patient's name and address, the date, the physicians's full name and office address, and his registry number. It was stated that the government would consider such an order as a new prescription. However, this method of authorizing a renewal can no longer be practiced. In the future all prescriptions coming within the scope of the law must be original prescriptions; that is, all the ingredients must be written on the blank. Should a physician want to continue a treatment involving narcotics he must supply a new prescription in full every time the patient's supply of medicine runs out. THE INTERCHANGE OF REGISTRATION. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy now congratulates itself on having secured the coöperation of 36 States in the reciprocal interchange of certificates. In certain other States members of the pharmacy boards are in entire sympathy with the further development of the reciprocity idea, but are hampered by unfavorable laws or other conditions. olina, and Pennsylvania are "associate members." The secretary of the association is H. C. Christiansen, 450 Bowen Street, Chicago. BEWARE OF DRUG PEDDLERS! ** * These are opportune days for drug peddlers! The scarcity of certain chemicals and preparations, mostly foreign-made, and the consequent high prices at which they are held, offers unusual opportunity to the fly-bynight salesman who makes delivery on the spot. These itinerant venders are hard to get at. Before the government can act under the Food and Drugs law, interstate shipment must be shown; that is, the goods must have been shipped or taken from one State to another. Until such transportation has taken place, State or municipal laws only can be invoked. A flagrant fraud of this character has recently been exposed by Federal officials. An imitation of salvarsan proved to be nothing more than salt colored with coal-tar dye. The preparation was absolutely worthless, and was sold at a high price; and inasmuch as the substance was to be injected directly into a patient's blood, the imposition takes on a phase little short of actual murder. This product had all the physical aspects of the original, and the exterior of the package was an exact reproduction. Judged by externals only, the manufacturer himself might have been deceived. The idea is a sound and a just one. Surely a pharmacist who is worthy and capable of practicing his profession in one State is equally as worthy and capable of practicing it in another State. But there is an objection often raised in opposition, it is said. What is to hinder favored States, like California, Florida, and Michigan, for instance, from being overrun by druggists? Should diamonds be discovered in Nebraska and a huge wave of prosperity make fatter still the commonwealth of William Jennings, what is to hinder thirty way toward ruining a business. thousands druggists rushing to the scene and opening up as many new stores? That is the way the question is put. However, there would seem to be little danger in this respect. There was a total of 337 reciprocal registrations granted through the national organization during a period of eleven months, and these were quite uniformly scattered throughout the country. Illinois headed the list with 54 and Texas came next with 28. The list of what is known as "active members" of the association includes every State in the Union except California, Colorado, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington, and Wyoming; and of these Colorado, New York, North Car There is but one safe course to pursue, and that is to buy goods only from legitimate sources. A single bad buy might go a long There are a number of drug THE COD-LIVER OIL commodities which have re SITUATION. sponded in an unusual degree to the conditions brought about by the war, and among them we find cod-liver oil. In July, 1914, the price quoted was $22.50 a barrel; it is now well over the hundred mark. Usually in cases involving so rapid and pronounced an increase there are legitimate reasons, quite apart from those which may be charged to speculative buying and holding; and in the matter of cod-liver oil these reasons are not at all difficult to trace out. To begin with, cod fishing has been less successful than for years past. Less fish have been caught, and this has resulted in a shortage of oil. Then, too, the fact that the North Sea is within the military area, increasing shipping difficulties, has had a bearing. But perhaps the chief cause may be found in the fact that Germany has bought immense quantities of cod-liver oil for the purpose of making glycerin from it to be used in the manufacture of explosives. Large orders for prompt shipment to Russia, presumably for the same purpose, must also be taken into consideration. There seems to be no relief in sight. It does not appear that there can be a marked decline in price until the oil obtained from another year's catch becomes available. THE FORD CASE AND THE STEVENS BILL. Nearly two years ago the Ford Motor Company attempted to restrain a retail concern in Dayton, Ohio, from selling its cars below the set price. In other words, the Ford company undertook to establish its right to set its price to the consumer and to maintain it. A restraining decree was applied for. Last month in this department we discussed the Kellogg Corn Flakes case, which in some respects parallels the Ford case, both in regard to the particular kind of law involved and the outcome. It will be recalled that the Kellogg company based its defense on the patent law. The Ford company, on the other hand, based its complaint on the patent law. And both companies, so the courts declare, have grabbed hold of the hot end of the stick! In the Ford case the injunction sought has been denied. What was said last month in connection with the Kellogg case applies with equal force to this later development. The interests of the Stevens bill are in no way affected. The failure of the breakfast food company to sustain its defense, and of the motor car company to make good its complaint, may perhaps in each instance be assessed to the kind of law selected on which to predicate the case, rather than to any inherent defect in the principles of price standardization and maintenance. dorsed as "the only practical form of legislation now visible which promises the establishment of resale prices, the preventing of predatory price-cutting, and the offering of a guaranty of free and honest competition in all lines of trade." This meeting was the first occasion, it is stated, on which representatives from all branches of retail trade ever came together for the common good. Grocers, hardware men, clothiers and others were as much in evidence as druggists. A drug man, however, was elected chairman-Dr. Wm. C. Andersonand the names of the following active workers in pharmaceutical affairs are found on the executive committee: T. J. France, E. A. Boetzel, Louis Berger, Geo. E. Huether, I. Shuloff, S. B. V. Swann, B. Colle, Peter Diamond, E. Lindemann, and Alex Gardner. * Cincinnati has now followed in the lead of Detroit. In one of the high schools of the city a course in pharmacy has been established, and actual experience in a drug store is one of the entrance requirements. This experiment of incorporating pharmaceutical education in the work of the city high schools is a very interesting one. * In Chicago the State Factory Inspectors have been calling on drug stores in order to learn if the child labor law is being violated. Apprentice boys cannot be under 14, and if between 14 and 16 a school certificate must be shown if called for. A five-acre golden-seal "farm" in Maine yielded 3500 pounds of root this year, valued at $14,000. It takes five years for the root to mature, and owing to the European war the demand for the drug has materially decreased. * Columbian spirit is now known as Columbian methanol. It is still, however, devoid of any-or more strictly speaking, all-of those qualities which go to make up an ideal picnic beverage. Dr. Sigismund S. Goldwater has resigned as Health Commissioner of the city of New EDITORIAL SELLING SATISFACTORY SERVICE. The larger retail establishments, particularly the chain-store systems, have almost without exception formulated a very comprehensive code of ethics which must be somewhat arbitrarily followed by employees. This system of behavior is usually supplied in pamphlet form, and it is obligatory that each clerk study it with as much care as he does any book pertaining technically to the drug business. Some chains maintain correspondence courses designed to educate the clerk, while others hold night schools at stated intervals during the week. The underlying idea is that a store does not only sell merchandise; it sells service, also; and that poor service will kill a business just as effectively as the policy of selling shoddy or dishonest merchandise will. Crystallized, this sentiment is expressed in the thought that "the store that sells poor service is a poor store." "The customer pays your salary," is the way the Owl Drug Company puts the situation up to its employees. Nothing affecting the interests of the store is overlooked, it seems. By way of illustration, salesmen are requested to change their linen daily and to wear belts in summer. Women who wait on trade are requested to wear either plain white or plain black clothing, or a combination of the two, and beauty patches, earrings, and "loud" jewelry are distinctly discouraged. Clerks are instructed not to call across the store to each other, even when important information is desired; it is necessary to approach the person addressed and to speak in a quiet, restrained voice. Nicknames are not viewed with favor. "Take time," says Rule 26 in the Owl Company's manual, "to hand the change to the customer. Never lay it on the counter for him or her to pick up." In conversations carried on with customers such words as "bargain," "dandy," "awful," and "swell" are not to be used, and the phrase "just as good" is to be carefully avoided. Caution is distinctly issued against attempting to sell something “just as good" or "better" when an article is called for. No attempt at this form of substitution is to be practiced. The article called for must be promptly supplied. Nothing must be done in any manner which will offend, antagonize, or repel a patron. The idea is kept constantly in mind that service as well as merchandise is sold, and that the two are inseparably interlocked. The idea is entirely logical and perhaps will bear a little more thoughtful consideration than is usually given to it, not only by clerks, but by proprietors as well. REDUCED PROFITS IN THE JOBBING W. A. Hover, of Denver, Colorado, has collected another set of statistics with reference to the jobbing business. They were presented at the last meeting of the National Wholesale Druggists' Association on the Pacific Coast, and they make very interesting reading. Mr. Hover shows that the percentage cost of doing business in the wholesale drug trade has gradually risen from 9 per cent in 1878 to 12.5 per cent in 1914. Mr. Hover doesn't discuss what the gross profits are in the jobbing business, but we understand that with proprietary medicine and similar commodities the figure averages 15 per cent. With a gross profit of 15, and an expense of 12.5, there is left a net profit of 2.5 per cent certainly not an extortionate return! In the meantime Mr. Hover discovers that the percentage of solicited business has considerably risen. He means by this, of course, that there are fewer and fewer voluntary orders sent in by mail, and that more and more traveling salesmen have to be sent out to get the business. The percentage of solicited sales has risen from 53 per cent in 1899 to 63 per cent in 1914. This means increasing competition, increasing expense for travelers, and decreasing profits. Passing along to the next group of figures presented by Mr. Hover, it is somewhat surprising to find that proprietary articles still represent 53 per cent of the jobber's business -more than half of it. And the still more astonishing fact is that 74 per cent of the business done by jobbers in proprietary articles represents orders of one-quarter dozen or less! In other words, three-fourths of the time the jobber is doing what practically amounts to a retail business and only securing a relatively small wholesale profit. From all of which it appears that the wholesale druggist, like practically every other type of merchant, is facing the great problem of increasing competition, rising costs, and decreasing profits. It is no cause for wonder that at least three or four times a year we find old, well-established jobbing houses uniting fortunes with one another and bringing about amalgamations for the purpose of reducing competition and lessening economic waste. A NEW MOVEMENT. Two modern developments of considerable interest are both illustrated in a new step just taken in Iowa. One is the tendency of the present-day university, chiefly through its extension activites, to reach out and help all the people by the dissemination of practical education. The other is the tendency of modern business men to make a scientific study of their calling. The State Pharmaceutical Association has asked the Extension Division of the State University to conduct a short course in business subjects for the benefit of the druggists of the commonwealth. Accordingly a series of special lectures were delivered at the University in November. Such problems were discussed as cost and profit accounting, the annual inventory, advertising, buying, salesmanship, and other topics of great importance to every retailer. The University had previously conducted similar short courses for the benefit of grocers, clothiers, and hardware dealers, and the whole movement is one of the interesting developments of the hour. Will other States take it up? DO YOU WANT A BULLETIN BINDER? This number of the BULLETIN will be found to contain the annual index, and a mere glance will show what a wealth of practical material has appeared in this journal during the present year. Much of this information is of far more permanent benefit than of temporary interest. It ought to be kept available for future reference. Problems are coming up in the store every day that can be solved by consulting some such upto-date authority as the Bulletin. You may want a certain formula. You may want to put into force an advertising scheme that you couldn't use at the time it was published. You may want to repeat a window display. You may desire to find out what the incompatibilities of a certain drug or chemical are. You may, in fact, want any one or more of a thousand pieces of information. Very well, then, bind the BULLETIN and keep it on file, and insert the annual index in the proper place so that it will at once furnish an immediate key to the volume. We shall be glad to send you a binder for this purpose at the cost price of 65 cents. All you have to do is to punch two holes in the back of each copy of the BULLETIN, run the cords through them, fasten these cords tightly by the clip provided for the purpose, and you have a complete volume of the BULLETIN ready for your back-room shelf. SEVERAL QUESTIONS. From a man in Idaho we have received a number of questions as follows: First, what do the current expenses cover? Do they include interest on the money invested in your stock, freight on goods from the wholesale houses to the drug store, and what is the general salary allowance to the owners? I do all the prescription work myself. These points and a thousand others are com prehensively covered in Mr. Mason's book entitled "The Druggist and His Profits," and you would doubtless find it very useful and suggestive. We may in the present instance, however, reply briefly to your questions: 1. The expense account should cover the following 18 items: (1) taxes, (2) insurance, (3) fuel, (4) light, (5) water, (6) rent, (7) proprietor's salary, (8) clerk hire, (9) advertising, (10) telephone, (11) telegraph, (12) office supplies, (13) postage, (14) repairs, (15) delivery service, (16) donations, (17) subscriptions, (18) depreciation of stock and fixtures and losses on bad accounts. 2. Interest on the investment should not be included in the expense account. 3. Freight and cartage are not an expense at all. They represent a part of the cost of goods, and should be included among purchases. 4. The whole question of a salary allowance for the proprietor was discussed on page 370 of the BULLETIN for September of this year. |