560 
Editorial. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
December,  191 7. 
at  least  be  partly  attributed  to  the  misfits  publicly  venting  their  dis- 
content and  relieving  their  burden  of  unhappiness.  The  major  part, 
however,  is  attributable  to  thoughtlessness,  to  that  apish  tendency  to 
follow  example,  to  take  part  in  the  fad  of  the  moment.  This  heed- 
lessness, only  too  often  in  evidence  in  public,  takes  no  cognizance  of 
the  influence  of  words. 
"Boys  flying  kites  haul  in  their  white-winged  birds.; 
You  can't  do  that  way  when  you're  flying  words. 
Things  that  we  think  may  sometimes  fall  back  dead ; 
But  God  himself  can't  kill  them  when  they're  said." 
At  a  recent  pharmaceutical  convention  the  whole  atmosphere 
for  a  while  seemed  to  be  surcharged  with  expressions  far  from 
complimentary  to  pharmacy,  and  conversely  not  very  creditable  to 
the  efforts  of  the  educators,  some  of  whom  so  volubly  declaimed 
against  pharmacy,  nor  to  the  value  of  the  work  of  the  educational 
institutions  they  represented. 
How  many  promising  young  men  have  been  deterred  from  en- 
tering pharmacy  or  driven  from  its  ranks  by  the  heedless  remarks 
of  those  who  should,  in  honor  to  their  profession  and  likewise  their 
own  interests,  have  lent  every  effort  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  pro- 
fession and  the  enrollment  of  the  best  of  our  youth  in  its  service ! 
As  a  typical  illustration,  the  day  that  the  writer  was  initiated  into 
the  arts  and  mysteries  of  the  apothecary  shop,  he  was  introduced 
to  a  gentleman  then  quite  prominent  in  the  Philadelphia  drug  trade. 
How  encouraging  was  the  greeting  received  in  the  following :  "  So 
you  are  the  new  boy  who  expects  to  become  a  pharmacist ;  take  my 
advice ;  don't  do  it  young  man,  better  go  down  to  the  foot  of  the 
street  and  drown  yourself  in  the  Delaware  River."  Needless  to  say 
the  advice  has  not  yet  been  accepted. 
Let  us  frankly  admit  that  pharmacy  has  its  shortcomings  and  ' 
defects.  However,  is'  there  a  single  profession  of  which  the  same 
cannot  today  be  truthfully  said?  The  legal  profession  has  its  petti- 
foggers and  shysters,  medicine  its  quacks  and  cult  charlatans  and 
the  hypocrite  has  to  be  deposed  from  the  Church  of  God.  The  duty 
of  those  who  are  worthy  of  the  name  of  leaders  in  pharmacy  is 
plain  ;  constructively  criticize  and  help  in  the  evolution  of  phar- 
macy to  a  higher  plane  of  professionalism.  While  holding  aloft  the 
ideals  of  professionalism,  refrain  from  demoralizing  the  foundation 
that  has  already  been  constructed  for  our  professional  edifice.  Lend 
