Presto

PRESTO
May 1, 1920.
DECORATIVE WINDOW ADVERTISES ROLLS A DOLLAR AN HOUR
AND 44=HOUR WEEK
Speakers at General Meeting of Piano Makers
in New York Urge Agitation to Effect
the Above—Tax Levied to Sup-
port Organizers.
One of the prettiest windows of Milwaukee Style
Week was that of the Lyric Music Company, the
decorations of which advertised Swai, ^e and other
rolls of the Q R S Company's popular lists. The
features of the design are a little girl with golden
ringlets dangling over her shoulders and a bow of
ribbon on top of her head, who is playing with rib-
bons that, extend across the window to an open in-
EBONY FINISHED STEIN WAYS
FOR EASTMAN SCHOOL
Thirty-eight Instruments in First Contract for
Music Teaching Institution in Rochester, N. Y.
A contract for thirty-eight Steinway pianos in-
volving an outlay of $50,000 has been made, for the
equipment of the Eastman School of Music, which
is being built in Rochester, N. Y., by George East-
man, head of the Eastman Kodak Co. The cost
will be $4,000,000, including an endowment. The in-
struments, all of ebony finish are to be delivered
at the completion of the college buildings. The
order includes five concert grands, eight parlor
grands, ten baby grands and fifteen style K uprights.
The Steinway pianos were selected personally by
Mr. Eastman, who is widely known as a lover of
music, with an appraising ability which fitted him
for the task of selecting instruments for the school.
Mr. Eastman is devoting a large part of his time
to the plans for the school which he purposes mak-
ing one of the most complete institutions of its
kind. The order listed above is only the first.
Other contracts will be made from time to time.
The plans for the schoo 1 call for a large number
of organs of various types as well as for other
instruments for a completely equipped music school.
PERMANENT LOCATION FOR
KESSELMAN=O'DRISCOLL CO.
About June 1 the Progressive Milwaukee Firm Will
Move to 517-519 Grand Avenue.
The Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co., Milwaukee, W T is.,
has branched out again. The company will move to-
ward June 1 into its permanent business home at
517-519 Grand avenue, the structure situated directly
east of the Palace Theater. The building is of three
stories, with a frontage on Grand avenue of forty
feet and a depth along the alley of ninety feet. Ex-
tensive and costly alterations are to be made, the
work to start at once.
The company now is situated in the east end of
the Plankinton arcade, where it is occupying several
stores on a temporary lease. Last autumn the Kes-
selman-O'Driscoll Co. moved from West Water
and Wells streets into the Arcade after it was de-
nied occupancy of the triangle fronting on the Brum-
der building, because the city desired the site for a
monument or comfort station The company had
strument. On the farther side of the long ribbons
is a miniature mountain, capped by a church and a
building which may be taken for the permanent
residence of Santa Claus, for the little girl has
propped up the "Santa Book" beyond the cliffs—this
Santa Book being also from the Q R S Company.
It is a window that would thrill a child with rap-
ture; and it makes an interesting study for grown-
ups.
negotiated a long term lease for the site, had in-
structed its architect to prepare plans for an ornate
music temple, a building that would have been un-
like anything of its kind east of Buffalo, and had en-
tailed other heavy expenses when the city's interdict
came.
Its new home will present an attractive appear-
ance to Grand avenue and will contain the very lat-
est designs and equipment for a modern music store.
The first floor will be utilized as a salesrooms, player
roll and sheet music departments. On the main
floor the phonographs and records will be displayed
of easy facility for inspection.
The receiving and shipping rooms also will be
contained on this floor. On the second floor will
be the Ampico recital hall and studios and the third
floor will comprise the salesrooms and installation
departments.
The Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co. has been in exist-
ence only six years and yet in that comparatively
brief time has achieved a national reputation in the
commercial music world. L. M. Kesselman, J. M.
O'Driscoll and A. E. Francke, the owners, began
their partnership on upper Fond du Lac avenue.
In a year's time they moved to West Water street,
and they would now be in their music temple but
for the action of the city authorities in demanding
the triangle.
W. E. GUYLEE SNOWED IN.
W. E. Guylee, vice-president of The Cable Com-
pany, Chicago, was snowed in for 30 hours a week
ago Saturday aboard a train of the Denver. & Rio
Grande Railroad near Colorado Springs, Colo. Fi-
nally five locomotives and snow plows were backed
through and the imprisoned passengers were res-
cued. "The snow was even with the car windows,"
said Mr. Guylee in relating his experiences. The
train was stuck in a lonely mountainous place, and it
seemed at first that the chances for further progress
were slim. Mr. Guylee had transacted some busi-
ness at Pueblo and had taken that road in order to
visit his father, mother and brother, who reside in
Kansas.
TUNERS SHOW APPRECIATION.
Tuners not in any way connected with the Gul-
bransen-Dickinson Company, of Chicago, are writing
in letters to that house in appreciation of its adver-
tising to customers the need of having playerp ; anos
tuned and regulated at least twice a year, in order
to keep the instruments in prime condition all the
time. This advertising appeared in the Saturday
Evening Post, and was read broadcast throughout
the country.
A general membership meeting of the piano mak-
ers, held at the Lyceum Hall, 86th St. and Third Ave.,
New York, April 8, was called to order at 8:15
p. m., by Chairman of the Executive Board Rempf-
ner, with an attendance of over 500 members. The
purpose of the meeting was, as stated by Mr. Rempf-
ner, to receive the financial report for the last three
months, deciding on the action to be taken in regard
to the proposed demands of $1 per hour and a 44-
hour week, and to decide whether or not to levy a
tax for the support of the organizers.
Mr. Modest took the floor and stated that the
bosses showed a very strong front during the strike
last Fall, and that they have planned and are plan-
ning ways and means of disrupting the union, be-
cause the union prevents the bosses from taking ad-
vantage of the men, holding that the union caused
the bosses to lose $15,000,000 during the last strike,
in consequence of which the bosses want to abolish
it. Modest stated that the union was the only sal-
vation of the working men; that it is up to the men
themselves to stick to the union and increase its
membership four or five thousand; that they will
then be in a position to go after the $1 per hour
and 44 hour week. He stated that if the bosses
would not recognize the union, it was up to the men
to force them by organizing. He concluded by say-
ing that each one of the manufacturers had taxej
himself in order to accumulate a fund with w
fight the men in case they decided to strike i
Fall, and that in view of this it was up to the nV
to prepare themselves and offset the preparation o'
the bosses.
Dold is Heard.
Charles Dold, the international president, then
took the floor and told of the conditions in the piano
trade in different parts of the country, stating that
the manufacturers had started the fight, and that it
was up to the men to continue it and carry it right
back to the manufacturers. He questioned the right
of manufacturers to tell the men what their services
are worth.
"We do not want to run our business by telling
us what organizations we can belong to and what
we are worth. * * * Common labor is getting
as high as $7 a day, so why shouldn't piano makers,
who are skilled mechanics, get more than a common
laborer, but no matter what is right, the bosses will
never voluntarily give what the men are worth, so
it is plainly up to the men themselves to force the
bosses to pay them a just compensation," said Dold.
He urged agitation for the $1 an hour and 44-
hour week, which has already commenced in Chi-
cago, and he pointed out that it was necessary to
organize the men every place a piano was made, and
have a uniform scale of wages, irrespective of the
size or location of the plant. He called attention to
the fact that the men had a strong foe to fight, the
piano manufacturers' association. He told the men
they could work overtime if they so desired, but
they must insist on time and a half, and said they
needn't be afraid that the boss is putting away a
stock of pianos for the next strike. Because, he
said, if every man worked every night from now
until next October, the bosses would not even make
up what they lost in the last strike, so the men
should work overtime, and when the next strike was
launched, they would have some money laid aside.
Votes for Levy.
A motion was made, seconded and passed that
each member be taxed 25 cents a month for the sup-
port of the organizers, to be effective April 1, and
continuing one year. Delinquent members not paid
by May 1 would be expelled from the union, a pay-
ment of $18.00 being necessary for reinstatement.
The Financial Report was to the effect that there
was nearly $3,000 in the treasury, telling the men to
be sure to have their dues paid up by the following
meeting, to entitle them to vote for the delegate to
the Chicago convention in August.
Mr. Schroeder asked that a meeting hall be es-
tablished on the west side for the men of that vicin-
ity, but Mr. Modest told him that if that were done
the union would eventually break up on account of
having too many locals, and not enough unity, which
he said is the backbone of any union. He said that
some men want a local in Astoria, the wareroom
men w r ant a local of their own, and the West Side
men want one in that section, and there is already
a second local established in Brooklyn, Local No. 27.
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