Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
to the retail trade at large designed to inform
merchants of the successful carrying out of
merchandising methods such as group piano in-
struction in warerooms and piano playing con-
tests, as they have been successfully employed
ia numerous cities.
1
"Close contact with the National Bureau for
the Advancement of Music," said Mr. Loomis,
"has resulted in some very effective co-opera-
tive work being done for the benefit of the
entire trade. The National Association contrib-
uted $1,000 a few weeks ago to the Music In-
dustries Chamber of Commerce for the special
purpose of assisting in carrying forward Na-
tional Music Week activities of the National
Bureau for the Advancement of Music. In no
way, however, has the co-operative activity of
the executive office of the National Associa-
tion of Music Merchants with the Bureau for
the Advancement of Music been more con-
spicuously demonstrated or the possibility for
promotional work been more strikingly indi-
cated than in the work which has been pro-
gressing with the Music Supervisors' National
Conference.
"The non-commercial character of the Bu-
reau's activities, being purely altruistic and edu-
cational, has made it possible to obtain action
by the music supervisors which could have been
accomplished in no other way. A committee on
instrumental affairs of the Conference was ap-
pointed some time ago, and C. M. Tremaine of
the Bureau was made secretary. A division of
this committee met in New York last January,
the expenses of the members being paid by the
National Association of Music Merchants. The
committee decided to call itself the Piano Sec-
tion of the Committee on Instrumental Affairs.
It drew up a manual or guide for inaugurating
piano-class instruction in the public schools
which was published by the Bureau, and which,
together with the report of the Committee on
Instrumental Affairs, was adopted unanimously
at the Convention of the Supervisors in Chicago
last month.
"I was invited to sit in at all the committee
meetings as a guest. The members of the com-
mittee were very strongly opposed to including
a list of methods or a description of them in
the manual or guide, and no list is included in
the manual prepared by the Bureau, but the
Bureau will be prepared to give all supervisors
making inquiry a list of all courses then known
and the Bureau invites publishers of all piano-
class courses to list them with the Bureau.
"The National Association promotion depart-
ment will continue to assist whole-heartedly in
this work, using funds obtained by the sale of
the new promotion stamp to members and non-
members. The members of the Piano Section
of the Committee on Instrumental Affairs in-
dicated a desire to meet in September and I
assured them that the Merchants' Association
would finance such a meeting as it did the first
one."
Mr. Loomis also told briefly of the plans al-
ready made by the Merchants' Convention Com-
mittee for the National Convention to be held
the week of June 4 in New York. He said the
committee has built what it calls a million-dollar
program for the business sessions. In securing
the acceptance of invitations to speak at the
sessions from men of prominence in other in-
dustries the Committee will make possible a
program that could not be bought, if it were
for sale, for thousands of dollars in the case
of such speakers.
Prior to Mr. Loomis' address President Sid-
ney H. Morecroft reviewed briefly the progress
made by the body during the first year of its
existence and later Secretary Glenn L. Chesbro
made his report to the effect that the member-
ship, consisting of thirty active and eleven asso-
ciate members at the first meeting, had increased
during the year to a total of seventy-six.
The nominating committee then presented the
following slate of officers for the ensuing year
which was adopted unanimously; Honorary
President, Sidney H. Morecroft; president, K.
K. Weeks, Binghamton; first vice-president, J.
J. Glynn, New York City; second vice-president,
B. E. Neal, Buffalo; secretary, Kenneth Marks,
Elmira; treasurer, F. W. Bush, Penn Yan, and
directors for three years, M. J. Slason, Malone;
F. H. Scudder, Albany, and Harry N. Leiter,
Syracuse.
Before the close of the meeting a resolution
was adopted urging all members of the Associa-
tion to attend the national conventions in New
York in JUIK* and pointing out some of the
Hermann Irion
many advantages to be derived from the ses-
sions as planned. It follows:
Whereas, the New York State Music Mer-
chants' Association is in hearty accord with the
splendid efforts which are being made to make
the coming National Conventions of all branches
of the music industries the most interesting, the
most valuable and constructive in the long and
notable history of association g-itncrings. and
Whereas, the New York State Music Mer-
chants' Association believes that every music
merchant should avail himself of the ixtraord'-
nary opportunity which will be afforded to ob-
tain new merchandising ideas and to acquire the
valuable knowledge which comes from the
closer contact with his fellow men, and
Whereas, there never has been a time in the
history of the industry and trade when co-op-
eration between the merchants was so vitally
needed as at present, and
Whereas, there will be at convention head-
quarters most elaborate displays of musical in-
struments of all kinds, therefore be it
Resolved, that the New York State Music
Merchants' Association assembled places itself
on record as urging upon its members the im-
portance of attending the conventions at the
Hotel Commodore in New York next June, dur-
ing the week beginning with the fourth, and let
it be further
Resolved, that this Association respectfully
urges every State and local association and
every State Commissioner in States where there
?.re no chartered State associations to put its
best-efforts forward in arousing interest in this
notable conclave, and be it further
Resolved, that a copy of this resolution be
sent to the General Convention chairman with a
request that it in turn be transmitted to the
trade press.
The Convention Banquet
The convention banquet proved to be one of
the outstanding social functions of this second
annual gathering of the New York State Music
Merchants' Association. Sidney H. Morecroft,
retiring president of the association, acted as
toastmaster for the occasion, at which there
were several guests, including a number of
ladies.
The evening's entertainment commenced with
ensemble singing under the direction of Charles
P. Morse. Other features of a particularly de-
lightful program of entertainment were the
Florence Hartman Singers and the Clara
Schroeppel Ballet Dancers, both of which were
MAY 5, 1928
well received. The entire banquet was broad-
cast by Station WSYR, t'lus carrying the mes-
sage to thousands and thousands of homes. The
broadcasting was arranged through the courtesy
of the Clark Music Co., of Syracuse, who gave
over their time on the air for this purpose.
Rev. Hubert S. Wood, well-known clergyman
of Syracuse, was the first speaker. Dr. Wood,
in the course of his remarks, paid an eloquent
tribute to music, which he characterized as
setting the tempo of life. He told several hu-
morous stories.
Other speakers who brought interesting mes-
sages to the association banquet were Hermann
Irion, president of the Music Industries Cham-
ber of Commerce, and Clarence J. Roberts,
president of the National Association of Music
Merchants.
Address of Hermann Irion
Hermann Irion, president of the Music In-
dustries Chamber of Commerce, struck the key-
note of "Bigger and Better Music Business" in
his address. Disclaiming any idea of telling
the music merchants how to run their business,
and pointing out that there is no hard and fast
rule for that purpose, the speaker stressed the
importance of the collective or associated way
of conducting business in order that the com- .
bined minds and talents of the trade might be
welded into a powerful agency for the further-
ance of its common interests.
"Our industry has been somewhat slow in
recognizing the undoubted value of a trade asso-
ciation," stated Mr. Irion, "but that it is be-
coming more particularly understood among
music merchants and manufacturers is shown
by your presence here in Syracuse for two days
during which it is your purpose to discuss the
problems confronting you in order to find ways
and means to overcome difficulties and improve
conditions wherever possible."
The speaker pointed out that there are many
problems confronting the industry which are
possible of solution only by concerted action,
giving as an instance the constructive work
accomplished by the Legislative Committee of
the Chamber of Commerce in obtaining the re-
peal of the musical instrument excise tax, the
copyright question which seriously affects the
phonograph industry, and its fight on retroac-
tive action in instalment income matters.
"There is much other indispensable work,"
stated the speaker, "which an association is
qualified and called upon to do, and which no
individual can carry on. Among this is the col-
lecting and tabulating of reliable data concerning
the progress and growth of the industry and its
relative importance in the economic structure
of our country. It must exert a watchfulness
over the conduct and manner in which business
is carried on in its own line and use its in-
fluence to prevent or correct abuses by unwhole-
some elements that might tend to injure the
industry in public estimation and retard its
development by Unethical practices and finally,
but most important of all, it must have an ef-
fective organization to stimulate and promote
a constantly growing desire on the part of the
consuming public of the wares produced and
sold by its members, because in the finality
the question is bound to be uppermost in all
your minds—'What is my association doing
for me?' and the answer must always be 'It is
helping my business,' and the proof must be
tangible."
Mr. Irion then briefly sketched the work
which had been done by the Chamber, with
special emphasis on the Bureau for the Ad-
vancement of Music, declaring: "Let me tell
you that in your Chamber you have an inval-
uable agency for , 'Bigger and Better Music
Business,' that its activities are only now b&-
ginning to reap the seed sown during the past
decade and that, with your continued and ever-
increasing support, still bigger and better things
can be accomplished. We are actually only at
the threshold of a new era in our industry. At
no time in the history of our nation has music
so universally enthralled our people. From a
single symphony orchestra not much more than