Description:

Roosevelt Franklin



Franklin Roosevelt Signed and Inscribed Presidential Report on  the Textile Industry Crisis in 1934



This item was featured in a catalogue issued by Glenn Horowitz Bookseller Inc, in 1996 and was priced $15,000. Included with this book will be a copy of the Front cover of the Catalogue, a copy of their book description and their price list.

 

"Report of the Board of Inquiry For The Cotton Textile Industry To The President". Typed 38 page report, bound in a brown cloth binder with three grommets. Dated "September 17, 1934",  10.5" x 7.5". Franklin Roosevelt's personal copy. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by him as "by F.P to "F.D.R." … / F.D.R". Additionally signed by John Winant and Francis Perkins (Chairman of the Board and the Secretary of Labor). Near fine. Housed in a custom clamshell of beige tweed cloth with black and gilt titles to the front. With superb provenance as described below.

 

Roosevelt inherited a Nation in a state of Chaos as it was on the brink of financial collapse, with banks being run, defaults, calling in loans, and unemployment at levels never seen since. Yet in the midst of all, this Roosevelt also had to soothe employer/employee relations of the Unions.  American labor unions benefited greatly from the New Deal policies of President Roosevelt in the 1930s. The Wagner Act, in particular, legally protected the right of unions to organize. Unions from this point developed increasingly closer ties to the Democratic Party, and are considered a backbone element of the New Deal Coalition.

 

In 1934, a year after the start of the New Deal and the creation of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), textile workers across the Southern United States went on strike. Though they had many grievances, including long hours and low wages, the lack of labor representation in the NRA’s textile regulatory authority likely triggered the strike. The U.S. textile industry had begun to suffer in 1929. Wages fell, and to reduce costs, mill managers implemented a “stretch-out,” increasing individual workers'’ responsibilities while banning restroom trips and other breaks. The origins of the 1934 strike, however, lay not in the U.S. textile industry’s dire economic situation, but in the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933. The passage of this bill led to the creation of the NRA, which within weeks set up a committee to regulate the entire U.S. textile industry.  Workers suffered under the code established by the Textile Industry Committee. Though wages initially rose under the committee, a reduction from a 40-hour to a 30-hour workweek allowed the committee to reduce weekly wages by 25 percent. Textile workers began joining the United Textile Workers (UTW), the largest labor union in the textile industry, in huge numbers. The union’s membership increased from 27,500 in 1932 to 270,000 in 1934.  The workweek reduction was the immediate cause of the strike. Despite the massive increase in its membership, the UTW was unable to bargain effectively with mill owners. In June 1934, the UTW threatened a strike to avert another threatened workweek reduction, and in mid-August, the UTW began to plan a general strike aimed at securing official recognition from textile manufacturers. On September 1, 1934 textile workers in the United States went on strike.  By mid-September, the absence of progress toward an outcome satisfactory to the UTW made clear that the union lacked the resources needed to support the strike. Excess textile supply further harmed the strikers’ cause. A mediation panel appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt concluded that the grievances of textile workers called for further study, but no concrete government action was taken in behalf of the workers. The most significant effect of the mediation panel was to pressure workers to return to the mills.  On September 23, after President Roosevelt himself implored the striking workers to return to the mills, the strike ended. The UTW made no gains through the strike, which left the union with only nugatory influence for the rest of the Depression.

 

By September 24th, Roosevelt had issued a statement regarding the report and wished the employees out on strike would return to work and that all textile manufacturers will  take back employees without discrimination.

 

The report offered here was the original report presented to Franklin Roosevelt from the Board of Inquiry's investigation into the concerns and issues. An incredible piece of history with President Roosevelt inscribing his own report and noting it was presented to him by "F.P" (the Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins). Perkins also signed the report with the added note of "all at Hyde Park, N.Y. - conference",  and  John Winant (Chairman of the Board of Inquiry) additionally signed the front page of the report just under F.D.R's initials.

 

A highly desirable copy with a very personal and significant association and a superb chain of custody:

Ex:

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

-Donald S. Carmichael

-Glenn Horowitz Bookseller Inc., 1996

-A Distinguished Gentleman

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