Parke, Davis & Co., Detroit. The first report that appeared charged the thief with having looted his employers of $600,000 worth of narcotics, and credited the government with a very clever piece of detective work. The facts are that about $800 worth of narcotics was stolen, and that about $600 worth of this was More than that, it was Parke, recovered. Davis & Company's own house detective who handled the case, merely calling on the local police department to arrest the man when a search had revealed the goods in his room.

The young man promptly confessed. He proved to be an ex-inmate of the prison at Jefferson City, Missouri, and had been in the employ of Parke, Davis & Company but a short time.

*

A special counsel attached to the attorneygeneral's office in Iowa has advanced the opinion that under the State Pharmacy law, neither a general merchant nor a wagon peddler can lawfully sell medicines containing either alcohol or poisons. If this interpretation can be made to hold, it would seem that the competition of itinerant venders is pretty well blocked.

*

The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the right of individual States to tax coupons, trading stamps, and other similar devices. This opens the way for legislatures all over the country to pass such regulatory measures as may be deemed best for the protection of small retailers.

The initial meeting of what is termed the World's Salesmanship Congress will be held in Detroit, Michigan, July 9 to 13, inclusive. It is stated that master salesmen from all parts of the world will be at the congress, and many noted men will be on the program.

*

It will be recalled that a decision rendered in the District Court, Buffalo, New York, classed the Eastman Kodak Company as an illegal monopoly. The Eastman Company has appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

J. Leyden White has been retained as Washington correspondent for the N. A. R. D. It will be recalled that Mr. White tendered his resignation some time ago.

$20 a month rent against this departmert and apportion the other expenses. Our jewelry business must stand on its own feet.

"You will notice that the percentage of gross profit is high. This is explained by the repair work we get, which amounts to something over $100 a month, and is far more profitable than I would not advise any prescription business.

one to take up jewelry as a side-line, though, unless he is sure of a reliable watchmaker and engraver, for otherwise he will have a small elephant on his hands."

This man seems to have found a reliable watchmaker, and seems to be doing as well as he could expect to do. Jewelry, with him, is

a profitable side-line.

A CALIFORNIA STATEMENT. We have had to work this statement over a little, and our correspondent may not recognize it at first glance.

In a letter which accompanied the blank,

"California" said that he had omitted from his calculations two items-cash discounts amounting to $237.07, and "interest on investments at the local rate of 8 per cent. I wanted to see how you treat these items," he states.

Well, the first item-the cash discounts-we treat by subtracting the amount ($237.07) from the cost of goods bought during the year. No one can dispute the correctness of such a course: the goods cost just that much less money.

However, there are those who are inclined to take issue with us in the matter of charging interest on the investment. The BULLETIN

contends that to do so is an abomination unto the Lord. We contend that interest should not be dragged into the accounting. It does not belong there. This point has been discussed a number of times in the BULLETIN and space will not permit us to go into it here. Let it be enough to say that according to our system of accounting, "California" did the right

A KANSAS STATEMENT.

We fear that this statement presents a few inaccuracies-not visibly, but underneath the record. Our correspondent has supplemented the regular form with a statement made out in his own way, and it is on this that we encounter a number of peculiarities.

For instance, he supplies us with a detailed expense account, and on this we do not find the item "depreciation." Ten per cent of the inventorial value of the fixtures should be written off each year and charged to expense. Fixtures include the soda fountain. Five per cent of

the stock should be written off, likewise, and charged in the expense account.

Then, again, all merchandise sold during the year should be entered on its proper place on the blank, whether the goods have been paid for or not. What the store owes is not taken into consideration at all in a statement of this character. We concern ourselves only with this question: has the store been run on business principles during the year? We merely analyze a year's business, as such. The proprietor's or the store's financial condition—that

is another matter entirely. What we are trying to arrive at is (1) has the store charged enough for what it has sold-determined by the gross profit; (2) have expenses been kept down to a safe level; (3) has there been a sufficient margin of net profit?

These facts should not be lost sight of.

In the case under discussion, if we take the figures as they stand, our correspondent has made a gross profit of 42.4 per cent, his expenses have been 27.2, and he has made a net profit of 15.2 per cent.

ABOUT PEOPLE

DEATH OF CHARLES H. McCONNELL.

In many respects Charles H. McConnell, late of Chicago, was a remarkable man. First making a fortune in the show business, then losing it, and afterwards succeeding only indifferently in various other activities, he entered the drug business as a rank outsider after he was fifty years old. His capital at that time was Nerve. Always plausible and impressive to a degree, he got the banks inter

must be confessed that he was not popular with druggists. He was wont to buy large space in the newspapers and fill it with attacks on substitution and other evils alleged to be practiced by many members of the calling.

It was a source of pride with Mr. McConnell that he served during the entire Civil War in the Twenty-fourth Michigan Regiment. He was never tired of telling about the famous "Iron Brigade" of which the Twenty-fourth Michigan Regiment formed a part. Over six

feet tall, erect in carriage, dignified to a degree, he looked the part, and he was a man of striking characteristics in general. He was about seventy-four years old at the time of his death.

CHAS. H. McCONNELL.

ested and they even stood by him during a period of receivership that resulted when the panic of '93 and '94 struck the country a year after the enterprise was started.

Before long Mr. McConnell pulled out, however, and he ultimately established a business at 122 North State Street, in Chicago, of a very prosperous type. The daily volume of trade grew to exceed a thousand dollars. The entire left side of the salesroom was devoted to the prescription department, from the front window back to the rear, and something like four or five hundred prescriptions were dispensed daily. It was said ten years ago that Mr. McConnell realized a net profit of $30,000 a year-and he built it all up after he was fifty years old!

He was a man of great originality, but it

SAMUEL E. STRONG.

Druggists' Association since 1897, succeeding his brother, who, in turn, had succeeded his father. Thus a member of the family has been treasurer of the association since it was organized in 1876.

DEATH OF WALTER H. GALE.

Walter H. Gale, a prominent figure in the drug world of Chicago, and formerly well known as an officer and leader in the N. A. R. D., died late in March.

EDITORIAL

LUCK IN BUSINESS.

We are giving space this month to a very interesting series of papers on the subject of "Luck as a Factor in My Business Career." Three of the four contributions won prizes in our recent contest.

Just how strong a factor good fortune may prove to be in the building of a career is exceedingly debatable. In the long run, of course, we get just about what we deserve in this vale of tears. As a rule luck won't do us much good unless we are trained and ready for the opportunity which luck presents.

And yet nearly every man, at one time or another, has had a piece of good fortune that has materially aided him in the struggle for place and success. It has, so to speak, cleared the way for Merit and Ability.

Some of these truths are neatly illustrated in To Mr. Jenkins, our symposium this month.

at a critical time, fell a nice piece of good fortune when a wrong turn of the wheel might have thrust him back several years, and perhaps under the circumstances ruined his chances permanently. And yet who shall say that Character, as represented in himself and his family, was not the dominating factor?

In Mr. Tupper's case, we apparently have luck unalloyed. Here was an occasion where mere chance, entirely foreign to any other consideration, really gave a man an occupation, and in doing so made it possible for him to attain a comfortable success. And yet, of course, if Mr. Tupper hadn't had the brains to capitalize the opportunity, it wouldn't have done him much good.

Mr. Greenawalt evidently believes himself to be living under a lucky star, and so he seems to be. And yet, again, we see a man getting some of the good things of life because he deserves them and because other people trust him. In every one of the several occasions described by him he was selected instead of other men because he was liked and respected, and because people had faith in him. It wasn't, after all, so much a matter of luck as it was of plain desert.

Mr. Clark's recital in a sense falls outside the scope of the theme. His story isn't so much a narrative of luck as a factor in business success as it is a description of good fortune in

what practically amounted to a game of chance. It is true he won several hundred dollars, but it doesn't appear that his business life was much affected thereby. This is merely like making money in investments or speculations.

Anyway, these various recitals are exceedingly interesting, entirely apart from whatever philosophy they may suggest. We recommend them to all our readers. They will furnish a delightful half-hour.

THE DRUG SHORTAGE.

Magazines are beginning to complain, we are told, that the advertising patronage they have been accustomed to receive from manufacturers is falling off. And the reason manufacturers give for not advertising is that they are not sure of an adequate supply of raw material.

The war broke out in August, 1914, and very shortly thereafter Germany and Austria, and later Turkey, were almost entirely eliminated from the world's commerce.

We de

pend on these countries for many finished articles and products, and also for quite a formidable list of raw materials from which we have been in the habit of manufacturing the products ourselves.

On the other hand, those countries more or less loosely banded together and denominated as the allies have been engaged day and night in the manufacture of all sorts of commodities which are necessary to the carrying on of the war. An abnormal demand developed, and into its wasteful maw has been fed millions and millions of dollars' worth of raw material.

And on top of all the rest, our own country has quickened to the unusual opportunity, and all over the land factories are belching forth a half again as much smoke as they ever belched forth before-and consuming at least. twice as much raw material.

This is what has been going on for more than a year, and there could be but one result. The world's available supply of many kinds of raw material, inexhaustible though it may have seemed in the first place, is running out. We are facing a raw material shortage in many lines.

What is true in other fields of commercial activity is much more emphatically true in the drug world. Our supplies of drugs and chemicals covering a wide range are being depleted, and in many cases the prospect of securing

enough to supply prospective demands isn't at all encouraging.

This situation is not very alarming, however, when viewed broadly. There is nothing on the shortage list that we can't get along without, in so far as actual and indispensable needs are concerned.

But nevertheless we can see the position that manufacturers are in. The situation is one of great perplexity and uncertainty. Manufacturers surely would not care to exploit products they couldn't supply for some time to come. And then there is the matter of price. Taken as a whole, the market is steadily advancing.

THE DECIDING VOICE.

Addressing a meeting of the New England Rexall Clubs, Louis K. Liggett, head of the United Drug Co. and the Liggett chain of drug stores, stated that competition between the Liggett and Riker interests had "led to a waste of money to an amount probably between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000."

This is loose language-Mr. Liggett made no attempt to be specific or definite. The idea he sought to drive home was that rivalry begot economic waste, and that the way to check such waste was to combine the rival institutions.

There can be no question as to the effectiveness of this method. But with combination comes added responsibility. The larger the concern the more quasi-public it becomes; and the far-distant millennium-there seems to be no escaping it must be a modification of what our socialistic friends look forward to.

On the other hand, the rank and file of retailers do not view with favor mergers of this character. They fear the power which the accumulation of so much capital places in the hands of a few men, and Congress and all our State legislatures are constantly being asked to check either the growth or the progress of such combinations.

THE CLASS IDEA DANGEROUS. The editor of the BULLETIN was present at a meeting of druggists recently, and the Stephens-Ashurst bill was one of the topics up for discussion.

A great deal was said by the different speakers on the benefit the druggist would derive were the bill to become a law. Those who contributed to the discussion seemed almost unanimous in the opinion that druggists as a class should stand solidly back of the measure and, still as a class, should pass resolutions, send telegrams to congressmen, etc.

Then Charles F. Mann took the floor. He pointed out that Congress was not particularly interested in the druggist as a class, and that too much activity in which the class idea was emphasized would do more harm than good. "Congress is going to take a broad, comprehensive view of the situation," he said, "and if the bill is passed it will be because it is deemed best for the American people in general."

What Mr. Mann said is doubtless a forecast of what will actually happen, and the lesson is that we shouldn't make our appeals too narrow. Perhaps, as the matter now stands, the most effective work that could be put back of the Stephens-Ashurst bill would be for druggists to get their friends-those outside of any trade activity-to say a good word for it to their congressmen. And it may well be that a price-maintenance bill will not find favor at Washington until it has received just this kind of support.

MORE QUESTIONS WANTED.

We have run out of questions for the department of Monthly Prize Questions and Answers, and we are writing this editorial to invite some new topics.

We pay $1.00 promptly, by return mail, for every question that we accept and use. Sometimes it happens, though not often, that sub

"Greed must be checked," says the independent, and the reformer joins in the cry.

Meanwhile the "ultimate consumer" keeps right on consuming; and out of it all, in the end, must come that condition which is the most advantageous to his interests. He is in the majority.

by two people, in which event, if the question is accepted, we give payment and credit to the man whose letter bears the earliest date.

Please come forth with your suggestions, and let us see if we can't get some unusually live topics for discussion in this popular department of the BULLETIN.

One dollar for every accepted question.