Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  1919- 
Editorial. 
491 
tion  with  the  request  that  the  latter  take  action  and  protest  against 
the  aspersion  cast  on  all  retail  druggists  by  the  Bayer  Company 
through  the  aforesaid  advertising." 
An  advertiser  is  justified  in  extolling  the  virtues  of  his  own 
product  and  by  every  legitimate  means  endeavoring  to  command 
the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  article  that  he  is  commending. 
He  is  not  warranted,  however,  in  his  advertisements  in  decrying 
the  products  or  in  defaming  the  character  of  his  competitors.  The 
proprieties  of  advertising  are  being  evolved  and  the  advertising 
pages  of  our  leading  journals  and  magazines  give  evidence  of  the 
improvement  in  taste  and  the  ethics  of  business  that  mark  this 
phase  of  commerical  enterprise. 
The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  has  rigidly  maintained 
its  standard  and  questionable  advertisements  have  been  censored 
or  declined,  and  we  believe  that  our  strict  adherence  to  the  proprie- 
ties that  should  be  observed  in  the  advertising  pages  of  an  ethical 
and  scientific  journal  as  well  as  in  its  editorial  columns  and  pub- 
lished articles,  has  added  materially  to  the  recognized  standing 
of  the  Journal  and  the  value  of  its  service  to  its  advertising 
patrons. 
The  advertisement  that  was  so  properly  objected  to  by  the 
Pennsylvania  pharmacists  is  the  same  obnoxious  style  that  some 
twenty  years  or  so  ago,  was  very  extensively  employed  by  the 
representatives  of  certain  German  patented  medicinal  chemicals  in 
foisting  their  products  upon  the  American  consumers  at  fabulous 
prices. 
It  was  particularly  objectionable  because  of  its  wide  publicity  in 
the  newspapers  of  the  country,  thus  spreading  before  thousands  of 
readers  a  reflection  upon  the  druggists  of  the  country ;  an  aspersion 
that  was  not  applied  to  any  persons  who  may  have  engaged  in  the 
criminal  practice  referred  to  in  the  advertisement,  but  gave  the  im- 
pression that  it  was  applicable  to  the  entire  vocation  of  pharmacy. 
It  is  exceedingly  unfortunate  that  the  American  firm  who,  by  virtue 
of  the  sale  of  the  German-controlled  company  by  the  Alien  Prop- 
erty Custodian  succeeded  to  this  business,  should  have  committed 
the  error  of  continuing  the  Hun  method  of  advertising. 
As  a  corollary  of  our  proposition  that  there  has  developed  a 
distinct  code  of  ethics  among  our  business  men  and  that  this  is 
progressive  and  is  founded  upon  principles  of  honor  and  upright- 
