Presto

PRESTO
MANUFACTURERS
DISCUSS PROBLEMS
New and Vital Topics Included Freight and
Technical Matters Interest National As-
sociation of Piano Manufacturers at
Drake Hotel.
NEW PRESIDENT APPEARS
Max de Rochemont Just Returned from Long Euro-
pean Trip, Greets Old Friends and Makes
Important Suggestion.
The National Association of Piano Manufacturers
finished its annual convention in two sessions at the
Drake Hotel, Chicago, on Tuesday of this week.
But they were periods filled with interest for every
member present. The appearance of the first vice-
president before his name was presented as the presi-
dent for the ensuing term, came as an agreeable sur-
prise to the convention.
NEW OFFICERS.
President, Max de Rochemont.
First vice-president, W. E. Guylee.
Second vice-president, C. D. Bond.
Secretary, Harry Schaaf.
Treasurer, Charles Jacob.
Membership committee: Allan B. Lane, Roger S.
Brown, F. P. Bassett, Walter Lane and E. B. Bogart.
Nominating committee: T. L. Floyd Jones, J. J.
Clark and P. S. Wick.
PRESIDENT JACOBSON'S REPORT.
The past year has not been one of full production
in our factories; there seems to be no good reason
why there should not be good steady business ahead
and we look with confidence to the future in this
respect. The prosperity of the agricultural dis-
tricts is linked up with the prosperity of the other
portions of the country, and we are therefore pleased
to see the improved conditions rurally which will
enable the tiller of the soil to again enter the ranks
of active piano buyers, said President E. R. Jacob-
son.
Every manufacturer recognizes that the industry is
gradually getting down to a solid foundation; that ex-
cessive items of cost and overhead are being elim-
inated and that our products in the main are being
sold at the lowest possible price consistent with safety
and good business.
Growth of Grand Favor.
The grand piano is steadily increasing its hold on
the buying public. In 1923 the production of grands
was 15 per cent of the total, in 1924 this had gone
up to 18 per cent and current figures indicate that
1925 figures will show a still further increase of sev-
eral per cent. We do not believe that upright or
players have had their day. On the contrary, we
believe they will continue to be sold in large num-
bers, as they fill a definite need that cannot be taken
care of by any other type of instrument.
We are particularly interested in a few of the
Chamber activities and of these w T ill make brief men-
tion.
A Helpful Influence.
Credit Bureau. This bureau is one of the most im-
portant features of our work, and if there are any
manufacturers who do not avail themselves of this,
we feel that they are overlooking a helpful influence
in their businesses. To grant credit intelligently
means the securing of reliable information having to
do with the activities past and present of the in-
dividual or concern seeking credit, and this informa-
tion our bureau is in position to give in a remarkable
degree. Through the co-operation of the users of
this bureau there are now in the files information
affecting over 23,000 individuals and concerns, a ver-
itable storehouse of facts and figures of tremendous
value to the trade. To grant intelligent credit means
better merchants and greater safety for the manufac-
turers with consequent greater stability for the in-
dustry at large.
We have had applications from five concerns dur-
ing the year for membership in our association, and
eight members have resigned.
The Grim Reaper has taken three of our mem-
bers during the year, viz: Walter A. Schaff, Wil-
liam B. Jacob, and Francis L. Wing. Peace be to
their memory. Suitable resolutions will be presented
to the convention for adoption at the proper time.
Those Who Helped.
In closing my activities as your president I am
not unmindful of the honor which is mine by reason
of this office. To have my name associated with
those of my illustrious predecessors is indeed an honor
and a cherished privilege, for all of which I desire to
extend my sincere thanks. It has been a year of
pleasant service, rich in associations with our various
members who have one and all showed a desire for
friendly and helpful co-operation.
And now, my earnest wish and hope is that our
association might grow and prosper, and take its
definite part in the development of our piano manu-
facturing industry, to the end that our industry may
secure the universal recognition its importance de-
serves.
The Freight Traffic Report.
In the report of the freight traffic committee, of
which E. J. Whelan was chairman, the following was
said in relation to the Hoch-Smith resolution before
the Interstate Commerce Commission. By this reso-
lution the rates on agricultural products shall be re-
duced, and the rates on other commodities increased,
so that the total revenues of the carriers will be com-
patible with the maintenance of adequate transpor-
tation service:
"It is the judgment of your committee that the Na-
tional Piano Manufacturers' Association should go
on record in opposition to any and all tinkering with
the rate structure by Congress; that Congress has
delegated to the Interstate Commerce Commission the
authority to adjudicate these questions, and that the
Commission is admirably equipped to exercise this
authority, and it should be permitted to do so."
In Memoriam.
Secretary Hill read a resolution on the death of
Frank Luman Wing, and one on the death of Walter
A. Schaaf, which were adopted.
Delegates to Chamber.
The nominating committee suggested the follow-
ing as delegates to the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce: E. R. Jacobson, M. J. de Rochemont,
Chas. Jacob, Mark P. Campbell, J. W. Stevens, Ho-
bart M. Cable, Ava W. Poole, George Miller, George
J. Dowling, Herbert Simpson, W. C. Hepperla, Otto
Schulz, Louis S. Roemer.
Chamber Directors Named.
C. D. Bond moved for their election and the motion
was carried.
Secretary Hill read the names submitted for three
directors in the Chamber, E. R. Jacobson, C. Alfred
Wagner and A. G. Gulbransen, who were duly
elected.
C. D. Bond moved that the association endorse the
work being done by the National Association of Piano
Technicians. The motion was seconded and adopted
unanimously.
Calls on Max de Rochemont.
President Jacobson said the convention would like
to hear from Max de Rochemont, who has just re-
turned from Australia, having spent six months as a
world traveler.
'"I really haven't got my land legs yet and I
haven't been home long enough to find out what has
been going on," said Mr. De Rochemont. "I have,
however, scanned the newspapers on the way out.
I wasn't particularly interested whether we evoluted
from the monkey or whether the government sold
some of the old ships to F"ord. I am vitally inter-
ested, however, in the report of a professor from the
Boston University that 90 per cent of the homes had
electrically operated household machines, such as
washing machines, irons, and such things. He also
found that only two per cent of those homes had
pianos, and that is the one thing that is taking up
all my thought, and I couldn't possibly think of any
speech, and I think it is something that the piano
manufacturers had better give some consideration."
DEALERS NOT OVERSTOCKING.
A number of dealers said that it was well under-
stood throughout the trade that piano merchants
were not buying in the large quantities that they had
been heretofore ordering; they were now buying in-
struments as they needed them; from hand to mouth,
if a gustatory simile might be used. Months ago
several big houses found themselves overstocked.
One large house on the Pacific Coast, at a meeting
of its executive committee, finding itself with $1,150,-
000 worth of pianos on hand, passed a rule not to do
any more promiscuous placing of big orders.
HAS SOLD LOTS OF 'EM.
J. A. Bates, of Middletown, N. Y., who was one of
the speakers at the Bent dinner on Tuesday night,
has sold over 100,000 pianos and organs in his long
career as a music trade man. He is a member of the
firm of Mead & Bates. Middletown is ad far-out sub-
urb of New York city. For many years he was of
the old house of Ludden & Bates, of Savannah, Ga.
Mr. Bates is now in his eighties, but he is as much
interested in placing good pianos in good homes as
he ever was. His young partner, F. W. Mead, is
physically equipped to do the more strenuous work
of their prosperous and aggressive company.
A MAN FROM NEBRASKA.
Gordon L. Hammond, who succeeded W. G. Hay
when he resigned from the Gaston Music & Furni-
ture Company, Hastings, Neb., has been with the
company nineteen years, and is now general man-
ager of the piano department. Mr. Gaston does a
lot of wholesale piano business throughout Nebraska
in addition to his retail selling.
June 13, 1925.
LEADER AMONG FRENCH
PIANO INDUSTRIES
A Brief Expression Concerning the Paris House of
Gaveau and Its Eminently Modern Methods of
Manufacture.
As the trade very generally knows Charles Stanley,
one of the Story & Clark Piano Co. experts, has been
in charge of the modernization, along American lines,
of the eminent French piano factory of Gaveau in
Paris. The industry of the famous French house is
an extensive one. The factory proper is just outside
the capital, and in a recent letter from Mr. Stanley
a very pleasing pen sketch of that plant is given. It
is certain that the following extracts from Mr.
Stanley's letter will be read with interest:
Editor Presto: I am sending a copy of the Gaveau
catalog, recently off the press, showing the styles
and models from the upright to the 8 ft. 6 in. concert
grand. I have been engaged on the reorganization
of the factory, and have aided in completing plans
for the new building, the scope of which is quite
ambitious and has evidently engaged the attention
of the house for a long time.
Their Gaveau system of keeping the factory going
steadily the year around, keeping their men employed
at all seasons of the year, cannot be well improved
upon, and in this respect could be extensively copied
by some of our American makers of pianos. I find
the French workman a very hard and industrious
worker, who gives his utmost attention to the task in
hand, and he is at all times ready to receive sugges-
tions and with equal consistency does his best to
please.
Fontenay-Sur-Bois, where the Gaveau works are
situated, is eight miles from Paris, or about the same
distance that Oak Park is from Chicago. It is a de-
lightful suburb,—not a factory town,—comprising
18,000 people and has very fine homes. If the streets
are a little bit twisted, they are picturesque and
quaint, and delight the heart of the stranger coming
from America, where all is so new and well organ-
ized, as to streets and their maintenance.
Here it is so different. The streets are narrow and
very short, with many turns to them, and each and
every house with its stone wall and iron fence, with
a glimpse, now and again, into a well-ordered court-
yard and pretty home. But all so very old and
strange to the American eye that one's mind turns
to history so far back that one forgets living in the
present.
Seven months have elapsed since I left New York
and I feel half French and, while the language, as
some say, is not hard to learn, I have found it not
so easy after all. But, I like French, I like Paris,
and I like living here. The weather is not severe
in winter and the summer promises to be delightful.
And when last winter I read of what was happening
in New York and Chicago regarding the cold and
snow, I felt quite cheerful about my presence here
and rejoiced that I was not wearing earmuffs far
along into the spring.
But soon new thoughts will turn to preparations
for returning to the "land of the free"—at least his-
torically free and in many cases still gloriously so.
Meantime my best regards to all my friends in the in-
dustry and trade "at home."
CHARLES STANLEY.
WILLIAM HAZELTON
AT THE CONVENTION
Veteran Piano Maker Meets Crowds of Old
Trade Friends and Delighted Dealers
Proud to Make His Acquaintance.
None at the convention was more entitled to the
reverence and respect of every man who makes and
sells pianos than the fine old dean of pianomakers,
William Hazelton. For Mr. Hazelton has been ac-
tually at work making pianos for 62 years. He be-
gan work at the age of 15 with his two uncles, who
started the business of Hazelton Bros., Inc., in 1849.
Today, at the age of 77, he still goes to work daily,
and personally tone-regulates every Hazelton piano
that leaves the factory.
The quality of the Hazelton is pretty well known
now, and this fine old gentleman has been an impor-
tant factor in making it what it is. He is hale and
hearty and mentally alert and full of interest in his
work. His presence at the Hazelton exhibit at the
Drake was a great pleasure to those who know him,
and afforded an opportunity to those who had not
previously met him to meet the youthful-spirited
grandad of piano makers. Mr. Hazelton himself
anticipated with keen interest his trip to Chicago to
attend the convention, where he hoped to meet many
of his old friends.
An electric piano was the cause of a fire at Girard,
Ohio, that caused $6,880 worth of damage. The
piano was in a local theatre and due to improper
wiring 1 , started the fire.
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