Presto
Issue: 1920 1796 - Page 5
December 25, 1920.
PRESTO
ing- 1920, but it seems fair. When the year began there was a crush
of orders and the factories started in with a rush in the effort to fill
them. It was as nearly a cash business as it will ever be and, while
profits were not commensurate, they sufficed. The public had the
money and wages were of a kind to cause the workers in most lines
to feel like millionaires are supposed to feel, but seldom do. That was
a condition conducive to quick piano sales, larger stocks and bigger
stores. When the slowing-up time arrived the cancellations came in
and the factory wheels slowed down. It wasn't pleasant. Manufac-
turers started their travelers and inducements to dealers restored the
trade in modified form. And then the brakes crunched and the wheels
of business revolved more leisurely. The old year threatened to go
out in a depressing stillness. But the latent energies of the industry
wouldn't permit it, and the retailers were stimulated to exert them-
selves.
In most lines of business there is an accepted maxim that "sales
can not be crowded, but may be stimulated." In the retail piano busi-
ness sales may be crowded, and are crowded, with the right results.
There are some essentials to life and happiness which the people who
need them most do not recognize until they are almost forced to do
so. The piano is one of the essentials of that kind. Another is life
insurance, and others pertain to family pride and the education of the
youth. And so when things in the piano industry grow dull, stimu-
lating the dealers to crowd sales may serve to quicken things all
along the line. That has been done during the last half-year.
The year has been one almost free of failures. There have been
none of large importance in the piano industry. The sister industry
of phonograph manufacture has been hit hard, it is true. There
two very large concerns have paid the penalty of over-assurance and
poor judgment. In New York, the Emerson Talking Machine Co.,
and in Chicago the Vitanola Company, have been checked in their
headlong careers. And there have been other failures—many of
them—in the same line. But the men who make and sell pianos have
moved along steadily and with confidence in themselves and their
customers. This condition may not apply to the full starting of the
new year, but there seem to be no very dark clouds in the horizon,
at the most.
Inasmuch as next week's Presto will contain a somewhat detailed
review of the old year's activities, there will be no attempt at a re-
capitulation at this time. But it is a safe prediction that the year just
ahead will be a better one than the year expiring. And, happily, this
condition can be absolutely insured by the retailers in the degree of
their energies and aspirations.
Happy New Year!
This paper has plans for improving its appeal for larger things
next year. This paper has kept well within the limitations of the
times since the effects of the great war began to bear in upon us.
This paper has prospered, and we hope by deserving to prosper. The
abnormal cost of things essential to publication has had its effect
upon the expansion of the ambitious side of it, but the outlook for
better and bigger development is good at this time. If there is any-
thing that a trade paper that circulates can do to better the best busi-
SAFETY AN ESSENTIAL ITEM
IN KOHLER INDUSTRIES
Progress Club Hears How Safety Work Is Taken
As Model at Albany.
The Progress Club, composed of employes of the
various factories in the Kohler Industries, New
York, held a successful meeting on Monday, Decem-
ber 13. William P. H. Bacon, president, pre-
sided. The meeting was exceptionally well attended
and was one of the most active of the 1920 season.
The most interesting report to the meeting was
made by Mr. Holmes, chairman of the Central
Safety Committee of the Kohler Industries. He re-
ported an official visit by a representative of the
State Government at Albany who investigated the
methods used in these Industries in conducting
the safety and welfare work. The Safety Committee
at Albany, due to the efficiency with which this
work was conducted in the Kohler factories has
planned to use the results of the investigation for
the benefit of other industrial plants, throughout the
state. It was interesting to the members of the
club to note that the safety work of this group of
piano factories has been accepted as a model for
factories manufacturing other kinds of merchandise.
As an entertainment feature H. Manning Carpen-
ter gave an interesting lecture on European condi-
ness on earth, this paper will stand ready to help in the doing of it.
Happy New Year!
* * *
The ghost of the R. K. Maynard Piano Co. has risen at last and
asks the creditors to walk up and consider a compromise with the
Commercial Security Company, by which that organization is to pay
the customary fees and a balance of $17,500 to be divided among the
creditors. The Maynard affair has grown so old that many of those
interested in it have passed from earth and probably don't care what
becomes of whatever may be left by the time a settlement comes
'round. And, like judgment day, settlement day in bankruptcy may
also arrive later.
* * *
Think of all the good wishes in the vocabulary of the season, and
apply them to yourself as coming direct from Presto. If there has
been a thing missing in the sum of your happiness and prosperity dur-
ing 1920, may the year about to dawn return to you every lost bless-
ing, and that many fold. That is Presto's Happy New Year to you—
every one!
* * *
A year ago the average piano retailer went, with cash in hand,
to the factory office begging for just a few instruments. And often
he was disappointed. No more orders could be taken. Things:have
changed quickly. But continue to take the cash with you and you will
be the winner, no less than the manufacturer. "Money talks" as
loudly now as ever. Encourage it to speak up.
* * *
.
•
The "Where Doubts Are Dispelled" columns of Presto have
grown to be a valuable feature in trade journalism. If every question
that is answered by this paper could appear in its columns, the inter-
est would be more than doubled. But the result to the questioners is
the same, and all problems are welcomed, whether the ban of privacy
prevents publicity or not. Send in your questions.
* * *
To all who read this paper, and especially to every industry by
whose enterprise the advertising pages have been kept filled with the
energy of life, Presto extends the congratulations and good wishes of
the season. May we do more, and better, during the year just ahead.
Happy New Year!
•
.
.
* * *
An uncertain year has passed. Starting with colors bright, things
have grown rather dull at the close. But there is little for the piano
dealer to complain of. And now again the dealer can get all the
instruments he wants, and that promptly.
* * *
The Holiday Season is not the piano dealer's harvest, as with
other lines. But it is becoming more so every year, and the active
salesmen gather a good crop of prospects during the gift-giving-
month. Follow them up after the excitement abates.
* * *
Lay your lines for the New Year. If your stock is not in good
shape for special effort make it so. And "get right" with the sources
of your supplies. Straighten up and pay up! That means also col-
lect up.
tions after the war. He laid great stress on the fact
that the continent is at present over populated and
has a great food shortage. His address was illu-
minating in many respects and gave the club mem-
bers many interesting side lights regarding economic
conditions on the continent. Mr. Carpenter's talk
hinged particularly on the present and past condi-
tions in the Balkan States, the ever present hotbed
of dissatisfaction. His talk was copiously illustrated
by stereopticon views taken while on his many trips
to Europe.
MESSIG ORCHESTRION CORP.
The Messig Orchestrion Corp., Brooklyn, N. Y.,
to make musical instruments, was incorporated for
$25,000, under the laws of New York, December 13.
The officers are Louie J. Harris, president; John T.
Booth, vice-president; George Messig, treasurer and
J. O'dell Fowlar, secretary. The general offices and
factory are at 506 Gravesend Ave., Brooklyn, N.
Y.
WALNUT MANUFACTURERS MEET.
The annual meeting of the American Walnut
Manufacturers' Association was held this week at
the offices of the association, 616 South Michigan
avenue, Chicago. Problems differing from those of
other phases of the lumber business, but in which
furniture and piano manufacturers are interested
were discussed.
PIANO PRICES FIRM IN
SAN FRANCISCO TRADE
Agreeable Attitude of Public Trained to an Under-
standing of the Situation Is Noted.
A pleasant feature of the San Francisco piano
business at this time is the absence of any fear of
price disorganization. The piano dealers are enjoy-
ing the happy situation of standing pat with the con-
sciousness that the public is aware that they are jus-
tified in their stand. The public does not expect
piano prices to come down because the public is
aware that piano prices never went up in the profi-
teering sense.
Because of the intelligent understanding of the
San Francisco piano prospect the piano business
may be called good. Clark Wise says the pre-
Christmas business of his house is excellent. Three
coarloads of Story & Clark pianos recently received
by the firm are now for the most part distributed.
Activity with the Packard pianos and players was
a new feature in the business of Clark Wise. The
inauguration of the firm's activity with the line of in-
struments from the Ft. Wayne, Ind., factory was
accomplished with the stirring aid of a carload of
the goods.
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
ing- 1920, but it seems fair. When the year began there was a crush
of orders and the factories started in with a rush in the effort to fill
them. It was as nearly a cash business as it will ever be and, while
profits were not commensurate, they sufficed. The public had the
money and wages were of a kind to cause the workers in most lines
to feel like millionaires are supposed to feel, but seldom do. That was
a condition conducive to quick piano sales, larger stocks and bigger
stores. When the slowing-up time arrived the cancellations came in
and the factory wheels slowed down. It wasn't pleasant. Manufac-
turers started their travelers and inducements to dealers restored the
trade in modified form. And then the brakes crunched and the wheels
of business revolved more leisurely. The old year threatened to go
out in a depressing stillness. But the latent energies of the industry
wouldn't permit it, and the retailers were stimulated to exert them-
selves.
In most lines of business there is an accepted maxim that "sales
can not be crowded, but may be stimulated." In the retail piano busi-
ness sales may be crowded, and are crowded, with the right results.
There are some essentials to life and happiness which the people who
need them most do not recognize until they are almost forced to do
so. The piano is one of the essentials of that kind. Another is life
insurance, and others pertain to family pride and the education of the
youth. And so when things in the piano industry grow dull, stimu-
lating the dealers to crowd sales may serve to quicken things all
along the line. That has been done during the last half-year.
The year has been one almost free of failures. There have been
none of large importance in the piano industry. The sister industry
of phonograph manufacture has been hit hard, it is true. There
two very large concerns have paid the penalty of over-assurance and
poor judgment. In New York, the Emerson Talking Machine Co.,
and in Chicago the Vitanola Company, have been checked in their
headlong careers. And there have been other failures—many of
them—in the same line. But the men who make and sell pianos have
moved along steadily and with confidence in themselves and their
customers. This condition may not apply to the full starting of the
new year, but there seem to be no very dark clouds in the horizon,
at the most.
Inasmuch as next week's Presto will contain a somewhat detailed
review of the old year's activities, there will be no attempt at a re-
capitulation at this time. But it is a safe prediction that the year just
ahead will be a better one than the year expiring. And, happily, this
condition can be absolutely insured by the retailers in the degree of
their energies and aspirations.
Happy New Year!
This paper has plans for improving its appeal for larger things
next year. This paper has kept well within the limitations of the
times since the effects of the great war began to bear in upon us.
This paper has prospered, and we hope by deserving to prosper. The
abnormal cost of things essential to publication has had its effect
upon the expansion of the ambitious side of it, but the outlook for
better and bigger development is good at this time. If there is any-
thing that a trade paper that circulates can do to better the best busi-
SAFETY AN ESSENTIAL ITEM
IN KOHLER INDUSTRIES
Progress Club Hears How Safety Work Is Taken
As Model at Albany.
The Progress Club, composed of employes of the
various factories in the Kohler Industries, New
York, held a successful meeting on Monday, Decem-
ber 13. William P. H. Bacon, president, pre-
sided. The meeting was exceptionally well attended
and was one of the most active of the 1920 season.
The most interesting report to the meeting was
made by Mr. Holmes, chairman of the Central
Safety Committee of the Kohler Industries. He re-
ported an official visit by a representative of the
State Government at Albany who investigated the
methods used in these Industries in conducting
the safety and welfare work. The Safety Committee
at Albany, due to the efficiency with which this
work was conducted in the Kohler factories has
planned to use the results of the investigation for
the benefit of other industrial plants, throughout the
state. It was interesting to the members of the
club to note that the safety work of this group of
piano factories has been accepted as a model for
factories manufacturing other kinds of merchandise.
As an entertainment feature H. Manning Carpen-
ter gave an interesting lecture on European condi-
ness on earth, this paper will stand ready to help in the doing of it.
Happy New Year!
* * *
The ghost of the R. K. Maynard Piano Co. has risen at last and
asks the creditors to walk up and consider a compromise with the
Commercial Security Company, by which that organization is to pay
the customary fees and a balance of $17,500 to be divided among the
creditors. The Maynard affair has grown so old that many of those
interested in it have passed from earth and probably don't care what
becomes of whatever may be left by the time a settlement comes
'round. And, like judgment day, settlement day in bankruptcy may
also arrive later.
* * *
Think of all the good wishes in the vocabulary of the season, and
apply them to yourself as coming direct from Presto. If there has
been a thing missing in the sum of your happiness and prosperity dur-
ing 1920, may the year about to dawn return to you every lost bless-
ing, and that many fold. That is Presto's Happy New Year to you—
every one!
* * *
A year ago the average piano retailer went, with cash in hand,
to the factory office begging for just a few instruments. And often
he was disappointed. No more orders could be taken. Things:have
changed quickly. But continue to take the cash with you and you will
be the winner, no less than the manufacturer. "Money talks" as
loudly now as ever. Encourage it to speak up.
* * *
.
•
The "Where Doubts Are Dispelled" columns of Presto have
grown to be a valuable feature in trade journalism. If every question
that is answered by this paper could appear in its columns, the inter-
est would be more than doubled. But the result to the questioners is
the same, and all problems are welcomed, whether the ban of privacy
prevents publicity or not. Send in your questions.
* * *
To all who read this paper, and especially to every industry by
whose enterprise the advertising pages have been kept filled with the
energy of life, Presto extends the congratulations and good wishes of
the season. May we do more, and better, during the year just ahead.
Happy New Year!
•
.
.
* * *
An uncertain year has passed. Starting with colors bright, things
have grown rather dull at the close. But there is little for the piano
dealer to complain of. And now again the dealer can get all the
instruments he wants, and that promptly.
* * *
The Holiday Season is not the piano dealer's harvest, as with
other lines. But it is becoming more so every year, and the active
salesmen gather a good crop of prospects during the gift-giving-
month. Follow them up after the excitement abates.
* * *
Lay your lines for the New Year. If your stock is not in good
shape for special effort make it so. And "get right" with the sources
of your supplies. Straighten up and pay up! That means also col-
lect up.
tions after the war. He laid great stress on the fact
that the continent is at present over populated and
has a great food shortage. His address was illu-
minating in many respects and gave the club mem-
bers many interesting side lights regarding economic
conditions on the continent. Mr. Carpenter's talk
hinged particularly on the present and past condi-
tions in the Balkan States, the ever present hotbed
of dissatisfaction. His talk was copiously illustrated
by stereopticon views taken while on his many trips
to Europe.
MESSIG ORCHESTRION CORP.
The Messig Orchestrion Corp., Brooklyn, N. Y.,
to make musical instruments, was incorporated for
$25,000, under the laws of New York, December 13.
The officers are Louie J. Harris, president; John T.
Booth, vice-president; George Messig, treasurer and
J. O'dell Fowlar, secretary. The general offices and
factory are at 506 Gravesend Ave., Brooklyn, N.
Y.
WALNUT MANUFACTURERS MEET.
The annual meeting of the American Walnut
Manufacturers' Association was held this week at
the offices of the association, 616 South Michigan
avenue, Chicago. Problems differing from those of
other phases of the lumber business, but in which
furniture and piano manufacturers are interested
were discussed.
PIANO PRICES FIRM IN
SAN FRANCISCO TRADE
Agreeable Attitude of Public Trained to an Under-
standing of the Situation Is Noted.
A pleasant feature of the San Francisco piano
business at this time is the absence of any fear of
price disorganization. The piano dealers are enjoy-
ing the happy situation of standing pat with the con-
sciousness that the public is aware that they are jus-
tified in their stand. The public does not expect
piano prices to come down because the public is
aware that piano prices never went up in the profi-
teering sense.
Because of the intelligent understanding of the
San Francisco piano prospect the piano business
may be called good. Clark Wise says the pre-
Christmas business of his house is excellent. Three
coarloads of Story & Clark pianos recently received
by the firm are now for the most part distributed.
Activity with the Packard pianos and players was
a new feature in the business of Clark Wise. The
inauguration of the firm's activity with the line of in-
struments from the Ft. Wayne, Ind., factory was
accomplished with the stirring aid of a carload of
the goods.
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).