Presto

RE8TO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic 61-703.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code),
"PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois*
%
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. ''No «xtr*
•uarge in U. S. possessions, Canada. Cuba and Mexico.
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Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Rate«fc»;Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insortloar
81x dollars per inch per month, less twenty-five per cent on yearly contracts. Th«
Presto does n6t sell its editorial space. Payment is not accepted for articles of de-
scriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Business notices
will be indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the Act of August
24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in the Year Book issue and Export Supplements of The
Presto will be made known upon application. The Presto Year BooTt and Export
Issues havfe the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical
Instrument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely an'd
effectually'all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and W>st-
arn hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide Is the only reliable index to the American MuiWtl
Instruments; It analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates M
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
3 Items of*• news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the muata
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Addrtss all communications to
W o t * Publishing Co.. Chicago, III.
T H U R S D A Y , MARCH 11, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
DO FACTORIES ROB FARMS?
In the last two months Mr. H. A. Stewart, of the Gulbransen-
Dickinson Company, has traveled extensively over most of the
states between the Missouri River and the Atlantic Ocean. In con-
versing with many farmers in that great section of the world's most
productive agricultural lands, he has learned of their acute distress
over the labor situation. Now that the plowing and planting season
is coming on, they deplore the departure for the cities of any more
of their available help.
The call of the cities is so alluring that there is little resistance.
A piano factory, or any other line of work except clerical work, pays
higher wages in cash than can be received on a farm; but the one who
quits farm service does not see, until too late, that the larger fee he
earns in cities simply goes through his fingers in the cost of living,
or existing. On a recent trip into Iowa Mr. Stewart talked with a
farmer at a small town who said:
"I wanted to hire a man and offered him $1,000 a year; about $90
a month, which included the usual offer of free board and lodging.
He said he would agree to work for me on that basis of salary for
the five months ending with the beginning of spring; then to be paid
the day wage rate for the busy farming months."
Every piano manufacturer, every piano factory superintendent,
will tell you that the great trouble just now is to find competent
help. Within a week a piano factory not many miles from Chicago
has been dismantled because workers could not be induced to go to
the town and stay there. They wanted to live in the big city. And
in the big city the piano manufacturers are in constant uncertainty
because of threatened labor unrest.
What Mr. Stewart observed in the country presents a problem
as deep as any that has confronted the students of industrial eco-
nomics. And until the rule of education supplants that of greed and
ignorance there will not be much light thrown upon the solution of
March 11, 1920.
the problem. Education will do what no other power can accom-
plish. And the teaching must begin in high places, for there are not
many Lincolns in any generation.
Meantime it is certain that the young man who won't work on
the farm takes a large chance in the city, where he may also not
want to work. But if he will wander away from the fields, and the
useful plough, he can do nothing better just now than to interview
the piano manufacturer or his superintendent.
ENCOURAGE THE MISSIONARIES
"The men who sell second-hand pianos of ancient vintage to
poor people and the men who sell talking-machines instead of pianos
are missionaries, in my opinion," said a prominent piano manufac-
turer-dealer to a Presto representative recently. "Therefore I do
not believe in 'knocking' them—at least as long as they do not cheat
in their prices or deceive in their advertising."
The speaker argued that many a poor family never would have
become interested in music, or in musical instruments for their chil-
dren or for their own use if it had not been for the "cheap" dealers.
In that sense their work was that of the missionary—a very neces-
sary work in the world's progress.
There are, of course, opportunities for misrepresentation in the
sale of "used" pianos. And there is equally danger in too careful—
or careless—criticism of the men who sell the second-hands and ad-
vertise them. Here is a danger-spot in the activities of the better
business bureaus which have of late been paying special attention to
the local advertising of the piano sellers.
Not every advertisement that fails to tell the "whole truth" is
dishonest, or even unfair. Misleading it may be, because newspa-
per space costs money and not all piano men have it to invest in "full
pages" or even in sufficient sums with which to tell all of the facts.
One of the purposes of advertising is like that of the brass band
on election day or when the circus comes to town. It is to attract
attention. It draws the crowds. What is done inside the polling
place or the circus tent settles the degree of confidence or doubt in
the advertiser's purposes.
Be easy with the second-hand advertisers. If they say that the
pianos are not new, the intelligence of the prospects must be given
some leeway, and usually the "used" instruments do not sell for
nearly what they are worth. Let the missionaries do the work.
Perhaps they will be swallowed by the cannibals, anyway.
PRESIDENT ALDCROFTT'S REVIEW
There were some unusually thoughtful talks made at the recent
New York convention. To anyone who followed the proceedings as
reported in the trade papers, it must have seemed that the addresses
were more serious than has been customary at the earlier meetings.
There was less froth and a delightful absence of banter and bouquet
tossing. One of the notable evidences of this improved order of con-
vention address was afforded in the manner and matter of President
R. B. Aldcroftt's review of what had been done, and forecast of what
still remains to be accomplished if the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce is to fulfill its best promises.
It was evident to all who heard Mr. Aldcroftt's speech, or have
since read it, that he had given close study to the functions of the
organization and had measured its attainments by what had been
accomplished. He was not slow to draw attention to its shortcom-
ings even while reciting its influences for trade betterment. He
pointed straight at what he deemed the neglect of certain strong ele-
ments in the music industry, and cited the supply manufacturers and
jobbers as being guilty of contempt of court.
Mr. Aldcroftt plainly stated that without cohesion and unifica-
tion of purposes there could be little progress. He recognized the
great good already accomplished by the organization, but felt that
the divisions of the industry, whose combined share in trade activities
is approximately from $40,000,000 to $60,000,000, should display a
better interest in the organization. It was, we believe, the first time
that a president of the music men's industrial body has rebuked a
powerful branch of the trade and reminded the delinquent members
of their duties to both themselves and their contemporaries. Without
doubt Mr. Aldcroftt's suggestion will bear fruit, and next year's con-
vention will show still further enthusiasm and energy in all ranks
of the chamber.
Mr. Aldcroftt laid special stress also upon the work of the Bureau
for the Advancement of Music and, while he did not say so, we be-
lieve he will agree that Mr. Tretnaine, of that Bureau, has performed
about the most difficult and thankless work of all the association
interests. It has required peculiar, and very special effort, and even
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