Music Trade Review

THE
4
MUSIC
TRADE
(Regi.te«d in the U. S. Patent Office)
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
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Vol. LXXVII
NEW YORK. AUGUST 11. 1923
ITHE DEATH OF PRESIDENT
WARR~N
No.6
G. HARDING I
HE sudden death of President 'Warren G. Harding in San Fran­
cisco last VI eek met with deep regret from every citizen in the
country, for it meant the passing of a man who was not only per­
sonally popular as President but \vho, in his official capacity, worked
and planned earnestly for the gooe! of the country as a whole, Jnd
accomplished much despite the handicaps always met with in politi­
cal life.
The death of the President was a particularly sad blow to the
music industry, for he had gone on record on numerous occasions
during his Presidential career as to his love of music and his inter­
est in the propagation of the art. Un seve ral occasions he sent
messages of encouragement and support to members of the music
industries through th eir V;l riou s organ iza tions and in a sense he
seemed closer to the trade than any of hi s predecessors.
The late President's interest in music was shown in his earlier
days, for he not only played in the local band in Marion; 0., but
was instrumental in reorganizing the Citizens' Band in Marion,
which entered the S tate B;md Concert and captured the first prize.
President Harding, incidentally, played the tenor horn in that band.
During his service as President Mr. Harding watched with a
great deal of interest all legislation coming before Congress which
pertained to business. His many years of se rvice in the United
States Senate, over a period when some of the most important busi­
ness legislation the country has ever known was conceived and
enacted, gave him a familiarity with indu st rial and business ques­
tions which many of his predecessors in the \Vhite House lachd.
_\ccordingly, following his elevation to the Pre~idency, he kept
closely in touch with re, enue, tariff, railroad and other legislation
which had an effect upon th e business prosperity of the country.
v\-ith many pressing questions of importance to the business of
the country scheduled to come up in the next Congress, industry
will watch with a great deal of interest the at titud e adopted by
Calvin Coolidge, Vv'ho succeeds to the Presidency. In a statement
given out immediately after he was sworn into the position of Chid
Executive, Mr. Coolidge declared it would be his aim to carry out
the policies so ably laid down by President Harding. If he does so,
T
REVIEW
AUGUST
11, 1923
the business interests of the country can look up on th e next eighteen
months with some degree of equanimity, for lVIr. Harding's program
looked upon business as the sinews of the nation, fr0111 vvhich was
recruited the money and the men and material for the protection of
th e United States in case of need and which, accordingly, was en­
titled to as much protection and encouragement as was consistent
with the laws.
In the death of President Harding the country has lost a man
of noble character and high ideals, which made him an outstandin g
figure in the political arena. It is therefor e firml y to be hoped th at
his passing will not bring about any political upheaval that is likely
to prove dangerous to the country's interest, but tha t the policies
he inaugurated will be carried through to th e end of this Presi­
dential term at least.
CHARGING OFF THE OVERHEAD EXPENSE
E
LSEWH ERE in The Review this week are presented the sug­
gestions made to the automobile dealers by one of their mem­
bers regarding ways and means for determining a fair percentage
of depreciation in calculating valuations on automobiles offered in
exchange as part payment for new cars.
It is to be admitted that the plan outlined for th e automobile
dealers cannot be adop'ted in full by piano merchants, but th ere is
one point ther.ein that is worthy of earnest consideration and that is
a prompt deduction of 25 per cent from the value of the new car
to cover selling expense. In other words, should a new car be
offered in exchange the day after it was purchased and delivered,
it would suffer a depreciation in value of 25 per cent to cover the
cost of selling, after which a regular percentage of depreciation
would be charged off for the penoel of use.
This is a point that has not apparently occurred to the members
of the piano trade in the discussion of a depreciation schedule, but
it is one that is well 'North considering. It is seldom that pianos
are exchangea· yearly or semi-yearly as is often the case with auto­
mobiles, nor do they depreciate in value so rapidly owing to condi ­
tion s of use, but neve rtheless the cost of selling th e piano originally
might well be considered as an important item in calculating the
value of the used in strument.
SELLING USED PIANOS CO-OPERATIVELY
ORD comes fr om Cleveland of the se riou s di scussion among
W piano
dealers in that city of a plan for the establishment of a
store in that city operated on a co -operative plan by the local piano
merchants for the purpose of buying outright used pianos offered
to the various dealers in exchange for new instruments and then
reselling those used pianos on a cash basis.
This plan has been suggested and discussed on numerous occa­
sions, and was for a time carried out with indifferent success.
Howeve r, it will be interesting to observe whether or not conditions
that ex ist to-day will warrant the establishment of a co-operative
store for the handling of used pianos with a view to relieving indi­
vidual dea lers of the burden.
Certainly.. the 'e:x:pe rimen"t is well worth trying, and if it works
out e'v en with ' a fair measure of success in Cleveland it should
provide an exawple fOT the guiclanc~.Qf.the trade in the many other
centers where the used p'iano problem is growing increasingly
sei:ic)L{s. One thing in favor of the plan is that the handling of
used pianos represen ts a direct expense against the business whether
the dealer stores and resells them himself or whether he bears his
share of th e cost of a co-operative sto re.
BUYING AUTOMOBILES AND SELLING PIANOS
I
NFORM .'\TION has j LIst been received that four piano salesmen
in the piano department of Bamberger's, the large Newa rk de­
partmen t sto re, have purchased automobiles of their own during
July. On furth er in quiry, it is learned that eight out of the eleven
men on the sales force now own cars- which, by the way, are not
Fords, but Nashes, Buicks, Hudsons, etc. The significance of thi s
is obvious.
If, in a time of the year when the piano business is usually '
quiet and the price of a utomobiles is conversely at a maximum, four
men in the same organ izat ion find it possible to annex private pleas­
ure cars, a most disturbing item to any man's f~mily budget, then
there is much to say for the piano business in N~wark in the Sum­
mertime -to say nothing of th e auto1ll obil e husiness.