<P> The Depression began in the United States in October 1929 and grew steadily worse to its nadir in early 1933 . President Herbert Hoover feared that too much intervention or coercion by the government would destroy individuality and self - reliance, which he considered to be important American values . His laissez - faire views appeared to be shared by the Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon . To combat with the growing economic decline, Hoover organized a number of voluntary measures with businesses, encouraged state and local government responses, and accelerated federal building projects . However his policies had little or no effect on economic recovery . Toward the end of his term, however, Hoover supported several legislative solutions which he felt might lift the country out of the depression . The final attempt of the Hoover administration to rescue the economy was the passage of the Emergency Relief and Construction Act (which provided funds for public works programs) and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) (which provided low - interest loans to businesses). </P> <P> Hoover was defeated for re-election by Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election . Roosevelt was convinced that federal activism was needed to reverse the country's economic decline . In his first hundred days in office, the Congress enacted at Roosevelt's request a series of bills designed to strengthen the banking system, including the Emergency Banking Act, the Glass--Steagall Act (which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), and the 1933 Banking Act . The Congress also passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act to stabilize the nation's agricultural industry . </P> <P> Enactment of the National Industrial Recovery Act climaxed the first 100 days of Roosevelt's presidency . Hugh S. Johnson, Raymond Moley, Donald Richberg, Rexford Tugwell, Jerome Frank, and Bernard Baruch--key Roosevelt advisors--believed that unrestrained competition had helped cause the Great Depression and that government had a critical role to play through national planning, limited regulation, the fostering of trade associations, support for "fair" trade practices, and support for "democratization of the workplace" (a standard work week, shorter working hours, and better working conditions). Roosevelt himself, the former head of a trade association, believed that government promotion of "self - organization" by trade associations was the least - intrusive and yet most effective method for achieving national planning and economic improvement . Some work on an industrial relief bill had been done in the weeks following Roosevelt's election, but much of this was in the nature of talk and the exchange of ideas rather than legislative research and drafting . The administration, preoccupied with banking and agriculture legislation, did not begin working on industrial relief legislation until early April 1933 . Congress, however, was moving on its own industrial legislation . In the Senate, Robert F. Wagner, Edward P. Costigan, and Robert M. La Follette, Jr. were promoting public works legislation, and Hugo Black was pushing short - work - week legislation . Motivated to work on his own industrial relief bill by these efforts, Roosevelt ordered Moley to work with these Senators (and anyone else in government who seemed interested) to craft a bill . </P> <P> By May 1933, two draft bills had emerged, a cautious and legalistic one by John Dickinson (Under Secretary of Commerce) and an ambitious one focusing on trade associations by Hugh Johnson . Many leading businessmen--including Gerard Swope (head of General Electric), Charles M. Schwab (chairman of Bethlehem Steel Corporation), E.H. Harriman (chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad), and Henry I. Harriman, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce--helped draft the legislation . A two - part bill, the first section promoting cooperative action among business to achieve fair competition and provide for national planning and a second section establishing a national public works program, was submitted to Congress on May 15, 1933 . </P>

Who was the national industrial recovery act intended to help