Presto
Issue: 1920 1787 - Page 4
PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. 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 extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 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—E&PECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
This week Presto starts a series of practical articles on piano
tuning. Playerpianos will, of course, have special attention. The
writer of the articles is a practical tuner and expert who knows what
he is talking about and possesses the verbal facility to give expres-
sion to his ideas.
VIGILANTLY VIRTUOUS
The line that divides right from wrong in the "marked prices"
of a piano seems so slender and obscure that, as Shakespeare says, it
sometimes seems that "virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied."
And this has just had a new illustration in the action of the Federal
Trade Commission in reproving the Holland Piano Co. for placing
prices on its products which do not meet the views of "competition"—
the same as many other piano industries have been doing almost
from time out of memory. Just what is meant by "competition" in
the retail piano trade need not be told here. It seems that some one
discovered, or assumed that he had discovered, that figures in excess
of the average selling prices of Holland pianos had been found upon
the inside of the instruments from Menomonie, Wis. And some
pussyfoot of the piano trade had "entered complaint," which resulted
in the "disclosures" just referred to.
Now, isn't it terrible? We ask you seriously isn't it a fearful state
of things that a reputable piano industry should place good prices
upon its instruments, and that some dealer, somewhere, should have
been convicted of selling the same pianos at prices below the figures
that gleam in golden letters upon the shining case?
And then consider that the same custom has been in vogue ever
since your grandmother bought her little square piano ! And, through
all the years of awful wickedness, the crime has never before been
detected, and pianos have been sold to happy people for less than they
were worth, and the poor manufacturers and dealers have had trouble
to pay their rent! Isn't it perfectly awful—we ask you! And when
the trade commission, sitting in solemn conclave for the purpose of
correcting the corruption of industry, vied with the Volstead com-
October 23, 1920.
mission in its fight against that twin evil, rum, how did the secret
of the piano prices become exposed? Did some rival dealer of the
one who had been cutting Holland prices rise up in his outraged sense
of virtue and enter the complaint? If not, how did the trade com-
mission find out that here was a discrepancy between the printed
prices and the "prices at which they are usually, sold"? And what
are the prices at which pianos are usually sold? Does the trade
commission know that the catalogue prices of pianos have never been
anywhere nearer the actual selling prices than are the prices of most
other manufactured articles? Is there any consciousness that if pianos
were advertised at what the trade commission probably considers a
"fair profit" the dealers would have to shut up shop within a week or
two?
The margin of profit in any commodity must be very largely
regulated by the rule of supply and demand. Piano profits are seldom
sufficient to create a bay of safety in the sea of commerce. * It is
easily possible for the merchant to exist on a small margin of profit
in the sale of the essentials to life. In the sale of some other things
the same proportion, or per cent, of profit, would mean starvation for
the merchant.
There is a broad question as to how much good the so-called
"vigilance" committees are doing in the business world. The fact
that business must be done honestly has little to do with the prices
of a high-grade and ethically conducted business house. And the
danger of listening to the voice of disgruntled "competitors" may
easily lead to injustice where half-baked information moves an au-
thoritative force to action. The character of the Holland Piano Co.
is not questioned. If that company has placed figures upon its
pianos, there has been no divergence from a custom almost as old
as the instrument of music itself.
The way to correct such evils as doubtless the trade commission
is after, is to investigate the retailer who will buy pianos as cheaply
as he can get them and sell for as much as his customers will pay,
irrespective of real values. Happily some pianos are now sold on the
one price plan. That is fine. It may be so all through the trade in
course of time. But until then there will be a question as to the pro-
portion of good accomplished by any pussyfooting in the piano indus-
try as compared with the possibility of harm. We are firm believers
in correct trade methods, and have consistently advocated the re-
forms by which the piano business has been made better. But it
isn't often that "reforms" enforced by half-baked information and
pussyfoot methods really help in any respectable business. There
seems some danger that the "vigilance" committees in industry and
trade may overdo their virtuous activities.
A CHANGE IN SIGHT
Whether the change in piano prices comes soon or is long de-
layed, one thing is certain. It is that the turning in the road is just
ahead—the bend in the highway of trade events and conditions. Al-
ready we know that the feverish anxiety to "get the goods" has sub-
sided. No more is there a clamor for instruments that cannot be
satisfied. And, while the stocks in the stores are still small, there is
no such fear as of late lest shipments be so long delayed as to threaten
danger to the dealer.
All this means that the trade is getting back to something like
its old-time condition. It means that the effort which was formerly
inseparable from the business of selling pianos must soon be resumed.
It means that the fiction of a heated demand by the public for pianos
is finding fruition in fact and that to prosper the habit of trusting to
the man at the door can no longer be relied upon.
And this means, also, that some of the former customs of the
trade are about to come back. We have so long been accustomed to
picture large rolls of cash In the hands of eager buyers from distant
places, that it isn't pleasant to banish the vision from the factory
offices. We don't like to believe that the eager dealers who were
wont to haunt the factories, begging to be permitted to place their or-
ders, have settled back into their old places ready to write their
notes, with renewal privileges. That isn't what the industry wants.
The cash looks even better as it fades away, like a movie film, than
it did months ago when it was a reality. But, as long as "business is
business," such things will be. And it is the part of wisdom, in both
factory and wareroom, to anticipate events.
The retailers need not pull in the signs and safeguards by which
they have been made fairly prosperous and happy. They need not
announce to their friends and customers that cash is really no object,
and that it will be a joy to sell pianos at a dollar or two down and
half as much now and then! That was the way far back in the days
of antiquity. Today the change should be permitted to come about
gradually. And the retailers will find that the manufacturers will
not like them the less because they adhere to the better business
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/
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. 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 extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 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—E&PECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
This week Presto starts a series of practical articles on piano
tuning. Playerpianos will, of course, have special attention. The
writer of the articles is a practical tuner and expert who knows what
he is talking about and possesses the verbal facility to give expres-
sion to his ideas.
VIGILANTLY VIRTUOUS
The line that divides right from wrong in the "marked prices"
of a piano seems so slender and obscure that, as Shakespeare says, it
sometimes seems that "virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied."
And this has just had a new illustration in the action of the Federal
Trade Commission in reproving the Holland Piano Co. for placing
prices on its products which do not meet the views of "competition"—
the same as many other piano industries have been doing almost
from time out of memory. Just what is meant by "competition" in
the retail piano trade need not be told here. It seems that some one
discovered, or assumed that he had discovered, that figures in excess
of the average selling prices of Holland pianos had been found upon
the inside of the instruments from Menomonie, Wis. And some
pussyfoot of the piano trade had "entered complaint," which resulted
in the "disclosures" just referred to.
Now, isn't it terrible? We ask you seriously isn't it a fearful state
of things that a reputable piano industry should place good prices
upon its instruments, and that some dealer, somewhere, should have
been convicted of selling the same pianos at prices below the figures
that gleam in golden letters upon the shining case?
And then consider that the same custom has been in vogue ever
since your grandmother bought her little square piano ! And, through
all the years of awful wickedness, the crime has never before been
detected, and pianos have been sold to happy people for less than they
were worth, and the poor manufacturers and dealers have had trouble
to pay their rent! Isn't it perfectly awful—we ask you! And when
the trade commission, sitting in solemn conclave for the purpose of
correcting the corruption of industry, vied with the Volstead com-
October 23, 1920.
mission in its fight against that twin evil, rum, how did the secret
of the piano prices become exposed? Did some rival dealer of the
one who had been cutting Holland prices rise up in his outraged sense
of virtue and enter the complaint? If not, how did the trade com-
mission find out that here was a discrepancy between the printed
prices and the "prices at which they are usually, sold"? And what
are the prices at which pianos are usually sold? Does the trade
commission know that the catalogue prices of pianos have never been
anywhere nearer the actual selling prices than are the prices of most
other manufactured articles? Is there any consciousness that if pianos
were advertised at what the trade commission probably considers a
"fair profit" the dealers would have to shut up shop within a week or
two?
The margin of profit in any commodity must be very largely
regulated by the rule of supply and demand. Piano profits are seldom
sufficient to create a bay of safety in the sea of commerce. * It is
easily possible for the merchant to exist on a small margin of profit
in the sale of the essentials to life. In the sale of some other things
the same proportion, or per cent, of profit, would mean starvation for
the merchant.
There is a broad question as to how much good the so-called
"vigilance" committees are doing in the business world. The fact
that business must be done honestly has little to do with the prices
of a high-grade and ethically conducted business house. And the
danger of listening to the voice of disgruntled "competitors" may
easily lead to injustice where half-baked information moves an au-
thoritative force to action. The character of the Holland Piano Co.
is not questioned. If that company has placed figures upon its
pianos, there has been no divergence from a custom almost as old
as the instrument of music itself.
The way to correct such evils as doubtless the trade commission
is after, is to investigate the retailer who will buy pianos as cheaply
as he can get them and sell for as much as his customers will pay,
irrespective of real values. Happily some pianos are now sold on the
one price plan. That is fine. It may be so all through the trade in
course of time. But until then there will be a question as to the pro-
portion of good accomplished by any pussyfooting in the piano indus-
try as compared with the possibility of harm. We are firm believers
in correct trade methods, and have consistently advocated the re-
forms by which the piano business has been made better. But it
isn't often that "reforms" enforced by half-baked information and
pussyfoot methods really help in any respectable business. There
seems some danger that the "vigilance" committees in industry and
trade may overdo their virtuous activities.
A CHANGE IN SIGHT
Whether the change in piano prices comes soon or is long de-
layed, one thing is certain. It is that the turning in the road is just
ahead—the bend in the highway of trade events and conditions. Al-
ready we know that the feverish anxiety to "get the goods" has sub-
sided. No more is there a clamor for instruments that cannot be
satisfied. And, while the stocks in the stores are still small, there is
no such fear as of late lest shipments be so long delayed as to threaten
danger to the dealer.
All this means that the trade is getting back to something like
its old-time condition. It means that the effort which was formerly
inseparable from the business of selling pianos must soon be resumed.
It means that the fiction of a heated demand by the public for pianos
is finding fruition in fact and that to prosper the habit of trusting to
the man at the door can no longer be relied upon.
And this means, also, that some of the former customs of the
trade are about to come back. We have so long been accustomed to
picture large rolls of cash In the hands of eager buyers from distant
places, that it isn't pleasant to banish the vision from the factory
offices. We don't like to believe that the eager dealers who were
wont to haunt the factories, begging to be permitted to place their or-
ders, have settled back into their old places ready to write their
notes, with renewal privileges. That isn't what the industry wants.
The cash looks even better as it fades away, like a movie film, than
it did months ago when it was a reality. But, as long as "business is
business," such things will be. And it is the part of wisdom, in both
factory and wareroom, to anticipate events.
The retailers need not pull in the signs and safeguards by which
they have been made fairly prosperous and happy. They need not
announce to their friends and customers that cash is really no object,
and that it will be a joy to sell pianos at a dollar or two down and
half as much now and then! That was the way far back in the days
of antiquity. Today the change should be permitted to come about
gradually. And the retailers will find that the manufacturers will
not like them the less because they adhere to the better business
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).