Music Trade Review

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ment which prompts us to say that one never need worry
about the success of the business in the future.
Chance for Action Regulating Firm in East
o
[ R prediction last month that grand pianos will be
very scarce this year was borne out recently when
a certain manufacturer decreed that his firm will
make no more grands until after January 1st next year.
This means of course that other manufacturers feel very
much the same way and also that used grand pianos will
have to be sold to meet grand demand. One problem that
has presented itself recently is the inability of many dealers
who sell used grands to get grand actions regulated and put
in shape for resale. This applies also to spinet actions.
Therefore, there is an opportunity for someone to make a
specialty of regulating actions, especially in the metropolitan
area, and the first man who goes into this specialty busi-
ness will certainly have all he can do. There are several
key repairing shops that are prospering. Perhaps some of
these might add to their endeavors the regulating of piano
actions on a profitable basis.
Baltimore Sets an Example Teaching Piano in
Schools
USIC education in the schools has been fast be-
coming a great factor in helping promote sales
of all types of musical instruments. What can
be done along this line in teaching piano is very forcefully
illustrated in an article in this issue by Oscar P. Steinwald.
Supervisor of Instrumental Music in the public Schools of
Baltimore. Here over 650 little tots are taught piano at
a very early age. The program started six years ago at
which time there were 115 students and has continuously
grown each year. Classes of ten meet for an hour each
week and the course runs for two years. The courses in-
clude students from the second to the fifth grade. The
children use table-top keyboards in class when they are not
taking turns at the piano. Duets are common and although
many of the children don't have pianos in their homes
they can arrange to practice on the school instrument be-
fore and after classes and at lunch time. More of this in
other cities would be a splendid method to perpetuate the
interest in the piano from generation to generation. If it
is not being done in your city, Mr. Dealer, why not find
some way of having it done. No one should be more inter-
ested in this subject than the piano and musical instrument
dealer in any community. In Baltimore the Parent Teachers
Association underwrites the lessons which cost 27^ each.
M
will be coming out and being spent for commodities that
people have wanted for so many months. There are two
reasons why people have been keeping all this money in
the banks. One is the scarcity of commodities and the
other is a certain amount of fear. The latter is caused by
the fact that thousands of people remember what happened
after the last war and the depression is still fresh in their
minds. When enough confidence is restored and the public
is sure that they are not going to get caught as they did
once before, spending is liable to be on an unprecedented
scale. However, it will be for things that will advance the
standard of living of a great many and included in the
sales will be more pianos than ever have been sold. Let's
hope the industry will be ready to cope with it when it
comes. To restore confidence, international bickering must
stop, strikes should be outlawed, production must be allowed
to increase, and the government must withdraw and permit
individual enterprise to take its natural course and let
business get back on that competitive basis which will level
off prices and stimulate sales.
A Little Tribute to an Old Friend
B
ROWSING through some old books recently we came
upon this notation under the date of February 29,
1912. "'Squire' called me up and said there was a
vacancy on The Review and I called up J. B. Spillane and
went to see Col. Edward Lyman Bill. I am going to go
with The Review a week from Monday" and a few pages
beyond under date of March 11, 1912, was this: "Went
with the Music Trade Review today—covered the supply
trade/' Then, the other day we picked up the New York
Times and there was an obit dated "Southport. Conn..
March 28, 1946" over which appeared the name "Morrison
Swanwick" who had passed away in his 82nd year. That
was "Squire"—quiet, unassuming but loyal "Squire" who
had made a host of friends in the New York music indus-
try during his 40 years of active association as a represen-
tative on our esteemed contemporary "The Music Trades"
by doing just such little things as he did for us. Perhaps
if it hadn't been for "Squire" the course of events in our
life might have been different. Who knows? But that's
the way it happened and now we hope that the "Squire",
good, faithful and true friend that he was, has found that
peace and rest in a better world, he so conscientiously
deserves.
Plenty of Money for Plenty of Pianos
y ]f NHERE seems to be plenty of money to be spent,
II unless we hit another calamity, and with interest
• ^ rates as low as they are, estimated at an average of
1.80% on savings bank accounts, some of the estimated
fifteen and one-third billion dollars in the savings banks
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, APRIL, 1946
EDITOR
II