Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 063-4 - October 2009 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

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Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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Charles Clinch Supports The NRA by Gage McKinney HE NEW DEAL ADMINISTRATION OF FRANKLIN D. Roosevelt gave the nation the action it craved with a sweeping army of legislation in its first one hundred days. By summer 1933 the President had signed bills that authorized a string of new government agencies designated by initials, an alphabet soup reminiscent of the many agencies that emerged during the First World War. The most ambitious was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), with its administrative arm, the National Recovery Administration (NRA), that made a deep impression everywhere. The NRA “codes of fair competition” affected business enterprise throughout Nevada County as it did, in fact, in every county across the country. Its symbol, the blue eagle, became a badge of public faith that appeared in shop windows, on packages and in the newspapers. On June 16, 1933, the day he signed the NIRA into law, President Roosevelt said: “History will probably record the National Industrial Recovery Act as the most important and far-reaching legislation ever enacted by the American Congress.” That day the President appointed the colorful General Hugh S. Johnson as NRA administrator. Johnson, a West Point graduate, had earned his stars serving under General Pershing in Mexico and later in Washington during World War I. While he appeared urbane and collected when he appeared on the cover of Time as the magazine’s 1933 “Man of the Year,” he was in fact melodramatic, truculent and profane. “No one in Washington,” remarked Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “labored so long, shouted so loudly, smoked so many cigarettes, or drank so much liquor.” Johnson saw NRA as the console of a giant organ that would pipe through the whole economy. The heart of NRA was “the code,” the pledge made, industry-by-industry, to shorter hours, higher wages, better trade practices and better labor relations. Laisser faire capitalism was dead; rational planning was born. Johnson threw his NRA staff into negotiations with the country’s largest industries— . textiles, coal, petroleum, lumber, garments, steel, automobiles, construcGeneral Hugh S. Johnson I ny » Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin eee 63 NUMBERZ % OCTOBER 7, tion and others—to create codes for each. Johnson delivered speeches tirelessly to promote NRA and build public support. When the largest industries proved intractable, he turned to organizing the smallest. A campaign of press events, parades and good old “ballyhoo” succeeded in persuading over two million employers to sign a preliminary code known as the “President’s Re-Employment Agreement.” The blanket code was superseded by codes negotiated for individual industries and exempt from the provisions of the anti-trust laws. Code signatories were allowed to use the blue eagle symbol with the slogan, “We Do Our Part,” as long as they remained compliant. Over the next year and a half codes covered over three-quarters of private non-farm employment. Some 16 million workers, out of a non-farm labor force of 25 million, worked under the codes. At least initially the West Coast, along with most of the country, took enthusiastically to the NRA. Soon merchants and tradesmen of all kinds, from butchers and bakers to mechanics and carpenters, were meeting to set prices for their sector of the economy. In Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland, NRA got credit for economic improvement. Nevada County kept step with the West and Grass Valley and Nevada City led among the towns. By July 1933 Nevada and Placer county contractors met in Grass Valley to draft a code. Auto dealers from the two counties met in Auburn. Butchers, barbers, shoemakers, cleaners, electricians, florists, dairy and garage owners, plumbers, grocers, painters and decorators, dry good and furniture dealers, haberdashers, restaurant and cafe owners and other merchants also met. After a series of preparatory meetings, more than 200 merchants, employees and citizen gathered at the Veterans Building in late July to create a local NRA organization. These local organi-