Lithium, Salts of.-A still further decline is noted. Carbonate quotable at $1.05; Benzoate, $1.15; Bromide, $1.70. Meal, Cotton Seed.-Advanced; per ton, $33.00; ton, $33.50;ton, $34.00. Menthol. Extremely dull and without any interesting feature whatever. Quotable in lbs., $2.85; ozs., 32c. Mercury. Materially higher and firm at the advance; quotable in flasks, 684 to 83 to 85c in small lots. Mercurial Ointment.-Advanced to 55c. This price may be shaded in quantity, and local jobbers will book contracts for 100 lbs. or over, over a period of 4 months, with delivery in 25-lb. lots. We note the usual proportionate advances on other mercurials. Calomel.-Quotable at 92c to $1.02; M. B. English Calomel, $1.25; Corrosive Sublimate advanced to 83 to 95c as to quantity; Red Precipitate advanced to $1.14, powdered, $1.25; White Precipitate advanced to $1.12, powdered, $1.20; Mercury with Chalk, 52c. Morphine. In sympathy with the course of the opium market this staple has fluctuated in price, attaining the highest level September 17, at which time the price for is, in 24-oz. boxes, was $3.65; remained stationary until November 22, when it declined 20c. A further decline of 15c occurred December 21. The opening price in January was $2.65, hence there was a maximum advance of $1.00, followed by the decline of 35c above noted, making the present price for is, in 24-oz. boxes, $3.30; oz. vials, $3.10. Oils, Heavy.-Castor, unchanged; quotable in bbls., $1.00; -bbls., $1.02.; 10-gal. cans, $1.06. Cod Liver, Norwegian.-Slightly lower; quotable, bbls., $28.00 to $1.40 to $1.60 per gallon in small lots. Cotton Seed.-Declined to 53c for the W. W.; 51c for the W. Y.; 49c for the S. W.; 46c for the S. Y. Sperm.-Advanced; quotable in bbls., 81c. Lard, Winter, Strained.-Declined to 67c in bbls., No. 1, 57 to 70 to 80c as wanted. Olive, Malaga, Green.-Materially higher; bbls., 75 to 95c; yellow advanced to 85c in bbls.; $1.05 as wanted. Oils, Essential.-There seems to be an easier tendency, particularly in the Messina Oils. Bergamot is higher than it was last January but it has recently declined to $4.75 to $4.95; Sanderson's, 25c higher. Lemon is quotably lower; M. B. Reina, 25-lb. coppers, $1.90; 1-lb. coppers $2.20. Orange, Sweet, Reina.-25-lb. coppers, $3.05; 1-lb. coppers, $3.55. Pennyroyal.-Materially higher; we note a net advance of 80c; quotable at $3.90. Peppermint, M. B., Pure.-Quotable figures are equivalent to a decline of $1.35 during the year; quotable at $2.05; Re-distilled, $2.40; Hotchkiss, $3.25. Sassafras, True.-Advanced to 88 to 95c; Artificial, 52 to 60c. Opium.-The opening price a year ago was $3.65 for the gum, $4.35 for the powdered M. B. The course of the market for this staple was steadily upward until November, having advanced 30c in February, 40c in March, declined 10c in May, advanced 60c in June, advanced $2.65 in July, declined 25c in August, 40c in September, 35c in October, 40c in November, 10c in December, 75c January 2. The present local market for the gum is $5.10; powdered, M. B., or granular, M. B., $5.95; powdered, P. & W., $7.15. Phenol. Declined lc; sales are steadily increasing; local schedules for lbs., 26c; 5-lb. cans 24c; 10-lb. cans, 22c; 28-1b. cans, 21c; 56-lb. cans, 19c. These prices may be shaded in large lots. Platinum and Potassium Chloride.—A shade lower; quotable in ounce vials, $16.50; 15-grain vials, per dozen $8.50. Quinine.-January opening price on the basis of the bulk in 100-lb. cans was 20c for P. & W.; 191c for M. B.; advanced 3c in January, declined lc in February, declined 2c in March, declined lc in May, 2c in June, since which time the market has remained unchanged. Quotable locally P. & W., 100-ounce cans, 17c; M. B., 16c; 25-ounce cans, 19c; 5-ounce cans, 23c; 1-ounce vials, 28c. Root, Alkanet.-Unchanged; bales 9 to 13 to 15c as wanted. Belladonna.-Advanced to 30c. Golden Seal.-Advanced to $2.25; powdered, 20c higher. Calamus.-Advanced; extra bleached, 50c. 3c higher. Gentian-Advanced; bags 7 to 10 to 12 to 14c. Ipecac, Carthagena.-Quotably lower; $2.30 to $2.50; Rio, 30c higher. Pink.-Declined 6c; bags 72 to 82 to 85c as wanted. Sarsaparilla, Mexican.-Declined; quotable in bales 11 to 18 to 28c in a small way. Silver Nitrate. -Declined; P. & W., in lb. bottles, quotable at $6.44; M. B., $6.08. Saffron, American.-Material declines amounting to 78c per lb. have reduced present market values; in mats, 42 to 49 to 53 to 60c in smaller lots. Santonine.-Advanced steadily throughout the year until December, during which month the price slumped off at least 40%; quotable at this writing $9.00 per lb.; ounce vials, 62c; powdered, 20c higher. Shellac. The importations into this country continue in very large volume and toward the close of the year the market was easy. At present V. S. O. is offered in case lots 534c; T. N., 32c; Bleached in bbls., 36c; Ground,46c; To 63 to 41 to 46 to 50c respectively,as wanted. Turpentine.-Fluctuations were numerous throughout the year and the price level was high: Recently there has been some re-action towards a lower level, and we note barrels are quotable at 27c per gallon under the price that ruled 12 months ago. Quotable in bbls., 48c; 10-gal. cans, 59c; 5-gal. cans, 63c; containers inclusive. Vanillin.-Advanced sharply during December, thus recovering the losses that were registered during the balance of the year. Quotable in quantity at 40c per ounce to 65 to 75c in small way. Wax, Bayberry.-Declined to 41 to 45c as to quantity. Carnauba.--Quotably lower; No. 1, 48 to 55c; No. 2, 45 to 50c as to quantity. Japan.-Advanced to 19 to 25c as to quantity. Window Glass.-Locally there has been more or less demoralization on this item, some houses offering as low as cost. The present basis is at a discount of 90 and 20% for the single and 90 and 25% for the double. ADVERTISING TERMS. If You Do Not Find Your Advertisement, Carefully Observe: 1. Only subscribers are entitled to free advertisements and these notices must not exceed fifty words in length. They are limited to requests for positions or clerks, announcements of drug stores for sale, or the desire to purchase a business. 2. Such advertisement from non-subscribers must be accompanied by one cent per word; otherwise no attention will be paid to the correspondence. 3. A charge of five cents per word will be made for all advertisements not coming under the above specifications. 4. No attention is paid to anonymous communications. 5. Write the advertisement on a separate sheet and on but one side of the paper. 6. To prevent delay, have answers directed to the advertiser's address and not to this office. 7. No letters will be forwarded from this office unless the advertiser sends postage for same. 8. Spell out every word in full; never abbreviate. 9. Copy for advertisements must reach us not later than the 25th of the month. RUG STOCK-$1,100 stock of drugs, inland town of 500, good country rock roads. Good practice given to purchaser. Reasons for selling. Dont answer unless you mean business: terms. Box 36, Ashley, Mo. DR [1] RUG STORE-Paying drug store in Southwest Missouri, full prices, good prescription trade, patronage of two doctors. offices over store, stock and fixtures will invoice about $3,500, all clean and up-to-date. Address No. 71 Meyer Brothers Druggist. [1] DRUG STOCK-For sale or trade, $2,000 00 in a town of 1,000 in habitants, only one other drug store in the town, almost new stock, no shelfworn goods, rent very low, splendid business. Good reasons for selling. Farm preferred. Address No. 70, care Meyer Brothers Druggists. [1] DRUG STORE A most desirable Drug Business in one of the best towns in Arkansas. Owners are compelled to sell because of ill health. Can be bought right. Location of store excellent, and rent reasonable. A bargin for quick sale. Address G. T. M. No. 69, care Meyer Brothers Druggist. DR [1] RUG STORE-Established 1904, modern fixtures, clean stock invoice about $2,500, Sub. P. O. Station, pays $100 a year salary, located on good corner, principal street, in residence district, fast building up, now doing profitable business with prospects for better. Address No. 67, care Meyer Brothers Druggist. [1] DRUG STOCK bought right. Eidon is a thriving Railroad town with splendid surrounding country. Rental reasonable, location good. Buyer can get an established business at a reasonable figure. Address No. 68, care Meyer Brothers Druggist. [1] RUG STOCK and fixtures, at Eldon, Mo., estimated value What Mistakes May Mean In dealing with a druggist the public expect that all transactions will be handled with care and accuracy. To that end pharmacists demand accuracy in the work of their employees in the bookkeeping department as well as behind the prescription desk. By using a BURROUGHS Adding and Listing Machine in your accounting all possibility of error is eliminated. It is mechanically perfect, and cannot possibly make a mistake. Meyer Brothers Druggist VOL. XXIX. PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE ENTIRE DRUG TRADE. ST. LOUIS, FEBRUARY, 1908. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter in January, 1895. Meyer Brothers Druggist PUBLISHED MONTHLY. C. F. G. MEYER, PUBLISHER. No. 2. ADVERTISING RATES. (WE HAVE BUT ONE PRICE.) One-fourth page, 3 months (2 5-6x4 1-4 inches).. One-half page, 1 year One page, One page, (41-4x6 inches). 6 months (6 1 year x8 1-2 inches). (6 x8 1-2 inches). ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO THE ..... MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST -$ 27 00 45 00 65 00 82 50 51 00 87 00 125 00 300 00 Editorial The Influence of Business Location on Credit. Nothing is more important than that the pharmacist shall be master of the business situation. All success depends upon the giving and receiving of credit. It is one thing to sell goods, but they must be paid for, and there are physical conditions which are vital to credit. A knowledge of these is a fundamental requisite to every competent business man. The wholesaler and the jobber study the surroundings of the retailer. A credit man is employed for this sole purpose. Sometimes the local merchant wonders at the restrictions thrown around his credit. Let him look at his business situation in its larger aspect, and he will find the answer. Honesty, attentiveness, enterprise, will not overcome certain physical liabilities. If conditions are abnormal, doubt arises. While individual men are known and appreciated by wholesalers, manufacturers and jobbers, for what they are worth, they are judged also by the elements which underlie honesty and ability and which indicate probable success or failure. It is imperative then that the merchant look about him and study his situation. First to be considered are the state laws of exemption. In new states it is the policy to encourage immigration by offering large property exemptions; and to proect the immigrant, to a degree, from the importunate pursuit of the creditor. The laws of older states differ widely both as to exemptions and methods of collection. Lines of credit conform to this basis. More money is necessary to business investment where lax credit laws prevail than where they do not. It is not long since when, in a central western state, a Supreme Court commissioner discovered an obsolete but unrepealed statute, rendering voidable notes made to foreign loan companies. At once, practically all eastern capital left the state. And it remained out until the obnoxious law was in fact repealed. So it is with the local merchant's credit. It depends upon law to a great extent. This is no reflection upon honesty or ability, but it is the necessary caution which renders business safe. Disaster may overtake any community, and the merchant dependent thereon must suffer in consequence. The retail merchant's credit, thus, depends also upon the credit which he bestows. If he is aided by stable conditions and stringent laws in the collection of debts, he is stronger, safer, than if the reverse be true. The local merchant must therefore acquaint himself with this prime factor of his success before he can rightly plan his business. He must estimate slow collections and possible losses before he can know his own ability to meet his obligations under any and all conditions. He can thus apportion his buying to his selling, and his credit to payments. which forms his chief custom. Are they farmers or mechanics, are they transient or permanent? Are they renters or owners; thrifty and frugal, or extravagant and improvident? Will they be able to pay monthly or yearly? Custom has much to do with the granting of credit in some of these particulars. Thus, in the southern states, where cotton is the staple, business is done largely upon a years time. And a total failure in the crop is a serious thing to the small merchant. So it is, where customers are miners or mill-operatives, strikes and lockouts are fatal oftentimes to the merchant. He should therefore guard his credit-giving by his own ability to stand unforseen calamities of this kind, and he may be assured that as far as he himself is concerned the wholesaler will govern his credits accordingly. Many a man has failed for no other fault than not looking far enough into the future and discounting as it were possibilities. And he must not fail. The bankrupt law which has been so strenuously sought, and which is now being tentatively tried, for the purpose of allowing old scores of this character to be settled, is not yet a fixture. And if it were, failure still means ruin. It is almost impossible to re-establish credit once a man has succumed to its pressure. Better spend a few years to merely keep going and pay out, than to go down. Farmers are considered good risks, but they are often slow pay. In western states too much dependence is put in a single crop. A drouth or wet season is often enough to compel a small merchant to carryover half the value of his stock. A vast deal of our hard times is due to unsuccessful and unskilful farm ing. Where the farmer plans his crops and stockraising so that he has something ready for the market half a dozen times a year, he is not only the most independent of men, but the best all-round customer the merchant can have. To depend entirely upon corn or wheat, cattle or hogs, is to invite failure, and the merchant must govern himself accordingly. Mill-operatives, metal-workers, machinists and miners are almost sure to bring a small percentage of loss. The uncertainty of their occupation and its wearing away of physical health and strength, has a tendency to make them careless and reckless. Their pleasures tend to riotous living. They are liable to discharge and to work half-time. Working as they do only when they feel like it they are unable to provide against sickness and misfortune. If the merchant's trade depends upon one or two large industries let him keep a check, strong and constant, on his credits. It is for these reasons that the physical conditions of localities are the study of wholesalers and manufacturers in credit-giving. The manufacturer locates himself according as fuel or material is most accessible. The jobber and wholesaler seek the great cities where trunk-line railroads intersect. So the retail merchant is affected by, and should study, the bearing of shipping facilities. In an earlier day, throughout the great southwest, and a Another element he must study is the class of people few remain even now, there were country or crossroad stores which did an annual business running into millions. Goods were hauled for hundreds of miles. Traveling men, across country, visited them once or twice a year, selling bills of goods aggregating thousands of dollars, for which service they received handsome salaries. Every thoughtful local merchant will study the advantages of street location and accessibility to the buying public, but the factors we have been considering are far more vital to his ultimate success than either the manner of selling the goods or the selection of a store site. Watch Your Legislators.-At the present time, many state legislatures are in session and there is no knowing what they may do before they adjourn. The state pharmaceutical associations have special committees on legislation charged with the duty of watching the law makers of the states. These committees are as a rule composed of men of experience as well as judgment in political matters. Our advice is to play a watching game rather than to institute an aggressive campaign. The experience of the past indicates that pharmaceutical legislation has been pushed too rapidly during the past generation. Laws have been enacted without due consideration by those preparing the bills, and amendments are often less satisfactory than the original statute. Before an effort is made to change a pharmacy law, the state association should become thoroughly convinced that the proposed amendment is really an improvement over the present. It is often better to let well enough alone. The committee on legislation which reports to its association that it succeeded in heading off undesirable legislation affecting pharmacists is more to be commended than the committee which comes with a new pharmacy law which is in turn to be again amended at the next session of the legislature. The pharmacists of the state should cooperate with their committee on legislation by furnishing suggestions. The committee should keep in constant touch with the state capitol during every day the legislature is in session and be prepared for active work at a moment's notice. We repeat, "Watch your legislators.” Honest Advertising is the end to be accomplished by proposed legislation now under consideration by congress. A bill has been introduced by representative, Harry M. Cowdrey, of Missouri, which provides a penalty for advertising matter of any kind which is objectionable, pernicious, false, fraudulent or misleading. The comprehensive scope of such language is easily understood and will cover a great variety of cases. Of course a federal law can apply only to the District of Columbia, the territories, the insular possessions and to interstate commerce. The adoption of such a federal regulation will lead to state laws, the same as the National Pure Food and Drugs Act is being followed by similar state regulations. Such laws will work a revolution in advertising methods and place well to the front the honest advertiser who has long complained about unfair competition and pointed out the evil effects of misrepresentation. They Will Not Prosecute.-Such is the frequent statement made in reference to those having in charge the enforcement of the Federal Pure Food and Drugs Law. But such expressions are now out of date, for the government has instituted suit in the District of Columbia against a very prominent manufacturer, with plenty of capital to fight the case. The charge is made by the government that the goods are misbranded on account of being advertised as a cure. All manufacturers will closely watch the case and especially those who have made a practice of claiming that their preparations are "cures". It may be some time before a final decision is reached, but the suit indicates that the government means business. Not Natural.-It was anticipated on all sides that the consumers, manufacturers and middle men would all take naturally to the denatured alcohol as soon as it was placed on the market. Extravagant claims were made in the newspapers as to the possibilities in the way of utilization and the wonderfully cheap alcohol to be had. Sufficient time has now elapsed to enable the careful observer to see that denatured alcohol is looked upon as an unnatural product and meets with a cold reception. The consumer has little use for it, the middle man dislikes to handle it and the manufacturer complains of the red tape surrounding his work. Proprietary Medicine Mad.-This is the expressive manner in which the British and Colonial Druggist describes conditions in the English colonies and especially Australia. It seems that proprietary manufacturers have much to contend with, the world over, at the present time. Our exchange states, that while different colonies are proceeding along different lines in attempting legislation, still their proposals are sufficiently drastic to warrant English manufacturers "in donning the most effective armor and getting representative champions on the spot.” Can You Spare One Cent a Day? Of course, you can, and never miss it. If you will send the N. A. R. D. this amount, it will pay your dues for 1908 and place that organization on an independent, as well as substantial basis. It is needless to repeat the many arguments why the N. A. R. D. is a necessity in this country but conditions seem to demand constant reiteration of the fact that the retail drug trade must support the N. A. R. D. if it is to continue receiving benefits from the good work of that organization. Will the New York Pharmacists Hold Their Own and maintain the Board of Pharmacy as an organization independent of the Board of Health? An effort is being made to place the New York Board of Pharmacy under the supervision of the Board of Health. The physicians of that section of the world must be more competent in pharmaceutical affairs than elsewhere, if they are prepared to look after the Board of Pharmacy work. |