Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
September,  1904.  J 
A  Prerequisite  Law. 
425 
macy  at  all,  for  he  fails  to  realize  a  financial  return  for  his  long  and 
weary  hours  of  study,  even  if  he  escapes  starvation,  and  he  who 
cares  for  pharmacy  only  as  a  means  of  livelihood  and  derides  the 
advantages  of  education,  may  succeed  for  a  time,  but  he  soon  real- 
izes that  he  must  employ  men  who  have  this  knowledge,  to  enable 
him  to  keep  pace  with  the  march  of  progress,  and  with  this  handi- 
cap almost  any  other  business  would  yield  him  larger  returns. 
The  emigrant  who  arrives  upon  our  shores  without  money,  with 
nothing  but  a  good  constitution,  appetite  and  the  ability  to  work 
with  his  hands,  no  sooner  settles  himself  in  some  part  of  this  country 
before  the  truth  is  forced  home  to  him  that,  while  it  is  too  late  for 
him  to  acquire  an  education,  his  children  must  have  this  boon,  and 
he  slaves  from  morning  until  night  to  educate  his  family,  and  who 
has  not  seen  the  pride  and  joy  in  the  face  of  such  a  father  at  the 
time  of  the  graduation  of  one  of  his  children  from  school?  There  is 
no  feeling  of  jealousy  in  his  heart.  He  frankly  says  :  "  My  boys  shall 
do  better  than  I  have  done."  Why  is  it  not  possible  for  the  old- 
time  druggist  to  look  upon  his  children  and  adopted  children — the 
boys  in  the  store — in  the  same  light,  and  say :  "  I  did  not  have  the 
advantage  of  a  college  education,  but  I  am  going  to  help  the  young 
fellows  to  the  best  of  my  ability  to  get  what  I  was  unable  to  have 
myself? "  Thousands  have  done  this  in  the  past,  and  tens  of 
thousands  are  doing  this  now.  Let  us  all  hope  that  it  will  be  a 
short  time  before  all  will  range  themselves  on  the  side  of  education 
and  progress.  This  is  the  spirit  which  has  put  this  country  in  the 
foremost  rank  among  nations;  the  next  generation  must  prove 
superior  to  the  present,  or  decadence  and  loss  must  follow. 
But  the  present  condition  of  pharmacy  in  this  State  is  deplorable. 
It  is  possible  for  a  young  man  with  superficial  ideas  and  unambitious 
instincts  to  enter  a  store,  serve  the  necessary  time  and  satisfy  his 
employer  by  attending  to  his  routine  duties ;  but  later  he  wakes  up 
suddenly  to  the  fact  that  he  is  getting  along  in  years,  that  the  time 
has  come  when  he  must  have  his  own  store,  and  then  he  thinks  of 
the  pharmacy  law  of  the  State,  and  says :  "  I  must  have  that  certifi- 
cate." If  he  is  far-sighted  and  well-advised,  he  will  see  at  once  that 
by  far  the  cheapest  and  best  course  in  the  long  run  is  to  go  to 
college,  and  by  study  and  systematic  training  with  a  graded  course 
of  instruction,  reach,  in  a  short  time,  results  which  it  would  other- 
wise have  taken  him  a  life-time  to  have  gained,  for  the  simple  rea- 
