When the Supreme Court Struck Back at Roosevelt 2/2

NRA (National Recovery Administration) member: We Do Our Part (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Nomad

In the PART ONE, we examined the attempts by Franklin Roosevelt to develop a series of far-reaching social programs to get the American economy back on its feet. One of his many programs was the National Recovery Act, which attempted to restart and reform the industrial sector. Roosevelt sought to standardize manufacturing and labor by drafting a uniform code for all industries. It was a bold initiative.

The Case of Sick Chicken

Under the blanket codes of National Recovery Act (NRA), Brooklyn-based Schechter Poultry was found in violation of the industry codes for the poultry industry. The sixty charges against the retailer were later to be reduced to eighteen, and among those eighteen charges were "the sale to a butcher of an unfit chicken" and the sale of two un-inspected chickens.

The poultry industry in the 1930s had long been corrupted by gangsters and the Schetchers had struggled hard to evade “the rackets.” When the NRA was introduced, Joe Schechter joined in and displayed the blue eagle in his window. He had little interest in following the codes and it wasn’t long before inspectors found him out.