520     National  Wholesale  Druggists  Association.  {Ax6™£b™im.' 
THE  ORIGIN  AND   HISTORY   OF  THE  NATIONAL 
WHOLESALE  DRUGGISTS'  ASSOCIATION. 
By  Mabxon  N.  Kunk. 
The  history  of  an  association  which  has  had  so  much  to  do  with 
correcting  the  evils  which  existed,  and  still  exist,  in  the  wholesale 
drug  business  of  this  country,  and  which  has  been  so  influential  in 
matters  of  vital  interest  to  the  business  side  of  the  retail  druggists 
of  this  country,  is  doubtless  a  proper  one  to  read  before  this  organi- 
zation. No  one  is  better  qualified  to  write  this  history  than  Mr.  A. 
B.  Merriam,  who  was  elected  Secretary  of  what  is  now  the  National 
Wholesale  Druggists'  Association  at  its  first  meeting  held  in  1876, 
and  who  has  held  that  position  continuously  up  to  the  present  time. 
A  few  years  ago,  in  connection  with  an  article  which  I  then  prepared 
for  the  Pharmaceutical  Era,  Mr.  Merriam  contributed  the  following, 
which  I  have  concluded  to  use  as  a  part  of  this  paper : 
"  The  prominent  position  which  the  National  Wholesale  Druggists' 
Association  occupies  to-day  is  in  itself  a  suggestion  that  there  may 
have  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  wholesale  drug  trade  when 
demoralization  in  business  methods  may  have  existed.  Some, 
who  were  themselves  suffering  from  causes  prolific  of  danger, 
determined  to  improve  the  condition  which  then  existed  in 
the  prosecution  of  a  business  which  is  not  only  honorable  in 
itself,  but  should  yield  a  recompense  commensurate  with  the  vast 
amount  of  capital,  talent  and  energy  requisite  for  its  successful 
accomplishment.  The  decade  following  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
was  significant  of  business  adventures  without  experience  in  the 
careful  training  of  the  counting-room,  and  the  progressive  step  of 
advancement  of  the  embryo  merchant  from  the  messenger  boy  to 
the  proprietor.  The  rapid  accumulation  of  wealth  during  and 
immediately  following  the  war  had  induced  many  to  enter  the  drug 
business  with  their  capital,  and,  with  associates  ambitious  for  suc- 
cess, they  disregarded  not  only  natural  territorial  lines  of  trade,  but 
defiantly  challenged  competition  at  all  times  and  everywhere. 
"  Probably  at  no  time  in  the  history  of  the  drug  trade  of  the 
country  was  there  as  great  demoralization  in  prices  and  business 
methods  as  prevailed  during  the  five  years  preceding  1876.  The 
ambitious  representatives  of  the  leading  firms  in  the  West  and 
Northwest  were  instructed  to  '  get  the  trade,'  and  no  limit  seemed 
