In the first two years, the New Deal was concerned mainly with relief, setting up shelters to feed the millions of unemployed. The government was getting involved in the state with Americans were facing and they weren't going to face alone. Later the focus shifted towards recovery.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was one of the early new deal programs launched by President Roosevelt. The NRA permitted businesses to create codes of fair competition with the approval of the president that would regulate prices, wages, working conditions. "The NRA protects your right to have a union and will punish the boss if he tries to stop you"( pg 406). The president was delivering his support to the labor movement of America, a democratic move to the left. Businesses that complied with the codes were exempted from the antitrust laws, and workers were given the right to organize unions and bargain with corporations for their demands. Although in other industries American workers were not being heard by employers that overlooked the NRA and proved that it was useless to them. Especially when confronted by unions that were established by African Americans, Mexicans because America lacked racial equality, they had no enforcement by the NRA. .
As portrayed by Sinclair Lewis in 1922 in the novel the "Babbitt" George F. Babbitt viewed union members as useless citizens "He hated them, because they were poor, because they made him feel insecure. Damn loafers! Wouldn't, be common .
workmen if they had any pep. He complained" (pg 322). Demonstrating that many employers believed union strikers should be out in jail for causing trouble. The NRA was bringing power to the president to regulate industrial corporations and it was effective in bringing America closer to democracy by giving the president unconstitutional powers. By creating the Wagner Act it encouraged American workers to join unions. It guaranteed workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively.
