In 1933,
FDR proposed
The New Deal in an attempt to aid those suffering under the effects of the depression. The true effect of this was to inject the nation with an alphabet soup of programs designed to help; some of them did, and some didn't. In reality the longer the name of an organization, the less important it is. More notable among these are:
Only some of these programs had the desired effect, and some of them actually had an effect opposite of their purpose.
Following is an abridged, but still overy lengthy transcript of the NIRA act itself. The following is only for those interested in this in unhealthy ways. Each elipsis (...) represents a point at which something was cut out.
The National Industrial Recovery Act
June 16, 1933
73rd Congress, Session I, Ch. 9
AN ACT
To encourage national industrial recovery, to foster fair competition, and to
provide for the construction of certain useful public works, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled,
TITLE I – INDUSTRIAL RECOVERY
DECLARATION OF POLICY
SECTION 1. A national emergency productive of widespread unemployment and
disorganization of industry, which burdens interstate and foreign commerce, affects the
public welfare, and undermines the standards of living of the American people, is hereby
declared to exist. It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress to remove
obstructions to the free flow of interstate and foreign commerce which tend to diminish
the amount thereof; and to provide for the general welfare by promoting the organization
of industry for the purpose of cooperative action among trade groups, to induce and
maintain united action of labor and management under adequate governmental sanctions
and supervision, to eliminate unfair competitive practices, to promote the fullest possible
utilization of the present productive capacity of industries, to avoid undue restriction of
production (except as may be temporarily required), to increase the consumption of
industrial and agricultural products by increasing purchasing power, to reduce and relieve
unemployment, to improve standards of labor, and otherwise to rehabilitate industry and
to conserve natural resources.
ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES
SEC. 2. (a) To effectuate the policy of this title, the President is hereby
authorized to establish such agencies, to accept and utilize such voluntary and
uncompensated services, to appoint, without regard to the provisions of the civil service
laws, such officers and employees, and to utilize such Federal officers and employees,
and, with the consent of the State, such State and local officers and employees, as he may
find necessary, to prescribe their authorities, duties, responsibilities and tenure, and
without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, to fix the compensation of
any officers and employees so appointed.
(b) The President may delegate any of his functions and powers under this title to
such officers, agents, and employees as he may designate or appoint, and may establish
an industrial planning and research agency to aid in carrying out his functions under this
title.
(c) This title shall cease to be in effect and any agencies established hereunder
shall cease to exist at the expiration of two years after the date of enactment of this Act,
or sooner if the President shall by proclamation or the Congress shall by joint resolution
declare that the emergency recognized by section 1 has ended.
CODES OF FAIR COMPETITION
SEC. 3. (a) Upon the application to the President by one or more trade or
industrial associations or groups, the President may approve a code or codes of fair
competition for the trade or industry or subdivision thereof, represented by the applicant
or applicants, if the President finds (1) that such associations or groups impose no
inequitable restrictions on admission to membership therein and are truly representative
of such trades or industries or subdivisions thereof, and (2) that such code or codes are
not designed to promote monopolies or to eliminate or oppress small enterprises and will
not operate to discriminate against them, and will tend to effectuate the policy of this
title: Provided, That such code or codes shall not permit monopolies or monopolistic
practices: Provided further, That where such code or codes affect the services and
welfare of persons engaged in other steps of the economic process, nothing in this section
shall deprive such persons of the right to be heard prior to approval by the President of
such code or codes. The President may, as a condition of his approval of any such code,
impose such conditions (including requirements for the making of reports and the
keeping of accounts) for the protection of consumers, competitors, employees, and
others, and in furtherance of the public interest, and may provide such exceptions to and
exemptions from the provisions of such code, as the President in his discretion deems
necessary to effectuate the policy herein declared.
(b) After the President shall have approved any such code, the provisions of such
code shall be the standards of fair competition for such trade or industry or subdivision
thereof. Any violation of such standards in any transaction in or affecting interstate or
foreign commerce shall be deemed an unfair method of competition in commerce within
the meaning of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as amended; but nothing in this title
shall be construed to impair the powers of the Federal Trade Commission under such Act,
as amended.
(c) The several district courts of the United States are hereby invested with
jurisdiction to prevent and restrain violations of any code of fair competition approved
under this title; and it shall be the duty of the several district attorneys of the United
States, in their respective districts, under the direction of the Attorney General, to
institute proceedings in equity to prevent and restrain such violations.
(d) Upon his own motion, or if complaint is made to the President that abuses
inimical to the public interest and contrary to the policy herein declared are prevalent in
any trade or industry or subdivision thereof, and if no code of fair competition therefor
has theretofore been approved by the President, the President, after such public notice
and hearing as he shall specify, may prescribe and approve a code of fair competition for
such trade or industry or subdivision thereof, which shall have the same effect as a code
of fair competition approved by the President under subsection (a) of this section ...
(f) When a code of fair competition has been approved or prescribed by the
President under this title, any violation of any provision thereof in any transaction in or
affecting interstate or foreign commerce shall be a misdemeanor and upon conviction
thereof an offender shall be fined not more than $500 for each offense, and each day such
violation continues shall be deemed a separate offense.
AGREEMENTS AND LICENSES
SEC. 4. (a) The President is authorized to enter into agreements with, and to
approve voluntary agreements between and among, persons engaged in a trade or
industry, labor organizations, and trade or industrial organizations, associations, or
groups relating to any trade or industry, if in his judgment such agreements will aid in
effectuating the policy of this title with respect to transactions in or affecting interstate or
foreign commerce, and will be consistent with the requirements of clause (2) of
subsection (a) of section 3 for a code of fair competition.
(b) Whenever the President shall find that a destructive wage or price cutting or
other activities contrary to the policy of this title are being practiced in any trade or
industry or any subdivision thereof, and, after such public notice and hearing as he shall
specify, shall find it essential to license business enterprises in order to make effective a
code of fair competition or an agreement under this title or otherwise to effectuate the
policy of this title, and shall publicly so announce, no person shall, after a date fixed in
such announcement, engage or carry on in any business, in or affecting interstate or
foreign commerce, specified in such announcement, unless he shall have first obtained a
license issued pursuant to such regulations as the President shall prescribe. The President
may suspend or revoke any such license, after due notice and opportunity for hearing, for
violations of the terms or conditions thereof. Any order of the President suspending or
revoking any such license shall be final if in accordance with law. Any person who,
without such a license, or in violation of any condition thereof, carries on any such
business for which a license is so required, shall, upon conviction thereof, be find not
more than $500, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both, and each day such
violation continues shall be deemed a separate offense. Notwithstanding the provisions
of section 2 (c), this subsection shall cease to be in effect at the expiration of one year
after the date of enactment of this Act, or sooner if the President shall by proclamation, or
the Congress shall by joint resolution declare that the emergency recognized by Section 1
has ended.
SEC. 5. While this title is in effect (or in the case of a license, while section 4 (a)
is in effect) and for sixty days thereafter, any code, agreement, or license approved,
prescribed, or issued and in effect under this title, and any action complying with the
provisions thereof taken during such period, shall be exempt from the provisions of the
antitrust laws of the United States.
Nothing in this Act, and no regulation thereunder, shall prevent an individual
from pursuing the vocation of manual labor and selling or trading the products thereof;
nor shall anything in this Act, or regulation thereunder, prevent anyone from marketing
or trading the produce of his farm. ...
SEC. 7. (a) Every code of fair competition , agreement, and license approved,
prescribed, or issued under this title shall contain the following conditions: (1) that
employees shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through
representatives of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, restraint or
coercion of employees of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives
or in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective
bargaining or other mutual aid or protection; (2) that no employee and no one seeking
employment shall be required as a condition of employment to join any company union
or to refrain from joining, organizing or assisting a labor organization of his own
choosing; and (3) that employers shall comply with the maximum hours of labor,
minimum rates of pay, and other conditions of employment approved or prescribed by the
President.
(b) The President shall, so far as practicable, afford every opportunity to
employers and employees in any trade or industry or subdivision thereof with respect to
which the conditions referred to in clauses (1) and (2) of subsection (a) prevail, to
establish by mutual agreement, the standards as to the maximum hours of labor,
minimum rates of pay, and such other conditions of employment as may be necessary in
such trade or indus try or subdivision thereof to effectuate the policy of this title; and the
standards established in such agreements, when approved by the President, shall have the
same effect as a code of fair competition, approved by the President under subsection (a)
of section 3.
(c) Where no such mutual agreement has been approved by the President he may
investigate the labor practices, policies, wages, hours of labor, and conditions of
employment in such trade or industry or subdivision thereof; and upon the basis of such
investigations, and after such hearings as the President finds advisable, he is authorized to
prescribe a limited code of fair competition fixing such maximum hours of labor,
minimum rates of pay, and other conditions of employment in the trade or industry or
subdivision thereof investigated as he finds to be necessary to effectuate the policy of this
title, which shall have the same effect as a code of fair competition approved by the
President under subsection (a) of section 3. The President may differentiate according to
experience and skill of the employees affected and according to the locality of
employment; but no attempt shall be made to introduce any classification according to
the nature of the work involved which might tend to set a maximum as well as a
minimum wage. ...
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Sec. 10. (a) The President is authorized to prescribe such rules and regulations as
may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this title, and fees for licenses and for filing
codes of fair competition and agreements, and any violation of any such rule or
regulation shall be punishable by a fine of not to exceed $500, or imprisonment for not to
exceed six months, or both.
(b) The President may from time to time cancel or modify any order, approval,
license, rule, or regulation issued under this title; and each agreement, code of fair
competition, or license approved, prescribed or issued under this title shall contain an
express provision to that effect.
TITLE II – PUBLIC WORKS AND CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
FEDERAL EMERGENCY ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC WORKS
SECTION 201. (a) To effectuate the purposes of this title, the President is hereby
authorized to create a Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, all the powers
of which shall be exercised by a Federal Emergency Administrator of Public Works
(hereafter referred to as the “Administrator”), and to establish such agencies, to accept
and utilized such voluntary and uncompensated services, to appoint, without regard to the
civil service laws, such officers and employees, and to utilize such Federal officers and
employees, and, with the consent of the State, such State and local officers and
employees as he may find necessary, to prescribe their authorities, duties, responsibilities,
and tenure, and without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, to fix the
compensation of any officers and employees so appointed. The President may delegate
any of his functions and powers under this title to such officers, agents, and employees as
he may designate or appoint. ...
SEC. 202. The Administrator, under the direction of the President, shall prepare a
comprehensive program of public works, which shall include among other things the
following: (a) Construction, repair and improvement of public highways and park ways,
public buildings, and any publicly owned instrumentalities and facilities; (b) conservation
and development of natural resources, including control, utilization, and purification of
waters, prevention of soil or coastal erosion, development of water power, transmission
of electrical energy, and construction of river and harbor improvements and flood control
and also the construction of any river or drainage improvement required to perform or
satisfy any obligation incurred by the United States through a treaty with a foreign
Government heretofore ratified and to restore or develop for the use of any State or its
citizens water taken from or denied to them by performance on the part of the United
States of treaty obligations heretofore assumed: Provided, That no river or harbor
improvements shall be carried out unless they shall have heretofore or hereafter been
adopted by the Congress or are recommended by the Chief Engineer of the United States
army; (c) any projects of the character heretofore constructed or carried on either directly
by public authority or with public aid to serve the interests of the general public; (d)
construction, reconstruction, alteration, or repair under public regulation or control of
low-cost housing and slum- clearance projects. ...
SEC. 203. (a) With a view to increasing employment quickly (while reasonably
securing any loans made by the United States) the President is authorized and
empowered, through the Administrator or through such other age ncies as he may
designate or create, (1) to construct, finance, or aid in the construction or financing of any
public-works project included in the program prepared pursuant to section 202; (2) upon
such terms as the President shall prescribe, to make grants to States, municipalities, or
other public bodies for the construction, repair, or improvement of any such project, but
no such grant shall be in excess of 30 per centum of the cost of the labor and materials
employed upon such project; (3) to acquire by purchase, or by exercise of the power of
eminent domain, any real or personal property in connection with the construction of any
such project, and to sell any security acquired or any property so constructed or acquired
or to lease any such property with or without the privilege of purchase: Provided, That all
monies received from any such sale or lease or the repayment of any loan shall be used to
retire obligations issued pursuant to section 209 of this Act, in addition to any other
moneys required to be used for such purpose; (4) to aid in the financing of such railroad
maintenance and equipment as may be approved by the Interstate Commerce
Commission as desirable for the improvement of transportation facilities; and (5) to
advance, upon request of the Commission having jurisdiction of the project, the
unappropriated balance of the sum authorized for carrying out the provisions of the Act
entitled “An Act to provide for the construction and equipment of an annex to the Library
of Congress”, approved June 13, 1930 (16 Stat. 583); such advance to be expended under
the direction of such Commission and in accordance with such Act: Provided, That in
deciding to extend any aid or grant hereunder to any State, county, or municipality the
President may consider whether action is in process or in good faith assured therein
reasonably designed to bring the ordinary current expenditures thereof within the
prudently estimated revenues thereof. The provisions of this section and section 202
shall extend to public works in the several States, Hawaii, Alaska, the District of
Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, and the Virgin Islands. ...
(d) The President, in his discretion, and under such terms as he may prescribe,
may extend any of the benefits of this title to any State, county, or municipality
notwithstanding any constitutional or legal restriction or limitation on the right or power
of such State, county, or municipality to borrow money or incur indebtedness.
SEC. 204. (a) For the purpose of providing for emergency construction of public
highways and related projects, the President is authorized to make grants to the highway
departments of the several States in an amount not less than $100,000,000, to be
expended by such departments in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Highway
Act, approved November 9, 1921, as amended and supplemented. ...
(b) Any amounts allocated by the President for grants under subsection (a) of this
section shall be apportioned among the several States seven-eighths in accordance with
the provisions of section 21 of the Federal Highway Act, approved November 9, 1921, as
amended and supplemented (which Act is hereby further amended for the purposes of
this title to include the District of Columbia), and one-eighth in the ratio which
population of each State bears to the total population of the Untied States, according to
the latest decennial census and shall be available on July 1, 1933, and shall remain
available until expended; but no part of the funds apportioned to any State need be
matched by the State, and such funds may also be used in lieu of State funds to match
unobligated balances of previous apportionments of regular Federal-aid appropriations.
(c) All contracts involving the expenditure of such grants shall contain provisions
establishing minimum rates of wages, to be predetermined by the State highway
department, which contractors shall pay to skilled and unskilled labor, and such minimum
rules shall be stated in the invitation for bids and shall be included in proposals for bids
for the work. ...
SEC. 206. All contracts let for construction projects and all loans and grants
pursuant to this title shall contain such provisions as are necessary to insure (1) that no
convict labor shall be employed on any such project; (2) that (except in executive,
administrative, and supervisory positions), so far as practicable and feasible, no
individual directly employed on any such project shall be permitted to work more than
thirty hours in one week; (3) that all employees shall be paid just and reasonable wages
which shall be compensation sufficient to provide, for the hours of labor as limited, a
standard of living in decency and comfort; (4) that in the employment of labor in
connection with any such project, preference shall be given, where they are qualified, to
ex-service men with dependents, and then in the following order: (A) To citizens of the
United States and aliens who have declared their intention of becoming citizens, who are
bona fide residents of the political subdivision and/or county in which the work is to be
performed, and (B) to citizens of the United States and aliens who have declared their
intention of becoming citizens, whoa re bona fide residents of the State, Territory, or
district in which the work is to be performed: Provided, That these preferences shall
apply only where such labor is available and qualified to perform the work to which the
employment relates; and (5) that the maximum of human labor shall be used in lieu of
machinery wherever practicable and consistent with sound economy and public
advantage. ...
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS
SEC. 208. To provide for aiding the redistribution of the overbalance of
population in industrial centers $25,000,000 is hereby made available to the President, to
be used by him through such agencies as he may establish and under such regulations as
he may make, for making loans for and otherwise aiding in the purchase of subsistence
homesteads. The moneys collected as repayment of said loans shall constitute a
revolving fund to be administered as directed by the President for the purposes of this
section.
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Sec. 209. The President is authorized to prescribe such rules and regulations as
may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this title, and any violation of any such rule
or regulation shall be punishable by a fine of not to exceed $500 or imprisonment not to
exceed six months, or both. ...