Music Trade Review
Issue: 1920 Vol. 70 N. 5 - Page 3
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, JANUARY 31, 1920
The Leaders in the Player-Piano Industry Are Realizing That the Problem
of Increased Production Cannot Be Successfully Solved Until greater Stand-
ardization Has Been Adopted Generally in the Manufacturing Processes
The men who gather next week at the an-
nual conventions or at the Music Show and
compare notes regarding conditions in the play-
er manufacturing industry will, probably b'e
nearly unanimous in the conclusion that a good
deal of their difficulties in making prompt de-
livery has been due to the simultaneous impact
of many conflicting forces, but that all of these
the greatest is the growing difficulty of get-
ting the pre-war standard of unit production
back into general acceptance and practice.
In a word, your manufacturer will tell you
that he has to utilize the services of a greater
number of men to turn out a given number of
player actions or player-pianos than he had
to use in 1914. Why is this, and what are we
going to do about it?
It is plain that we must do something about
it. We cannot expect anything like a normal
condition of affairs in the industry until we
have done something about it. All previous in-
dustrial history has taught us to believe that
the progress of time means always a parallel in-
crease in production per man, that with the
march of time, new processes and new machin-
ery must continually enlarge the productive
capacity of each worker.
For the time we appear to have encountered
an opposite tendency. The workers are ap-
parently not producing so mufti as they used
to produce. And there are excellent reasons
for this state of affairs.
The Question of Mental Attitude
There is- no use in threshing out again the
reasons for the existence of a peculiar post-
war mental attitude on the part of the workers
throughout this and other lands. The fact re-
mains that this attitude exists and that the
whole world is extremely desirous of getting as
much as it can get with the least possible
effort. It is plain that no amount of adding to
numbers of men or to the size of buildings will
remedy a fundamental trouble like this, which
is based upon war-weariness and will not en-
tirely subside for a long time to come. The fact
is that our production problem must be viewed
in a new light. We must make up our minds
to inaugurate a new order of things. The old
era of human machinery is passing out. The
new era of human control is coming in.
Scientific Method
In other words, the industry must make u>p
its mind that the requirements of production
to-day call for the installation of processes
which shall take away the more grinding ele-
ments of labor from the human worker and shall
place the emphasis on his mental power. The
problem of production lies here and its solu-
tion means the entrance of scientific method
into our factories.
The reason why it is hard to get good men
in our industry in the factories is that there is
not sufficient opportunity for the individual to
exert his own powers of originality or his own
natural mechanical skill. Our manufacture is
still carried on in a haphazard manner, so that
each individual finds himself able to make less
for himself out of his time than someone else
with no more skill can m a k e in some other
mechanical work. Here is a weakness in our
industry which attacks our production problem
at its root. If we are to restore harmony and
bring about a condition of affairs in which the
workers shall be contented we must begin to
introduce into our processes scientific methods
for the purpose of enabling the human indi-
vidual to make a better and more profitable use
of his time.
Standardized Material
There are a thousand angles to this proposi-
tion. The piano industry in general, includ-
ing its supply branches, has always been a small
individual industry. Supply men know that
the lack of standards has been one of the prin-
cipal causes for low production, exclusive of
any war conditions. No industry so little as
ours seems to understand the desirability of
standardization on all details and on all essen-
tials. The player industry, to take the example
closest to hand, presents a wonderful field for
the introduction of modern scientific method
from the start. Here we have a complete ex-
ample of what is meant by an individualistic
industry. The multitude of different patterns,
the dependence upon measurements and fitting
and a hundred other features which need not
be mentioned, will show what is meant.
Now the root of scientific method is not in
schemes for bribing men into setting a pace
they cannot keep up. It is in schemes for stand-
ardizing, for doing away with constantly chang-
ing bases of measurements and for abolishing
the use of human muscles for any purely ma-
chine-like work. The beginning of such pro-
cess must be sought in the ability to purchase
raw material at constant specifications, and
then in the use of this material according to
standardized patterns. The whole object is to
avoid unessential differences, to do everything
of rough labor by machinery and to limit the
function of the skilled worker to that of con-
trol.
This does not at all mean the abolition of
hand work or the substitution of hard mechani-
cal patterns. It (foes not at all mean that con-
version of every faction in the industry into a
sort of small Ford plant. But- it does mean
the adoption of instruments of precision for the
making of specifications. It does mean elimi-
nating the unessential in the way of variation
and pattern. It does mean the elimination of
guess work. It does mean the elimination of
time-wasting and inaccurate fitting, where pat-
terns and instruments of precision may take
their place.
Now all of this ultimately rests upon the
recognition and co-operation of the piano maker.
If our task were to discuss piano making
itself, there is much we could say on this same,
text. Now it is enough to say that if the player
industry is to solve permanently its production
problem it must make the trade it supplies un-
derstand that the day of useless and stupid
catering to the peculiarities and whims of every
individual must cease to exist.
The wise men of the player industry realize
the facts we have here set forth. They also
realize that to get the piano men to see them,
too, is perhaps their hardest task.
OPEN NEW VICTORY STORE
Complete Line of Music Rolls and Musical
Goods Generally to Be Handled in Attractive
New Quarters in Brooklyn, N. Y.
()n Saturday, February 7, the Victory Music
Stores Co. will open a new and attractive store
at 1603 Pitkin avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., carry-
ing a complete line of Victory, Master and Vic-
tory Superba music rolls, records, popular and
classical music, musical instruments, phono-
graphs and pianos. The decorators are now
completing their work, and it is expected that
this store when completed will be one of the
most attractive in the large chain of stores
operated by this company. This firm has oper-
ated a store nearby, at 1607 Pitkin avenue,
for the past few months. The Victory Music
Stores Company have been recently appointed
as wholesale distributors for the Victory, Mas-
ter and Superba music rolls and are now nego-
tiating with several prominent piano manufac-
turers for agencies. This company has other
New York stores at 663 Sixth avenue and 102
West Forty-second street, and on January 24
entered Philadelphia through opening an at-
tractive store at 1035 Chestnut street. Alfred
Tannenbaum, well known throughout the field,
has been appointed manager of all of the Vic-
tory Music Stores.
PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, JANUARY 31, 1920
The Leaders in the Player-Piano Industry Are Realizing That the Problem
of Increased Production Cannot Be Successfully Solved Until greater Stand-
ardization Has Been Adopted Generally in the Manufacturing Processes
The men who gather next week at the an-
nual conventions or at the Music Show and
compare notes regarding conditions in the play-
er manufacturing industry will, probably b'e
nearly unanimous in the conclusion that a good
deal of their difficulties in making prompt de-
livery has been due to the simultaneous impact
of many conflicting forces, but that all of these
the greatest is the growing difficulty of get-
ting the pre-war standard of unit production
back into general acceptance and practice.
In a word, your manufacturer will tell you
that he has to utilize the services of a greater
number of men to turn out a given number of
player actions or player-pianos than he had
to use in 1914. Why is this, and what are we
going to do about it?
It is plain that we must do something about
it. We cannot expect anything like a normal
condition of affairs in the industry until we
have done something about it. All previous in-
dustrial history has taught us to believe that
the progress of time means always a parallel in-
crease in production per man, that with the
march of time, new processes and new machin-
ery must continually enlarge the productive
capacity of each worker.
For the time we appear to have encountered
an opposite tendency. The workers are ap-
parently not producing so mufti as they used
to produce. And there are excellent reasons
for this state of affairs.
The Question of Mental Attitude
There is- no use in threshing out again the
reasons for the existence of a peculiar post-
war mental attitude on the part of the workers
throughout this and other lands. The fact re-
mains that this attitude exists and that the
whole world is extremely desirous of getting as
much as it can get with the least possible
effort. It is plain that no amount of adding to
numbers of men or to the size of buildings will
remedy a fundamental trouble like this, which
is based upon war-weariness and will not en-
tirely subside for a long time to come. The fact
is that our production problem must be viewed
in a new light. We must make up our minds
to inaugurate a new order of things. The old
era of human machinery is passing out. The
new era of human control is coming in.
Scientific Method
In other words, the industry must make u>p
its mind that the requirements of production
to-day call for the installation of processes
which shall take away the more grinding ele-
ments of labor from the human worker and shall
place the emphasis on his mental power. The
problem of production lies here and its solu-
tion means the entrance of scientific method
into our factories.
The reason why it is hard to get good men
in our industry in the factories is that there is
not sufficient opportunity for the individual to
exert his own powers of originality or his own
natural mechanical skill. Our manufacture is
still carried on in a haphazard manner, so that
each individual finds himself able to make less
for himself out of his time than someone else
with no more skill can m a k e in some other
mechanical work. Here is a weakness in our
industry which attacks our production problem
at its root. If we are to restore harmony and
bring about a condition of affairs in which the
workers shall be contented we must begin to
introduce into our processes scientific methods
for the purpose of enabling the human indi-
vidual to make a better and more profitable use
of his time.
Standardized Material
There are a thousand angles to this proposi-
tion. The piano industry in general, includ-
ing its supply branches, has always been a small
individual industry. Supply men know that
the lack of standards has been one of the prin-
cipal causes for low production, exclusive of
any war conditions. No industry so little as
ours seems to understand the desirability of
standardization on all details and on all essen-
tials. The player industry, to take the example
closest to hand, presents a wonderful field for
the introduction of modern scientific method
from the start. Here we have a complete ex-
ample of what is meant by an individualistic
industry. The multitude of different patterns,
the dependence upon measurements and fitting
and a hundred other features which need not
be mentioned, will show what is meant.
Now the root of scientific method is not in
schemes for bribing men into setting a pace
they cannot keep up. It is in schemes for stand-
ardizing, for doing away with constantly chang-
ing bases of measurements and for abolishing
the use of human muscles for any purely ma-
chine-like work. The beginning of such pro-
cess must be sought in the ability to purchase
raw material at constant specifications, and
then in the use of this material according to
standardized patterns. The whole object is to
avoid unessential differences, to do everything
of rough labor by machinery and to limit the
function of the skilled worker to that of con-
trol.
This does not at all mean the abolition of
hand work or the substitution of hard mechani-
cal patterns. It (foes not at all mean that con-
version of every faction in the industry into a
sort of small Ford plant. But- it does mean
the adoption of instruments of precision for the
making of specifications. It does mean elimi-
nating the unessential in the way of variation
and pattern. It does mean the elimination of
guess work. It does mean the elimination of
time-wasting and inaccurate fitting, where pat-
terns and instruments of precision may take
their place.
Now all of this ultimately rests upon the
recognition and co-operation of the piano maker.
If our task were to discuss piano making
itself, there is much we could say on this same,
text. Now it is enough to say that if the player
industry is to solve permanently its production
problem it must make the trade it supplies un-
derstand that the day of useless and stupid
catering to the peculiarities and whims of every
individual must cease to exist.
The wise men of the player industry realize
the facts we have here set forth. They also
realize that to get the piano men to see them,
too, is perhaps their hardest task.
OPEN NEW VICTORY STORE
Complete Line of Music Rolls and Musical
Goods Generally to Be Handled in Attractive
New Quarters in Brooklyn, N. Y.
()n Saturday, February 7, the Victory Music
Stores Co. will open a new and attractive store
at 1603 Pitkin avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., carry-
ing a complete line of Victory, Master and Vic-
tory Superba music rolls, records, popular and
classical music, musical instruments, phono-
graphs and pianos. The decorators are now
completing their work, and it is expected that
this store when completed will be one of the
most attractive in the large chain of stores
operated by this company. This firm has oper-
ated a store nearby, at 1607 Pitkin avenue,
for the past few months. The Victory Music
Stores Company have been recently appointed
as wholesale distributors for the Victory, Mas-
ter and Superba music rolls and are now nego-
tiating with several prominent piano manufac-
turers for agencies. This company has other
New York stores at 663 Sixth avenue and 102
West Forty-second street, and on January 24
entered Philadelphia through opening an at-
tractive store at 1035 Chestnut street. Alfred
Tannenbaum, well known throughout the field,
has been appointed manager of all of the Vic-
tory Music Stores.
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