The talking machine world (July-Dec 1918)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 89 You Need This Record System These 2 Units Hold 4300 Thin Records 2150 Edison Records i Clerk does the work of 2. Every Record at your finger tips. Code Signals Sell the Records you have, similar to those called for — which are out of stock. (Very important under present conditions.) A simple Automatic ReOrder System shows what you need. The Sales Record indicates profitable sellers. 350 10" Records in Each Section. Adjustable for 10" and 12" Records Soft Flat Springs Hold Records Straight Up and Prevent Warping If it doesn't increase your sales and save you time, it is returnable for full credit. Write for o u r Catalogue and list of distributors. Regular Models A Locking Roll r . _ Top Prevents Dust ±01" all SIZe KeO and Theft ords. Immediate Shipment from stock. 0GDEN SECTIONAL CABINET CO., Inc. LYNCHBURG VA. July 15, 1918 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TRADE BUSY Enormous Demand for Machines and Records Difficult to Fill — Many Changes in Sales Force, Owing to Men Going to Front Los Angeles, Cal., July 4. — It really was astonishing how business increased during the month of June over the preceding months. The demand for both machines and records was steady during the whole month, and a great many of the larger models in all makes were sold. Of course, the local dealer is up against the same old proposition as of old, his inability to get the goods and this is certainly a great handicap. It is very discouraging to have good prospects lined up for machines and then not be able to supply them when they are ready. However, this does not seem to be merely local, but all over the country, as some of the houses have found out when trying to get goods from the Eastern jobbers, for they seem to be in as bad a condition as the ones on the Coast. There has been some talk of the dealers comparing stocks, especially records, and then trading the ones that they are long on among themselves. This has been tried out in the East and has been very successful. A great many changes have taken place during the last six months in the sales forces of the different dealers. A great many have been called to the army or navy and still others have taken up some other branch of work. All of the Los Angeles music houses are proud of their records during the various "drives" this year, and all without exception have gone "over the top" every time. W. S. Gray, 530 Chronicle Building, San Francisco, has been in Los Angeles the last ten days. Mr. Gray, who for years was Coast manager for the Columbia Co., with headquarters in San Francisco, is now handling talking machine trade accessories and he reports business good in the large territory which he covers. C. S. Ruggles, of Sherman, Clay & Co., local Victor jobbers, says that he cannot get enough goods. Both machine and record shipments seem to be moving very slowly, and he never knows when a car starts from Camden, N. J., just when it will arrive in Los Angeles. Mr. Ruggles has been remodeling his showrooms. William Hobbs Richardson, manager of the talking machine department of the Southern California Music Co., has just returned from Camp Lewis, Wash., where he went to bid his brother, who is going to France, goodbye. Harold Jackson, manager of the talking machine department for the Wiley B. Allen Co., has lost all of his boys, and now has to depend entirely ovi girls for salespeople. Mr. Jackson made several large sales during June, among them being an electric Victrola XVII and a Louis XV, Edison model 375. * Raymond G. Smith, better known to the trade as "Cy" Smith, and for many years connected with the sales force at the Southern California Music Co., has gone to join our fighting force and is now enrolled on the honor list of the United States. Mr. Smith will take a two months' course, under Government instructors, at the Normal School in this city. This class, about 650 in number, will specialize in mechanics. O. A. Lovejoy, manager for the Edison Phonograph, Ltd., wholesale, is very well satisfied with business in general and says that the outlook FOR SALE 25 SHARES Victor Talking Machine Co. Common Stock at $725 WILLIS O. HEARD LAFAYETTE BUILDING PHILADELPHIA. PA. is fine. They have received several large shipments lately, which puts their stock in very fair condition. This company has moved from the second to the ground floor, and now have one of the best equipped jobbing houses' on the Coast. Lyon-McKinney & Smith are doing a nice business in the Brunswick line, and have lately received a shipment of new machines — among them some of the art models. PRICE CUTTING BEING CONDEMNED By Federal Trade Commission as Unfair Trade Practice — Comments by N. Y. Times The question of price cutting versus price stability in the trade field was the basis for a very pertinent and timely editorial in the New York Times of Monday, July 8, which we feel sure will be read with interest by talking machine men. It read: "The public is so in love with price cutting that the Federal Trade Commission is bold, in condemnation of it as an 'unfair' trade practice. Last week the commission dismissed the complaint against a tobacco company as 'unfair' because it refused to sell to a firm which refused to maintain prices. The commission also ordered a leading mail order house to desist from advertising cut prices on the ground that the size of its business enabled it to do so. The fact was that the company sold $780,000 of sugar at a loss of $196,000, and looked for its profit in the degree to which the 'bait' was taken by bargain hunters. If advertisements of that sort are taboo, and if a reputation as a price cutter is enough to bar him from rank with other buyers, long steps have been taken toward the establishment of prices on a national basis. "The action of the commission is surprising, for it has been looked to for popular action. It thus takes issue with many decision of the courts sustaining price cutting as a legitimate device to attract trade. The conflict between the commission and the courts is no more marked than that within trade circles, there being strong factions in support both of price cutting and price maintenance. If price maintenance is stopped by local price cutting, there will be a loss of goods which will not be produced for local markets, and which cannot be produced for national markets at local cut prices. Millions are spent in establishing national markets for trade-marked goods which it would be a loss to the public to be deprived of. On the other hand, other millions are spent in attracting buyers by more or less delusive but undeniably attractive cut prices. The profits, of course, are made on other goods, and the local sellers are indifferent to the loss and embarrassment of nationalized products. "It is a pretty quarrel, and might as well be settled by the common sense of the bargain hunters as by the action of courts and commissions. The necessity of such action suggests that bargain hunters have been deficient in price judgment, and that they have needed governmental guardianship of their interests against those who would profit by their fondness for being humbugged." PISCATORIALLY INCLINED W. G. Pilgrim, assistant general manager of the Otto Heineman Phonograph Supply Co., and A. S. Ribolla, manager of the Chicago branch, left Sunday for a few weeks' rest at Grand Beach, Mich. Both of these popular talking machine men took along a complete set of fishing paraphernalia, and as Mr. Pilgrim has promised to distribute the results of his fishing efforts .among his associates in New York, his work is cut out for him for the next two weeks. A petition in bankruptcy was filed last week in. the Federal Court by officers of. the Artofola Talking Machine Co., Springfield, 111. The liabilities were listed at $22,863.86 and assets at $20,400.