264  Plea  for  More  Effective  Cooperation.  |Am- jJu0"er- ^ rm 
of  work,  it  is  estimated  that  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  chemists  and 
druggists  of  Great  Britain  are  members  of  the  national  society.  And 
the  membership  is  growing  steadily ;  the  increase  has  been  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  during  the  last  ten  years. 
The  only  reason  for  the  existence  of  any  organization  is  service  to 
its  members  and  to  the  profession  which  it  represents.  Are  present 
conditions  favorable  to  such  service?  Is  there  not  a  wasteful  dupli- 
cation of  effort?  Should  there  not  be  a  better  correlation  of  or- 
ganized pharmaceutical  activities? 
Pharmaceutical  associations  have  done  wonderfully  well  in  leg- 
islation, in  education,  in  the  development  of  scientific  pharmacy  and 
in  the  spreading  of  a  knowledge  of  both  technical  and  business 
methods.  Co-operation  has  solved  many  perplexing  questions : 
dangers  have  been  bravely  faced,  evils  have  been  overcome,  and  yet 
a  start  has  scarcely  ]  en  made. 
The  attention  of  pnarmacists  has  often  been  called  to  the  chang- 
ing conditions  which  vitally  affect  our  calling.  Not  only  are  these 
evidenced  by  the  spread  of  commercialism,  the  development  of  chain 
stores  and  syndicates,  the  increased  dispensing  by  physicians  and  the 
multiplication  of  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  but,  deeper  than  these — 
the  drift  of  social  legislation  which  in  Great  Britain  has  produced 
the  National  Insurance  Act  and  in  Germany  has  resulted  in  a  state- 
controlled  industrial  insurance.  We  may  as  well  face  the  possibility, 
if  not  the  probability,  of  state-paid  medical  service,  including  state- 
furnished  medicines  in  our  own  country,  during  the  next  generation. 
Judging  from  the  lack  of  recognition  accorded  to  pharmacists  in 
our  army,  we  are  held  in  but  low  esteem  by  the  federal  government 
at  the  present  time ;  physicians,  dentists  and  even  veterinarians  rank 
far  above  us  in  the  largest  arm  of  the  government  service. 
It  is  high  time  that  all  pharmaceutical  organizations  should  care- 
fully consider  a  general  affiliation  and  correlation  such  as  shall 
assign  to  each  its  special  field  and  avoid  the  present  overlapping  and 
duplication.  More  effective  work  will  be  possible  only  through  such 
mutual  relations,  and  will  deserve  and  receive  wider  support  by 
pharmacists.  A  united  body  of  seventy-five  thousand  pharmacists 
would  command  respect  and  insure  fair  treatment  in  the  coming  re- 
adjustment and  division  of  labor  that  is  sure  to  come  as  a  part  of 
the  social  movement. 
University  of  Illinois  School  of  Pharmacy. 
