Vol. XXX.

No. 8.

LONG HOURS IN THE

DRUG STORE.

The Russell Sage Foundation has been making a series of investigations in certain cities. These surveys, says a letter of explanation, are not muck-raking affairs, but a statement of the facts as seen by the non-partisan outsider. Nine aspects of life are considered, and one of these is of particular interest to druggists. With reference to child labor, here is a part of the report:

Drug stores were among the worst offenders. One boy fourteen years old had to be at work at 6 A.M. and stayed till 6 P. M., except on two days each week when he worked until 11 P.M. He also had to work alternating Sundays so that every other week he worked eighty-five hours. In another drug store, a young learner fifteen years old worked from 7 or 8 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night, with an hour off each noon and supper. (On days when he went to work at 7 he was off at 9.) Thus he worked twelve hours a day for

six days a week, besides half a day on Sundays. His weekly hours usually exceeded seventy-in contrast to the forty-eight allowed by law.

Another boy, fourteen years old, washed bottles, ran errands, and did other odd jobs in a drug store, from 7 A.M to 6 P.M., except for an hour at noon. Besides, these ten hours a day for seven days a week, he also. had to work two, sometimes four, nights a week until 10:30 or 11 P.M. The hours were so iong, and he was. so tired, his mother stated, that he used to cry after he came home at the end of his day of fourteen hours of work. His mother finally made him quit this job.

There is nothing new about this. After all has been said that can be advanced to tone down the situation, the fact remains that drugstore employees, from the boss to the errand boy, put in what must seem to the non-partisan outsider to be unreasonable hours.

As the drug business is now conducted thereis no escape from this, although very often, without question, the welfare of minor employees should receive more thoughtful attention. Frequently an employer bases his treatment of his help on his own hard experiencewhen learning the business, and lets it go at that. Sooner or later, however, there must come a change; and it would be well were this. change brought about by druggists themselves, rather than have it inaugurated through such agencies as investigating committees.

NOT A SYNTHETIC SUBSTITUTE.

It will be recalled that the department at Washington having in charge matters. pertaining to the Harrison act listed a number of local anesthetics as "synthetic substitutes" and subjected them to the rigors imposed by the law. Novocaine was one of these: it was. held to be a synthetic substitute for cocaine. The importers of this product objected strenuously, but finally paid the tax under protest, and brought suit to determine the question at issue.

The claim was made by the importing company that novocaine was a synthetic chemical, separate and distinct from connection with opium or cocaine-and this position has been

recently sustained by the court. The Farbwerke-Hoechst Company won the case.

Whether the authorities will merely release novocaine from the ban of the narcotic law, or interpret the decision to be sufficiently compre hensive to affect all similar products in a like manner, has not yet been announced.

THREE FIRST AIDS TO DRUGGISTS.

Dr. Henry M. Whelpley read a paper before the annual meeting of the Missouri Pharmaceutical Association in which he used these words: "In the past you may have gotten along without a copy of the National Formulary, but the time has now arrived when it will be dangerous to try running a pharmacy without a copy of this standard."

Dr. Whelpley referred, of course, to the new edition, which becomes the "law and guide" from September 1. The law and guide only in part, however; for that honor is shared by the new U. S. P. Under the Food and Drugs Act, these two books are the official standardfixers.

There is another volume, too-or will bewhich while not invested with authority conferred by law will be found extremely usefulthe A. Ph. A. Receipt Book. This will supplement the U. S. P. and N. F. as working manuals. Dr. Whelpley urged pharmacists to take an active part in the preparation of this work; to assist the chairman of the committee having the preparation of the volume in charge, Professor Otto Raubenheimer, Brooklyn, in any manner that might suggest itself.

THE

METRIC SYSTEM.

*

The new National Formulary makes use of the metric system only. All quantities are stated in metrical nomenclature, no equivalents being given. The new Pharmacopoeia gives formulas in the metric system only, but when it comes to doses these are given in the metric system first and then followed by the relative equivalents in the apothecaries' system. For that matter, the same thing is true of the new N. F.

Joseph W. England, in a recent address, very forcibly pointed out the advantages of the metric system, and the futility of opposing its general adoption in the United States. Its use is now obligatory in 34 countries and optional in eleven. Mr. England suggests that drug

gists school themselves in this particular by employing the system exclusively in the making of pharmaceutical preparations, whether physicians use it in the writing of prescriptions

or not.

MEDICINAL COAL-TAR CHEMICALS OMITTED.

Early in July the new Tariff bill was introduced in Congress, and it became apparent at once that there were a number of defects in it, when the drug trade as a whole is taken into consideration. Provision has been made for a duty on dyestuffs, photographic chemicals and explosives manufactured from coal tar and its derivatives, but no provision is made for medicinal chemicals derived from the same source.

What this means is at once apparent. Domestic manufacturers in the medicinal chemical field are left unprotected and no incentive is offered for the developmen' of this field of industry. Capital will be extremely backward, under such conditions.

It is to be hoped that the bill will be suitably amended in this particular before it goes up to the White House for signature. A great many telegrams of protest have been sent to Claude Kitchen, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

ARMY PHARMACISTS RECEIVE

RECOGNITION.

*

Higher rank and better pay― that is the fate that has befallen pharmacists in the United States army. The bill bringing such conditions about has passed both Houses and been signed by the President. The provisions of this measure apply to three branches of government service-Army, Navy, and Public Health.

For 22 years drug interests have been striving for this result, and this is the first specific recognition of the pharmacist in the army. According to Dr. George F. Payne, on a peace basis of 175,000 men, the new condition will mean about 43 master hospital sergeants, 43 hospital sergeants, 612 sergeants first class, 1162 sergeants, 437 corporals, and 525 cooks. The total of all enlisted men in the Medical Department cannot exceed 5 per cent of the total enlisted army.

The salary of a master hospital sergeant is fixed at $75 a month; of a hospital sergeant, $65 a month; of a sergeant, first class, $50; of

In

a sergeant, $36; and of a corporal, $24. each case allowances are included commensurate with the rank.

EDITORIAL

ASPIRIN

PATENTS EXPIRE NEXT YEAR.

*

Patents on aspirin expire in 1917. Until the war broke out this product was made in Germany, but it is now manufactured in the United States. The Bayer Company, New York, are marketing the drug in tablet form, put out in tin boxes and in bottles, the aim being, it is said, to associate the name "Bayer" with aspirin, so that after the patents expire customers will still call for the original product. A big newspaper campaign is now being conducted with the same object in view.

THE QUESTION OF TURNOVERS AGAIN. Elsewhere in this issue of the BULLETIN we are speaking appreciatively of the work of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World in carrying on a campaign of education among retailers of all classes for the purpose of showing them the need of better business methods.

In this place we may indulge in a little criticism. One of the emissaries of the organization delivered a lecture a few weeks ago before the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association. It seems to us that the system of records which is being worked out, and which will shortly be placed at the disposal of retailers in different lines of business, is too complex and involved. It will stagger many retailers by its comprehensiveness, and we do not really feel that it is necessary except in the case of large establishments like department.

stores.

Then, again, some of the representatives of this propaganda are poorly informed on the subject of stock turnovers. subject of stock turnovers. They use fallacious arguments.

The lecturer we refer to used a cigarette His listeners were expected to example. believe that a cigarette, which under ordinary circumstances would yield no profit, would return a satisfactory earning if only the stock were turned over rapidly enough! And you see this same thing cropping up in the business literature of the day all the time-the notion that a loss can be turned into a profit, by some miraculous jugglery, if only the stuff is sold fast enough!

But if you pay $1.00 for an article, if it costs you $1.35 by the time it is sold, and if you only get $1.20 for it, the more rapidly you turn over your stock, and the more frequently you sell that article, the more money you are going to lose. Rapidity of stock turnovers is no magic wand that, waved over a group of figures, will transfer them from one side of the column to the other.

Another phase of this question is exhibited by these writers and lecturers when they tell us that an article in the store often eats itself up by being kept too long. If it costs $1.00 at the outset, they assume that at the end of the

year it has cost $1.30 because the expense of doing business may be 30 per cent of the cost price. At the end of the second year they add on another 30 per cent-and so on ad libitum.

Of course this is absurd. If you pay $1.00 for an article, and you keep it in the store one year, it has eaten up the interest on the investment-that's all. If you figure interest at 6 per cent, the article at the end of the year has cost you $1.06. In other words, if you didn't have the article in stock at all, and if the money it represents were invested outside, you would have gotten a yield of only 6 per cent from it. That's all there is to this phase of the question.

In making quantity purchases, and securing lower prices, the merchant should balance the discount gained against the interest lost on the investment, and should choose whichever course promises the best return or the greatest degree of economy. Often a large and varied stock, even though it means a smaller turnover, is the finest possible business magnet that a store can possess. People usually go by a neighborhood store because it doesn't carry what they want. Farmers often go by the village store and do business with the mail-order houses for the same reason.

Of course, as we said a month or two ago, every merchant should turn over his capital as rapidly as possible, but he shouldn't be misled into thinking that turnovers represent the whole field of profit-making. There are a lot of sophistries about the subject which ought to be cleared up.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD TELEPHONE

NUMBER.

Some months ago we published a paper by Mark A. Sawrie, of Selma, California, in which Mr. Sawrie said that by a systematic course of advertising he had attempted to associate the firm name and the two words "best drugs." "Having done this for years," he said, "people in our community cannot hear our name mentioned without thinking 'best drugs', nor realize the desirability of having best drugs without thinking of 'Dusy & Sawrie'."

The same idea should be made to apply to a telephone number; and the first step should be to see that the number is one that lends itself readily to advertising purposes.

In this issue of the BULLETIN will be found

an article detailing the methods of a Detroit jeweler who uses original methods and who has been very successful. It took Mr. Miller some time to get the telephone number he wanted-1234; but he kept jockeying until he got it.

H. Martin Johnson, a druggist at St. Paul, Minn., has realized the possibilities along this line. His store is opposite the Lowry building, which is filled with physicians and dentists, and he has recently had his telephone number changed to "Cedar 606." This number was formerly that of the Central Presbyterian Church.

Telephone service. has been a long time in arriving at its present status. Many of our readers can recall the time when telephone lines were restricted largely to business places and the homes of the rich. But it is different to-day. Many a laboring man's cottage is included in the circuit.

Had the almost universal use of the telephone come suddenly, the innovation would have been so startling that the opportunities presented would have stood out with full force. It did not come suddenly, and it may be that many retail merchants have not given the subject that close and particular attention to which it is entitled.

2. If a manufacturer or a jobber refuses to accept an order, the order form should be returned to the person or firm sending it. When received by such person or firm, this order, together with the letter of explanation which accompanies it, should be attached to the duplicate order, which is already on file.

3. Improperly written or mutilated order forms must not be destroyed, but both the original and duplicate are to be filed.

4. Unused order forms are void at the expiration of the registry period; that is, if a registered person does not reregister, or is not permitted to reregister, the blanks on hand are void.

These must be returned to the collector who issued them, who will mark them "canceled" and send them back. They should then be filed and kept for two years.

5. In case of change of ownership of a business, the successor, if duly registered, may use the order forms of his predecessor-only, however, after they have been sent to the collector and have been "overprinted" with the registry number of the successor.

6. The revised regulations state specifically that a separate file must be maintained for narcotic prescriptions coming within the scope of the law.

7. It is now required that narcotic drugs. shall be kept together-"segregated from the general stock of drugs and medicines." The government recommends, also, that they be kept under lock and key, to prevent theft.

HE MIGHT BE WON.

We can recall printing two editorials this year urging druggists to take advantage of the present unusual conditions by going to dispensing physicians and soliciting prescription business. Prices are abnormally high and are fluctuating constantly. Doctors can't keep in touch with them and in many instances must be losing money on the drugs they dispense.

We thought we sensed an opportunity, one that thousands of druggists might turn to advantage, and we were so insistent that we commented on the subject editorially in at least two successive issues of the BULLETIN.

It is therefore quite a source of gratification to note that the same idea has prompted the Hessig-Ellis Drug Company, jobbers, Memphis, Tennessee, to get out a circular-letter which the company has recently sent to its

trade. "An Opportunity for Bettering Your Condition by Correcting a Long-standing Evil" is the heading the circular bears, and from the third paragraph we extract these lines:

Do not pass this by as one of the things you would like to have done, but act to-day. Go see other druggists-call a meeting, if necessary-get together and resolve each of you individually and as a body to go right after the doctor and convince him of the good argument and sound moral and business principles of falling in line. Do not fail to act.

We repeat: Do not fail to act!

SIX PRIZE-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHS.

Attention is called to pages 310 and 311. Six of the winning pictures, secured in response to our recent contest offer, are there presented.

We offered thirteen prizes for amateur photographic work, one of the conditions being that the pictures should be snapped by a camera sold by a druggist: $5 for the best picture, $3 for the next best, $2 for the one registering third, and ten prizes of $1 each for those which followed in order.

And our judges surely had a hard time of it! It is not an easy matter to serve on a board of art critics, and the unusual number of entries further complicated matters. But we had experts do the work, and we are told that the pictures were checked up on points.

At any rate we feel that the pages referred to constitute an extremely interesting feature. Other prize-winning pictures will be reproduced in succeeding issues of the BULLETIN.

A number of months ago the Peninsular Chemical Company, Detroit, brought action against an Ohio manufacturer to prevent him from placing on the market a cigar under the trade name of "Penslar." The case was dismissed, the judge holding that inasmuch as the medicine company did not, under its charter, have authority to manufacture cigars, no infringement of trade-mark could be shown.

Albert Plaut's estate has been appraised at a value exceeding a million dollars-$1,475,373 gross; $1,360,318 net. Mr. Plaut, who died June 17, was preseident of the wholesale drug firm of Lehn & Fink, in New York.