Am  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1900. 
Editorial. 
357 
a  struggle  for  a  material  existence,  and  would  have  us  believe  that 
in  order  that  there  be  life  there  must  be  a  fight  continually  going  on. 
No  one  can  deny  that  every  organism  has  a  struggle  for  existence, 
but  no  one  can  say  that  in  this  struggle  we  have  the  only  factor 
that  produces  any  lasting  benefit.  In  the  living  world  it  is  not  so 
much  strife  as  the  proper  co-ordination  of  the  functions  of  the  differ- 
ent cells  and  different  organs  in  the  organism  which  conduce  to  the 
production  of  the  best  results.  In  the  social  world  every  one  is 
beginning  to  recognize  the  truth  of  the  saying,  "  give  and  take." 
The  capitalist  recognizes  that  in  order  to  produce  and  keep  his 
wealth  it  is  not  only  necessary  for  him  to  look  carefully  after  his 
employees  during  their  working  hours,  but  even  afterwards.  The 
result  is  that  in  the  very  largest  and  best  regulated  establishments 
there  are  evidences  of  the  proper  co-ordination  of  all  the  forces— 
not  only  are  the  members  of  the  firm  wealthy,  but  the  employees 
are  also  prosperous. 
The  same  thing  applies  also  to  our  various  organizations.  The 
membership  is  made  up  of  those  who  in  many  cases  have  appar- 
ently diverse  interests.  And  yet  when  we  look  at  their  actions  carefully 
we  cannot  but  see  that  they  all  have  the  interests  of  the  association 
to  which  they  belong  at  heart,  and  the  most  successful  associations 
are  those  in  which  no  one  section  suffers,  but  in  which  there  is  a 
proper  co-ordination  of  the  efforts  of  the  various  committees  and 
workers.  In  a  still  larger  sense  this  may  also  be  said  of  the  various 
separate  organizations  espousing  particular  fields  of  work,  such  as 
those  interested  in  pharmacy,  medicine,  etc. 
There  are  some  persons  who  have  criticised  the  A.Ph.A.  as  not 
being  sufficiently  scientific;  whereas  there  are  others  who  speak  of 
it  as  an  association  for  manufacturers  and  teachers ;  and  still  others 
who  think  that  the  retail  pharmacist  should  be  "  the  power  behind 
the  throne."  The  fact  is  none  of  these  persons  are  justified  in 
their  claims  or  their  criticisms.  The  A.Ph.A.  is  the  one  organi- 
zation that  ought  to  be  sufficiently  representative  to  include  all 
those  in  any  wise  interested  in  pharmacy.  It  is  big  enough  for  the 
retail  pharmacist,  the  manufacturer  and  the  teacher.  And  it  is  indeed 
significant  that  this  year  the  President  and  the  chairmen  of  two 
sections  are  retail  pharmacists,  the  chairmen  of  the  other  two 
sections  being  teachers.  At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Association 
the  chairmen  of  the  different  sections  as  well  as  the  President  of 
