added and boosted, then the apothecary shop or medicine shop will stand foremost, and why? Because the public demands it." I heartily agree with Mr. Schumberger. You could add a nice line of cutlery, leather goods, post cards, magazines, newspapars, a confectionery department and a real stationery department, taking orders for engraved cards and wedding invitations, and it might be a good thing to get the kodak agency, if you can.

How many of you druggists here today, have been seasonable enough to advertise June wedding and graduation gifts. I am sure you have suitable articles in your store and you may as well get this business as the department or jewelry

store.

A WELL CONDUCTED SODA FOUNTAIN IS, UNQUESTIONABLY, A GREAT AD

66

VERTISING FACTOR.

It brings thousands to your store yearly, it will pay if you only take in enough to meet the operating expense of the fountain. If you haven't the stamina to be progressive, you can at least get some business by taking advantage of the other fellows who are. Those of you who are selling Waterman's Fountain Pens might watch the big newspapers and magazines for their ads, cut them out, paste them on your show window, put in an attractive display of these pens and say on a neat sign these are the famous Waterman Pens you saw advertised in this week's Saturday Evening Post," and I might add. right here that Waterman invests over $100,000 a year to advertise his pens. Colgate & Co. spend a million dollars a year to advertise their preparations and every druggist here must acknowledge that Colgate goods are in great demand. I know of a New York druggist who keeps his show window trimming in keeping with the patent medicine, toilet goods and sundry ads appearing in a New York daily newspaper. For instance, if Danderine has a big ad, he immediately puts in a window display of Danderine, saying on an attractive sign, "The famous Danderine Hair Tonic you see advertised in today's World." You might follow out the same idea with Castoria, Cascarets, Lydia Pinkham's Compound, Colgate's toilet goods, Spearmint gum and a score of other advertised, fast selling articles.

If the manufacturer can buy space at a profit on his one specialty, it would surely be profitable for a druggist to advertise when he has a hundred different good articles for sale. I haven't the least doubt but what a lot of you druggists are continuing gists are continuing to spend your money for those old fashioned waste paper basket calendars. Men, they are a thing of the past, they have lost their pulling power and you can't in fairness charge them up to advertising, because they are no longer newsy advertising. If you don't feel like spending your advertising money in your home newspaper, you had better buy postals with it, sending out one each week to a selected list of housekeepers, advertising a specialty. I honestly believe it would pay the druggist who is going backward and constantly talking that tommy rot, dull times, to take a ten-day trip once a year and visit a few of the live stores of the country, then go home and carry out some of the progressive, moneymaking ideas he saw.

"Stop tugging at the coat-tails of progress; you can't delay America's advancement, you must catch onto the spirit of the hour or prepare for failure. To quote Herbert Kauffman in the Chicago Tribune, "Advertising does not take the place of business talent or business management. It simply tells what the business is, how it is managed and what it has to offer. The snob who is content to live on what was handed down to him by his father, cannot stand against the man who knows he has to hustle for himself. Advertising is a business in which the worker and not the shirker meets with success.

Useful 'Liza Jane.

Evidently 'Liza Jane was a very useful person. She and the old woman came into a London shop and the old woman began examining some pieces of cheap calico. She pulled at one piece first this way, then that, wetting it and then rubbing it with her fingers, to try if the colors were fast.

But she seemed not entirely satisfied. At last she cut off a piece with a pair of scissors, and handed it to 'Liza Jane.

"Here, Liza Jane," she said, "you chew that, and see if it runs."

And 'Liza Jane raised it to her mouth and solemnly went to work.-Youth's Companion.

Itinerary Vending.*

L. Z. LANTZ, Ph. G.

I know of no other reason why the subject "Itinerary Vending," has been assigned to me, other than my being actively engaged in the study of this greatest of rural druggists' problems for seven years past, and my present connection with the only truly cooperative druggists' wagon company, that has so successfully solved the Vendor problem.

L. Z. LANTZ.

Hence what I say will be largely from personal experience, not theories. Our good friend, former president and doer of all things, Mr. Ashbrook, insisted on my having a paper on this subject at our last year's meeting, but as explained to him, I did not feel qualified to do so at that time, because of experience only being in running a wagon from my own store in 1910 and 1911, with about 100 preparations of my own. manufacture, spices, etc. Before proceeding further, I wish to impress on your minds, that the previously named Druggists' Co-operative Company is The National Druggists' Manufacturing Co., of Oak Harbor, Ohio, and that it is your Company to fight your vendor battles for you, with a little assistance from you, and you make more money.

*Read at the 35th Annual Convention, O. S. P. A., June, 1913.

Itinerary Vending as a thorn in the flesh of the rural druggist, may be properly classed with the soap clubs, as Larkin's, Walker's, Croft & Reed, and a dozen more-also the ever hard mail order house competition.

All admit that it is high time for druggists to be up and doing. Competition is the only remedy. Legislation has failed. In most cases it has more than failed. A small license is worse than none. It only stimulates to greater efforts on the part of the vending interests, and results in greater profits to the wagon salesmen and their companies, realizing a handsome profit over and above their investment in the license.

Only one state so far as I have learned passed legislation with heavy license, that stuck for any time, and that failed because it was declared unconstitutional, which discouraged others.

A $100.00 per month license is of course prohibitive, and so long as a prohibitive license cannot be imposed, legislation will be a failure, which, in my opinion, will be longer than our lives.

March 28, 1911, I received this telegram from the Chairman of our Legislative Committee, "To succeed in passing Bill No. 38 (which was a vendor bill with a small license) it will be necessary to have your presence on Thursday morning at 10 A. M. Do not let anything prevent, but come." I was on hand, representing our county association and did all I could for the bill. the meeting before the committee the vendors were represented by two able attorneys, who wielded more influence with pin head arguments than the twentysome druggists did with common sense talk.

In

Well, as we all know, the desired failed to materialize. Many were the opinions then that our efforts were in vain. As for myself, I promptly said, "Competition for mine hereafter."

Having had previous experience competing with the old wagon lines, I went at it with renewed vigor, determined not to lie down, and I haven't. The many years experience and expense of preparation of my own line had come to profitable use again. With my first experience in the wagon business, great possibilities were clearly visible, yet if it could have been done, I was anxious to see it all stopped.

our

represen

tative, asking if he could recall briefly most of the drug measures passed during last session. He replied, "No, I cannot tell you about any of them. You see we have five or six doctors in the legislature who look after all the drug measures, and the rest of us pay no attention to them, because we know nothing about them. The doctors have it their own way.

Now what could we expect from dispensing doctors? Even if it were possible to prohibit vending, they know it would be of little or no benefit to them, and they would care little if any more for the druggists than the vendors.

clipping: "The bill before the Texas Here is the reading of a drug journal legislature prohibiting the sale of drugs by peddlers was killed because the legislators from the farming districts offending their constituents." were afraid to support it for fear of

After years of following the activities of legislatures, the old line wagon comin fact all concerned, I am fully conpanies, the farmers, the drug trade, and vinced beyond a doubt, that competition is positively the only effective way to meet this condition.

I have been criticised by a few of our city members for not sticking to legislation as a hopeful remedy, but we cannot live and keep our families on hope, particularly such a hopeless hope as legislation.

We who deal directly with the farmer druggist, yet almost every one of the city know better what we need than the city druggists well-known workers in both State and National Association affairs, who have been in touch with our work

heartily endorse it. We can prove these endorsements at this convention by letters over their own signatures at our display, and in person, as many of them are here.

The worst element our company has has to contend with is the high brow, dignified druggists, who feel themselves above this modern method of getting business by going after it. Our wagons deliver goods to our customers, just as the city druggists deliver goods to theirs. They deliver goods because of competition so do we.

One of the old line companies with 1500 wagons, after our customers every day, has its president in the legislature of its home state. Another company with 2300 wagons working, and 15 other companies with wagons numbering 500 each, is approximately the wagon competition the rural druggist has, besides the mail order houses, soap clubs, etc. The farmers really like the wagon method and prefer this service through pharmacists, or "Our Druggists, as they put it.

Here is a trick the old line companies put over the druggist at every opportunity. Just as soon as legislation objectionable to them is proposed, every wagon salesman is abundantly supplied with literature for distribution, stamped. envelopes properly directed and petition blanks on which he is required to get the signature of every farmer possible, opposing the bill or bills, and he gets practically all of them, and we well know the farmer gets just about what he wants from legislative bodies.

A saying seen on post cards, when modified, fits this situation better than anything I know: "That druggists have about as much chance of getting the right kind of legislation against vendor wagons, as a celluloid dog has of catching an asbestos cat in Hades."

The quality of the old line companies' goods are as good as the average. It is a case of ignorance is bliss, and only fooling ourselves, to argue that vendor wagon goods are cheap, worthless fakes, etc. Ask farmer after farmer— hundreds of them as I have done, and you will change your minds quickly.

Many druggists admit their business is not what it used to be on proprietaries, yet they will not let themselves believe the wagons are getting it. There are from two to seven wagons working most

counties of average population and they are taking about $5.00 per day from each drug store. The business of wagons average $15.00 or more per day, each, in Ohio; the soap clubs get a slice; the mail order houses also get a slice of the druggists' business.

In one instance a druggist said, "Why wagons do not bother me, no wagons work around my town." We had unquestionable proof that two wagons were working around him every day. And he is no sleepy-head, either, but a live wire. We proved that one wagon's collections were $100.00 per week, estimating the receipts of the other at $75.00. making $175.00 per week from these two only, and saying nothing of the transient wagons. He is now a N. D. M. stockholder. Their methods are quiet, grasping, but sure. They are instructed to keep out of the towns as much as possible, to avoid stirring up druggists and other dealers.

It has been argued that the old line. wagons are a good thing for the druggists and their towns, because they keep from the mail order houses many drug orders and consequently many orders for other merchandise.

Farmers like to have goods delivered as well as other people. That's one reason why they favor Parcel Post and the mail order houses.

"Facts are stubborn things," and facts are what we must deal with. We are entitled to the business of our communities. Why not go after it, and all possible? It's going after a thing that gets it.

Ignoring competition is business suicide. If in a rut, get out of it. The depth of the grave of business is measured by the rut it gets into. Competition must be met, and that is all there is to it. As a well-known journal writer has said, "The unsuspecting druggist is apt to let trade conditions drift into the last stages before he wakes up. Then when his losing business is almost on its last pegs he begins to hunt for a remedy to put it back on its feet."

If we are to succeed as retail druggists, we must cater to the wants of our customers, not only as to goods, but as to service.

Here follow some of the hundreds of comments we have received from the live men in the drug trade:

A man with much experience, in close touch with the rural druggists and their

'Many counties in this section have as many as seven wagons each."

"I'd rather have the wagon than store profits in many counties.

"I know wagon men making $4,000 to $6,000 yearly.

"Why have druggists done nothing to resent wagon encroachments on their business?"

"Your company does not antagonize other special lines. It gets business already established by independent wagon lines."

"Wagons representing local druggists are great business pullers."

"Druggists' names on your wagons and goods is alone worth more than your proposition costs, as good advertising before our customers and in their hands all the time, if they never get a repeat call for any of these goods.'

"The old line wagon companies laugh at us because we do nothing.

"Parcel Post reaches the average farmer in four hours from the post-office.' "Wagons could succeed on veterinary and poultry remedies alone.

Your plan looks very good." "Let's all get busy and give them the fight of their lives.

"The wagon man gets in more goods than I do, lives in a better house, has more modern conveniences, and makes more money than I do."

Dr. Brose Horn, N. A. R. D. organizer, says:

"The vendor question must be solved. If pharmacy cannot survive if vending lives, I say to you, pharmacy will die, for the people demand vending and you cannot fight the voice of the people." But the modern druggist will not die. He will go onward and upward. He, with all his scientific attainments, will adopt the methods of modern commercialism and fight for his existence with the modern, up-to-date methods, irrespective of what a few ultra-scientific "high-brow," ethical pharmacists may do or say.

From N. A. R. D. Notes:

"As long as proprietary medicines are regarded as merchandise, anti-vending laws that are worth while are likely to be pronounced as unconstitutional if carried to the Supreme Court.

"Unless a measure can be devised which will legally place all proprietary medicines under the jurisdiction of registered pharmacists, our only hope is going into the wagon business ourselves and driving out the itinerants."

E. F. Heffner, Lock Haven, Pa., says;

"Probably one-half of the N. Á. Ř. D. members and three-fourths of the retail druggists of this country get full retail prices for all ready-made medicines, and are not vitally interested in the cut-rate problem. But they are interested in eliminating competition which is robbing them of as much profit as cut prices are doing to the city druggist, so their problem deserves some attention."

Another from N. A. R. D. Notes:

"We would say that if druggists go into the wagon business we would advise them to work together and cooperatively handle the wagon trade in their territory, keeping out, as far as possible, all outsiders."

Now, that I have done my best in describing this drug trade ailment, calling attention to the many symptoms, etc., I shall prescribe a remedy which we know by test is most effective, and not "found wanting." As to the source of this remedy, I might explain that after much talk on the vendor question, we held meeting after meeting of our County Association for its discussion.

It was first thought by some that a line could be obtained from non-secret manufacturers.

A committee was appointed to investigate and its report was, "No." This we found to be entirely out of the question, and decided that goods of our own manufacture, in styles and sizes. that would fully meet wagon competition, was the only practical and profitable way.

We had gone into the matter thoroughly, we were sure we were right, and with the exception of two, we volunteered to stake our money on the idea, to start this much needed movement.

We realized it would require considerable capital, and that manufacturing could only be done to advantage on