Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1914. 
Efficiency  in  Drug  Stores. 
265 
EFFICIENCY  IN  DRUG  STORES. 
By  C.  C.  Honsaker,  P.D. 
This  is  the  age  of  specialization.  Lawyers,  doctors,  mechanics 
and  ministers  are  specialists ;  when  needed  they  are  consulted,  they 
need  and  consult  one  another.  We  all  recognize  that  no  one  man 
knows  it  all.  Just  as  there  are  sick  people  that  need  competent 
counsel,  so  there  are  sick  businesses  that  need  attention  from  experts. 
The  old  time  business  expert  was  and  is,  in  fact,  somewhat  like 
the  old-time  doctor.  He  administered  tonics  and  palliatives  instead 
of  getting  at  the  seat  of  trouble. 
By  keeping  records  and  making  tests,  chemists,  pharmacists  and 
physicians  have  been  able  to  standardize  certain  medicines. 
It  has  been  but  recent,  however,  that  the  b  .mess  doctor  was  able 
to  diagnose  and  apply  a  standardized  remedy,  or  specific,  to  a  sick 
business. 
This,  however,  has  been  accomplished  by  the  two  great  efficiency 
engineers,  Emerson,  of  New  York,  and  Taylor,  of  Philadelphia. 
These  men  have  gathered  together  the  threads  of  activity,  and  woven 
them  into  the  science  known  as  efficiency.  Efficiency  means  the 
ability  to  accomplish.  Personal  efficiency  is  the  mental  and  physical 
ability  to  find,  and  take,  the  best,  easiest,  and  quickest  way  to  the 
desirable  things  of  life. 
These  principles  are  not  new,  you  and  I  employ  them  every  day, 
at  least  some  of  them. 
Just  as  Sheldon  has  analyzed  the  sale,  so  has  Emerson  analyzed 
the  operations  and  procedures  of  hundreds  of  successful  men,  and 
found  that  thirteen  (13)  principles  were  involved,  in  part  or  whole, 
by  them  in  their  accomplishments. 
There  are  seven  (7)  practical  principles,  and  six  (6)  ethical  ones. 
To-day  we  will  be  concerned  with  the  practical  ones  only. 
A  sick  business  like  a  sick  body  always  has  one  symptom  that 
gives  the  most  trouble,  from  which,  tracing  backward,  the  cause  can 
be  located  by  the  trained  expert  You  all  know  what  this  symptom 
of  unscientific  business  is  in  the  drug  world.  The  rancorous  sore  in 
the  side  of  the  drug  business  is  the  long  hours.  This,  however,  is 
only  a  symptom  or  effect.   The  cause  is  much  deeper. 
This  thirteen  (13)  to  fifteen  (15)  hour  day  is  driving  the  best 
