The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-17
NRA OBSERVES
End Birthday;
ISSUES LIVE ON
Life of Experiment Has
Been Packed With Swift
Drama in Short Span.
BY II. o. THOMPSON
United Press staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON, June 1.-Two
years ago, at noon on a hot and sui
try day, a barrel-chested man with
a flushed face and military car
rage walked into the Commerce
Department Building and put in
motion an industrial experiment
which seems destined for an impor-
tant place in American economic
history.
The man was Hugh Samuel john
son. He was returning from the
White House, where President
Roosevelt a few moments before had
signed the Industrial Recovery Act
with a rousing appeal for country
wide patriotic cooperation.
The second anniversary of that
occasion finds most of NRA shat
tered by the Supreme Courts de-
cision in the Schechter case. It's
codes have been abandoned; its
hand has been removed from the
helm of American business.
Always in Controversy
The less -than-two-year career Of
NRA was filled with enough action
to provide issues and burning po-
litical arguments not only in the
1895 presidential campaigns but for
years to come. From birth to the
death decreed by the Supreme Court
NRA was a symbol of controversy
and excitement.
When johnson returned to his
cubbyhole Office on the third floor
of the Commerce Building that sui
try Wednesday there were fewer
than 100 NRA employees. The num-
Der grew until at one time there
were 5400 men and women on the
NRA pay roll in and out of Wash
ington.
From the original dozen offices
assigned to Johnson and his depu-
ties, the MIRA spread to Two floors
of huge Commerce Building, to
other downtown office buildings and
to towns and cities throughout the
country.
In those early days johnson
moved his office frequently, at
tempting to find a hide-away where
he would be free from interruptions
and escape the hordes of business
men who swarmed through the halls
looking for the head man.
1t was time of phraSe-makin2
and slogan writing. The now ia
miliar MIRA did not become the
official name of the recovery unit
for several weeks. 1t was a period
of confusion and mistakes, but
through it all ran spirit Of adven-
ture and of swift, determined action
Order Replaces Chaos
The confusion gradually dleo
away. Business men and industri-
alists at last learned their way
about the Commerce Building with
out getting lost in It's labyrinthlar
corridors. Code hearings began, al
first with the dramatic suspense oil
the cotton textile industry when tie
auditorium was packed almost tc
the point of suffocation, and later
with the orderlineSS of well-eStab-
ished custom.
After nearly two years the scene
shifts. 1t is another spring day, but
the atmosphere is one of calm, judi
cial dignity instead of the informa.
hurry and hustle that marked the
start of NRA.
Chief Justice Charles Evans
Hughes is reading the opinion ir
the Schechter case. He reads on
a tense audience hanging on each
word for a clue to the decision the
court is about to render.
= Donald R. Richberg, who took
over the MIRA after Johnson's re-
tirement, was in the small, semi
circular courtroom.
His face fell and he apoearec
dazed as Hughes reached the climax
of the opinion, declaring the code
making functions Of NRA unconstl-
| tutional
So the MIRA began, and so much
of it died Issues arising from the
New Deal experiment. however, viii
live on for future settlement,