National Recovery Administration
National Recovery Administration
Photograph
Date: 1933
Source: AP/Wide World Photos.
About the Photographer: The Associated Press is a worldwide news agency based in New York.
INTRODUCTION
The National Recovery Administration (NRA), created when President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) signed the National Industrial Recovery Act on June 16, 1933, proved to be one of the most controversial parts of the New Deal. Headed by General Hugh S. Johnson (1882–1942), the NRA aimed to stabilize businesses by reducing competition through the implementation of codes that set wages and prices. It also set out to generate more purchasing power by providing jobs, defining labor standards, and raising wages.
The NRA initially concentrated on those industries that were either strong supporters of industrial self-government or sufficiently organized through trade associations to permit quick codification. The code for the cotton textile industry was the first to be completed and approved in July 1933. It was typical of other industry codes in that it provided for collective bargaining, reduced working days, established minimum wages, and set strong production controls. Business owners possessed a wealth of information about their industries and they generally dominated government forces in the code-making process.
Johnson mobilized the nation behind the NRA with a campaign reminiscent of the war rallies of World War I. Radio speakers, motorcades, torchlight parades, mass rallies, and a nationwide speaking tour by Johnson all trumpeted the benefits of the program. Business owners and the public quickly enlisted in the NRA's army of Depression fighters. The NRA Blue Eagle appeared on posters, billboards, flags, movie screens, magazines, newspapers, and numerous products. Beauty contestants had the Blue Eagle stamped on their thighs and, in Philadelphia, fans cheered a new professional football team dubbed the Eagles after the NRA's icon. This national fervor helped quicken the pace of NRA code drafting. Consumers were asked to patronize only those businesses displaying the Blue Eagle.
PRIMARY SOURCE
NATIONAL RECOVERY ADMINISTRATION
See primary source image.
SIGNIFICANCE
The NRA only enjoyed popularity for a short period of time. By 1934, signs of economic recovery and a new confidence about the imminent end of the Depression inspired hostility toward the mass of NRA regulations. Since spokespeople for consumers had been largely shut out during the creation of NRA codes and workers received comparatively little in the way of wages and better working hours, complaints were common that the NRA only benefited businesses.
The NRA had other problems as well. Charges mounted that the largest companies dominated the code authorities and that price-fixing robbed small producers of the chance to compete. A congressional investigating committee substantiated some of these charges. Limiting production had discouraged investment, and not all workers were covered by NRA wage codes. The NRA excluded agricultural and domestic workers, thereby excluding three out of every four African Americans from the direct benefits of the program. Lastly, some of the provisions of the NRA appeared bizarre, such as the regulation restricting the number of times that a stripper could remove her clothes each day. When the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the NRA on May 27, 1935, declaring it unconstitutional for delegating legislative power to the president and for interfering with intrastate commerce, few mourned its passing.
The NRA experiment was generally a failure, but it left an enduring legacy. Workers had been seeking a forty-hour work week since the 1870s, and child labor had been under attack for an equally long period of time. The NRA set a forty-hour work week and standardized minimum weekly wages. It also outlawed child labor practices, ending a practice that had kept children out of school and mired in poverty as adults. Additionally, the NRA's endorsement of collective bargaining spurred the growth of unions, turning organized labor into one of the major political and economic forces of the twentieth century.
FURTHER RESOURCES
Books
Bellush, Bernard. The Failure of the NRA. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975.
Brand, Donald R. Corporatism and the Rule of Law. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Himmelberg, Robert F. The Origins of the National Recovery Administration: Business, Government, and the Trade Association Issue, 1921–33. New York: Fordham University Press, 1976.