334  The  "Cutter "  and  the  Remedy.        {Amju^i£f vm' 
We  are  assured  by  our  friends,  the  wholesale  dealers,  that  even 
with  a  margin  of  ten  per  cent,  profit  which  the  rebate  system  gives 
them  on  this  class  of  goods,  they  are  handling  them  at  a  loss ;  and 
we  do  not  doubt  their  statements.  If  this  be  so  when  the  sales  run 
up  into  the  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  and  where  a  margin  of  ten 
per  cent,  yields  quite  a  large  return,  how  much  greater  is  the  loss 
of  the  retailer  whose  sales  are  but  small  and  who  is  compelled, 
through  this  cutting  of  prices,  to  sell  them  at  actual  cost?  You. 
may  ask  why  does  he  handle  them  ?  Simply  because  he  is  com- 
pelled to  do  so.  People  come  to  his  store  for  them,  and  when  there 
possibly  purchase  something  else.  If  he  does  not  keep  them,  they 
will  not  come  to  his  place  at  all  and  the  trade  he  may  have  in  other 
lines  of  legitimate  pharmacy  will  be  lost  to  him.  Hence,  he  keeps 
them,  not  from  choice,  but  from  necessity. 
That  the  many  plans  proposed  to  overcome  this  evil  have  not 
been  successful,  is  due  to  several  causes,  not  the  least  of  which  is 
the  indifference  of  some  of  the  manufacturers,  if  not  their  quiet  en- 
couragement of  the  "cutters;"  for  no  matter  at  what  price  the  goods 
are  retailed,  they  get  their  full  prices  for  them.  Then,  too,  we  have 
some  of  the  jobbing  trade  who  are  only  too  glad,  despite  all 
efforts  to  the  contrary,  to  supply  the  "  cutter  "  in  the  hope  of  securing 
his  general  trade  and  thereby  making  some  profit  out  of  him. 
That  many  of  these  preparations  are  worthless,  not  to  say  harm- 
ful, is  unquestioned,  and  that  by  skilfully  worded  advertising  they 
lead  to  many  imaginary  diseases  and  injurious  dosing  of  the  system, 
is  an  indisputable  fact.  There  is  no  doubt  the  general  health  of 
the  public  would  be  improved  were  there  a  disuse  of  these  patent 
nostrums,  many  of  which  are  compounded  by  persons  who  have 
no  medical  or  pharmaceutical  knowledge,  and  a  return  to  the  old 
practice  of  consulting  an  intelligent  physician  and  following  his 
advice. 
Instead  of  making  our  stores  the  repositories  for  the  thousand 
and  one  nostrums  of  which  we  know  absolutely  nothing,  the  abolition 
of  them  would  relieve  us  of  much  unemployed  capital  and  bring  back 
pharmacy  to  its  legitimate  channel  and  be  a  positive  benefit  to  the 
pharmacist,  the  physician  and  the  public. 
It  is  my  purpose  to  present  two  propositions  for  the  cure  of  this 
cut-rate  evil,  and  whether  you  agree  with  me  or  not,  if  I  but  set  you 
to  thinking,  and  eventually  to  acting,  I  shall  have  accomplished 
