Music Trade Review
Issue: 1920 Vol. 71 N. 6 - Page 3
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
VOL. LXXI. No. 6
REVIEW
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. Aug. 7, 1920
sineI
S 2 SS P ^ 8 r
Vocational Training in the Piano Field
T
H E idea of establishing- vocational training in the piano trade in a big way and of providing technical
training on a more thorough but less extensive basis appears to be dormant, if it is not dead entirely.
There has been some attention given to the question of vocational training, and the New York Piano
Manufacturers' Association has a committee which has been working with the public school autho'rities
to the end that a practical course in piano building be included in the curriculum of the several city trade schools,
largely through the medium of support given by the manufacturers themselves, but there the matter rests.
The trouble seems to be that there are a number of manufacturers who regard vocational training
through the medium of public schools, or schools supported by private contributions, as a rather slow process
—irritatingly slow—when trained men are so badly needed in numerous factory departments. Among the
manufacturers there is being shown considerable favor to the suggestion made by Government officials some
time ago that a system of vocational training be incorporated in the factory whereby an employe could earn a
living wage in one position while being trained for a specified number of hours each week for a higher posi-
tion in the organization. This process is.not quite so slow, and provides a new worker for the factory even
though he is only an untrained laborer.
Workers, as well as employers, appear to feel that vocational training is somewhat slow, and many,
employes, almost the majority it would seem, appear to have no inclination to devote time and energy to train-
ing for better positions when, with a scarcity of help, they can demand such high wages for unskilled labor.
As one manufacturer put it, to make vocational training successful and popular and to develop it on
a scale that will bring results means not only that the manufacturer jriust be a man of vision, and willing
to offer financial as well as moral support to the plan, but that the employe—the worker—must likewise have
vision and the sense to understand that although there are more jobs than men just now the time will come when
his permanent employment will depend upon whether o • not he has training in some particular line of work.
When the manufacturer rejects various fixed plans for vocational training, and decides to fall back
on the old method of bringing untrained men into the factory and then advancing them as their knowledge of
various processes is developed through their own initiative or with the assistance of a more or less competent
foreman, he is faced with the problem of keeping the man after he has been trained. It has been found on more
than one occasion that the employe's ambition grew faster than his knowledge, with the result that he was
inclined to negotiate with rival concerns to obtain the recognition he felt was due him for his work. Summed
up, the question of vocational training rests as much, or more, with the worker than it does with the employer.
No set of rules will give the worker ambition or the desire to work ahead to better himself. The apprentice
system, as enforced by the typographical unions, should offer some ideas to committees on vocational training
in this trade, even though the cases or the circumstances are not exactly parallel.
The matter of technical training is the one that offers real possibilities for the consideration of those
who have the future of the piano manufacturing industry at heart, for upon the thought and the support given
this problem by the manufacturers depend in no small measure the scientific progress to be made by the trade
in the years to come. The time is past for building pianos haphazard, and by guess or rule of thumb. The
laws of science governing the materials that go into the piano, the construction of the instrument, and the tonal
results thereof have been studied and are now understood by the leading technical men of the trade. The young-
ster cannot grasp these laws at the bench or in the factory office, but requires the training offered by a college,
or technical school, as a foundation upon which to build his working knowledge of piano making. This idea of
technical training is a matter that should receive constant and earnest consideration, if the trade is to advance
as it should.
THE
VOL. LXXI. No. 6
REVIEW
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. Aug. 7, 1920
sineI
S 2 SS P ^ 8 r
Vocational Training in the Piano Field
T
H E idea of establishing- vocational training in the piano trade in a big way and of providing technical
training on a more thorough but less extensive basis appears to be dormant, if it is not dead entirely.
There has been some attention given to the question of vocational training, and the New York Piano
Manufacturers' Association has a committee which has been working with the public school autho'rities
to the end that a practical course in piano building be included in the curriculum of the several city trade schools,
largely through the medium of support given by the manufacturers themselves, but there the matter rests.
The trouble seems to be that there are a number of manufacturers who regard vocational training
through the medium of public schools, or schools supported by private contributions, as a rather slow process
—irritatingly slow—when trained men are so badly needed in numerous factory departments. Among the
manufacturers there is being shown considerable favor to the suggestion made by Government officials some
time ago that a system of vocational training be incorporated in the factory whereby an employe could earn a
living wage in one position while being trained for a specified number of hours each week for a higher posi-
tion in the organization. This process is.not quite so slow, and provides a new worker for the factory even
though he is only an untrained laborer.
Workers, as well as employers, appear to feel that vocational training is somewhat slow, and many,
employes, almost the majority it would seem, appear to have no inclination to devote time and energy to train-
ing for better positions when, with a scarcity of help, they can demand such high wages for unskilled labor.
As one manufacturer put it, to make vocational training successful and popular and to develop it on
a scale that will bring results means not only that the manufacturer jriust be a man of vision, and willing
to offer financial as well as moral support to the plan, but that the employe—the worker—must likewise have
vision and the sense to understand that although there are more jobs than men just now the time will come when
his permanent employment will depend upon whether o • not he has training in some particular line of work.
When the manufacturer rejects various fixed plans for vocational training, and decides to fall back
on the old method of bringing untrained men into the factory and then advancing them as their knowledge of
various processes is developed through their own initiative or with the assistance of a more or less competent
foreman, he is faced with the problem of keeping the man after he has been trained. It has been found on more
than one occasion that the employe's ambition grew faster than his knowledge, with the result that he was
inclined to negotiate with rival concerns to obtain the recognition he felt was due him for his work. Summed
up, the question of vocational training rests as much, or more, with the worker than it does with the employer.
No set of rules will give the worker ambition or the desire to work ahead to better himself. The apprentice
system, as enforced by the typographical unions, should offer some ideas to committees on vocational training
in this trade, even though the cases or the circumstances are not exactly parallel.
The matter of technical training is the one that offers real possibilities for the consideration of those
who have the future of the piano manufacturing industry at heart, for upon the thought and the support given
this problem by the manufacturers depend in no small measure the scientific progress to be made by the trade
in the years to come. The time is past for building pianos haphazard, and by guess or rule of thumb. The
laws of science governing the materials that go into the piano, the construction of the instrument, and the tonal
results thereof have been studied and are now understood by the leading technical men of the trade. The young-
ster cannot grasp these laws at the bench or in the factory office, but requires the training offered by a college,
or technical school, as a foundation upon which to build his working knowledge of piano making. This idea of
technical training is a matter that should receive constant and earnest consideration, if the trade is to advance
as it should.
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