Executive Order 6730—Revised Code of Fair Competition of the Iron and Steel Industry

An application having been duly made pursuant to and in full compliance with the provisions of Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act approved June 16, 1933, for my approval of certain amendments to the Code of Fair Competition of the Iron and Steel Industry as approved on August 19, 1933, a copy of which amendments are hereto attached as Exhibit A, and the Administrator, having rendered his report showing that said amendments have been proposed, adopted and submitted for my approval, pursuant to the provisions of Section 1 of Article XII of said Code and having recommended that said application be granted;

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, pursuant to the authority vested in me by Title 1 of said Act, and otherwise, do adopt and approve the report, recommendations and findings of the Administrator and do hereby order that said amendments to said Code be, and they hereby are, approved and that said Code as amended by said amendments, a copy of which is hereto attached as Exhibit B, be and it hereby is approved, said revised Code incorporating said amendments to become effective on June 11, 1934, prior to which effective date the Code of Fair Competition approved August 19, 1933, shall continue in full force and effect.

In connection with the foregoing approval I desire to make two statements:

1. Conditions of economic emergency make necessary the retention in modified form of the multiple basing point system adopted in the original code and effective in the industry for many years. But revisions made in this Code, increasing substantially the number of basing points, and modifications in practice under the Code, while alleviating some of the inequities in the existing system, illustrate the desirability of working toward the end of having prices quoted on the basis of areas of production and the eventual establishment of basing points coincident with all such areas, as well as the elimination of artificial transportation charges in price quotations. Therefore, I have directed the Federal Trade Commission and the National Recovery Administration to study further and jointly the operation of the basing point system and its effect on prices to consumers, and any effects of the existing system in either permitting or encouraging price fixing, or providing unfair competitive advantages for producers, or disadvantages for consumers not based on natural causes. I have requested that the results of this study be reported to me within six months, together with any recommendations for revisions of the Code, in accordance with the conclusions reached.

2. In order to insure the free exercise of the rights of employees under the provisions of Section 7 of this Act and of Article IV of this Code, I will undertake promptly to provide, as the occasion may demand, for the election by employees in each industrial unit of representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of collective bargaining and other mutual aid and protection, under the supervision of an appropriate governmental agency and in accordance with suitable rules and regulations.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Approval Recommended:
     Hugh S Johnson
          Administrator.

The White House,
May 30, 1934.