Presto

10
PRESTO
FIVE YEARS OF
GREAT PROMISE
President of the Kohler Industries, Inc.,
Makes a Bright Forecast of the Future
and Believes that Production Is
the Crying Need.
January 15, 1920.
duction, the retail dealer will strengthen the entire
industry and make more money for himself if he
will sell his players for cash or upon exceptionally
good terms and push the sale of uprights.
FUEHR & STEMMER PIANO CO.
ARE NOW IN NEW PLANT
RALEIGH, N. C , TO HAVE A
LIVE NEW PIANO HOUSE
Shaping Up For a Big Run of Manufacturing at
South Wells and W. 27th Sts.
The great new factory of the Fuehr & Stemmer
Piano Company, southeast corner of Wells and
J. T. Bowles Music Co., Inc., Secures the Krakauer Twenty-seventh streets, Chicago, is being shaped
up into an active plant. The new offices at the
Prize for Its Leader.
northwest corner of the big two-building factory
By R. W. Lawrence.
have been varnished this week and will be pretty
J. T. Bowles, for the last four years the success-
I look upon the next five years as the halcyon days ful manager of the Darnell-Thomas Co., of Raleigh, and commodious.
A Presto representative accompanied Mr. Stem-
of the piano business. The volume of business the N. C , is to open, on February 15th, new warerooms
mer on Monday afternoon on a trip through the
piano industry can do during the next five years under his ownership and management, the firm
plant. An impressive feature of the buildings is the
will double that of any other five-year period in the name to be the J. T. Bowles Music Co., Inc.
excellent lighting the large rooms have by means
Mr. Bowles was in New York the past week, mak-
history of the trade, if manufacturers can produce
of great windows. The ceilings and walls are
the instruments. It is all a question of production; ing arrangements for the purchase of goods and
painted white, which reflects and intensifies the
spent some time with the Krakauer Bros., whose
every other condition is favorable.
light.
The public has the purchasing power. And this line he is to represent in Raleigh and vicinity, and
The south building is four stories high above the
power will increase, rather than diminish, as the with whom he left a large order for shipment soon
sidewalk level; five stories, counting the occupied
result of unprecedented activity in every line of en- as possible.
The experienced piano man of Raleigh has sur- basement. Part of it is to be used in the manufac-
deavor. The whole world wants our instruments.
Our domestic dealers have a natural or normal buy- rounded himself with a very efficient corps of sales- ture of talking machines; at least two floors of it
for the manufacture of pianos. The mill room is a
ing demand which is far in excess of the heaviest de- men and is most enthusiastic over the possibilities
busy place.
mands of any former period, even when our market of the musical industry in North Carolina. We wish
Mr. Bowles everv success.
Mr. Stemmer owns a 100-foot lot south of the
was stimulated by intensive selling methods. And
south building, and this lot he intends to use for
this does not call into any account whatever the
enormous export business which could be doubled if
OPERA STARS TO OPEN MUSIC WEEK. his lumber yard chiefly.
manufacturers were in a position to produce instru-
Through an arrangement effected by the National
ments in sufficient numbers to go after foreign trade. Bureau for the Advancement of Music, the stars of
HOGART M. CABLE CO. CALENDAR.
If it wasn't so large it would be a beauty. It's a
grand opera will co-operate in ushering in New
Profitable Future Ahead.
These are all most favorable conditions which in- York's Music Week. Charles L. Wagner, manager pretty picture mounted on a mammoth sheet, with
dicate the profitable future ahead of us. But none of the Chicago Grand Opera concerts, has lent his a convenient calendar attached, in giant figures, be-
of them are more favorable than the solid and stable co-operation to Director C. M. Tremaine, of the Na- neath. The advertising matter is not obtrusive con-
sidering the size of the sheet. This is a defect
tional Bureau for the Advancement of Music and
financial condition in which the entire trade finds
the New York Music Week Committee, to make the often found in these office helps. The wall can sel-
itself today.
dom be spared where the calendar is so big. This
Sunday evening concert a musical and social suc-
There is a prosperous condition existing, and a
year the calendars are very scarce and we thank the
solidity enjoyed throughout the entire industry, cess. The Hippodrome affords a fine setting for
Hobart M. Cable Company, of La Porte, Ind., for
such as it has never heretofore known, and the trade . the affair. The price of the tickets is $2.50, plus the
this fine one.
in,-every section is not only ripe and ready but more war tax. President George W. Gittins, of M. Welte
than able to take full financial care of every obliga- & Sons, Inc., is sponsor for one of the most striking
GEO. H. BLISS RESIGNS.
tion imposed upon it by reason of large and in- and attractive novelties connected with the show.
Through his instrumentality the replica of the Caril-
creased demands.
George H. Bliss, eastern manager for the Q R S
lon Tower is being equipped with a set of chimes
Company, with headquarters in New York, recently
The piano trade has found itself.
resigned, with definite plans for his future, which he
The trade has found that it can sell a high per- that will lend their voices to the chorus of harmony
does not wish to make public for a few weeks. He
centage of its instruments for cash and the balance permeating the Grand Central Palace during the
first week of next month.
leaves the Q R S Company with the good will of all
on very short terms.
its officers; all of them feel very kindly toward him.
Can Get Higher Prices.
The Estey piano is sold in Knoxville, Tenn., by They were sorry to lose him, and wish him success
It has found, through necessity, that it can get a
in his new undertaking.
Sheeley & Rose, 707 Gay street.
fair and much higher price for its merchandise than
it before thought was possible.
Tt has learned that its prices were heretofore,
relatively, too small. It has learned that, in 1912,
1913 and 1914, when we were selling playerpianos at
$395 and the entire trade was sweating blood to
meet its bills, we were giving 200 per cent greater
value than was given in the talking machine, auto-
mobile and other similar industries. And it is my
Twenty-two years ago this
opinion that a playerpiano at $650 or $700, today, is month the expert piano builder
still, relatively, lower in price than any similar com- whose picture, hard at work at
modity on the market.
his beloved "bench" is shown
But as I said in the beginning, the condition that here, loaned $300 to another New
stands in the way of a tremendously enlarged and York piano maker. The piano man
prosperous trade, is production. Our only limit is thus accommodated became a mul-
the limitations of production.
ti-millionaire. He established a
Building pianos is not like making furniture.
chain of industries, and when he
Piano manufacturing is largely technical. Making died, still a young man, his estate
actions, tone and action regulation, scale work, was one of the largest ever ad-
bellying, tuning, etc., require technical skill. And ministered in the piano industry.
as there are not nearly enough trained workmen in
The master, builder is still hard
the industry to take care of its present demands, at work in the favorite corner of
let alone increased demands which the future holds, his factory, and his special delight
men and women, in large numbers, will have to be is in making better already fine in-
trained in the technical branches of manufacturing, struments or putting the final
if we expect to take advantage of the golden oppor- touches upon the pianos there pro-
tunity which lies immediately before us.
duced. No doubt many readers of
Must Employ More Men.
Presto have recognized the piano
It is a question of adequate production, and ade- expert to whom attention has been
quate production is dependent upon training and directed.
Ernest Leins is one of the
employing more and more men.
This is the manufacturers' job. And I believe younger members of the old guard
of New York piano makers. He
that manufacturers already sense it.
But the retail merchant has his part to play as has been actively engaged in the
industry for so long a time that
well. And it is just as important a part as that of
the manufacturer. The dealer must not sacrifice he attended the first banquet of the
National Association of Piano
profitable prices and he must sell for cash or nearly
Manufacturers of America, and he
cash.
Every playerpiano that is made this year should has known all the famous piano
he sold for cash or on very short-terms. The manu- men of the metropolis, as well as
facturing of playerpianos will be curtailed this year, numbering among his personal
owing to an inadequate supply of player actions. friends some of the most dis-
And building an adequate number of player actions tinguished citizens of Manhattan,
comes right back to the question I have already in both financial and scientific
raised; a lack of production, due largely to the circles.
With this new year, the E. Leins
shortage of trained and competent workmen to
Piano Co. enters one of the most
make them. Another way in which the retailer can
E. LEINS AT BENCH.
benefit the trade at large and himself individually prosperous periods in its history.
is by putting more effort into selling straight pianos. The factory, at 304-306 West 42nd
street, New York, is producing to its full capacity, every piano that bears his name. No better guaranty
It takes nearly as much productive effort to make
were possible.
and the demand for E. Leins instruments was never
one playerpiano as it does two straight pianos. And
so good. Mr. Leins supervises the completion of
as this year's problem, particularly, is one of pro-
MASTER PIANO BUILDER AT WORK
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