Evolution, Not Revolution: The Effect of New Deal Legislation on Industrial Growth and Union Development in Dallas, Texas Page: 22
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that a growing class of socially concerned Progressives began to study the workplace and lives of
common workers in order to bring more attention and interest to their issues. Throughout the
Progressive Era, unions fought for both recognition and reform. By the end of the nineteenth
century, especially for the AFL, the ideal of collective bargaining for American workers became
the focus and cornerstone of their public policy. Even though the AFL's numbers grew to four
million by 1920, the lack of success in achieving their labor goals led to a decline in membership
during the next decade that reduced the AFL's strength by half. 32
Throughout the history of American industrial labor, there was re-occurring evidence that
the accepted management style was one of paternalism and opposition to unions. This would
soon be challenged. Under the terms of the NIRA, which was itself a response to the economic
devastation brought by the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established on
June 20, 1933, the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and named Hugh Johnson as its
first administrator. Johnson encouraged participation through his public relations campaign,
"We Do Our Part." Some of the most enthusiastic recruits to the program were southern textile
workers. Thousands of their letters flooded the White House, addressed to either Johnson or
Roosevelt, expressing their deep gratitude for helping the "laboring classes of people." Johnson
had previously worked for the War Industries Board during World War I and had experience in
business and management. By August 5, 1933, Roosevelt created the National Labor Board
(NLB) to settle any disputes that might arise between managers and their workers. Johnson
turned to New Yorker Robert W. Bruere, an economist, editor, and arbitrator, to run the board.
He had such presence that it eventually became known as the Bruere Board. Historian Janet
32Julie Novkov, Constituting Workers, Protecting Women: Gender, Law, and Labor in the Progressive Era
andNew Deal Years (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005), 36; Tomlins, "AFL Unions in the 1930s,"
157-170; Barbara S. Griffith, The Crisis ofAmerican Labor: Operation Dixie and the Defeat of the CIO
(Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1988), 6.22
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Welch, M. Courtney. Evolution, Not Revolution: The Effect of New Deal Legislation on Industrial Growth and Union Development in Dallas, Texas, dissertation, August 2010; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30524/m1/31/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .