The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1909)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. 45 attention; they will repay ail the time devoted to them. Create the business do not wait for it. Consider the insurance business, see what they have done. There is an example of energy and an example of the fruits of energy. Some of the companies do so much business that they have to be stopped by law. Yet it is possible to sell a talking machine wherever a life or fire insurance policy is sold. Still statistics show that only a small portion of those who should do so carry insurance. Look at the automobile business. They say they are going to sell 200,000 this coming twelve months How many talking machines would that energy sell, and how much more profitable and continuously profitable are talking machines than automobiles. Mr. Johnson Regrets Being Absent. I can safely advise the trade. Realize what is before you and take the great opportunity. It pays to work intelligently. Astonishing things aie possible. Even the whole world was conquered once. Alexander was history's greatest example of energy and zeal. He even had some hustle left over when his job was finished. There is nothing to worry about. The future is full of cream. Hustle and the world is yours. In closing, I would express my sincere regrets that circumstances do not permit of my being with you on this occasion, and I would extend you the hand of good-feuowship with my sincere thanks for the parts that you have all played in the pleasant and rapid advancement of our industry. Toastmaster Bowers — In presenting the next speaker, I am partially reminded of Tommy Atkins, "whoozy and wnizzy." The next speaker is a first-class fighting man. I know that he is a first-class fighting man, for I had the pleasure of crossing swords with this distinguished gentleman on the boards of the Congressional floors. In the absence of Edward D. Easton, of the Columbia Co., we are honored with the presence of this first-class fighting man, in the person or Paul H. Cromelin, the vice-president of the Columbia Phonograph Co., who will address you on "Business Policies." Paul H. Cromelin's Address. Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen — 1 bring you personal greetings from my distinguished chief, Edward D. Easton, who has asked me to extend to the officers and members of the National Association of Talking Machine Jobbers his felicitations and well wishes for a pleasant and profitable convention and for a coming year of prosperity, to the members individually and to your association. It was with great regret that he found his pians for his annual visit to Europe were all completed when your kindly invitation was received, so he can only be with you in spirit to-night, and has asked me to represent him; and, as I consider the personnel of the men who are gathered here in convention assemoled, ana contemplate the enormous potentiality and power for good of sucn an association as you have organized, nursed and successfully launched upon the third year of its career, I begin to realize more fully the wisdom of some of those "business policies" which have made possible and even necessary such an association as yours in the year 1909. The Trade Beyond Its Infancy. Those of us who are parents know how difficult it is to realize that our babies, when they are grown up, are really able to shift for themselves and perhaps know better than we do what is best suited for them. No matter how big and how strong a man may become, it is hard for the mother to look upon him as anything else than "her big boy," who still requires her affectionate and tender care and solicitude. And so also it is hard to realize that the time is flying and that our baby industry is really getting past the "kinderkrankheiten" age, and having had successively all of the known children's diseases, is emerging into young manhood, so strong, so virile, so active, so determined, so pugnaciously progressive, so confident of the future, so con vinced of its proper sphere and position, and so sure of landing there. It seems but as yesterday when I was cailed into a little back loom in an unimportant office building in the uncommercial City of Washington, D. C, and shown there for the first time the graphophone. The front office was that of Johns & Easton, court stenogiaphers; the rear, the Columbia Phonograph Co., shortly before organized. I shall never forget that demonstration of the little wax-coated, pasteboard record which I was permitted to hear while Mr. Easton operated the treadle of the machine. It was merely a bit of Irish humor in 4he best style of my much-beloved brother, the late R. F. Cromelin. How I would prize that record if 1 had it to-day; but just as surely as this industry of ours is bouna to progress and go forward, making permanent impress upon the life, culture and civilization of the age, just so surely do I believe that the influence of the big, broad, progressive men who were associated with Mr. Easton in the successful commercial exploitation of the talking machine in the early days, building upon solid foundations and shaping the business policies upon which the industry stands today, lives and will ever be a perpetual inspiration to those who will carry forward the work in the years to come. Cromelin Compliments Edison Handsomely. We have with us to-night a man whose name is a household word in every American family, the record of whose achievements have gone forth to the farthest ends of the earth, and added luster to American citizenship. The name of Thomas A. Edison is associated with many of the most important discoveries of the age; inventions which have given birth to industries, calling for other men of imagination, initiative, far-sightedness and capacity for organization, to shape their course and to plan their "business policies" so that the broadest possible success could be achieved in the quickest time, that mankind could be the beneficiary and those to whom personal remuneration was due rewarded in a befitting manner for their discoveries. It is truly wonderful when we pause to realize how many new industries have been brought into existence, carved out of nothing, so to speak, during our lifetime; but as we are naturally interested in particular in the business policies which are related to the talking machine industry, it may be profitable for a while to-nigut to consider wnat it means to build a new industry on a scientific idea, to create something where nothing tangible existed, to do the missionary and pioneer work, and to overcome the obstacles of ignorance and prejudice. And, as the invitation extended by your worthy chairman indicated clearly that I was expected to consider the subject from the standpoint of the Columbia Co., you will pardon, I am sure, the repeated personal references to our company, our men and the graphophone. Of all the inventions with which humanity has been blessed, few, if any, have seemed to afford such a multiplicity of uses as the graphophone. I use that word in its broadest sense as embracing all practical modern machines which either record or reproduce sound. Development of the Graphophone. There were so many suggested uses that no one could predict with any reasonable degree of certainty just which way the industry would shape itself; and, as is usual in such cases, there was lacking in the "business policies" of those who were destined to develop the industry a continuity or permanency of policy, because from the very nature of things such a course would have been impossible. To illustrate, the existence of the graphophone is directly due to the beneficent use which Alexander Graham Bell made of the funds received from the French government for his work in connection with the telephone. The poliry of the men who exploited the telephone was tc lease, not to sell the instrument. Many of you will perhaps learn with surprise that this was the plan on which graphophones were first put out. They were leased for business purposes on payment of monthly rentals. Moreover, they were leased for use within a restricted territory and could not be removed without the consent of the company. Experience has proved that the business policy of renting, not selling outright, was the correct one in the case of the telephone, but it did not take very long to find out that such a policy was far from right with the commercial graphophone. It soon became evident to Mr. Easton and those associated with him in the Columbia Co. that the field which promised the greatest reward and quickest return and disclosed a vista of world-wide opportunities was the use of the graphophone for home entertainment, and especially for the reproduction of musical sounds; and what more natural than to utilize the instrumentality most convenient and nearest to hand? And thus we find the first band records made by the United States Marine Band, of Washington, D. C, which, under the able leadership of John Philip Sousa, was coming into national prominence. The First Columbia Record Made. Many of you well remember the first record with the announcement "Made for the Columbia Phonograph Co. of Washington, D. C." Now, there is an illustration of "business policy" which has perhaps been the subject of as much heated debate and adverse criticism as any one thing ever done since the business began. P. T. Barnum is accredited with saying, "Get the people talking about you, better by far if possible to get them to say something good, but if you can't, get them to talk about you even if they say something bad." Before passing judgment too quickly as to whether the announcement was good or bad business policy, bear in mind these facts: First — For the first time in the history of the world there had been brought into existence a device which could actually talk and advertise itself. Second — The records were being made by a small company with limited means, which was feeling its way, groping, so to speak, with no experience and nothing which had ever gone before to guide the men who were directing its affairs. Third — From all over the United States, and in course of time from distant foreign countries, orders came in with cash remittances to this little unknown company located, as I say, in the uncommercial city of Washington, which orders were only traceable to the fact that each record out was constantly announcing to all who had ears the name of the company and its geographical location. As the business grew you will remember the announcement was changed to the "Columbia Phonograph Co. of New York," then "Columbia Phonograph Co. of New York and Paris," and then the "Columbia Phonograph Co. of New York and London." It would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars expended in ordinary publicity channels to have made the name so generally known, and when the business had so developed that we were sufficiently well established in the great commercial cities, and it had outlived the purpose for which it was intended, the announcement, as you all know, was dropped. Many a time have I heard the company damned for that old announcement. Many a man had told me that he would not buy a record with an advertisement on it; but I speak with sincerity to-night when I tell you that for every individual who would refuse to buy because of the announcement, I believe that we sold to at least twentyfive or fifty who bought only because of having heard the announcement. Introduction of Coin-Operated Machines. The coin-operated graphophone brought unique business opportunities in the early days. When it was proposed to plunge and to move from a converted residence on a side street to a building on such a great thoroughfare as Pennsylvania avenue, and pay as much as $300 a month rent, the matter was approached with fear and