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¶ Life Savers, originated by a chocolate manufacturer in Cleveland, did not do well till 1913 when a group headed by Edward J. Noble, a Manhattan advertising man. bought them and set them up in business in a serious way. Then their success was tremendous, and when Life Savers, Inc. was adopted into Drug Inc., Mr. Noble stayed on as president of the company, actual operating head. ¶ Bristol-Myers, taken in a few months later, was an old family business, maker of several estimable and well established products: Sal Hepatica, Ipana ToothPaste, Gastrogen Tablets, Ingram's Shaving Cream. The Bristols like Mr. Noble remained in charge of their company, Father William M. Bristol as chairman. Eldest Son Henry Platt Bristol as president, Second Son Lee Bristol as vice president in charge of advertising (known to all advertising men as a past president of the Association of National Advertisers), and Third Son William M. Bristol Jr. as secretary. ¶Dr. Porter's Drug Store in Greensboro, N. C. gave the world two famous things. Behind its prescription counter labored a druggist named Lunsford Richardson, William Sidney Porter (nephew of Dr. Porter ) was one of his clerks. Clerk Porter soon went forth into the world and produced short-stories under the nom de plume O. Henry. The late Druggist Richardson remained behind the counter for 17 years and being a dyspeptic gentleman who with just cause abhorred ipecac (then the common remedy for colds), invented a Magic Croup Salve which he named after his brother-in-law, Dr. Joshua Vick. In time Druggist Richardson became a manufacturer and Vick's Magic Croup Salve became Vick's VapoRub. His two sons, H. Smith Richardson and Lunsford Richardson, inherited the company. By 1929 they had it earning $3,700,000 a year and they stayed with it when it went to Drug Inc. The theory by which Messrs. Noble of Life Savers, the Brothers Bristol of Bristol-Myers and H. Smith Richardson of Vick stayed with their companies (and joined Drug Inc.'s directorate), was that they knew best how to operate their own companies. Drug Inc. was to become an all-star team of drug manufacturers each continuing to play with all the skill that had made him a star—and mutual support was to make them better than ever. Last week's decision meant but one thing: that mutual support was no longer considered as great an asset as independence. To begin with, United Drug's chain-store profits have long since vanished , principally because of the effect of depression on Louis K. Liggett Co., now in receivership (TIME, April 10). From the standpoint of supplying cash for Drug Inc.'s dividends, one of the biggest members of the team was not supplying any support whatever. Second point was that the support had never proved to be so worthwhile or so possible as anticipated. In the matter of mouthwash how was United Drug to press its M131, Life Savers its Oradol, Vicks its Voratone, and Bristol-Myers its Analka—without competition? In the matter of toothpaste how was Bristol-Myers to press its Ipana, Sterling its Phillips' Dental Magnesia, and United Drug its Rexall Milk of Magnesia ToothPaste without competition? Third point was that the industrial future while looking less depressing than it did a few months ago, looks equally uncertain, and each skipper of the Drug Inc. flotilla wants plenty of sea room to ride out whatever weather lies