Presto

PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DAN I ELL 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 United States possessions, 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- card.* 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.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used. If of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Tear 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
»f their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co.. 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1922.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY P.TANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS. AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
LIVE PROSPECTS
One of the best things that the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce has done was to- ally itself with the Better Homes Move-
ment. And the nation-wide observance of the week devoted to bet-
ter homes was one of the best and broadest of all the combined social
and industrial propaganda.
If Samuel Smiles was right when he said that "home makes the
man," then better homes must make better men. And, if it is true—
as it certainly is—that "home and heaven are joined by music," then
no happy home can be without an instrument of music.
That is where the association of the Music Industries Chamber
of Commerce and the Better Homes Movement found its suggestion,
or impulse. The piano dealers and their salesmen, who caught the
spirit of the week must know that there was a powerful argument
and influence in the widespread appeal for more beautiful and bet-
ter equipped homes, for the people find it necessary to conserve their
earnings and to make every dollar go as far as possible.
The people who have homes in which their owners take pride are
the people who buy pianos and pay for them. They are the support
of the industry of music in all of its departments. For the people of
that kind value their opportunities and hold as treasures the things
that make life worth living.
No doubt hundreds of piano dealers took advantage of the Better
Homes drive and closed sales by it. No other class of trade suggests
October 21, 1922.
better opportunities wherever communities caught the spirit of the
movement and brought it conspicuously to the attention of citizens,
The co-operation of the local merchants, whose business it is to
furnish the homes, must work to the good of all, and in every home
where betterment becomes operative there must be prospects of a
piano delivery. If not it is the fault of the dealer and his salesmen.
It is the home-love and the serious desires of parents who believe,
with J. G. Holland that "home is the great object of life," that keeps
the piano trade alive and impels people to invest money in teaching
the youngsters music and piano playing. It is to that kind of home
builders, a fine thing to have the playerpiano by which to interpret
the great master-compositions, and the reproducing piano, by which
to listen to the actual playing of phenomenal performers. And it is
the same kind of home-people who want to hear and see their youth
actually playing the piano.
The old-fashioned piano—the so-called "straight" piano—which
will ever be as new as when it first came, is "coming back," the manu-
facturers say. It is because the homes need it. The young people
need its educational influences, and the pride of the parents demand it
because they want to see the young ones grow in their facilities of
musical expression. It is along the same line of thought to which the
immortal Tasso, nearly five hundred years ago, declared that "to get
some seely home I had desire, loath still to warm me at another's
fire."
There we have, brought to us through more than four centuries,
the love and longing for a home and for the exclusiveness of personal
attainment. "Too warm me at another's fire" was not enough. . It
didn't satisfy the heart of pride. To see the children "warming"
themselves with the music of another's skill doesn't quite satisfy the
home-pride of today. That alone will keep the piano alive and a
part of the home life. And every "Better Home" week will help to
sustain the piano and to encourage music and the music trade. That's
why we say the adoption of the idea by the Music Industries Cham-
ber of Commerce was one of the best things that organization has
done.
TRADE-KILLERS
In business the joy-killer is the man who trots around telling how
terribly "dead" live things are. Business is never dead. It couldn't
be and still have the joy-killer talking about it. He wouldn't have
enough life left in him to permit of his pessimism. And just now the
trade joy-killer is particularly non-essential. At a recent meeting, in
Cincinnati, of the National Traveling Salesmen's Association a tele-
gram from Rodger Babson was read, saying that the "country was
cursed by a bumper crop of pessimists." He added that the "economic
tide had turned," but that there may still be found business men so
deeply submerged in "the gloom of 1921 that they can't see the sun-
shine of 1922."
If there is any class of business men who can't afford to belong
to the tribe of trade joy-killers, it is the piano men. They need their
enthusiasm. Selling pianos, whether at wholesale or retail, is largely
a matter of enthusiasm—enthusiasm in the pianos they are making
and selling and enthusiasm in the piano business itself. The retailer
must be enthusiastic in his line and filled with confidence in his com-
munity and the people who are his possible "prospects." The piano
salesman who hasn't enthusiasm is lacking in the oil of success, and
he won't "make his car go" very far.
Just now it isn't easy to find a piano manufacturer who isn't
sure that there is a period of activity ahead. Some of the piano fac-
tories have made preparations, and a few have accumulated stock
which will move rapidly from now forward, unless something unfore-
seen happens to interfere. Presto is informed of some almost re-
markable efforts which are to be made to capture liberal shares of
the prosperity which appears to be just ahead for the piano business.
But the thought just how is that there is unanimity of opinion
concerning the change in business affairs. If the industrial world
generally is so optimistic, why may not the piano manufacturers be
equally sanguine. They are, and they will be. Only the non-pro-
gressive will fail to share in the increased possibilities of trade im-
provement which is making itself felt. It would, of course, be folly
to advise the industry to go to extremes in making provision for in-
creased productiveness. But there is no place for the trade joy-killer
at such a time as this. He should be discouraged, and we believe that
the trade paper is here for the purpose of such discouragement.
There is no better barometer of trade than the traveling sales-
men. And the travelers are coming back from their trips filled with
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