident that the
world is no longer to be considered as com-
posed of permanently separated ethnic and geo-
graphic elements, but, on the contrary, is rapid-
ly becoming quite completely interdependent as
to all its parts.
What is true of the world is true of each
nation, and what is true of a nation is true, by
parallelism, of those microcosms which within
it more or less faithfully reflect its organization
and functions. All manner of societies within
the body politic are in themselves reflections of
the entire body. What describes the greater
describes likewise, in principle, the lesser. In-
dustries furnish an excellent example of the
small self-contained organic body, having func-
tions, activities and peculiarities of all sorts very
much like those of the great society whereof
it is an integral part. Industries in these mod-
ern days are organized functions, activities
which co-ordinate the efforts of multitudes of
individuals and which possess a genuine life of
their own. They, too, like the great society of
which they form part, must learn to adjust
their corporate thinking capacities to vision
larger and more nearly world-embracing.
On the thinking done by the individual de-
pends the action of the society, and upon the
action of society depends the action of the great
society, of the nation and of the family of na-
tions. The necessity for better and more ad-
vanced thinking by the individual member of an
industrial organism is therefore not a matter
at all of hypothesis, but is a demonstrable neces-
sity, needing only simple and clear statement'.
If the day has passed when the individual so-
ciety or group can deny its relation to, its de-
pendence on and its debt towards the nations, so
also is it no longer possible for the individual
man to say that he is under no obligation to his
industrial or social group. We who read the
pages of this paper are members of the group
which may be called the music industry of the
United States. Our problems, as members of
this group, are pressing upon us. The industry
to which we belong needs our best attention
and our best brains. It is in no little trouble
in respect of some of its most important and
completely necessary activities. It calls on each
URN YOUR STRAIGHT
PIANOS INTO PLAYERS
T
Individual pneumatic stacks, roll
boxes, bellows, pedal actions,
expression boxes.
Manufacturers, dealers, tuners
and repair men supplied with
player actions for straight pianos.
JENK1NS0N PLAYER ACTION CO., Inc.
912-914 Elm St.
Cincinnati, O.
FAUST SCHOOL OF TUNING
fimno, Player-Piano, Pipe and Reed Organ Toning and Re-
wiring, a l u Regulating, Voicing, Varniihing and Polishing
This formerly was the tuning department of the New
England Conservatory of Music, and Oliver C. Faust was
head of the department for 20 years previous to its dis-
continuance.
Courses in mathematical piano scale construction and
drafting of same have been added.
Pupils have daily practise in Chickering & Sons' factory.
Year Book sent free upon request.
27-29 GAINSBOROUGH ST.. BOSTON. MASS.
of us individually for assistance and for en-
couragement. Let us give them.
The Two Elements
We face to-day, among other problems, two
which are so completely interwoven with each
other as to make any treatment we give either
of them wholly applicable to both. To put the
matter succinctly, we face an enormous expan-
sion of demand for the products we are en-
gaged in making, and along with this an equally
serious shortage of skilled labor wherewith to
carry on the production. Let us look at both
these problems with a single eye and from a
single viewpoint.
When an industry gets into a condition such
as the second of which I now speak and which
is so lamentably familiar to us all it is fair to
assume that there is something wrong with its
functioning. When we come to trace up the
causes for the present shortage of manpower in
our industry we shall find, if I mistake not, that
a world-view instead of a parochial or institu-
tional view is needed. The moment we come
to think in terms of nations and of the world in-
stead of in terms of our own industry only we
shall begin to see why our manpower situation is
serious, why it must be solved, both for our own
sake and for the world's sake, and, lastly, why
it is bound up with the simultaneous and extra-
ordinary demand for our products which in it-
self so complicates the entire situation for us.
The World's Manpower
The world is short of manpower generally.
Skilled workers to the extent of hundreds of
thousands, literally, have given up their lives for
causes in which they believed, and which have
had their judgment at Armageddon. The world
is now intensely weary of war and intensely
desirous to turn towards peace thinking and
peace production. That it does not at once so
turn is due to the fact that the cessation of
military operations shifted the grounds of the
warfare, but did not stop it. That warfare has
transferred itself to the field of economics and
social relations. What we call Labor feels an
importance it never before completely realized
and is determined to be heard with deference by
the rest of society. The lack of skilled labor
and the disruption of the world's normal produc-
tive machinery have caused a great shortage in
essentials such as food and clothing, so that
prices, assisted by the manipulations of those
who have thought only of profiteering, have
soared to unprecedented heights. Simultane-
ously the remaining skilled workers, perceiving
their importance and appreciating the enormous
demand for their, work, seek to take advantage
of the unusual economic situation. Hence they
make elaborate demands as to pay and condi-
tions. Hence, in spite of rising prices, they
prosper, and hence, too, they buy pianos!
Our Conservative Trade
Now, the piano business is one which even
before the war was distinguished for its con-
TUNERS
«.,„«„,
BASS STRINGS
Special attention given to the needs of the tuner and the dealer
OTTO TREFZ
3110 Fairmount Avenue
Philadelphia Pa.
servatism. The science of production has not
been brought to any high state of perfection in
our industry and owes little, if any, of its pres-
ent position to anything piano makers have con-
tributed. We have always been inclined to do
things in old-fashioned ways. We still depend
mainly upon a sort of antiquated semi-craftsman-
ship system, which requires an ever-increasing
number of skilled workers in very delicately spe-
cialized branches, but which neither allows for
the advance of productive science in modifying
the technical processes nor provides new re-
cruits for the army of workers who are main-
taining the old traditions.
Tt is, therefore, perfectly obvious that since
the shortage of skilled workers in all branches
of activity is itself one of the main conditions
of our present abnormal trade prosperity in re-
spect of demand exceeding supply we are deal-
ing with a non-local, and, in fact, worldwide
state of affairs. Nothing we can do to help our
own shortage will slacken the demand for pianos,
for the demand is worldwide. Yet if we do not
find ways of increasing our output we shall find
taste turning away from us, and with it demand,
too. We must set our own house in order first,
yet we must keep in mind the fact that our
manpower problem cannot be solved without
reference to the world's problem.
In a word, there is no sense in trying to re-
cruit our ranks from those of other industries.
Skilled work is so badly needed in every in-
dustry that there is simply no chance of getting
a new supply of skilled woodworkers from other
trades who may be turned into piano makers.
We have before us two possible roads. One
leads towards a system of recruiting and train-
ing young men entering industrial life for our
service. The other lies in the direction of im-
proving our technical processes so as to make
individual skill more valuable.
The Human Equation
Neither of these wholly important and, indeed,
vital means towards our industrial salvation can
be made of the slightest value unless we also
consider the human nature of the workers them-
selves. No fair-minded reader will disagree with
me when I say that the piano worker has not
been up to the mark in past days in respect of
his intelligence and general effectiveness as a
citizen. To a large extent this has been due
to the very old-fashioned conditions of the
trade, but even so we cannot admit either neces-
sity or profit in its continuance. We need to
attract into our excellent and fascinating indus-
try more native-born Americans. We need to
make it attractive to our younger men. We
need men more intelligent and better citizens.
And to these ends we need, above all things,
that our industry should show a prospect to
clever mechanically-minded young men of an
attractive and worth-while future. In a word,
(Continued on page 14)
The Pioneer School
with 800 Successful
Graduates in the Field
Address, Box 414
VALPARAISO, IND.
The TUNER'S FRIEND
Old style bridle strap
New style all leather bridle St.
BRAUNSDORF'S ALL LEATHER BRIDLE STRAPS
Labor Siring; Monse Proof; Guaranteed all one lena-th
Send for Samples.
Prices on Request
Fells and Cloths in any Quantities
GEO. W. BRAUNSDORF,
Braunsdorf's Other Specialties
Paper, Felt and Cloth Punch-
ings, Fibre Washers and Bridges
for
Pianos, Organs and
Player Actions
Office and Factory:
430 East 53rd Street, New York