roblems as nationwide financial panic and the subsequent default of banks. The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), also still in operation, registered all securities traded on stock exchanges. Full and accurate information about a corporation had to be supplied to stock buyers. FDR appointed as its first chairman Joseph Kennedy (the father of President John F. Kennedy).The National Recovery Act (NRA) was not as successful. Hailed by FDR as the "most important and far-reached legislation ever enacted," it failed in its attempt to ration the nations business among the country's surviving corporations. This was to be accomplished through a series of "codes of fair competition." While the NRA failed in many of its objectives, it did have some successes. Codes of fair competition in the textile industry for example raised wages from $5 per week for most workers to a minimum of $12 to $13. The NRA established the principle of maximum hours and minimum wages on a national basis for the first time. It also outlawed child labor. But the NRA was too complex and involved too much paper work. Ultimately, this type of business was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1931.Most of the New Deal's famous "alphabet agencies" -PWA, CCC, SEC, TVA, NRA and FDIC became law during the first 100 days of FDR's administration. Hope seemed to have surfaced everywhere. The president was enormously popular. The people had demanded action from their leaders and FDR had respond with bold new initiatives. Indeed, Roosevelt and his administration had changed the center of power in the United States in that more power was given to the national government, the balances of power-a basic tenet of our political system survived. No industry was nationalized and the profit motive still prevailed.The fear that the president had tried to interfere with America's free enterprise was unwarranted. Without the immediate resolve of Roosevelt, with...
