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1936 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Working hours and labor standards
Revive the NRA's principles 'by one device or another' (imputed; the President would not say)
pledge_forwarddirectional_stanceimputed_uncorrectedevidence C Industry, Business & RegulationLabor & Employment⚡ Schechter decision voids the NIRA similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Widely understood -- from James Roosevelt's remarks and the President's Detroit statement that he was not through experimenting -- to intend renewed federal control of wages, hours and trade practices; the President answered Landon's question with 'you pay your money and you take your choice.'
Rationale
'I do not accept the conclusion of many Republican leaders that major depressions are inevitable in modern life. I believe it is the duty of government to bend every effort to prevent another major catastrophe.'
Recorded under the project rule that positions a candidate ran on without stating or correcting are first-class. The Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) was the 'other device.'
Statements (2)
For Roosevelt already has given pretty clear indication that he is not thru with trying to do what he tried thru NRA.
One day the President's son says the N. R. A. will be revived. The next day the President's son says it will not. When the Presi dent was asked about N. R. A. last Tuesday in a press conference, he said: "You pay your money and you take your choice." What does he mean? The answer is: No one can be sure.
Follow-through
kept
The 'other device' was statutory: the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) imposed the NRA's wage, hour and child-labor principles by law under the commerce power, without codes, price-fixing or antitrust exemption. The price-fixing side of NRA was not revived; the Guffey coal act (1937) was the one industry-code survivor.
Mechanisms
| Date | Type | Name | Effect | Consistent? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937-05-24 | message | Message on minimum wages and maximum hours | Sought the wage-hour statute.A self-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor, no economic reason for chiseling workers' wages or stretching workers' hours. | yes | Message to Congress on Establishing Minimum Wages and Maximum Hours. |
| 1938-06-25 | statute | Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 | Wages, hours and child labor by statute. | yes | Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 - Wikipedia |
Assessments
Roosevelt called it, after Social Security, 'the most far-reaching, far-sighted program for the benefit of workers ever adopted.'
Except perhaps for the Social Security Act, it is the most far-reaching, far-sighted program for the benefit of workers ever adopted here or in any other country.
Reception (1)
Roosevelt could not duck Landon's NRA question; he had 'given pretty clear indication that he is not thru' and should say so now rather than face a broken-promise charge later.
It would be better to face it now than to duck until after election and then, if he tries to return to the principles of NRA, be confronted with another broken-promise charge.
Other positions on this issue
- Spread employment by substantially reducing hours of labor, starting in government service — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 directional_stance
- The six-hour day and five-day week without reduction in wages — Norman Thomas, 1932 specific_pledge
- Shorter hours, higher wages, end child labor and sweatshops — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance
1936-fdr-nra-principles-by-one-device-or-another · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed