490 
Editorial. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
<-     August,  1 9 19. 
One  of  the  encouraging  signs  of  the  times  and  of  the  sensitive- 
ness of  trade  organizations  to  the  ethics  of  commerce,  is  the  prompt- 
ness with  which  any  digression  from  either  the  unwritten  law  or  the 
established  rules  of  "  fair  trade  "  is  recognized  and  objected  to. 
An  incident  that  well  illustrate  this  point  was  the  action  taken 
at  the  recent  annual  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical 
Association  in  the  unanimous  adoption  of  the  following  resolutions. 
Whereas  the  Bayer  Company,  proprietors  of  Bayer's  Aspirin 
tablets,  is  making  a  practice  of  publishing  advertisements  in  the 
daily  papers  of  this  country  in  which  the  following  statements 
appear : 
"  Don't  Buy  Aspirin  in  a  Pill  Box." 
"  Fake  Aspirin  was  Talcum,"  underneath  which  appears  the 
picture  of  a  man  holding  his  hand  up  to  the  druggist  and  saying, 
"You  can't  hand  me  any  substitute  for  the  true,  genuine  Bayer's 
Aspirin  "  which  statement  is  followed  by  a  question :  "  Haven't  you 
heard?"  "A  Brooklyn  Fraud  is  in  jail  for  flooding  the  country 
with  millions  of  counterfeit  tablets.  He  labeled  them  Aspirin,  but 
they  were  Talcum  Powder ! "  and 
Whereas  the  apparent  object  of  these  advertisements  is  to 
plant  in  the  public  mind  the  belief  that  every  druggist  who  sells 
other  brands  of  aspirin  than  Bayer's  is  dishonest,  which,  if  this 
belief  should  become  fixed  in  the  public  mind  permanently,  injuri- 
ous results  would  be  produced  to  the  business  of  retail  druggists, 
therefore  be  it 
Resolved,  that  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical-  Association  in 
regular  annual  meeting  assembled,  does  hereby  most  earnestly 
protest  the  employment  of  such  advertising  and  calls  upon  the 
Bayer  Company  to  henceforth  refrain  from  publishing  the  adver- 
tisements herein  objected  to  or  any  others  which  tend  to  discredit 
the  retail  druggist  in  the  public  mind,  and 
Resolved,  that  the  members  of  this  association  should  refuse  to 
sell  any  more  Bayer  Aspirin  Tablets  than  are  called  for  so  long  as 
the  Bayer  Company  persists  in  employing  such  outrageous  and  in- 
sulting advertisements,  on  the  ground  that  the  Bayer  Company  does 
thereby  place  the  distribution  of  its  products  outside  the  channels 
of  self-respecting  and  honest  druggists,  and  be  it  still  further 
Resolved,  that  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent -immediately 
to  the  Bayer  Company,  and  to  each  state  pharmaceutical  associa- 
