NATIONAL RECOVERY ADMINISTRATION

As part of the New Deal in the United States, the 'National Recovery Administration' (created by the National Industrial Recovery Act) was developed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration. It allowed industries to create "codes of fair competition," which were intended to reduce destructive competition and to help workers by setting minimum wages and maximum weekly hours.
The NRA, symbolized by the blue eagle, was popular with workers. Businesses that supported the NRA put the symbol in their shop windows and on their packages. Though membership to the NRA was voluntary, businesses that did not display the eagle were urged to be boycotted - making it seem mandatory for survival.
Its director was Hugh S. Johnson, a retired general and successful businessman. Johnson saw the NRA as a national crusade designed to restore employment and regenerate industry. Johnson was removed in 1934, In early 1935 the new chairman announced that the NRA would stop setting prices, but businessmen complained. Chairman Samuel Williams told them plainly that, unless they could prove it would damage business, NRA was going to put an end to price control. Williams said, "Greater productivity and employment would result if greater price flexibility were attained." Of the 2,000 businessmen on hand probably 90% opposed Mr. Williams' aim, reported ''Time'' magazine. "To them a guaranteed price for their products looks like a royal road to profits. A fixed price above cost has proved a lifesaver to more than one inefficient producer." The business position was summarized by George A. Sloan, head of the Cotton Textile Code Authority:
About 23,000,000 people worked under the NRA fair code. However, violations of codes became common and attempts were made to use the courts to enforce the NRA. The NRA included a multitude of regulations imposing the pricing and production standards for all sorts of goods and services. Individuals were arrested for not complying with these codes. For example, a man named Jack Magid was jailed for violating the "Tailor's Code" by pressing a suit for 35 rather than NRA required 40 cents. John T. Flynn, in ''The Roosevelt Myth'' (1944) reported:
In 1935, in the court case of ''Schecter Poultry Corp. v. US'', the Supreme Court declared the NRA as unconstitutional because it gave the President too much power.^[1] The NRA quickly stopped operations, but many of the labor provisions reappeared in the Wagner Act of 1935.
1. The Supreme Court Historical Society.

Contents

Satire

External links

References

Satire

★ Humorist Richard Armour, who was in his late twenties when the NRA began, stated in his mock American history book, ''It All Started with Columbus'', that the primary goal of the NRA was "to save the rare Blue Eagle."

External links

★ 1933 Promotional Video for National Recovery Administration

★ Article on the NRA from EH.NET's Encyclopedia

★ ''When the Supreme Court Stopped Economic Fascism in America'' by Richard Ebeling

References

★ Best; Gary Dean. ''Pride, Prejudice, and Politics: Roosevelt Versus Recovery, 1933-1938.'' Praeger Publishers. 1991

★ Hawley, Ellis W. ''The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly'' Princeton UP (1968)

★ Johnson; Hugh S. ''The Blue Eagle, from Egg to Earth'' 1935, memoir by NRA director

★ Lyon, Leverett S., Paul T. Homan, Lewis L. Lorwin, George Terborgh, Charles L. Dearing, Leon Marshall C.; ''The National Recovery Administration: An Analysis and Appraisal'' The Brookings Institution, 1935 .

★ Ohl, John Kennedy. ''Hugh S. Johnson and the New Deal'' (1985), academic biography.

★ Schlesinger, Arthur Meier. ''The Coming of the New Deal'' (1958) pp 87-176 online version