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gallons without a Federal license, to be used in compounding and manufacturing medicines only, will it be necessary to have a State permit after July 1, 1917, to thus use it, and buy it in that quantity?"

The answer was: "It is my opinion that there is nothing in the law to prevent a retail druggist from having in his possession alcohol to be used exclusively for compounding and manufacturing medicines, and it will not be necessary to have a permit to thus use it."

Two Important Meetings Approaching.

The two big national conventions are now looming up in the distance. The annual meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association will be held this year in Indianapolis, and it promises to be one of unusual interest. Indianapolis is a good convention city and it has a reputation for hospitality; a local committee is now hard at work arranging the necessary details for the entertainment of its guests. The dates are August 27 to September 1, and it is not too early to make hotel and other reservations. Convention headquarters will be at Hotel Claypool.

The annual gathering of the National Association of Retail Druggists will follow a little more than two weeks later, beginning September 17. Cleveland, Ohio, is the city in which it will be held-a most interesting place and a good city to visit. Owing to conditions, the 1917 convention of the N. A. R. D. bids fair to become the most important ever held in its history.

A great many druggists plan to attend one of these meetings each year, and there are druggists who attend both of them. It is difficult to conceive how a vacation might be spent more profitably. Entertainment is always ample, and one cannot be present without being benefited.

cided upon. In one city dentists to the number of two or three hundred have also volunteered their services in a professional way. Druggists will work in close cooperation with physicians, nurses and hospitals, and it is intended to make this service, in a sense, a unit of the army. Detailed plans have been laid before the Governor in at least one State, and it is understood that the move is meeting with general approval.

The Clerks in Convention Assembled.

The National Association of Drug Clerks is seven years years old quite a lusty youngster. The organization stands pledged to a formidable array of issues, some of which will eventually be woven into the fabric of the industry. In the main its policies, as revealed by the resolutions passed at an annual convention held in Chicago June 7, 8 and 9, are highly commendable.

Two hundred and fifty-four delegates are reported to have been registered at the convention, a concluding feature of which was a big banquet. Among the speakers were Frank Butler, of the Illinois Board of Pharmacy; M. A. Stout, ex-president of the N. A. R. D., and Thos. H. Potts. A drug exhibit was maintained at the convention hall, there being 87 exhibitors. The following officers were elected: elected: President, P. F. Coffey, Chicago; first vice-president, Henry J. Steining, Lafayette, Ind.; second vice-president, Frederick J. Killalee, St. Louis, Mo.; third vice-president, W. G. Goodyear, St. Petersburg, Fla.; secretary and treasurer, P. A. Mandabach, Chicago; national organizer, J. F. Miser, Columbus, Ohio; editor-director of publicity, Paul J. Mandabach, Chicago.

There has been for some Containers on time a shortage of glassware the "Shortage." and of tin containers. As early as March the government took steps looking to conservation of supplies and means of increasing the output. Tinplate mills and steel mills-tin plate is 98 per cent steel and 2 per cent tin-were asked to coöperate, users of cans for certain products were urged to find substitutes, and railroads were directed to give especial attention to the hauling of raw material to mills. The result has been a marked diminution of the pressure, in so far as tin containers are concerned; it

was announced that July first would find the situation much relieved. Many manufacturers are now using paper and wood fiber containers for non-perishable commodities.

The bottle situation runs along about the same. It is well to bear in mind the fact that receptacles of this character are not likely to be cheaper. The retail trade should be apprised of the situation, whenever practicable, and druggists may find this a good opportunity to get rid of an accumulated stock of old bottles. Have them thoroughly cleaned and sterilized, and make use of them when possible.

To Lose

Thos. H. Potts.

The N. A. R. D. After a period of service extending to the length of a dozen years, Thomas H. Potts has announced his intention to resign his position as secretary of the National Association of Retail Druggists, his occupancy of the office to terminate October 1. He will become vice-president of the Great American Chemical Products Company, a manufacturing organization that plans to market its wares on a coöperative basis.

Mr. Potts became a member of the Executive Committee of the N. A. R. D. in 1905, and he became president of the organization two years later. A year after this, or in 1908, he was elected secretary, an office he has held eight consecutive terms. It will become necessary to select his successor at the forthcoming meeting of the N. A. R. D., which will be held in Cleveland in the middle of September. It is stated that Mr. Potts will make his headquarters in Chicago, after taking up his duties with the new concern, and that part of his time will be spent in traveling. His new position, it is rumored, pays twice the salary he received as secretary of the national organization.

store help. The matter of the lack of recognition of the pharmacist in the army and navy was also discussed.

Michigan goes into the dry column next spring, and it was the opinion expressed at the convention that fully 75 or 80 per cent of the druggists throughout the State will refrain from handling intoxicants. They do not take kindly to the idea of the legislature saddling this traffic on the drug trade.

Taken throughout, the meeting was one of the most successful ever held-as well as one of the most enjoyable. The Laughing Order of Hyenas, under the marshalship of E. D. De La Mater, provoked a great deal of merriment. The following officers were elected: President, P. A. Snowman, Lapeer; first vicepresident, Dwight Miller, Union City; second vice-president, Axel Durchman, Hancock; treasurer, E. E. Faulkner, Delton. Secretary F. J. Wheaton, Jackson, was reëlected.

Northwestern

It is announced that the

Pharmacy School School of Pharmacy will Discontinues. cease to exist as a department of the Northwestern University, Chicago-hereafter there will be no department of pharmacy in connection with this institution. Evanston Academy, conducted by the university, will also go out of existence. Acting President Holgate suggests that students interested in drug careers can be well taken care of by the pharmaceutical school of the University of Illinois.

The Northwestern, School of Pharmacy was established in 1886-31 years ago-and for a time it ranked as one of the best and largest schools of its kind in the country. For more than a quarter of a century Dr. Oscar Oldberg was at the head of it, and it enjoyed a prosperous and useful career. Dr. Oldberg died in 1913.

Secretary H. C. Christensen Nevada is Now recently visited the Pacific a Member. Coast in the interests of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. He succeeded in bringing Nevada into the fold in the matter of reciprocal registration, but failed to induce the California board to become a member. Five Pacific Coast States now grant reciprocal registrations: Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon

Army Practice and Pharmacy.

In last month's BULLETIN there appeared an article on the outlook for pharmacy in the army and navy. This article was really an intermingling of a half-dozen interviews and was, we think, as authentic as it was possible to make it. In no case, however, did an officer want to be quoted, and those seen were unanimous in the statement that they did not know what conditions might be in the near future. They stated that an extraordinary and a new situation now confronts us and that details haven't been completely worked out yet.

However, very little in the way of encouragement was advanced. Three or four officers were outspoken in declaring that there was no possibility of pharmacy attaining much more recognition than it now has-which, they admitted, wasn't much. One officer went farther than that and declared that a demand for a warmer place in the sun was positively unpatriotic.

According to this man practically no compounding is done. A doctor's work is largely surgery-next after this comes the administration of vaccines and the treatment of such things as sore, feet and colds.

"Sore-throat dope and sore-feet dope will both be handled by the carload," this officer said. "Anybody can ladle stuff out of a barrel or make solutions from tablets. Why, all the government asks bids on is about a hundred items!

"You want to understand," the officer continued, "that only supposedly well men are taken into the army or the navy. We don't send 'chronics' to the front. If there's much the matter with a man he can't get very far; if the examiner misses it the strenuousness of getting whipped into shape will bring it out. If a man develops a complaint that calls for prolonged treatment he is sent home, if possible. So where does the pharmacist come in?" "How about assisting in keeping camps sanitary?"

"What does the average drug clerk know about scientific sanitation? doctor, for that matter?"

Or the average

of service, they said, gave a pharmacist more opportunity.

But neither the representatives of the army nor of the navy thought that the pharmacist had any particular grievance on account of not being accorded more recognition. He got all that was coming to him, they contended, when the duties he performed were taken into consideration. They all agreed that the services of a doctor were extremely important; those of a pharmacist relatively unimportant.

Now these views are not given as constituting a reflection also of those held by the BULLETIN; we think that a place should be made for the pharmacist and that he should be given an opportunity. We have reproduced a portion of the interviews rather as a reflection of the attitude of those in the service; at least of the five or six men on whose utterances the article referred to was based. It would seem to follow as a logical conclusion that if the status of the pharmacist is to be greatly improved methods of army and navy practice must be altered materially.

But we feel confident that it will all work out right in the end. We can find no evidence. of a disposition on the part of any group of interests or of any organization to thwart pharmacy; no man should object to enlisting because he sees such charges in print. Wherever his lot may be cast he should do his full duty and trust the future to bring to him what may be his due. Big problems confront us as a nation and everything can't be straightened out all at once.

Two Important Factors.

In the retail trade during recent years several factors have conspired to increase the cost of doing business. Two of these factors are delivery expense and credit expense. If a dealer could eliminate both credits and deliveries, he could cut down his expenses materially, but at one blow he would remove two of the most valuable features of his service policy.

More and more, in this busy and crowded age, do people want service-and the great majority of them are willing to pay for it. A woman goes to the phone, orders a given

article, and wants it delivered without any further trouble on her part. She does not want it sent on a C. O. D. basis. Nothing will annoy most housewives more than to be called constantly to the back door and asked to make change for some delivery boy. The merchant who can deliver the stuff promptly, and who will send in his bill at the end of the month, is the merchant who gets the business -and keeps it.

Of course, these service agencies increase the expense of doing business in modern days, but the only wise thing for the merchant to do is to recompense himself at the other end of the line. If he gives high-class service, he can charge for it and have very little objection from most customers. We venture to say that the average man or woman would rather pay 10 per cent more for goods if they can be secured with ease and convenience, and with a maximum of courtesy on the part of the merchant.

The lesson for the dealer in all this is plain: he must study ways and means of pleasing his customers, of suiting their convenience, and of giving them what they can't get elsewhere. If he does this successfully, he will meet with very little or no objection on the score of price.

And consider, too, the increase in business that service is apt to bring. There will always be a discussion for and against doing a credit business, but the fact remains that the merchant who extends credit can easily do very much more business than the merchant who

insists on a cash system. He can do business, moreover, with a class of people that he can't possibly reach on a purely cash basis. The well-to-do man won't bother with cash transactions.

Rather Inclusive.

The New York Branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association passed resolutions at a recent meeting requesting the President of the United States to make provision for the exemption from draft, or the release after draft, of what at first glance might be taken to be a certain portion of drug-store help. The plan calls for the exemption of one qualified pharmacist and one assistant qualified pharmacist for each pharmacy in the United States and, in addition, one qualified pharmacist and one qualified assistant pharmacist "for each

fifty prescriptions, or part thereof, compounded daily in said pharmacy, above the first fifty."

Now all this seems innocent enough until we get a pad of paper and a lead-pencil and begin to take an account of stock. There are, approximately, 50,000 drug stores in the United States. Exempting a pharmacist and an assistant pharmacist for each store we find that the President is asked to see that 100,000 druggists and drug clerks are not called to the colors. And we haven't yet taken into consideration what might happen if a druggist and an assistant for each fifty prescriptions filled daily were further excused from service. Perhaps this might mean 50,000 more, giving us a grand total of 150,000.

How many more are there? Is this not rather inclusive?

About the only branch of the trade not exempted under the New York plan is college professors. Why are they left out?

Too Much Talk, Sometimes.

Many a cub salesman is obsessed with the idea that he must talk in order to sell. If a customer calls for tooth-paste, for instance, he is likely to flash out in several directions, like · a Roman candle.

One cardinal offense is to ask curtly, "What kind?" but he'll not commit that, usually. Rather will he poll-parrot what might be a page from a catalogue: "We have Smith's, Jayne's, King's, Scott's, Deitelmeyer's, Hugo Seigel's, and Tom Perkins's.”

Why mention so many? psychology back of the eruption?

What is the

An altogether laudable desire to be of service, possibly. Or maybe it is plain egotism. Sometimes, without doubt, the clerk wants the lady to feel that she has come to the right man; he wants to transmit the assurance that he is well posted.

Then, again, sometimes the salesman gets a false view-point and hammers away regardless of the summer solstice and all the signs of the zodiac. He talks the wrong stuff, and a gag comprising the entire circumference of one of Ma Katzenjammer's sofa-pillows wouldn't begin to dampen his ardor. Here is a personal experience which will serve as an illustration:

We went recently into a small store for the ostensible purpose of securing a Victrola. The salesman