60S         Economic  Value  of  Wholesale  Druggist.    { Am-sJe°p1Jr'Ip1I^rm- 
retailer  would  very  likely  be  obliged  to  establish  and  maintain  credit 
with  a  large  number  of  manufacturing  companies.  Such  a  condi- 
tion would  entail  a  large  amount  of  clerical  work,  long  delays, 
misunderstandings  and  dissatisfaction  to  all  parties  concerned.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter  to  furnish  refer- 
ence and  make  necessary  banking  arrangements  to  do  business  with 
one  company. 
"Another  expense  which  the  wholesaler  saves  the  retailer  is 
that  of  accounting.  The  bookkeeping  necessary  when  the  druggist 
makes  use  of  the  wholesaler  can  be  done  easily  and  without  incon- 
venience by  the  retailer  himself.    Thus  a  great  saving  is  effected. 
"  So  it  is  obvious  that  the  wholesaler  stands  to  the  retailer  in 
the  same  relation  that  the  retailer  stands  to  the  consuming  public. 
He  is  indeed  a  necessity,  an  economic  asset,  an  entity  of  great 
importance  and  great  worth." 
From  the  second  of  these  essays  the  following  abstract  is  given : 
"There  has  been  a  great  deal  said  and  written  in  the  past  few 
years  about  the  elimination  of  the  middle  man,  or  more  direct  rout- 
ing of  commodities  from  the  producer  to  the  consumer.  The  term 
'  middleman '  is  a  misnomer.  The  proper  word  is  '  distributor/ 
for  that  is  his  function.  A  great  deal  of  the  speaking  and  writing 
has  been  done  by  demagogues,  visionaries  and  people  unfamiliar 
with  trade  relations  and  requirements.  Theoretically,  it  would  be 
a  fine  thing  for  the  producer  to  hand  his  product  directly  to  the 
consumer  and  so  eliminate  the  just  toll  taken  by  those  who  would 
normally  assist  in  its  distribution,  but  in  practice  it  would  be,  in 
most  instances,  an  impossibility. 
"  Considering  the  volume  of  business  he  does,  the  druggist  prob- 
ably stocks  a  greater  number  of  items  than  any  other  merchant. 
Every  country  on  which  the  sun  shines  contributes  to  his  stock. 
'  No  merchant  sells  more  diversely  borne  nor  more  widely  traveled 
merchandise  than  the  pharmacist.'  Earth  and  sea,  flora  and  fauna, 
raw  material  and  finished  product  are  all  found  in  his  stock ;  and  the 
assembling  of  the  six  or  seven  thousand  different  items  repre- 
sented in  a  well-stocked  retail  drug  store,  without  the  aid  of  the 
wholesaler,  would  be  a  physical  impossibility. 
"  The  wholesaler  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  retailer  that  the 
ordnance  and  quartermaster's  departments  bear  to  an  army.  When 
Foch  started  his  offense  against  the  Germans  he  would  never  have 
