The National Industrial Recovery Act obviously conceived as emergency legislation which it indubitably was, is the outstanding example of an endeavor in part through the regulation of employer-employee relations, to overcome an economic depression.[365] The objective of course was to increase consumer income and purchasing power, which in turn was to stimulate production, with related chain effects. Section 7 (a) required that every code of fair competition established under the Act guaranteed employees the right to bargain collectively, and to join or refrain from joining a union. Company unions were outlawed. Employers were to comply with the maximum hours or labor, minimum rates of pay, and other conditions of employment, approved or prescribed by the President. In Section 4 (b) the President was granted the unprecedented power whenever he found “that destructive wage or price cutting or other activities contrary to the policy of this title were being practiced in any trade or industry or any subdivision thereof,” to license business enterprises in order to make effective a code of fair competition or an agreement that would carry out the policy of the Act. Once a finding had been made, and publicly announced, no one could carry on any business, if in interstate commerce, unless a license had been obtained. Any order of the President suspending or revoking any such license was to be final if in accordance with law. Title II of the Act, pertaining to public works projects, closely regulated employment practices on projects contracted under the Act: Convict labor was prohibited; no one, except in an administrative or executive position could work more than thirty hours a week; all employees were to be paid just and reasonable wages sufficient to provide a standard of living in decency and comfort; wherever possible ex-servicemen with dependents were to be given preference in employment; and human labor in preference to machinery was to be used wherever practicable and consistent with sound economy and public advantage.[366] In June 1934 Congress authorized the establishment of labor boards to enforce the labor relations provisions of the N.I.R.A.[367] As is well known these sweeping provisions were later swept aside in the famed case of _Schechter Poultry Corporation_ v. _United States_,[368] wherein Mr. Justice Cardozo, speaking for a unanimous Court, said “this is delegation run rampant.”