Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
RE™
;PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President,
T. B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 375
Fourth Ave., New York; Secretary, Edward Lyman Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WILSON D. BUSH, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
L. E. BOWERS, Circulation Manager
Executive and Reportorlal Stall
EDWARD VAN HARUNGEN, V. D. WAL"SH, E. B. MUNCH, LEE ROBINSON, C. R. TIGHE,
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, SCOTT KINGWILL, THOS. W. BRESNAHAN, A. J. NICKLIN.
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NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered as second-class matter September 10, 1892, at the post office at New York, N. Y..
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
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REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill, Inc.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
PI aval* Plan
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tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
f
are dealt with, will be found in another section of
this paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal
Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal—Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982—5883 MADISON SQ.
Connecting all Departments
Cable Address: "Elblll, New York"
Vol. LXX1II
NEW YORK, JULY 16, 1921
No. 3
R
THE ASSOCIATION IDEA IS GROWING
T
HE development of the music trade association idea on the
Pacific Coast, which has resulted in the organization of new
associations in Portland, Ore., and other cities, together with
renewed activities of existing trade bodies in San Francisco, Los
1921
Angeles and other cities, is a matter that should prove gratifying to
the officials of the National Association, for it will undoubtedly mean
the growth of the association spirit in the Far West.
In the East and Middle West there have for a number of years
existed local associations of greater or less strength, but up to the
past couple of years only certain individuals of the trade west of
the Rockies have shown any activity in association circles. As it is
believed that the development of local organizations tends to make
for the strength of the national bodies, the spreading of the local
association idea from coast to coast should prove a distinct factor
in solidifying the industry.
KEEPING UP EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
I
T is a well-established business maxim that when business falls 20
per cent sales efforts should increase 50 per cent. That is a
very good policy as far as it goes, but, like so many other ideas,
it should be amplified. If a man has the power to increase his efforts
50 per cent, then he has not been doing the business he should have
done when times were more nearly normal. It stands to reason
that there must be something wrong somewhere if a sales staff can
suddenly do 50 per cent more work simply because business happens
to be dull.. If that increase in efficiency were put into effect when
business was normal the profits of the firm would be great enough
to tide over the period of depression. The merchant who allows
his sales force to give him only half the service which it is
capable of is losing money every day that this condition exists.
At the present time, with the demand for real salesmanship
in the music trades, merchants, as a general rule, have increased
their efficiency to heights unheard of a few months ago when busi-
ness came to the store in such quantity that sales effort was of
secondary importance. They have really reached their stride and
have noted the satisfactory results which have rewarded their aggres-
sive policies. The merchant who is desirous of expansion and
worth-while profits will continue to demand the same standard of
efficiency when conditions return to a normal basis. He will demand
that his salesmen be salesmen and not merely order takers. Thus
will be avoided a rusty organization should business again face
critical times.
THE COMPULSORY PATENT LICENSE
WHOLESALE VS. RETAIL PRICES
ECENTLY there appeared in one of the trade journals of the
music industry an advertisement of a certain piano manufac-
turer which included a side by side listing of the wholesale and
retail prices of instruments made by this particular manufacturer.
The Review has consistently opposed the publication of whole-
sale prices, and our reason for holding such a viewpoint must be
obvious to all who have considered the question thoroughly. The
difference between the wholesale and retail price in the piano field
is such that the trade cannot afford to let a direct comparison of
the two slip into untoward hands.
We know, from specific observation, the prospective buyer of
a piano uses such data to beat down the prices set by the retail piano
merchant and to brand the retail piano merchant as a profiteer.
Retailers have used such data in vying with each other. Comparisons
of this kind have also been used to the disadvantage of the retail
piano merchant by mail-order houses selling musical instruments.
Of course, everyone familiar with the overhead expense of
retail piano merchants knows that, while the gross margin of profit
appears large, the net profit is in fact never more than nominal. It
is also a business maxim that where turnover is slow the retailer's
working margin must be large. But to attempt to explain matters
of this kind to a piano prospect is extremely difficult, and to expect
a competing mail-order house to show why its cost of selling is Qn
a par with that of the retail dealer is expecting rather too much.
Hence, we believe it the best policy to keep a comparison of
the wholesale and retail prices in the piano field out of print, if
only for the unfair practices made possible if such data are placed
in the hands of the unscrupulous trade member.
JULY 1.6,
T
H E bill introduced recently into the Senate by Senator Stanley,
to amend the patent laws with a view to making it compulsory
for the foreign owner of an American patent to put his invention
into actual operation and produce the article in reasonable quantities
in the United States within two years from the date of issue of the
patent, is meeting with considerable opposition from manufacturers
and others who see in the move an attempt to interfere with the
principle of patent monopoly maintained in this country.
According to the bill, if the foreign patent holder fails to manu-
facture, the patent becomes subject to compulsory licenses on which
royalties must be paid according to a fixed schedule, ranging from
10 per cent of the manufacturing costs for the first $100,000 worth
to 1 per cent on all amounts in excess of $800,000. It is the feeling
of those who have looked into the bill thoroughly that, although the
measure might be calculated to stimulate new industries here to a
certain degree, it will really prove an entering wedge to disrupt the
present patent system of the country and prove a boomerang. It is
insisted that similar patent laws adopted in other countries have in
every instance failed to accomplish the result anticipated.
RECOGNITION FOR THE TRADE PRESS
H
ERBERT HOOVER, as Secretary of Commerce, has recently
asked the business publication editors of America to assist him
in obtaining a survey of the general status of standardization in the
varied industries, and at the same time to offer him the suggestions
of expert editors as to the possibility of extending this standardiza-
tion in certain lines for the benefit of national industry and commerce.
The recognition which Mr. Hoover has thereby extended to the
business papers of the country is highly significant of the authentic
way in which the modern trade journal is regarded by the Federal
Government, as well as by this eminent member of the President's
Cabinet. The Review, as a member of the National Conference of
Business Paper Editors, is gladly, and' with a certain measure of
pride, responding to this and other calls from Mr. Hoover.