The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1909)

44 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. THE BANQUET AT THE SHELBURNE. (Continued from page 41.) be a good thing for all who have to do with it. The enterprise that tries to "hog" all the profit is going to be unpopular. Public opinion will turn against them. I believe the improvement in the art will advance too fast for the infamy of price cutting and sweat shop methods to find a lodgment. It is clearly the duty and best policy that the trade turn its face hard against such firms that show the black flag of piracy of patents or the yellow spots of cut prices. Touching on and Appertaining to Patents. Patents are a most useful and the most potent means of maintaining prices to a fair and wholesome level. They can never be used to do more unless the holders of the same are short-sighted. The punishment in such cases usually fits the crime, as any attempt to hold prices to an unreasonable level, through the means of a patent, reduces the volume of trade and the enterprise is, therefore, strangled in its infancy. The world can generally get along without a particular patent; the public are good appraisers; they want the benefit of the new idea, but they must have it at a reasonable price or they will refuse to use it in any great quantity. Necessary commodities can never be controlled by patents, therefore the public are independent of the patent question. While they always welcome an improvement, they are capable of getting along without it as they did before it came, and they certainly will if a "hold-up man" comes around using his patent as a gun. Pair prices are a necessity to the healthy condition and progress of any line of trade, and the trade should fully co-operate in their maintenance. He who destroys this healthy condition for the sake of temporary gain is an enemy to all who work for the betterment and uplift of mankind, and the time is coming when such selfishness will be lecognized as selfishness and when legislation and judicial power will not be in its favor, as it is to some extent at present. It will not always have the sympathy of the courts. There are merchants who say, "We could make better purchases if there were more manufacturers of talking machine goods; the system of established and maintained prices in the business gives us no chance to reap the benefit of our genius as buyers, it is all cut and dried for us." This is true, but this plan of s'elling goods is a square deal and the advantages of selling far outweigh the disadvantages of buying. It is certainly true that if there were a larger number of manufacturers there would be a larger number of merchants trying to sell the same kinds of goods. In other words, the goods would be easier to buy but harder to sell and profits much less. Quality as a Means of Competition. Patents on talking machines can never be more than a regulator; the talking machine manufacturers should respect each other's patents; there is always more than one way to do the same thing. The manufacturers should try to excel in quality as a means of competition rather than to devote themselves to a war of destructive prices. The man who says, "Give me a license or I will destroy your patent" is a hold-up man just as much as was Jesse James — an enemy to all. When .people take this position with the Victor Co. it means a war to the death; there is no other way. Quite a number of firms have taken this path of commercial suicide within the last four or five years. In the matter of disputes on patents the trade generally know who the infringers are, and if they do not it would pay them to get a good, responsible patent lawyer to point out the truth; it will cost far less than to have their stock of goods enjoined by the courts. The inventor wins out by far the greatest number of times; at least the Victor Co.'s inventors do; and manufacturers who lack the initiative to create and therefore prey upon the works of others are never safe people to tie up to. The competition between the Edison Co. and the Victor Co. has so far been ideal. It has been a question of quality, commercial organization and fair dealing, and in our efforts to excel each other in this respect I am sure we have done each other much good. We have greatly enlarged the industry; we have improved the quality and demand for the goods and have created a prosperous condition for all interested. Certainly the trade has been more greatly benefited during this period than at any other time, and, to a great extent, does the prosperity of the trade as it is now composed, depend upon the maintenance of this wholesome and commendable relation as between the two companies. Victor and Edison Companies Genuine Rivals. There is no vital question of disc versus cylinder. Let the Victor Co. keep to the disc and the Edison keep to the cylinder; one side of the question is enough for one manufacturer; there is an inexhaustible opportunity to improve both, such as will absorb the energy of the respective organizations so long as a single present member shall live, no matter if all of us live to far exceed the records of human longevity. The little ads. in the daily papers, which offer both the Victor and the Edison goods by the same firm, strike me as being potent winners of business. The Victor and Edison companies have no commercial understanding; they have no contract of alliance, but they are natural allies. The disc and cylinder trade forces can be made to balance each other in the long run by independent and liberal management on both sides. It is not unlikely that the scales of the situation may from time to time show an advantage in favor of one or the other; but so long as the organizations retain their respective independence, ability and fairness, the advantage to either one or the other will be but temporary and only serve as a spur to cause the losing one to make a greater effort to regain its lost ground. I am sure that the Victor Co. will always be satisfied with the portion of the disc; we shall never sell so many, but as they bring more, perhaps it will average up to a satisfactory figure in the end. I do not consider that either the double-sided disc record or the doubling of the thread of the cylinder record will increase the sale of talking machine goods. No doubt there is a certain economic advantage in dome instances secured by the use of the above devices, but the articles will not prove themselves as contributing to the progress of the art, according to my opinion. The improvements, if they can be classed as such, are purely economic, and whatever advantage they hold, if any, will be absorbed by the public eventually, with small thanks, and the talking machine manufacturers will be no better off than they were before their introduction; but there will be a huge bill for the cost of the change to pay. The Victor's Opinion of Double Discs. These improvements have, of course, the advantage of giving the public twice as much of the same thing for a very little more money, but I really believe that the public would much prefer to have the same quantity as they had before and pay the same price if they could get it of a higher quality. You cannot increase the attendance at the theater simply by lengthening the time of the play; at least you could not increase the attendance permanently in this way. Generally, however, you can depend upon an increase in attendance by increasing the quality of the play staged. Therefore, I conclude that while the public may to a certain extent take advantage of the bargain of more goods for their money, they will spend no more money than they did in the first place. Should we, however, offer them better goods for the same money or even for more money, they would be far more likely to increase their investments in talking machines. The ultimate success and advancement of the talking machine trade depends as much upon maintaining a standard of the personnel of the trade to high ideas as it does upon the power of the manufacturers. Do not snap at the first cheap thing that bobs up and down in your range of vision — there is sure to be a hook in it. I have often heard the question asked and discussed, "Will the talking machine trade meet the fate of the bicycle?" The bicycle business is to-day, I believe, fairly prosperous; but the bicycle did not come into existence as a new art, as did the electrical business and the talking machine business; it grew up slowly from the velocipede of forty or fifty years ago. When ball bearings and pneumatic tires were introduced the bicycle received such a tremendous impetus that it temporarily outgrew itself. There was, I believe, a short period in which it was considered practically dormant. It was far from a dead one, however; it bobbed up again in the form of the automobile. What really happened was that the bicycle evolutionized itself into the automobile. The panic has not yet even checked this youngster; there is a boom In automobiles; the good ones are hard to get. Not a Fad, But a New Art. Is it not, therefore, plain to all that the talking machine is not a fad, but a new art, a new industry, just emerging from its childhood? It will eventually take its place among the standard arts and industries, just the same as did the printing press, the flying shuttle, the steam engine and the electric dynamo. Indeed, the talking machine has closely followed the history of many of the industries from their birth all through the comparative stages of their development so far as the talking machine has gone. From the past and its wealth of infallible experience we must judge the future, and because of this, as well as because of the many encouraging signs of the times, the future looks good to me. The business must grow for many, many years to come. You can pin your faith to it; it will absoro all the lives and energies of the men who are at present engaged in it, and I have not the slightest doubt but that our children's children will be busy at the many problems which must be unraveled before it can be considered as perfect, before it can be called grown up or standardized. A thing is not likely to stop during its natural growing stage. Prospects for the coming fall look good; but, while I expect a rapid and healthy development, I do not expect a boom, and hope there will be none. It is very evident, owever, that the enterprising jobber or dealer can prepare for the coming fall and winter with confidence that for whatever energy, effort or capital he may invest in his talking machine business he will receive a substantial return. The time has now arrived when the trade can talk "quality" in the matter of talking machine goods. It is so much more potent and satisfactory that the mere matter of price, especially when there is so little difference between the cost ot the highest quality goods and the lowest quality. Public Beginning to Discriminate. The public are beginning to discriminate, and when they learn their lessons fully, which will be soon, quality will be of more importance in talking machine goods than in any other line. Many people sell pianos at a difference in price of $200 or $300, based entirely on tone quality. There should, therefore, be very little difficulty in selling talking machines for $10, $50 or $100 more, or talking machine records for a few cents more when the difference is based on a tone quality that is far greater than exists as between the best piano made and the poorest one. My line of reasoning will stand all the tests of cross-examination, and the business is all right, but we can only reach our goal quickly through the energy and co-operation of our jobbers and dealers. Give talking machines more