Scan 30
Musical Courier 1896-12-16: Vol 33 Iss 876, 1896
73 lines. Read by computer on 26 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1— are now involved—in this form of manipulation, operation, scheme, deal, or whatever you may call it, with usually but one party, or two at most, aware of the fact that the thing is crooked. In no case that has come under our knowledge has a manufacturer been a party to the crime, for crime it is, but in every case the manufacturer has been or will be a loser, together with the banks that have been victimized during the progress of the process when it has gone through complicated forms as described.
3It is not so much a matter of consideration at this moment how this horrible entanglement will ever be straightened out. It will right itself (though at heavy losses) only if it is estopped now, right away, quickly, forcibly and forever.
5Two methods suggest themselves as a result of careful consideration of the evil, though both have their origin in one movement.
7The person who signs an agreement to purchase a piano on instalments should be informed that the papers he signs may be used as discounts or collateral.
9This can be done at the time the documents are mutually accepted. In fact, to make the understanding more distinct, a clause could be added to whatever form of agreement is used and this clause signed by the purchaser.
11Or, the bank accepting as discount or collateral should notify the maker (irrespective of the endorsers), that the original document or documents are in its possession.
13To be sure, either one of these processes might mean a loss of a great many instalment sales, but no one who intended to meet the payments would have cause to object to such an understanding. On the one hand objectionable, uncertain transactions would be avoided or else made exclusively at the dealer's risk, while all legitimate paper would be rendered doubly valuable by this frank, open, businesslike way of doing business.
15If there is any other way to conduct the instalment business, which makes up so large a proportion of the piano traffic, we should welcome the suggestions, and will give them prominence equal to this timely exposure of a pernicious practice.
17MR. F. B. BURNS, the scarf manufacturer, of 28 Union square, has opened a retail wareroom at 95 Fifth avenue.
18A fine line of scarfs and stools is on exhibition.
20A GREAT many changes will take place in the piano and organ trade and other trades after January 1, 1897. When they have happened we will publish the news about them, but we don't publish the news about them now because they haven't happened yet.
22THE Staib Piano Action Manufacturing Company has quite as much as it can attend to these days, and the year promises to round out more prosperous than was expected.
24All who use the Staib actions like them; consequently when they make a new customer it is a gain, for they rarely lose an old one.
26MESSRS. ALFRED DOLGE & SON are daily in receipt of scores of letters and postal cards congratulating them on their new Autoharp catalogue. These messages are from dealers who are obtaining valuable ideas for selling this instrument. The catalogue should be on the counter or showcase of every retail music store in the country. Send for one at once. Its advertising department is alone invaluable.
28THE notice which appeared in our last issue, stating that branch number 6 of the Piano Makers' Union had been disbanded because so many of its members have been forced to go into other lines, should not be interpreted as meaning a disruption of the workmen. Those members who remain in the piano factories were transferred to other branches, and the "International Piano Makers' Union" met on December 6 and organized the men in the shops beyond and around the Harlem River, with what purpose is not known. It is highly probable, that the action was taken merely to keep the organization intact, for under existing circumstances no workman or body of men could be so foolish as to anticipate an agitation of any sort.
30TELEGRAM received from Chicago yesterday announces that the suit of the Victorson Polishing Enamel Company against the W. W. Kimball Company has been settled by mutual agreement to the satisfaction of both parties.
32MR. "NAT" CROSBY, representing the manifold interests of Freeborn G. Smith, returned from a Western trip the latter part of last week, reporting business as improving steadily all along the line, while in Chicago it is particularly good. Therefore he merely laughs at a report printed last week to the effect that the F. G. Smith warerooms in Chicago were to be abandoned.
34THE orchestra attachment used by the Weser Brothers in their pianos has been considerably written about recently, but not more than its merit deserves.
36It is beyond question a musical attachment for a piano from which the greatest satisfaction can be obtained by a player. The effects are musical and embrace representations of several instruments which combine well with the piano.
38BECAUSE some makers are advertising and pushing new styles and fresh designs of cases, and others are not, it must not be inferred that those who are keeping quiet are not as progressive as their more fortunate competitors. There are several factories in this city and elsewhere in which preparations for marketing new goods have been made and were brought to at least a temporary standstill by the hard times on the theory that it is better to dispose of accumulated stock of present style before offering new designs, the supposition being that dealers would order only the new ones, while the older styles would go a-begging.
40Whether this principle is true, or, being true, whether it is good policy to apply it in the actual operations of a business, are questions open for discussion. It may be maintained with a good show of consideration that in these times of extraordinary competition it is not bad policy—or at least not a fatal move—to work off some of this accumulated stock at a cut price in order to make room for the new styles. It may be a sound business view that the temporary cutting of prices will so tend to lower them that the prices of the fresh styles cannot be held up.
42No matter which way one looks at it the fact remains that those concerns that are offering new inducements in goods, that is, modernized, improved pianos, better in general get-up than any they have before turned out, are the ones that are actually turning over the most business, while the ultra-conservative ones that are hoping to move their accumulations before pushing the new designs are working under a handicap which affects not only their present business but the whole future of their trade.
44WHAT'S your interest account? How much more interest are you paying than you are collecting, including your cash discounts for pianos you pay for within 30 or 60 days? Seven cents doesn't sound like much money, and 11 cents makes only a small pile, but these trifles, insignificant in themselves, amount to a right smart sum when a whole lot of 'em are added up. You'll notice that your bank looks after these dribblets with the utmost care, while the chances are that you are not collecting them on your delinquent instalment accounts. Money's money, as we are all finding out under a gold standard, and if it takes 100 cents to make a dollar, which it has been decided it does, you've got to look to each penny. If you'll have your bookkeeper figure up what these trifling interest charges in your delinquent instalment accounts would amount to if you collected them all you'll no doubt be surprised. Take the first 10 or 20 accounts you open to in your instalment ledger and figure on them. Figure on them as if you were doing a banking business instead of a piano business, and see how much money you're losing. Perhaps you think such interest can't be collected. But some people do it. And they have the reputation of being clear headed, prosperous business men, too. And a man who buys a piano from them and pays interest is sure to think that he has more value for his money than if he realized he must be paying a big profit to warrant the dealer in overlooking the details which the customer looks carefully after in his own business.
46WEBER AUCTIONS.
48THE daily papers announce "a great sale of Weber pianos at auction" as follows:
50On Monday, December 21, beginning at 10:30 A. M., and continuing every day thereafter until the sale is completed, the undersigned Receiver of the Weber Piano Company will offer at PUBLIC AUCTION by MARTIN F. FLETCHER, Esq., Auctioneer, at the Weber Warerooms, 108 Fifth avenue, corner Sixteenth street, the ENTIRE STOCK of about ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY (180) NEW and SECOND-HAND
52WEBER and other PIANOS, comprising a varied assortment of GRANDS, UPRIGHTS and SQUARES, in all woods and of all styles.
54The sale is announced by William Foster, receiver of the Weber Piano Company, and it is countersigned by Havens & Beebe, attorneys for receiver, as being a sale "Preceding Reorganization," and the announcement further states:
56Sale Absolute & Without Reserve.
58The Chairman of the Reorganization Committee will represent the interests of the New Company at the Sale.
59The stock may be examined at the Weber warerooms every day this week between the hours of 8 A. M. and 6 P. M.
60A large number of second-hand WEBER Concert and Parlor Grands, in perfect order and especially suitable for Churches, Schools, Halls, Lodges, &c., is comprised in this offering.
61While the Receiver is unable for legal reasons to issue guarantees for the pianos to be sold under the terms of this advertisement, he begs to state that the Chairman of the Reorganization Committee, Austin B. Fletcher, Esq., has authorized him to announce that the new
63WEBER-WHEELOCK COMPANY will, on and after January 1, 1897, give the usual guarantees for Five Years upon all Pianos disposed of at this sale, except such as may be specifically exempted by announcement of the Auctioneer on the day of sale.
64Pianos will be delivered to purchasers free of charge within a radius of 20 miles from the city of New York.
65Terms 10 per cent. in cash on acceptance of bid and balance before delivery of the instruments.
66Catalogues will be ready on Wednesday, December 16, and will be mailed on application to any address.
68***
70Mr. Wheelock does not hesitate to say that he has no compunctions in precipitating this auction sale during the holiday season; he is doing this in the interests of the Weber-Wheelock Company, and he has this and no other combination to consider. It appears that Mr. Wheelock has concluded finally to put an end to altruism, and judging from his experience there is no reason in the world for withholding complete commendation for this resolution. It means, among other things, that competition will hereafter be treated by him as competition, and not with that respect for sentimental brotherhood that looks for impossible achievements through conscientious fraternal support in this trade. There can be no fraternity of interests on any solid foundation in any trade where the product is not sold entirely upon its merits, but where the very name of the maker, emblazoned upon the product in full view so long as that product exists, aids materially in bringing its price and in selling it.
72This doctrine has been preached for nearly a score of years in these columns, but men endowed with enthusiasm and with glorious conceptions of future possibilities through vast combinations in this trade have held different grounds, and among these liberal thinkers Mr. Wheelock was one. Mr. Wheelock has finally concluded that the piano business is not ideal, but is really the piano business and is based upon this very kind of aggressive competition he now discloses in his own case. Very well; if that is to be
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