Presto

December 18, 1920.
LETTERS FROM
PRESTO READERS
Here's Where the Complaints, Corrections and
Compliments Appear for the Information
and Entertainment of All Depart-
ments of the Trade.
LIKES TUNING ARTICLES
Cleveland, Ohio, Dec. 13, 1920.
Editor Presto: Enclosed you will find two ($1.00)
one-dollar bills, for which please renew my subscrip-
tion for another year. Also send new Presto Buy-
ers' Guide and Presto Trade Lists.
I take Presto largely for the articles concerning
the tuner and repairman. You have had some good
material in the last few numbers by Mr. H. F. Pel-
tier, as well as those last summer by other writers.
Let the good work go on and give us more, as I
am sure there are many others who like to read
these articles, hot only the tuner but the dealer and
salesman.
Yours sincerely,
M. E T. JORDAN.
THE PIANO WORKERS' PLANS
Editor Presto: In your issue of December 11th
you printed a story under the heading of "Piano
Workers to Start Own Factory." The story is full
of inaccuracies tending to injure not only the newly
formed piano company but also the reputation for
accuracy of your valuable paper.
Feeling that you would not willingly injure any-
one, yourself in particular, I herewith submit a cor-
rected statement, which I hope you will kindly print
in the next issue of your publication. You state that
"as a result of a prolonged strike in one of the Chi-
cago piano factories, the cause of which was that the
owners would not permit walking delegates to do the
employing," etc. This statement is not based on
facts, as the difficulty referred to was not caused by
the desire of walking delegates to do the employing.
The exact contrary is the fact. The agreement en-
tered into by the firm in question and the Piano
Workers' Union specifically provides that the sole
right to hire and discharge should be vested in the
employer. The strike was caused by the firm's re-
fusing to observe the provisions of the agreement, an
agreement which did not expire until October 1,
1922.
You further say that thirteen members locked out
by a Chicago piano factory are the organizers of this
new concern. Again you are wrong. The proposi-
tion to establish a piano factory, owned, operated,
and controlled by the employes, has been under con-
sideration for these many years. It is true that the
strike may have hastened the project somewhat, but
it is not true that all of the members of the new or-
ganization have been drawn from the present locked-
out piano workers. There are some of the locked-
out men who have cast their fortunes with the new
organization. Others have been drawn from vari-
ous other factories. The factory would have been
organized regardless of any strike or lock-out.
You quote a certain N. O. Cilson as president of
the new organization. This is an error. The presi-
dent of the De Luxe Piano Co. is N. O. Carlson, one
of the most able mechanics in the piano industry in
this country. You quote Mr. Cilson as follows: "We
propose to sell our productions below the present
retail market price." This is wrong. We expect to
do nothing of the kind. We have entered the piano
field as a business proposition; expect to produce, as
our name indicates, instruments of superfine quality.
We employ none but the most skilled mechanics and
purchase none but the best of material. All our
business transactions will be conducted on a cash
basis. We did not organize expecting to revolution-
ize the piano industry; nor did we expect to be-
come world competitors; nor do we expect to un-
dersell any legitimate piano concern. In short, we
expect to produce the highst grade instrument pos-
sible to produce and we expect to sell them at the
lowest possible margin of profit, having at all times
in view the stability and permanency of our organ-
ization.
An innovation, perhaps, in the piano industry wiH
be the working hours. We expect to operate under
the day-work system, 44 hours per week, and pay the
highest possible wage. We feel that an eight-hour
day, a 44-hour working week, and a high wage can
be maintained without loss of reasonable profit to
the owners. We feel that as mechanics, physical
ability to make pianos, we have no superiors.
Whether we possess the mental qualifications and
PRESTO
the business acumen to successfully operate is the
question the future must decide. However, we feel
ourselves fully competent to conduct every phase of
the new enterprise successfully.
By publishing this, as requested, you will greatly
oblige,
Very truly yours,
DE LUXE PIANO CO.,
CHAS. DOLD, Sec'y-Treas.
WAREROOM WARBLES
(A New One Every Week.)
By The Presto Poick.
SAFE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
Washington, December 8, 1920.
Editor Presto: The Savings Division of the
Treasury wants to help give every American citizen
a happy, safe, contented and prosperous New Year
as well as a joyous Christmas. The best way we
know to insure such a year, is to promote habits
which lead to financial independence.
None know better than the editors of the coun-
try the national necessity for conserving the savings
of the individual citizen. To assist in such conser-
vation the Treasury Department is advocating 1 the
use of Treasury Savings Securities as gifts.
We are anxious to have your aid in suggesting
this gift of incalculable value to the country. With
that object in view, we inclose herewith a short edi-
torial which we hope you may use to indicate to
your readers the possibility, not of curtailing their
giving, but of increasing it to embrace prosperity
for the future as well as pleasure for the moment.
The response of editors to a previous appeal by
the Savings Division in connection with the holding
of Liberty Bonds was of tremendous effect and
benefit to the country. May we not count on your
aid in this equally important purpose?
Faithfully yours,
W. M. LEWIS,
Director Savings Division.
TUNING AT THE HUB
Boston, Mass., Dec. 8, 1920.
Editor Presto: Last week I tuned a Steinway.
a Huntington and a Jewett. The Steinway grand
needed tuning and dampers regulated. The Jewett
needed unisons, several in extreme treble, tuned
and the Huntington a general cleaning; mouse's
nest in it, two hammers oft, several bridle straps
missing. Each piano one comes to is different in
name and work required. The last tuner left the
Huntington after tuning, and did not fix broken
hammers. He either had no tools, or simply did
not want to do a good job. Such work hurts the
good men and people lose all hope in them.
Another Lyon & Healy piano owner told me that
three tuners had given it up, saying it could not
be fixed at all. I made it do for two years longer
and the people bought a new one later. Several
ivories were off, five strings broken, and moth-
eaten felt parts. This job brought me five more
pianos in the neighborhood.
It pays to do good work. It would be better if
tuners would look over the instruments carefully
before fixing a charge, and tell the owners the con-
dition the pianos are in. I find that even in cul-
tured Boston the pianos are often in as bad con-
dition as any on the plains of the West.
Respectfully yours,
OBERA W. MORAN.
HAIL AND FAREWELL.
When bleak and cold December comes,
To end the dying year,
We call in every man that drums
The buyers, far and near;
We go together through the list,
And figure up the pile,
To see if all the gain and grist
Is realiy worth the while.
We check the names of all who owe,
• And deck the ones who've paid
With wreaths of bay and mistletoe
With holly interlaid;
We also mark the ones who send
Their orders to be filled
And when they countermand pretend
Their beans have all been spilled!
And then we figure up the cheer
That comes with what we've got,
And wonder why it is each year
Our joy seems such a lot!
Our "Merry Christmas" rings so free,
We hail St. Chris with joy,
And hand out gifts as merrily
As if no cares could cloy.
But in the gleam of candle light
That shines on Xmas Eve
The same old blessings come to sight
That never take their leave;
And so we end the dying year
As heedless as we can
And shut out every doubt and fear
To greet the unborn Jan.!
NOW FOR YOUR TAX RETURNS.
TORONTO PIANO MEN PROTEST.
A county to county campaign by internal reve-
nue officers to aid taxpayers in preparing their in-
come tax returns was announced this week by Com-
missioner Williams, in Washington, to begin short-
ly after Jan. 1 and continue until March IS, the
final date for filing statistics of income for 1920.
Revenue officers assigned to the work of assisting
taxpayers, Commission Williams said, will be pre-
pared to answer all questions relative to exemptions
and income. Mr. Williams claims that tax require-
ments for the next payments are the same as those
for 1919, and he urged that all taxpayers begin at
once to arrange for the filing of reports of their
returns, as well as lay plans for the payments, the
first of which will be on March 15.
Piano manufacturers in Toronto, Can., recently
appealed against the rulings regarding business as-
sessments issued by the Revision Court, which ma-
terially altered the ratings fixed by the city asses-
sors when revising the assessments this year. The
protest was against the decision that all concerns
conducting both manufacturing and retail business
should be rated as manufacturing on all premises
occupied. That means taxes for business purposes
on 60 per cent of the gross assessed value of the
premises occupied. The appellants contended that
they were entitled to the same ratings as other re-
tailers which is 25 per cent on the gross assessment.
The Mason & Risch Ltd, Nordheimer Piano &
Music Co.. Ltd., Gourley, Winter & Leeming, Ltd.,
Stanley Piano Co., Ltd., and Heintzman & Co.,
Ltd., are the firms. The contention was upheld by
the court.
SEES GOOD TIMES AHEAD.
J. Hamilton Lewis, of Chicago, is quoted in an in-
terview with a daily paper reporter as saying: "This
entire nation will soon be prosperous. In the South,
the Atlantic States and New England there is a de-
mand for the products of the Mississippi Valley.
They all look to Illinois and Chicago to supply them
with goods and farm produce. The torn lands of
Europe have no goods. They must be supplied. The
United States must be their supply house for years
to come. As soon as the policy of the new adminis-
tration is known, hesitant business will begin work-
ing boldly. Factories will be resuming operations,
unemployment will cease and people will again buy
goods."
STEINWAY IN CONCERT.
The Steinway grand was used by courtesy of the
Edmund Gram Music House, Milwaukee, at the
concert given by the Lyric Glee Club at the Pabst
Theater on Thursday evening, December 9. It was
the silver jubilee concert of this organization, and
its 261st appearance in public. It is a matter of
note that each time the Lyric Club has appeared,
the accompaniments and piano solos have been
on the Steinway grand without exception. Mrs. Wino-
gene Hewitt-Kirchner served as soloist and .accom-
panist.
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