Presto

June 1, 1929
PRESTO-TIMES
ISSUED THE FIRST AND THIRD
SATURDAY IN EACH
MONTH
F R A N K D. A B B O T T
- - - - - - - -
(C. A . D A N I ELL—1904-1927.)
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, 111.
The American Music Trade Journal
Editor
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mercial Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O . " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan 29. 1896. at the
Post Office. Chicago, HI., under Act of March 3. 1879.
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smaller cities are the best occasional correspondents, and
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Tho last form of Presto-Times goes to press at 11 a. m.
Thursday preceding publication day. Any news trans-
piring after that hour cannot be expected in the current
issue. Nothing received at the office that is not strictly
news of importance can have attention after 9 a. m. of
Thursday. If they concern the interests of manufactur-
ers or dealers such items will appear the issue following.
CHICAGO, JUNE 1, 1929
RECENT ECONOMIC CHANGES
In referring to recent economic changes in the United States,
the United States Department of Commerce, in its elimination of
waste series just released, says that the distinctive character of the
years from 1922 to 1929 owes less to fundamental change than to
intensified activity.
But while the period from 1922 to 1929 has been one of intense
activity, the committee noted that this activity has been "spotty."
Certain groups have been more active than other groups: certain
industries busier than their neighbor industries, and certain geograph-
ical areas more prosperous than other areas. The Pacific States
have made an extraordinary advance ; the South has rapidly devel-
oped as a manufacturing area: the East North-Central Division has
grown; while the New England States, and to some extent the Mid-
dle Atlantic section, have developed less rapidly and have experienced
some difficulties in adapting their older industries to new conditions.
While industrial, agricultural, and commercial activity has been
"spotty," the broad social advantages of our accelerated activity
flowed out over the land. For example, the highway-building pro-
grams throughout the nation were not limited to the intensely active
areas ; good roads were extended in all directions, serving the whole
population. The same might be said for educational advantages,
piano and radio entertainment, personal mobility made possible by
low-priced motor cars, swift and dependable transportation and com-
munication, and numerous other facilities and services making for
comfort and well-being, beyond the elemental requirements of food,
clothing and shelter.
This spread of higher living standards has been characteristic of
our national life practically throughout our history. As a phenom-
enon it is not new, but in its degree and scope it has taken on a
new importance.
REBIRTH OF THE TRADE
There are no evidences of decay in the piano business. The best
is yet to be. The recent slump in the piano trade is not the death
warrant of the piano, but its rebirth. It is now in order to erect a
headstone for the buried spirit of profiteering. Profitism by mis-
representation is a corpse. The edict has gone forth that no longer
shall this attitude and this misunderstanding between piano men and
the suspicious public continue. As the world changes, everybody
changes with it. Universal good will cannot be achieved by preach-
ing, nor can the next turn in business be guessed by a conjecture on
last year's successes or failures.
MIRAGES, NOT CLOUDS
A pessimist of the piano trade declared at the beginning of this
year that he saw a cloud arising over the piano business near the
horizon in the form of a bear, another in the zenith with the head of
an ass, and a third to the westward with claws like a dragon, and all
we could agree upon was that the clouds were there but that I was
grossly mistaken in the zoography and topography of them. It is
very hard to make up a tolerable assembly of these threatening
clouds without including the majority of them. An upper current
of air began to reshape them, so that the first took on the face of
an advertising manager who had decided that the principal cause of
lower piano income was wholly due to what his firm had paid out
to the trade press ; the second cloud took on the form of a deserter
from the piano salesmen's ranks and who is now a house-to-house
man for washing machines, while the dragon-clawed cloud turned
to look like the pessimist himself.
VALUE OF CONVENTION WORK
Men get out of their pettiness who attend conventions. Partial
judges that we are of our own excellencies and of other men's de-
faults, our breadth of mind is apt to dwindle away to a degree most
woeful to behold, unless we mingle with other men. There are no
dragons' teeth so prolific as mutual misunderstandings. It is not
enough to know what the other fellow is doing in the distance. The
trade must have living friends. The hopes of men must constantly be
rekindled, and only those who live active lives can rekindle them. At
this convention the seed of good will will be sown with copious hands.
Those who stay away because they fear they cannot learn anything
are putting up the arguments of truants. Men often attribute far
too little to their instruction, and too much to their own inherent
qualities. The qualities of resourcefulness and adaptability are what
we most need.
TALENT ON THE PLATFORM
The men who take the lead in convention work in the piano and
radio trade do not consider themselves the seven wise men of Greece,
nor is the cleverest speaker to be looked upon as a beautiful panther,
so bright of eve, so sleek of coat. No need to feel like William Tell,
refusing to salute the cap of Gessler because another is taking the
lead. In the late World's War men of great prominence in the busi-
ness world became private soldiers, and their action did not prevent
the procession of the equinoxes or take any of the resin of scammony
out of anybody else's system. Just now, if the piano trade can get
life out of anybody with a talent for speaking or acting or diversion
of the assemblages it seems a duty to put them to work, if not ex-
clusively at least predominantly. The men and women employed or
engaged in any capacity for the good of the trade are also serving.
MAKING PRICES STICK
Establishing standard prices for pianos and getting them is a
task that calls for courage and skill, if effectively performed. This
might call for two general classifications of pianos—those with an
unsurpassed standard of excellence and those that cost less but are
perfectly safe pianos to buy. It would require courage to convince
each manufacturer of the class in which his instruments belong and
skill to adjust wholesale prices that would satisfy him and to which
he must stick.
PRE-CONVENTION STAG PARTY.
GEO. H. SNYDER TRAVELING.
The pre-convention stag party and big whopee
event, held at the Medinah Athletic Club in Chicago
last Monday night, May 27, was an informal affair
of much mirth and some business in completing plans
for the big meetings at the Drake this week. Promi-
nent in the activities of the affa : r were Harry Bibb,
Gordon Laughead, Henry Hewitt, Harry Schoene-
wald, Roger O'Connor and Carl Weber.
George H. Snyder, hustling piano man, is now trav-
eling for the D. L. Whittle Music Company, of
Dallas, Texas, and he told a Presto correspondent
that their business is improving, but they are working
it harder. He blames the dealers for the principal
slackness in the piano trade, saying: "Pianos never
have and never will be sold from behind a mahogany
desk, with poorly-paid or all low-commission sales-
men." And he says he believes the manufacturers
ought to hurry and bury any of their makes that have
died. Mr. Snyder's address is 5935 Prospect avenue,
Dallas, Texas.
Business houses have manifested much interest in
Kenneth S. Clark's book, "Music in Industry," pub-
lished by the National Bureau for the Advancement
of Music.
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