754  What  of  the  Edmonds  Bill?       { Am-^\^Tm- 
In  planning  to  use  our  national  power  to  the  uttermost,  some 
activities  have  been  classed  as  non-essential  and  have  quietly  stepped 
aside  for  the  war ;  others  were  at  once  recognized  as  a  vital  part  of 
our  defense,  and  have  been  intensified  and  utilized  to  a  tremendous 
degree,  while  still  others  were  classified  as  "  essential  to  a  limited 
extent"  and,  while  not  eliminated,  were  given  little  encouragement  or 
protection. 
To  the  surprise  and  chagrin  of  many  pharmacists  who  know  the 
large  place  accorded  pharmacy  in  the  economic  life  of  the  nation, 
and  who  believe  that  it  may  justly  claim  an  honorable  place  in  ac- 
cepted modern  methods  for  the  prevention  and  treatment  of  disease, 
pharmacy  was  practically  classed  by  the  army  officials  as  belonging 
to  the  "  limited  essentials,"  and  this  is  the  position  yet  maintained 
by  the  office  of  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  Army,  notwithstanding 
an  avalanche  of  protest  from  every  part  of  the  United  States  and 
even  though  what  are  believed  to  be  unanswerable  arguments  have 
been  laid  before  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  Army  and  the  Military 
Affairs  Committee  of  Congress.  This  is  also  in  the  face  of  proofs 
and  demonstration  to  the  contrary  given  by  the  French,  Italian,  Aus- 
tralian, Japanese  and  German  military  establishments,  and  by  the 
pharmacists  in  our  own  incomparable  marines  and  Navy. 
These  are  the  facts  that  must  be  faced,  and  though  seemingly 
discouraging,  there  are  many  reasons  for  keeping  faith  in  the  future. 
Pharmacy  itself  has  been  partly  to  blame  for  the  situation ;  there 
should  have  been  years  of  education  and  organization  back  of  the 
proposed  pharmaceutical  corps ;  the  army  started  the  war  with  a 
discredited  and  inferior  pharmaceutical  organization  and  a  splen- 
didly planned  medical  corps.  Many  of  the  fields  of  activity  belong- 
ing properly  to  a  pharmaceutical  corps,  in  accordance  with  European 
precedent,  had  already  been  provided  for  in  the  medical  organiza- 
tion. Is  it  surprising  that  there  was  opposition  to  a  reorganization 
of  so  important  a  department  in  the  midst  of  the  most  gigantic  war 
of  all  history?  Take,  for  instance,  the  medical  supply  division, 
with  its  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  purchases  and  enormous  distri- 
bution problems.  Here  medical  officers  were  already  in  charge  and 
were  wise  enough  to  call  in  the  best  pharmaceutical  help  of  the  coun- 
try, when  the  task  proved  beyond  them,  but  they  were  not  ready  to 
turn  it  all  over  to  a  yet  to  be  established  organization. 
Evidently,  the  pressure  from  a  nation-wide  demand  for  safe  dis- 
pensing in  the  army  has  had  some  effect.    A  committee  of  pharma- 
