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V

must be included in the Code had become firmly entrenched in the minds of the great majority of those present, who claimed to reflect the attitude of the retailers in their respective communities.

Retailers stated that in working under the wage and hour provisions of the substitute Retail Code, which had been in effect about 30 days, operating expenses had been substantially increased due to the additions to pay rolls which required enlarged current cash outlays, and that this new burden could not be carried by tens of thousands of financially weakened concerns unless provisions for protection against predatory price cutting became effective at once.

III. LABOR PROVISIONS

The elective provisions regarding wages, work hours, and store hours suggested by the Administration were generally accepted as equitable.

The working hours may not be entirely satisfactory from a purely social viewpoint; but they represent a substantial reduction from the hours which prevailed in the retail trade. This reduction in working hours will restore employment in retailing to the 1929 level.

IV. ADMINISTRATION

The provisions for administration of this Code are capable of providing the NRA and the retail trades with sufficient data to make recommendations for the limitation of certain provisions of the Code as herewith presented and/or the addition of further provisions to this Code which would be beneficial to the trade as a whole. 

The Administrator finds that——
(a) The provisions of the Code as recommended comply in all respects with the pertinent provisions of clauses one and two, subsection (a) of Section 3 of the National Industrial Recovery Act; and that 
(b) The applicant group imposes no inequitable restrictions on admission to membership therein, and is truly representative of the Retail Trade; and that
(c) The provisions of the Code as recommended are not designed to promote monopolies or to eliminate or oppress small enterprises and will not operate to discriminate against them, and will tend to effectuate the policy of Clauses one and two of the National Industrial Recovery Act.

It is recommended, therefore, that the provisions of this Code be adopted immediately.

Respectfully submitted,
HUGH S. JOHNSON,
Administrator.