National Recovery Administration

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Fiorello La Guardia (center) at the formal raising of the NRA flag outside the New York headquarters of the National Recovery Administration, April 1934.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

National Recovery Administration, U.S. government agency established by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt to stimulate business recovery through fair-practice codes during the Great Depression. The NRA was an essential element in the National Industrial Recovery Act (June 1933), which authorized the president to institute industry-wide codes intended to eliminate unfair trade practices, reduce unemployment, establish minimum wages and maximum hours, and guarantee the right of labour to bargain collectively.

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The Blue Eagle, the symbol of the National Recovery Administration, holding Uncle Sam aloft; on the cover of Vanity Fair, September 1934.

The Granger Collection, New York

The agency ultimately established 557 basic codes and 208 supplementary codes that affected about 22 million workers. Companies that subscribed to the NRA codes were allowed to display a Blue Eagle emblem, symbolic of cooperation with the NRA. Although the codes were hastily drawn and overly complicated and reflected the interests of big business at the expense of the consumer and small businessman, they nevertheless did improve labour conditions in some industries and also aided the unionization movement. The NRA ended when it was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1935, but many of its provisions were included in subsequent legislation.