Presto

PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY 8U1LDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. D A N I E L L and F R A N K D. ABBOTT
-
Editors
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Entered as second-class matter Jan, 29, 1896, a i the Post Office. Chicago. Illinois.
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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
•>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-
cited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY. MARCH 31, 1923
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
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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
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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.
TOO MUCH "HAZEL"
There may be another of the personal name conflicts with which
the legal aspects of the piano industry has been dotted almost from
the beginning. One of the piano names around which cling many
fine traditions is that of Hazelton. It is borne by an instrument
which was founded more than sixty years ago by real experts in the
art of piano production. And through success and vicissitude the
Hazeltons, of successive generations, fought for a high place. The
history of the industry founded by Henry Hazelton contains chapters
of fortune and of disaster. It discloses destruction by fire and re-
building better than before. And in its plucky career the Hazelton
family of piano makers has presented some of the finest characters
and most delightful gentlemen that ever blessed the trade and
industry.
Naturally, a piano so created and developed must, at the end
of more than a half-century, have large property value in the mere
name. The rest of it depends upon the modern ambition of the suc-
cessors of the original creators. But, in any event, no one in the
piano business will deny the influence of such a fine old name is
Hazelton. And this is why there may be another episode in court if
a western manufacturer can not see the mistake he is making in ap-
propriating a name, for commercial uses, which seems plainly to aim
at the appropriation of the influence created by others.
A Milwaukee piano industry, founded by a former large mail
order merchant, has adopted the name of "Hazelwood." Before ap-
March 31, 1923
plying it, the management of the Milwaukee concern made inquiry as
to whether the name should be used and was told why not. The in-
strument bearing the stencil is designed for low-priced trade. The
Hazelton is produced to hold its place as a leader of high class. The
conclusion is obvious.
The incident recalls the time when a prominent capitalist of
Warren, Pa., had been enlisted in the .piano business. He had con-
cluded to invest in a new piano factory and, after the new organiza-
tion had been formed, the best name to be adopted for the instrument
was discussed. It was suggested that the name of the capitalist
whose money was to be employed was a good one. It was Hazeltine.
But, at a later meeting of the new company, some one drew attention
to the fact that there was already a Hazelton piano, upon which
the man of Warren, Pa., promptly declared that, proud as he would
be to have his name on the product of his industry, he would not con-
sider any injustice to the older interests. And there was no Hazel-
tine piano. Is "Hazelwood" and further away from the line of inter-
ference by similitude ?
There are names enough to go 'round. It would be strange were
it possible for the owners of a fine old piano name, whose possessors
had worked for fifty years to make it known, and to enhance its
trade-mark value, to acquiesce quietly to so obvious a design to build
up a commercial piano by pulling down the fame of a better one. It
should have been stopped before it was begun.
CASH YOUR PAPER
The head-line isn't ours. It is taken from a rather unusual circu-
lar which has been sent throughout the trade by The Baldwin Piano
Company, And when a house of that kind pauses to advise the trade,
in a general way, it may be accepted as a fact that the admonition
has root and is worthy of attention.
It is absolutely true that, taken as a whole, the piano trade is not
business-like. The proportion of retail dealers who understand the
requirements of success in any large degree is not great. The num-
ber of piano dealers who neglect some of the best opportunities of
their business is too large. They do not realize the immeasurable
value of credit, of the kind of support that comes from having the
confidence of sources of money supply at home, as well as in the
offices of the industries from which come the store supplies. They
fail to start right, and in a way to build for themselves a sure founda-
tion upon which to stand through storm-times as well as in fair
weather.
Local credit at the bank is one of the sources of success for any
piano dealer. To know that the banker on the next corner wants
his business, as much as the dealer wants prompt cash advances or
current discounts, is something the piano man should realize. And,
realizing it, he should equally know that, to create that reciprocal
readiness on the banker's part, by which mutual profits with security
are insured, the dealer's credit must be unchallengeable. His word
must be unbreakable and his promises inviolable. It is here that many
piano dealers fail. They do not hold as sacred the promises they
make to the manufacturer. In turn the local banker loses faith, be-
cause it is a part of his business to know that the trust of the manu-
facturer has been violated.
There are piano dealers who do not even know that they can
not permit a note given to the manufacturer to pass unpaid, or un-
protected, without the local banker having full knowledge of the
condition. There are men in business who seem to think that if they
keep faith with the home bank, there can be no question of their
credit. It is the first rudimentary lesson in banking, but it has not
always been learned.
The piano dealer who keeps his credit good at his home bank
can always exchange his customer's "paper" for cash. And he can
then save the discount allowed by his source of supplies, and preserve
his standing as a desirable customer, worthy of every possible con-
sideration, and entitled to prompt shipments and other attention
which must be denied, or grudgingly accorded, to slow-pay buyers or
chronic extension-seekers.
The great house of Baldwin, in their circular to which reference
has been made, advises the dealers that "your banker, like all other
business men, welcomes a customer." And that is absolutely true.
But it applies only to the careful business men who keep their credit
clean and do not permit their promises to be dishonored.
Among piano dealers it too often seems that procrastination is
the source of undoing. Putting off the protection which sometimes
is forced upon the "paper" of even the best of business men, often
hazards the credit of over-timid, or careless, creditors. Often piano
men, on finding that they can not take care of an obligation, permit
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