Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  1919.  J 
Editorial. 
67 
OUR  BOYS  ARE  COMING  BACK. 
Now  that  our  boys  in  the  khaki  uniforms  have  performed  their 
work  over  there  so  expeditiously  and  so  effectively  that  "  it's  over, 
over  there,"  new  problems  confront  them  and  likewise  those,  who 
from  necessity,  were  compelled  to  "keep  the  home-fires  burning." 
With  smiles  we  drowned  the  yearnings  of  the  hearts  as  we  cheered 
them  on  to  the  victory.  Cheerfully  we  assumed  the  added  labors 
due  to  a  diminished  force  and  labored  and  saved  and  gave  for  the 
triumph  of  our  cause. 
Now  that  peace  is  in  sight  and  our  boys  are  coming  back  we  pre- 
pare to  take  up  the  new  problems  of  reconstruction.  It  is  the 
nation's  duty  to  find  employment,  to  reestablish  the  returning 
soldiers  and  sailors  in  useful  vocations.  The  sooner  we  engage  in 
intensive  cultivation  of  our  soil,  the  sooner  the  busy  buzz  of  the 
factory  and  shop,  the  sooner  full  energy  of  commerce  and  industry 
and  of  education  be  reestablished  the  sooner  the  happiness  of  our 
people  will  be  assured  and  the  greater  will  be  the  prosperity  of  our 
country. 
Our  special  interest  is,  of  course,  to  aid  the  drug  trade  in  the 
problems  affecting  this  branch  of  vocational  service.  That  the 
druggists  of  the  country  have  been  greatly  inconvenienced  by  the 
lack  of  sufficient  assistants  and  that  many  of  the  pharmacists  and 
assistants  to  pharmacists  by  reason  of  their  military  service  will  be 
out  of  employment  in  their  usual  vocation  is  too  well  known  to 
require  any  further  comment.  Many  of  these  student  assistants 
were  not  permitted  to  complete  their  educational  requirements  for 
registration  as  licensed  practitioners  of  pharmacy.  The  prompt  get- 
ting together  of  the  employer  with  those  seeking  locations  and  the 
providing  the  means  for  the  completion  of  the  education  of  those 
whose  course  was  interrupted  so  that  they  may  become  properly  ac- 
credited pharmacists  in  their  several  states,  are  immediate  problems 
of  the  period  of  reconstruction  calling  for  our  action. 
Very  properly  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  has 
taken  up  this  work  and  through  the  Advisory  Committee  of  the  A. 
Ph.  A.  for  Soldier  and  Sailor  Pharmacists  is  trying  to  solve  many  of 
the  questions  that  will  necessarily  arise  and  here  the  American  Phar- 
maceutical Association  is  again  performing  a  signal  service  for  the 
nation  as  well  as  for  pharmacy.  We  bespeak  the  earnest  coopera- 
tion of  all  bodies  pharmaceutic  as  well  as  the  support  of  the  indi- 
