ALCOHOL.

The Chemist and Druggist says:

We have recently been discussing the disabilities of British manufacturers, compared with their continental brethren, in the production of preparations in which alcohol is used but does not remain as an integral part. As in every other case where the matter forms an extremely small part of a whole, when it comes to applying concessions which all admit to be good for our trade, the necessity for maintaining the integrity of the whole may overwhelm the part. In this matter of al. cohol we come sooner or later to the fundamental fact that spirits are mainly, as in earlier times they were solely, used as beverages, and the regulation of their manufacture and consumption forms one of the most difficult problems with which the states" men of every European country have to deal, as taxes on alco holic beverages, and especially on distilled spirits, form a sub. stantial portion of the revenues of all the great nations. Owing to this fact the information respecting the production and consumption of alcohol in most European countries is fairly extensive and accurate. Like most official statistics, however, they have until recently been only available for the information of the revenue and other departments of the different governments. Last year the Statistical Department of our own Board of Trade obtained from official sources the accounts of most of the European countries on the subject, and the results were recently published. The accounts are somewhat complicated, because the figures for any country do not represent the actual quantities produced or consumed; but the calculated amount, either of pure alcohol, or of some standard mixture of alcohol and water, such as our own "proof spirit," and the standards differ.

On the Continent the strength of spirits is estimated in "degrees," which are percentages by volume, either of pure alcohol, as in France and Germany, or of alcohol of half that strength, as in Belgium, Holland and Sweden. The hectolitre is the most common standard of measure. Russia and Denmark employ a different measure, and our own standard strength of alcohol is different from that of any other country, our "proof spirit" being approximately of 57° stength on the French and German scale, while our standard measure is the Imperial gallon. [The Imperial gallon = 1 gal., 1 pt., 9 fl. ozs., 5 fl. drs., 8 mim.*] For the purposes of comparison it is necessary, therefore, to reduce these varying measures and strengths to a common standard, which we have done in the following table, which gives in terms of gallons of "proof spirit" the production of alcohol in the last year for which statistics are available:

Annual Production of Alcohol in European Countries.

Country

United Kingdom..

Russia....

Norway

Sweden.

Denmark.

Germany.

Holland

Belgium..

France

Switzerland

Portugal

Austro-Hungary.

Italy....

Total..

Gallons of Proof Spirit 52,834,000

..140,290,000

1,271,000 6,748,000 6,207,000 ..126,360,000 12,995,000 10,510,000 77,847,000 1,270,000

1,210,000

88,896,000

6,627,000

533,065,000

As some of the minor States are not included in the table, while in others-eg., France and Switzerland-a good deal of spirit is produced which escapes taxation, the actual European production of alcohol probably exceeds 550 million gallons of proof spirit, equivalent to nearly 314 million gallons of absolute alcohol.

Varieties of Spirits.

Less than fifty years ago spirit was to a large extent obtained by distilling fermented liquors in "pot" stills, which are

practically alembics with long drawn-out necks twisted into a spiral. The product thus obtained is of a crude character, and even after one or more redistillations it still retains traces of those impurities or foreign bodies which give to spirits so obtained the characteristic flavors according to the materials from which they are prepared. To prepare spirits of wine it was necessary to resort to repeated rectifications, and they were consequently correspondingly expensive. With the advent of Coffey's still a great change has come over the manufacture of alcohol. With this and similar “patent" distilling-apparatus, spirit of 60 or 70 overproof can be produced in a single operation direct from the fermented liquor, and of such a high degree of purity as to afford little or no indication of the materials from which it has been prepared. As a consequence the great bulk of the alcohol of commerce is now manufactured, especially on the Continent, in this way. Almost any kind of starchy or saccharine material can be used, and a very large quantity is prepared from the molasses and other byproducts of the beetroot-sugar manufactories. The 77 million gallons of proof spirit produced in France are obtained from the following materials:

Grain and other farinaceous substances....15,100,000
Molasses

On the Continent the "pot" still is not largely used.

In France and Holland it is used in the preparation of the better brands of brandy and gin, but elsewhere some form of the patent still is almost universally used. In France, Germany, and Russia the fermentation and the first distillation in small steam-stills is carried out by farmers, but the crude spirit thus produced is collected and rectified in patent stills before being used for potable or trade purposes. In our own country the "pot" still is much more used. Out of 52 million gallons of proof spirit made in 1896, over 21 million gallons came from "pot" stills. Almost the whole of this is made in Scotland and Ireland.

The English distilleries produced 11%1⁄2 million gallons, but only the odd half-million was "pot"-still spirit; in Ireland, with a total production of 14 million gallons, 6%1⁄2 million came from the "pot"; but in Scotland more than half-131⁄2 million gallons out of a total of 26 million gallons-was spirit of this kind. Scotch and Irish whisky of this character is produced ex clusively from malted and unmalted barley, mainly the former. Barley is in fact the principal substance from which British spirits, both "pot" and "patent" are made. In 1896 about 1 million quarters [Quarter =8252 Bushels*] of malt, about the same quantity of unmalted grain, chiefly barley, together with 700,000 cwt. of molasses, and small quantities of rice and sugar were used in the distilleries of the United Kingdom. Instead of being more expensive the highlyrectified "patent" spirit is much cheaper than the weaker "pot"-still product. Whilst new Scotch or Irish whisky costs from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. a proof gallon, patent spirlt averages little more than 1s. In France it is about the same and in Germany and Russia considerably less. Indeed, "German spirit" is sold in this country as low as 7d. or 8d. a gallon. The average prices of the various kinds of spirits imported into this country during recent years are as follows:

The Strength of Spirits as sold for consumption in most continental countries, as well as in the United Kingdom, is on the average considerably less than "proof." In France and the surrounding countries they are about 30 under proof, or the beverages contain from 37 to 40 per cent. of alcohol. In Russia and Germany they are about the same, while in England they are from 20 to 25 under proof, or contain 42 to 45 per cent. of alcohol. This is fully four times as strong as beer, and nearly twice the strength of wine measured by the alcohol. In actual measured quantity of spirit consumed the figures of the table are rather too low, but for comparative purposes it is necessary to keep to a common standard, and there is thus left a balance of 120 million gallons to be accounted for compared with the production as given in the former table. No complete statistics are available as to the relation of the imports and exports to and from Europe as a whole. So far as they go the figures for 1896 show a total import of 17 million gallons, and an export of 31 million-an excess of 14 millon gallons in the latter. It is certain, however, that some of this excess is due to exports to some of the European countries from which statistics are wanting, and it is probable that the exports from Europe do not exceed the imports from non-European countries by more than 10 million proof gallons. Another possible deduction is the accumulation of the finer classes of spirits in bonded warehouses and merchants' stocks. All "pot"-still spirits greatly improve by being kept in casks for scme years, and in our own country there has been a steady increase in the quantity of such spirit remaining in these warehouses for the last few years. There is little doubt, however, that the United Kingdom is an exception to the general rule in this respect. Partly because the duty is much less in all other countries, and partly because the method of levying it is different, there is no such accumulation, and probably the total accumulation was under, rather than over, 10 million proof gallons. Besides this there has to be allowed a considerable quantity for loss by evaporation, acci dents, etc. In our own country this amounts to between 3 and 4 million gallons, and, although probably not at so great a rate in most other countries, owing to the less exact modes of charging the duties and the generally shorter storage, it cannot be less than 20 million gallons and is more probably nearer 30 million. Of the remainder the great bulk is denatured or mixed with some substance rendering it unfit for human consumption, after which it is allowed to be used duty free for various purposes in the arts and manufactures.

Duty-Paid and Duty-Free Spirits.

In all European countries alcohol is heavily taxed, but in none is the duty so severe as in the United Kingdom The

Germany

3s. 2s. 6d.

The Liberality with which Alcohol is allowed to be used duty free is very nearly in propcrtion to the amount of duty. Germany, which has the lowest duty, is also most liberal in permitting the use of duty-free alcohol both in the form of denatured or methylated spirit, and also in the pure form. For the preparation of nearly all medicines and medicinal tin ctures, and similar purposes, pure spirit is allowed to be used free of any duty. In this way it is calculated that nearly 31⁄2 million gallons are used annually, and at the present time Germany has almost a monopoly in those extracts, drugs, and finer chemicals in the preparation of which pure alcohol is either a necessary or convenient agent. In addition, more than 25 million gallons of methylated spirit are used annually in Germany, as against no more than about 4 million gallons in this country. It is comparatively easy to make regulations which will safe-guard the revenue and not unduly interfere with manufacturing operations when any possible fraud will only result in a gain of 2s. or 3s. on every gallon of the strong alcohol [the same argument doubtless applies to the United States*], and very difficult when the evil-disposed users have the prospect of a gain of 12s. to 15s. or more per gallon.

It is this which renders it so much more difficult to obtain the privileged free use of alcohol in this country than on the Continent. Neither the Government nor the revenue authorities are averse to making concessions, but the temptations to fraud are so great, and the spirit-revenue is so important, that the regulations necessary to protect the possible abuse of such privileges are too stringent and troublesome for the honest manufacturers and traders willingly to accept.

The MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST learns that in round numbers the amount of spirits produced in the United States in each year since 1893, including bourbons, ryes, high wines, alcohol, gins, brandies and in fact everything in the way of spirits, and the amount of rye and bourbon produced each year are as follows:

1893.-Total amount produced, 130,000,000 gallons; of this 41,000,000 bourbon and 17,000,000 rye, leaving a total for all other kinds of spirits of 72,000,000.

1894. Total produced, 90,000,000; bourbon 15,000,000, rye 10,000,000, leaving 65,000,000 of all other kinds of spirits.

1895. Total produced, 81,000,000; bourbon 19,000,000, rye 12,000,000, leaving a total of 50,000,000 for all other spirits.

1896.-Total production, 88,000,000; bourbon 17,000,000, rye 9,000,000, and all other spirits 62,000,000. 1897.-Total produced, 63,000,000; bourbon 6,000,000, rye 4,000,000, all other spirits 53,000,000.

Some little brandy is carried for age and possibly some gin, but the great bulk of spirits are, as you know, consumed during the year in which they are made. So the above figures will give a fair idea as to the amount of spirits other than bourbon and rye consumed each year in the country.

*Editor MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN; GENTLEMEN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS: We have met this evening to celebrate the thirty-second commencement of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and thereby to do honor to the students who have just been granted their diplomas as graduates or bachelors of pharmacy.

To the members of the board of directors and the members of the faculty occasions of this kind are incidents which recur with

certain regularity each season; but to the gentlemen of the graduating class and to the kind friends who show their interest in and their solicitude for their welfare by their presence here this night, this occasion is more than an incident, it is an event marking the assumption by the graduates of the severer responsibilities of life; an event ever to be remembered by them because it terminates their dependence as apprentices and students and introduces them as fully qualified members of the profession of pharmacy. By the authority of the college, the president of this institution has just conferred the insignia which proclaim their proficiency in their chosen calling, and which constitute vouchers and recommendations to all, to the public as well as to other members of the medical professions, that they are entitled to trust and confidence.

O. A. WALL.

To me has been assigned the pleasant task of saying a few words more before our parting as professors and pupils to-night, which parting will perhaps be forever with many of us.for although we may hope to meet one or the other again, we can hardly expect to meet all again, and it is almost outside of probability, perhaps of possibility, that we should all meet again face to face as we do to-night. We as officers and faculty of the college know that these graduates have been diligent, studious and gentlemanly during their college attendance, and have made honest use of the facilities offered for the acquisition of pharmaceutical knowledge, and we do not hesitate to avow our confidence in their qualifications. We feel that we will not go amiss in our trust that their future lives will do honor to themselves and to their Alma Mater, the St. Louis College of Pharmacy; on their honor, on their reputations, on their honesty and their success in life as respected members of their profession and as citizens of the communities in which they may choose to reside, must depend the reputation and the success of the school which has moulded their characters and imparted their education as pharmacists, and to you, gentlemen graduates of 1898, we cheerfully and confidently entrust the honor of our beloved institution, convinced that all your actions will add to and never detract from its reputation. Together we have studied many of

The Great Truths of Science,

as they apply to the various branches of pharmaceutical knowledge, we have studied physics, chemistry, botany, and their applications to the manipulaticns in pharmacy; we have considered the wonders unfolded by the microscope, and have obtained at least a little insight and understanding in regard to some of the fundamental truths of evolution as it has been unfolded before our intellectual eyes by the greatest philosophers, thinkers and students of all times, and we honor the names of Herbert Spencer, Darwin, Huxley and other great teachers, not merely because they have given us an explanation of the plan of creation, but for the sake of the glorious future which their teachings show that we are entitled to believe awaits the human race.

Nor, in giving honor to the great delvers in the hidden processes of life's mysteries, do we in the slightest detract from those other great teachers, who, not directly interested in the study of nature's phenomena and of the laws of nature, have de

voted their lives, and often even given up their lives, to teach man his duties to God and to his fellow-beings, to lead him to an appreciation of the comforts of religion and to inculcate in his mind a deep sense of his obligations in regard to morality.

Evolution has taken place in every phase of development, inorganic as well as organic, from the time of which it is written that "the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep" to the present day, and it will continue until the full perfection of all earthly development and of all human aspirations shall have been achieved.

The main characteristic of evolution has been an ever-increasing differentiation of structure and of function of everything, from the most insignificant animal or plant to man, and even to the most complex social organizations, to state or church, to economic, commercial, or ethical systems.

With all the endless forms and colors, with all the numberless odors and flavors, with all the wealth of beauty offered us by the vegetable kingdom, we yet know that every part of these plants is but some modification of one of the rudimentary forms of root, stem or leaf; we know that all this endless variety depends upon specialization, upon adaptation to new and better conditions. Through untold ages of development the leaf has gradually, almost imperceptibly, undergone those changes from the original simple thallus or foliage leaf, that have enabled the individual plant to adapt itself more completely to its environment and so more surely to insure the survival of the fittest, and we believe that all changes of form or color, however, slight, all modifications of odor or taste. however faint, have contributed in some way towards a greater perfection of the plant world.

And as we study the processes of life in animals, the same truth becomes impressed upon our minds; from the simplest cell of formless protoplasm to the beautiful and God-like form of man, there has also been a ceaseless, unintermitting, gradual evolution of development of organs, of limbs, of functions, of feelings, emotions, passions and ambitions, always from the simpler to the more complex, always specialization, always divergence, always modification and division of functions as well as of form, until the Almighty Creator by His wonderful and mysterious ways had elaborated mankind as the apex and crowning glory of physical evolution on earth. When we trace

The Evolution of Civilization, when we look at the intellectual development of mankind, the same truth confronts us; the savage man depends upon his own abilities and energies for the gratification of all his wants; he makes his own weapons, builds his own huts or boats, weaves his own fabrics, fashions his own crude crockery, hunts game or catches fish, or gathers wild fruits for himself and his family, and depends upon his own skill to supply all his wants. He does all these things, but he excels in none. It marks the first and the most distinct step in the development of civilization when savage man realized that there is progress, a possibility for greater comforts and a higher life, in a division of labor. When the man who could make a stone arrow-head a little better than his neighbors could make them, devoted his time to making them alone and furnished them in exchange to a neighbor who wove a better cloth, or built a better hut or boat, or made a better spear or bow, or was more skillful in securing game or fish, or more successful in raising crops than other men of the tribe, all other steps in social evolution became but logical consequences which only required time for realization.

In primitive tribes each man makes his own fetich of wood, stone or feathers, which he worships as a talisman to guard himself and his family against disease and misfortune. Even here, when the making of fetiches, or perhaps of one large fetich or idol for the tribe, was entrusted to one or a few men to whose care the fetich was then entrusted, we see specialization, division of labor, the development of the caste of priests. In primitive peoples these priests cured the sick by incantations, by the practice of superstitious rites, and the medical profession was not even known in its most elementary form; the "medicine man" of savage tribes is not a "medical" man in the modern meaning of the word; but from this class of men, who by their positions were exempt from the drudgery of being forced to earn their own living, and who were therefore enabled to observe and to study more than could their neighbors, did by gradual development come a specialization, a division of labor, when some attended only to the religious or superstitious rites, and others devoted

themselves to the cure of the sick or wounded; the medical profession in its embryonic form was born.

It is not necessary to dwell further on the specialization, at once the cause, the accompaniment, as well as the result of higher civilization, of better work, of greater achievements in all branches of human activity; how it was the incentive to study, to invention and to the introduction of all the varied and wondrous luxuries that have become necessities to even the poor in our own times.

In olden times, the artist took his plate and muller and ground his own colors, thus detracting from his greater achievements by the drudgery of the grinding, which might as well have been done by a less skillful man, or by machinery as in our days. In former times a shoemaker made the shoes by hand and the wealthiest could not afford as many or as fine shoes as by the specialization and division of labor in this department of industry are now placed within the reach of all. A watchmaker made his watches by hand, and a half century ago, hundreds of dollars could not buy as good a time piece as the school boy can now afford to buy for a few dollars.

Formerly the medical man gathered his herbs and perhaps even hunted his own minerals which he needed for medicines, he dried and prepared them and compounded them for his patients, and the drudgery of this work detracted from his efficiency as a physician, because a man cannot be everything and be good in all work. As civilization advanced specialization took place here also, and

Pharmacy Become a Distinct Calling.

The physician could devote more time to the real work of his life, and increased efficiency in healing the sick and wounded is one of the blessings that accrued to the entire community from this specialization. Advancing civilization did not stop here; no physician can master all the branches of his intricate calling, and in communities where there is sufficient field for it the medical profession underwent further division of labor, and there were physicians, surgeons, gynecologists, etc.; specialization even went further than this, and there are physicians who their devote time exclusively to diseases of children, to diseases of the lungs and heart, or to diseases of the skin, surgeons who treat only the eye or ear, or who make a specialty of remedying deformities, the orthopedic surgeons, etc., and every further division of labor, every further specialization marks but another advance in civilization, another step in the alleviation of suffering and pain, another approach to the wished-for and longed-for condition of human society when pain and suffering, poverty, disease and death, shall lose many of their terrors or most of them perhaps be banished altogether.

Pharmacy is progressing, together with civilization and all the professions and callings which have been elaborated in civilization. The primitive pharmacist who gathered his own drugs and dried and ground them himself, who made his own plasters and pills and spent his time with drudgery has gone, thank God! never to return. A wider life and an existence more appropriate for an educated human being is open to the pharmacist as well as to all others, for specialization and division of labor give him time and opportunity to share in the blessings of our higher civilization, and offer him the opportunity of devoting himself to professional work, if he so chooses to do, instead of condemning him to a ceaseless, soul-killing treadmill of drudgery day and night, for the druggist is at the service of the public at night as well as by day.

While in the less densely populated regions such specializations are not possible, and the physician is still the old-fashioned country family physician, who tries to relieve every ailment he is called to treat to the best of his ability, yet even he sends obscure cases to the larger cities, where the services of specialists may be secured. So there may be places where the pharmacist must needs remain the drudge of olden times, but only to a limited extent, for nowhere in the world would he now be called upon to waste his life in making chemicals, or to spread plasters, coat pills or make fluid extracts, etc., for he can buy these things as good or better and as cheap as he can make them himself. Nor should we regret this change in our work or lament over this division of labor, which enables us to obtain anything we need, from heavy chemicals to the elegant pharmaceuticals, from those who make a specialty of manufacturing them, because by this specialization we are made partakers of the benefits and pleasures of advancing

civilization. Sighing for the "good old times" when the druggist worked hard for eighteen hours a day with not an hour for

The Only Thing That Makes Human Existence Valuable, the opportunity for leisure and ease, is not the way to advance either pharmacy or progress. There are so many fields of purely professional work opening up for the educated druggist in which he can earn better returns and in a more congenial manner, that we should greet with joy every advancement which tends to add to the sum total of human happiness and comfort. The highest work of the pharmacist is and will be the accurate and reliable dispensing of medicines on physicians' prescriptions, but there is other, and almost as important work yet to be done in analytical work, in making examinations for diagnostic purposes, which the busy physician leaves undone now for want of time; perhaps eventually examinations with the Roentgen ray, for the average physician cannot own a machine of his own; such is part of the professional work of the pharmacist of the future, and there will come the time when our successors (and perhaps some of us will live to see the time) will wonder how it was possible for a druggist to do all the drudgery that is now expected of him by some few, who yearn for the good old-fashioned times and who cannot place themselves in harmony with the advancement of our times. You, gentlemen of the graduating class, are at the threshholds of your professional careers; you enter at a time when the old ways are being discarded and new methods are being introduced, you too will be called on to take a hand in the advancement, not only of pharmacy but of CIVILIZATION, of HUMANITY; your efforts, individually and collectively, will have their influence in the intellectual and material progress of the world; and every one of you, whether your efforts are in public capacities or as private citizens, whether recorded eventually in the history of the evolution of your profession or destined to be forgotten after you have passed away, will have furthered or will have retarded progress and human development. WHICH SHALL IT BE?

The inevitable tendency of evolution is to make the world better and life happier; do your share towards furthering this end.

Valedictory.

Be industrious. You as professional men in the communities where you will make your homes, will be looked up to and serve as examples for many young men; set them a good example so that even your silent influence may be working for progress and good. Industry and perseverance will achieve that material reward which will enable you to live in comfort and to provide these comforts also for your families; but do not construe ceaseless, aimless and unremunerative drudgery for industry, for it is sometimes the very reverse of this. Cultivate the amenities of social life, because that is the highest enjoyment of life, but also because perhaps a pleasant conversation with a neighbor may result in a richer return, not only in an intellectual way but even in the matter of dollars and cents, than hours spent in a backroom making preparations which you can buy as cheaply and just as good as you can make them, and which afford you little returns and possibly lose you many friends and customers.

Be honest: Deal fairly with all with whom you come into contact. And be charitable enough to believe that you are not the only honest men in the profession. I have been associated more or less closely nearly all my life with pharmacists in all their specialties, and I believe that with very few exceptions, all retail and wholesale pharmacists, manufacturers of chemicals and of pharmaceuticals, are honest men. I wish to bear witness that this has been my experience, and I believe the pharmaceutical profession realizes, as perhaps no other class of men does, the responsibilities of their calling, and they try to live up to the moral obligations which they have undertaken to furnish pure medicines for the use of the sick.

Be generous and charitable according to the means God may give you. Have at least a sunny smile and a cheerful word for your unhappy or weary fellow-traveler through life, if it is not in your power to do more; even a kind word opportunely spoken may be a greater charity to some than a dollar sullenly given.

Bear in mind that "no man can be happy without exercising the virtue of a cheerful industry or activity. No man can lay claim to happiness, I mean the happiness that shall last through the fair run of life, without chastity, without temperance, without sobriety, without economy, without self-command, and consequently, without fortitude; and let me add, without a liberal and forgiving spirit."

Socrates said that the shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would wish to appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by our practicing them, and if we only firmly will to live respected and useful lives, we will not find it difficult.

Set your ambitions high, but do not measure success merely by dollars and cents; moderate success in this regard is more likely to produce perfect happiness than great wealth. While money is not to be despised as a good servant, it is a bad master, and when we work but for money, no matter how much we may acquire, it does not usually bring happiness.

But it is time to bid you "Vale!" You, gentlemen of the graduating class, leave us to-day to go your own and separate ways in life, but we feel that wherever you may go your influence will work as a leaven in the profession to elevate it and to add honor to it as time goes on. May you take honorable parts in the ad

ORGANIZED PHARMACISTS.

BY THOS. LAYTON, ST. LOUIS.

vancement of our profession and may your careers reflect credit and honor on your Alma Mater, who to-night entrusts her honor and her reputation into your keeping. May you lend your aid to the intellectual and ethical development of all that is best and noblest in human nature:

And now, on behalf of the faculty of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, I wish you abundant success and happiness, that "God (if His will be so) enrich the time to come with smoothfaced peace. With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days!" On behalf of your Alma Mater

"Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been-
A sound which makes us linger; yet-farewell!"

A valedictory address delivered at the 1898 commencement exercises of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy by Dr. O. A. Wall, Ph. G., Professor of Pharmacognosy and Medical Botany..

If this as a nucleus can be done, then work for the rehabilitation of the Interstate Retail Druggists' League. The league is not dead; it only needs the

zation.

electric touch of the noble band of workers who first gave it life to again light the way to national organiNow this accomplished the second question is easy of solution. You can so long as your demands are respectful and reasonable make your own terms of settlement with patent medicine proprietors, wholesalers and druggists' sundries manufacturers.

Much can be done by organization; as individuals nothing. A new telephone company is in the field. Are we going to allow them to dictate our relation to the public as regards the use of the phone? Questions are constantly arising that concerns us as a whole. How many wish to organize for mutual protection?