Which policy was designed to stabilize industry, raise wages, and reduce competition during the New Deal era?

• A. Agricultural Adjustment Act
• B. National Industrial Recovery Act and National Recovery Administration
• C. Dust Bowl
• D. Social Security Act

Answer: (B)

The policy centers on stabilizing industry through coordinated rules that set wages and limit competition. The National Industrial Recovery Act created the National Recovery Administration to have industries draft codes of fair competition. These codes established minimum wages, maximum work hours, and guidelines to reduce destructive price-cutting, aiming to lift wages and stabilize production so demand could recover.

Context helps: this was part of the New Deal effort to inject planning into the economy and reduce the chaos of the Depression by making industries operate under shared standards rather than fierce, ruinous competition. The approach faced criticism and was later ruled unconstitutional, but it was specifically designed to stabilize industry, raise wages, and reduce competition.

The other options don’t fit this aim. The Agricultural Adjustment Act targeted farm prices and production, not overall industry codes. The Dust Bowl was an environmental disaster. The Social Security Act created a social insurance system, not industry-wide economic stabilization through codes.