Then, in the natural course of business, competition developed from the marketing of inferior goods, and the firm found it necessary to place its name on the dial for purposes of identification. In spite of all difficulties, there grew up in course of time a very considerable public demand. Whereupon certain dealers undertook privately to raise the price in order to increase their profits. This situation was met by emphasizing the price more prominently on the boxes and in the advertising, a policy which soon put an end to price-raising but led, in some instances, to the even greater difficulty of price-cutting. The better known became the price, the greater became the temptation to dealers of a certain class to advertise its reduction in order to bolster up "bargains" upon other goods. This naturally demoralized the sales of neighboring dealers and caused them to lose interest in the line. Thus, instead of increasing the sales, the reduced price proved a serious selling obstacle. The same difficulty has been encountered by other manufacturers of widely advertised goods, and some of them have sought through the courts to compel adherence to their prices, the argument being, as in the case of the Ingersoll watch, that price-cutting does not serve the interests of the public but tends to interfere with sales since it obstructs the channels of distribution. At this writing, the question in its legal phase has not yet reached a final decision in the courts, but the Ingersolls have solved it in a practical way, since their trade-policies have brought about the voluntary cooperation of the retailers. Such cooperation, however, was not to be attained at once. It came about through much study and after much experience. It involved the assembling of a large amount of data upon commercial economics and a deep inquiry into the fundamental principles of retail distribution. It proved necessary to weigh and compare recent and important factors in the retail situation. For example, because of the fact that so many manufacturers were giving indiscriminate discounts for quantity purchases, it had become profitable to establish huge department stores, chain-stores, and mail-order houses whose scale of operation made it possible to handle goods in large amounts. For a time, the Ingersolls, in common with other manufacturers, gave discounts for purchases in quantity; later, as the business grew and its distribution problems were more scientifically studied, they saw more clearly the way in which the principles of equal opportunity and equal treatment could be applied.