Fair is suffering from serious and growing difficulties, and recent economic and judicial developments have been sufficiently threatening to provoke speculation as to the imminence of a complete breakdown of this system of resale price control.' considerable political influence still wielded by the organized advocates of fair trade and its well entrenched position in certain fields2 make such an eventuality quite unlikely within the near future. Nevertheless, in a number of fair trade strongholds, such as electrical appliances and jewelry, traditional wholesale and retail markups have been found to be virtually impossible to maintain in the face of prevalent consumer attitudes, competitive forces at work in the distributive sector, and manufacturer interest in expanding sales volume. As one author has recently observed:3 The growth of discount houses suggests that however reasonable margins up to 40 per cent were at one time, they are too high now. hungry post-war market, aided by fair trade laws and manufacturers' resale price maintenance policies, may have served to conceal this fact.