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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This article describes the local committee in Greenfield, Massachusetts established to implement the program of the National Recovery Administration. The NRA was the main recovery policy of the early New Deal. The goal was to end the Depression by stopping the downward economic spiral of wages, jobs and prices. The NRA organized industries in specific sectors of the economy to sign agreements regulating these factors. These agreement were accompanied by much publicity in the form of public meetings and parades. Note that the "citizens committee" in Greenfield is organized along military lines with "generals" and "colonels" in the leadership. Although the article focuses on employment in retail stores, other local industries also signed NRA codes. The United States Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional in 1935, in part because Congress delegated too much power to the President.

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