Presto
Issue: 1920 1775 - Page 7
PRESTO
July 31, 1920.
DEALER RESPONSIBLE
FOR HIS STATEMENTS
Man Who Retails Goods Cannot Take Refuge
Behind Fact That Others Misrepre-
sented Goods to Him.
A retailer is responsible for the statements he
makes as to the quality of goods he sells whether he
is merely repeating the statement of a manufac-
turer or not. It behooves retailers, therefore, to be
certain as to the accuracy of descriptions which are
given by manufacturers whose integrity might be
doubted. Such a warning was recently issued by H.
J. Kenner, secretary of the National Committee of
the Associated Advertising Clubs. In the case in
point, a retailer had taken refuge behind the fact
that the goods he had advertised had been misrepre-
sented to him:
"The retailer is held responsible morally and
legally (in most states) for the accuracy of the state-
ments appearing in his advertising whether or not
he merely quotes representations made by the manu-
facturer from whom he obtained the merchandise.
We had an interesting case in court in Minneapolis
when I was secretary of the Better Business Bureau
there in 1915. We arrested a clothier for advertising
all wool shirts, which were not all wool but were al-
most entirely cotton, and as a defense he brought
into court his bills from the manufacturers, showing
plainly that these shirts had been billed to him as
all wool, and he merely advertised them in the same
way. The court held that that was no defense; that
he should have known whether they were all wool,
and unless he was absolutely sure of it, he should
not have advertised them as such.
"Of course if the retailer has knowledge that the
manufacturer is wrong, and he goes ahead with a
misstatement, that is a fraud clearly, and even if a
retailer hasn't knowledge that the manufacturer is
wrong and quotes a manufacturer without making
some effort to check up, the retailer can be held
responsible legally. The retailer is looked upon by
the buying public as a specialist and expert in the
various kinds of merchandise which he sells and the
public relies upon him to set out all of the facts
truthfully "with respect to his merchandise and
holds him responsible—and has a right to hold
him responsible. The public has a right to believe
exactly what it reads in advertising and to act upon
that belief.
'"The retailer is and should be held responsible
for all of the statements appearing over his signa-
ture in advertising. If he does not know that they
are misstatements, he should make it his business to
know."
[Liberty has been taken to eliminate a few lines
from the foregoing article which came to Presto
from the Extension Division of the Associated Clubs
of the World, Carl Hunter, Director, New York.
The Better Business Bureau uses, as a sub-title, the
term "Vigilance Committee," which is so suggestive
of the underworld in Frisco that it may seem of-
fensive when associated with the most intelligent
effort in the business world. And why "Vigilance
Committee"? Is the advertiser to be classed with
the criminal element, requiring the co-operation of
the police or the organization of defenders of the
public welfare to keep him in order? The "vigilance
committee" part of it might well be obliterated.—
Ed. Presto.]
OIL HELPS PIANO TRADE.
EARL HOLLAND ENTERS
RANKS OF THE PROPHETS
Widely K n o w n Traveler for.the Q R S Music C o m -
p a n y T a k e s a Slant a t t h e F u t u r e .
At the Columbus, O., headquarters of the Q R S
Music Co., one day last week, all hands had taken
a peek across the way to where a bicyclist had dis-
mounted at the edge of the sidewalk to exchange
greetings with the genial citizens. The man with
the bike was an "Ocean to Ocean" tourist and the
phrase printed on a placard on his back evoked the
humor of the blase flivver owners in the crowd. The
latter laughed derisively when the man with the
leg-driven vehicle hopefully announced that the day
was coming when the bike would "come back."
"Well, well," said Manager C. C. Baker, "doesn't
that yank you back a couple of cons? Let's see. If
I know my piano history it was about 1889 or 1890
when every bookwormy piano dealer and salesman
saw dire destruction to the piano industry and trade
in the so-called bicycle craze. Later on it was the
automobile that made the pessimistic ones see
things."
"That's so," agreed Earl Holland, the Q R S
roadman, who was visiting- the headquarters. "His-
tory is a consistent repeater and the raven doesn't
refrain from croaking in any period where the voices
of the disaster prophets are heard in the land. The
trouble is folks have always got a wrong steer in
the propheting. Now, I've just had a man's size
portion of New England boiled dinner and missing
my pepsin tablet, the prophecy spirit moves me to
hand out a Holland line of prognosticating':
"Next year everybody will be flying all day and
dancing Lee S. Roberts' waltzes, Pete Wendling fox
trots and other gay measures by night. It will be
useless for the playerpiano salesman to call at the
residences before dark because all the inhabitants
will be up aloft scooting 'round on some regular
make or flivver sky bronc. The prospects that
might fall for the salesmen's spiels will be falling
out of airships and getting scrapped. The five
down and five per gladly handed over by piano cus-
tomers this year will next year be expended for St.
Skookum's Oil for limbering up legs for state and
national fox trotting tournaments umpired by Phil
Ohman, Max Kortlander and Victor Arden."
"There is no doubt but that the oil prosperity of
Texas is reflected by larger sale of pianos in the
parts of our state so prospered," said J. H. Adams, of
the Adams & Allcorn Piano Company, whose head-
quarters are at 416 Austin avenue, Waco, Tex., to a
Presto representative in Chicago on Wednesday of
this week. "The nearest large oil fields to Waco
F. P. Bassett, vice-president of the M. Schulz Com-
are at Desdemona, twelve miles away." The line of
instruments announced on the back of Adams & All- pany, Chicago, is en route home by motor car from
corn's card are the Mehlin, Kimball, Packard, Lester his vacation-cottage at Estes Park, Colo. He left
and others. In phonographs the line is the Sonora, Estes Park on Tuesday, July 27, and will be in next
week.
Pathe, Kimball and Aeolian.
BEAUTIFUL BALDWIN STORE WINDOW
No.
45418
45118
45218
45318
'
Title
Writer
NAUGHTY EYES (Fox-Trot)
Reichman
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
CUBAN MOON (Fox-Trot)
McKiernan
Played by J. Milton DelcamD and Adam Carrol;.
BEAUTIFUL STARS ABOVE (Waltz)
Fuzy
Played by Adrian Rollini and Victor Lane.
STOP. LOOK, LISTEN TO THE MUSIC OF
THE BAND (Novelty Fox-Trot) . . . .Von Tilzer
Played by J. Milton Delcamp.
45518 LET'S GO TO CUBA (Novelty Fox-Trot) Darrell
Played by J. Milton DelcamD and Adam Carroll.
45618 WHEN I SEE ALL THE LOVING THEY
WASTE ON BABIES I LONG FOB THE
CRADLE AGAIN (One Step)
Foris
Played by Victor Lane and Cal Adams.
45718 WATERS OF VENICE (Waltz)
Von Tilzer
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
45818 SUSAN (Fox-Trot)
Kaplan
Played by Victor Lane and Cal Adams.
45918 NEVER LET NO ONE MAN WORRY YOUR
MIND (Blue Fox-Trot)
Skidmore
Played by Victor Lane.
46018 LOUISIANA (Marimba Waltz)
Weeks
Played by Adam Carroll arid Victor Lane.
46118 DON'C TAKE AWAY THOSE BLUES (Blue
Fox-Trot)
McKiernan
Played bv Adrian Rollini.
46218 JUST FOR A WHILE (Fox-Trot)
Squire
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
46318 SWEETIE O'MINE (Fox-Trot) . . . .Van Alstyne
Played by Victor Lane and Cal Adams.
46418 THE WIMMIN WON'T LET ME ALONE (One
Step)
Mack
Played by Adam Carroll.
46518 UNDERNEATH THE PALMS (Oriental Fox-
Trot)
Golden
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
46618 OUT WHERE THE WEST BEGINS
(Ballad)
Philleo
Plaved by Nan Foster.
46718 TIME WILL TELL (Waltz Ballad) Donaldson
Played by Neil Shannon.
STANDARD BALLADS THAT NEVER GROW 7 OLD
46818 I'M FALLING IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE
(Ballad)
Herbert
Played by Irene D'Giovanni.
46918 FROM THE LAND OF THE SKY BLUE WA-
TERS (Ballad)
Cadman
Played by Irene D'Giovanni.
47018 FOREVER IS A LONG, LONG TIME
(Ballad)
Von Tilzer
Played by Irene D'Giovanni.
REPUBLIC PLAYER ROLL CORP.
PAUL B. KLUGH, Pres.
75th St. and Broadway, New York City
REPUBLIC
ROLLS
PLAYER
HAND
PLAYED
This is just one of the windows in the Baldwin
Piano Company's store at Denver, Colo. There is
another window in that store that is just as taste-
fully arranged in display. Dealers who are seeking
novelty and style in window dressing will do well
to study the general arrangement of the decora-
tions that complete tln.i design. Flowers and pot-
ted plants, but not overcrowded with them, make
the foreground; then some instruments. Draperies
for canopy and sides, and the foreshortening by the
camera makes the entrance to the next.room a dis-
tinct feature of the center. It's a great store out of
which great pianos are sold in a great way.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
July 31, 1920.
DEALER RESPONSIBLE
FOR HIS STATEMENTS
Man Who Retails Goods Cannot Take Refuge
Behind Fact That Others Misrepre-
sented Goods to Him.
A retailer is responsible for the statements he
makes as to the quality of goods he sells whether he
is merely repeating the statement of a manufac-
turer or not. It behooves retailers, therefore, to be
certain as to the accuracy of descriptions which are
given by manufacturers whose integrity might be
doubted. Such a warning was recently issued by H.
J. Kenner, secretary of the National Committee of
the Associated Advertising Clubs. In the case in
point, a retailer had taken refuge behind the fact
that the goods he had advertised had been misrepre-
sented to him:
"The retailer is held responsible morally and
legally (in most states) for the accuracy of the state-
ments appearing in his advertising whether or not
he merely quotes representations made by the manu-
facturer from whom he obtained the merchandise.
We had an interesting case in court in Minneapolis
when I was secretary of the Better Business Bureau
there in 1915. We arrested a clothier for advertising
all wool shirts, which were not all wool but were al-
most entirely cotton, and as a defense he brought
into court his bills from the manufacturers, showing
plainly that these shirts had been billed to him as
all wool, and he merely advertised them in the same
way. The court held that that was no defense; that
he should have known whether they were all wool,
and unless he was absolutely sure of it, he should
not have advertised them as such.
"Of course if the retailer has knowledge that the
manufacturer is wrong, and he goes ahead with a
misstatement, that is a fraud clearly, and even if a
retailer hasn't knowledge that the manufacturer is
wrong and quotes a manufacturer without making
some effort to check up, the retailer can be held
responsible legally. The retailer is looked upon by
the buying public as a specialist and expert in the
various kinds of merchandise which he sells and the
public relies upon him to set out all of the facts
truthfully "with respect to his merchandise and
holds him responsible—and has a right to hold
him responsible. The public has a right to believe
exactly what it reads in advertising and to act upon
that belief.
'"The retailer is and should be held responsible
for all of the statements appearing over his signa-
ture in advertising. If he does not know that they
are misstatements, he should make it his business to
know."
[Liberty has been taken to eliminate a few lines
from the foregoing article which came to Presto
from the Extension Division of the Associated Clubs
of the World, Carl Hunter, Director, New York.
The Better Business Bureau uses, as a sub-title, the
term "Vigilance Committee," which is so suggestive
of the underworld in Frisco that it may seem of-
fensive when associated with the most intelligent
effort in the business world. And why "Vigilance
Committee"? Is the advertiser to be classed with
the criminal element, requiring the co-operation of
the police or the organization of defenders of the
public welfare to keep him in order? The "vigilance
committee" part of it might well be obliterated.—
Ed. Presto.]
OIL HELPS PIANO TRADE.
EARL HOLLAND ENTERS
RANKS OF THE PROPHETS
Widely K n o w n Traveler for.the Q R S Music C o m -
p a n y T a k e s a Slant a t t h e F u t u r e .
At the Columbus, O., headquarters of the Q R S
Music Co., one day last week, all hands had taken
a peek across the way to where a bicyclist had dis-
mounted at the edge of the sidewalk to exchange
greetings with the genial citizens. The man with
the bike was an "Ocean to Ocean" tourist and the
phrase printed on a placard on his back evoked the
humor of the blase flivver owners in the crowd. The
latter laughed derisively when the man with the
leg-driven vehicle hopefully announced that the day
was coming when the bike would "come back."
"Well, well," said Manager C. C. Baker, "doesn't
that yank you back a couple of cons? Let's see. If
I know my piano history it was about 1889 or 1890
when every bookwormy piano dealer and salesman
saw dire destruction to the piano industry and trade
in the so-called bicycle craze. Later on it was the
automobile that made the pessimistic ones see
things."
"That's so," agreed Earl Holland, the Q R S
roadman, who was visiting- the headquarters. "His-
tory is a consistent repeater and the raven doesn't
refrain from croaking in any period where the voices
of the disaster prophets are heard in the land. The
trouble is folks have always got a wrong steer in
the propheting. Now, I've just had a man's size
portion of New England boiled dinner and missing
my pepsin tablet, the prophecy spirit moves me to
hand out a Holland line of prognosticating':
"Next year everybody will be flying all day and
dancing Lee S. Roberts' waltzes, Pete Wendling fox
trots and other gay measures by night. It will be
useless for the playerpiano salesman to call at the
residences before dark because all the inhabitants
will be up aloft scooting 'round on some regular
make or flivver sky bronc. The prospects that
might fall for the salesmen's spiels will be falling
out of airships and getting scrapped. The five
down and five per gladly handed over by piano cus-
tomers this year will next year be expended for St.
Skookum's Oil for limbering up legs for state and
national fox trotting tournaments umpired by Phil
Ohman, Max Kortlander and Victor Arden."
"There is no doubt but that the oil prosperity of
Texas is reflected by larger sale of pianos in the
parts of our state so prospered," said J. H. Adams, of
the Adams & Allcorn Piano Company, whose head-
quarters are at 416 Austin avenue, Waco, Tex., to a
Presto representative in Chicago on Wednesday of
this week. "The nearest large oil fields to Waco
F. P. Bassett, vice-president of the M. Schulz Com-
are at Desdemona, twelve miles away." The line of
instruments announced on the back of Adams & All- pany, Chicago, is en route home by motor car from
corn's card are the Mehlin, Kimball, Packard, Lester his vacation-cottage at Estes Park, Colo. He left
and others. In phonographs the line is the Sonora, Estes Park on Tuesday, July 27, and will be in next
week.
Pathe, Kimball and Aeolian.
BEAUTIFUL BALDWIN STORE WINDOW
No.
45418
45118
45218
45318
'
Title
Writer
NAUGHTY EYES (Fox-Trot)
Reichman
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
CUBAN MOON (Fox-Trot)
McKiernan
Played by J. Milton DelcamD and Adam Carrol;.
BEAUTIFUL STARS ABOVE (Waltz)
Fuzy
Played by Adrian Rollini and Victor Lane.
STOP. LOOK, LISTEN TO THE MUSIC OF
THE BAND (Novelty Fox-Trot) . . . .Von Tilzer
Played by J. Milton Delcamp.
45518 LET'S GO TO CUBA (Novelty Fox-Trot) Darrell
Played by J. Milton DelcamD and Adam Carroll.
45618 WHEN I SEE ALL THE LOVING THEY
WASTE ON BABIES I LONG FOB THE
CRADLE AGAIN (One Step)
Foris
Played by Victor Lane and Cal Adams.
45718 WATERS OF VENICE (Waltz)
Von Tilzer
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
45818 SUSAN (Fox-Trot)
Kaplan
Played by Victor Lane and Cal Adams.
45918 NEVER LET NO ONE MAN WORRY YOUR
MIND (Blue Fox-Trot)
Skidmore
Played by Victor Lane.
46018 LOUISIANA (Marimba Waltz)
Weeks
Played by Adam Carroll arid Victor Lane.
46118 DON'C TAKE AWAY THOSE BLUES (Blue
Fox-Trot)
McKiernan
Played bv Adrian Rollini.
46218 JUST FOR A WHILE (Fox-Trot)
Squire
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
46318 SWEETIE O'MINE (Fox-Trot) . . . .Van Alstyne
Played by Victor Lane and Cal Adams.
46418 THE WIMMIN WON'T LET ME ALONE (One
Step)
Mack
Played by Adam Carroll.
46518 UNDERNEATH THE PALMS (Oriental Fox-
Trot)
Golden
Played by J. Milton Delcamp and Adam Carroll.
46618 OUT WHERE THE WEST BEGINS
(Ballad)
Philleo
Plaved by Nan Foster.
46718 TIME WILL TELL (Waltz Ballad) Donaldson
Played by Neil Shannon.
STANDARD BALLADS THAT NEVER GROW 7 OLD
46818 I'M FALLING IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE
(Ballad)
Herbert
Played by Irene D'Giovanni.
46918 FROM THE LAND OF THE SKY BLUE WA-
TERS (Ballad)
Cadman
Played by Irene D'Giovanni.
47018 FOREVER IS A LONG, LONG TIME
(Ballad)
Von Tilzer
Played by Irene D'Giovanni.
REPUBLIC PLAYER ROLL CORP.
PAUL B. KLUGH, Pres.
75th St. and Broadway, New York City
REPUBLIC
ROLLS
PLAYER
HAND
PLAYED
This is just one of the windows in the Baldwin
Piano Company's store at Denver, Colo. There is
another window in that store that is just as taste-
fully arranged in display. Dealers who are seeking
novelty and style in window dressing will do well
to study the general arrangement of the decora-
tions that complete tln.i design. Flowers and pot-
ted plants, but not overcrowded with them, make
the foreground; then some instruments. Draperies
for canopy and sides, and the foreshortening by the
camera makes the entrance to the next.room a dis-
tinct feature of the center. It's a great store out of
which great pianos are sold in a great way.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).