Just Like Prohibition

Just Like Prohibition

Fair Trade laws were frowned on last week by two experts in government and business.

P: Before a House Judiciary subcommittee, Chief Trustbuster Stanley Barnes suggested that the members "might well consider repeal of the Miller-Tydings Amendment to the Sherman Act as well as the McGuire Amendment to the Federal Trade Commission Act." While Barnes said that the Justice Department was not yet ready to recommend repeal of the Fair Trade laws, as suggested by Attorney General Brownell's special antitrust committee (TIME, April 11), he revealed that he was "considerably disturbed by responsible businessmen" contending that brand-name products are cheaper in Fair Trade areas than else where. To answer such statements, said Barnes, his department is studying how Fair Trade laws actually operate.

P: In Manhattan for a speech before a group of security analysts, President Fred Lazarus Jr. of giant Federated Department Stores, second biggest department-store chain* in the U.S., was asked if he did not agree that the Fair Trade laws are unenforceable. Lazarus agreed. Said he: "The same attitude is developing in this country on Fair Trade as developed on prohibition laws."

* First: Allied Stores.

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