New Deal

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             Congress established the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to develop the Tennessee River in the concern of navigation and flood control and to provide electric power to a wide area of the southeastern United States. The TVA was created in an attempt to improve the steadily worsening conditions in the Tennessee River Basin. In particular, the basin was suffering from frequent destructive floods, intermittent unavailability of the river, deforestation, and severely eroded land. Private industries objected particularly strongly to one part of the program, a government plan to use the cost of TVA-produced power as a "yardstick" for measuring electricity rates charged by private utility companies. The gigantic project brought to the are not only full employment and cheap electric power, but low cost housing, abundant cheap nitrates, the restoration of eroded soil, reforestation, improved navigation, and flood control. .
             In June 1933 the National Industrial Act was passed and created the National Recovery Administration and Public Works Administration to assist industry, labor, and unemployment. To reduce unemployment, the act authorized an expenditure of $3.3 billion for an expansion of public works. The Public Works Administration was to ensure orderly and fair competition in business, the National Recovery Administration was established to draft a set of codes for each of more than 500 industries. The act suspended relevant antitrust regulations, and representatives of each firm in an industry joined with NRA officials in writing the codes. The early agreements, which were supposed to demonstrate a restored confidence in the economy, contained maximum hour and minimum wage provisions, and restrictions of child labor. .
             In 1935 the New Deal made further efforts to promote social welfare and exert federal control over businesses. The Wagner Act of 1935 recognized employees' bargaining rights and established a National Labor Relations Board to oversee relations between employers and employees.