Registry No. 1637 A— 10 NATIONAL RECOVERY ADMINISTRATION PROPOSED CODE OF FAIR COMPETITION FOR THE INCUBATOR MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AS SUBMITTED ON AUGUST 31, 1933 The Code for the Incubator Manufacturing Industry in its present form merely reflects the proposal of the above-mentioned industry, and none of the provisions contained therein are to be regarded as having received the approval of the National Recovery Administration as applying to this industry UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1933 For sale by the Suiierintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. ---..-.-- Price 5 cents Submitted by INCU15ATOR MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION (11) CODE OF FAIR COMPETITION FOR THE INCUBATOR MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION, NATIONAL COUNCIL LIVESTOCK EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATIONS AS RECOMMENDED BY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Preamble The Incubator Manufacturers Association, a national trade asso- ciation for this industry, representing in its membership more than seventy-five percent of the production of Incubator Equipment in the United States, by action taken at a meeting in the City of Chi- cago on the 14th day of July 1933, does hereby subscribe to the policy, provisions, rules, and regulations of the National Industrial Recovery Act. The Incubator Manufacturers Association, by a unanimous vote at this meeting, decided to come under the provisions of this act which permit the voluntary adoption of a Code of Fair Competition and Practices and authorized the creation of an Executive Committee to draft a Code which is to be presented to the Government for Presidential approval. For centuries eggs have been hatched by artificial methods, but only within recent years has this practice passed from the realm of an art to that of a science. Because of these scientific developments within the past ten years, this industry has grown to one of major proportions in the field of Agriculture, has marketed more than fifty millions of dollars' worth of incubating equipment, maintained a wage scale above the average, and give employment to thousands of people in a new and productive field. Organization The Incubator Manufacturers Association is an organization rep- resenting more than seventy-five percent of the industry, with which all manufacturers of incubator equipment are invited to affiliate, for the purpose of functioning as the organized voice of the industry. Said Association prays for recognition by the Federal Administra- tor of the National Industrial Recovery Act, in order that it may act as quickly as practical to restore normal and fair rates of wages to reemploy the normal number of employees, and to restore prices to proper levels, fair alike to the public and the industry, thereby avoiding the further depletion of the capital assets and making pos- sible the operation of business on a basis of profit. ASSOCIATION OFFICERS The officers of the Incubator Manufacturers Association are as follows : President, B. A. Mayer, Bundy Incubator Co.. Springfield, 9461—33 (1) Ohio : Vice-President, W. D. James, James Manufacturing Co., Fort Atkinson, Wis.; Secretary-Treasurer, J. I. Taggart, Smith Incubator Co.. CleveLancl, Ohio: Executive Secretary, H. L. Ashworth, 125 E. AVells Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The Executive Committee is as follows: B. A. Mayer, Bundy Incubator Company, Springfield, Ohio ; W. D. James, James Manu- facturing Company, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin; J. I. Taggart, Smith Incubator Company, Cleveland, Ohio; J. L. Robbins, Kobbins In- cubator Company, Denver, Colorado: J. W. Myers, Reliable Incu- bator & Brooder Company, Quincy, Illinois. MEMBERSHIP OF ASSOCIATION The membership of the Incubator Manufacturers Association rep- resents more than seventy-five percent of the production of Incubator Equipment in the United States. Article I — Membership 1. Membership in the Incubator Manufacturers Association is and shall be open to any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the manufacture and sale of incubator equipment for hatching of eggs. Such a member shall be described for the purpose of this Code as a Manufacturer, 2. A Manufacturer is defined as a person, firm, or corporation maintaining a plant, properly equipped for service to the public, with office kept open during business hours, with factory facilities, and a sales service. Article II — Jurisdiction 1. Membership in the Incubator Manufacturers Association shall not be compulsory, but each and every manufacturer, member or nonmember of this Association, shall be bound by the provisions of this Code, and compelled to adhere thereto under such penalties as may be prescribed. 2. The provisions of this Code shall not be interpreted so as to eliminate or oppress small enterprises or to discriminate against them or to set up a monopoly. Article III — Administration enforcement The Executive Committee of this Association shall select and em- ploy an administrative agency to be known as the Executive Secretary. The administration officer of this Code shall be the Executive Secretary of the Incubator IManufacturers Association. He shall be required to submit and to explain the provisions, purposes, and aims of the Code to all producers of Incubator Equipment, including members and nonmembers of the Incubator Manufacturers Asso- ciation. Any producer of Incubator equipment injured by the violation of this Code shall file with the Executive Secretary a written com- plaint setting forth the facts in the matter and requesting such relief as may be just. The Executive Secretary of the Incubator Manufacturers Associa- tion is authorized and directed to enforce vigorously, equitably, and without exception a system of discipline for violators of this Code or any of its rules, regulations, or provisions. Any member of the Incubator Manufacturers Association or any producer of incubator equipment who is not a member of the asso- ciation shall have the right to appeal from the ruling or decision of the Executive Secretary and such appeal shall be heard by a representative Arbitration Committee of at least three persons, such committee to be appointed by the Executive Committee of the Incu- bator Manufacturers Association fro mthe organizations of different members of the industry. Under this provision a separate Arbitra- tion Committee shall be named to handle each appeal and the mem- bership of such committee shall be truly representative for the pur- l^ose of insuring the parties a fair hearing, but shall not include any members of the industry connected with or in any way involved in the dispute in question. The decision of such Arbitration Committees may be appealed by either party to the association as a whole and the decision of the association by a two thirds vote shall be final and binding. If such association decision is not accepted and complied with by the com- plainant or defendant the case shall be turned over to the Executive Committee of the industry for submission to the Administrator of the National Industrial Recovery Act. STATISTICS AND REPORTS The Executive Secretary shall have the power and authority to require from each manufacturer of Incubator Equipment from time to time such wage and labor reports, information, and records as shall be necessary to the adequate administration and enforcement of the provisions of this Code. The Executive Secretary shall have the right at all time to examine all records of every producer of Incubator Equipment whenever such inspection is necessary for the adequate administration and en- forcement of the provisions of this Code. It is definitely agreed than any such information obtained by such inspection shall be of a strictly confidential nature, except insofar as disclosure of the facts so obtained may be necessary to the just administration of the Code. Article IV — Participation Participation in this Code, and any subsequent revision of or addition to the Code, shall be extended to any person, partnership, or corporation in the incubator industry who accepts his share of the cost and responsibility, as well as the benefit, of such participa- tion by becoming a member of the Incubator Manufacturers Association. No initiation or entrance fee shall be charged for membership in the Incubator Manufacturers Association, but there shall be levied against all members of the association the annual dues in the amount of $25.00. Additional dues needed to finance the activities of the association in carrying out and enforcing the Code of the industry shall be levied against each member in proportion to the volume of its sales of the items covered by this Code. Article V — Recognized Manufactukers Conforming to Title I, Section 4, of the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Executive Secretary shall at all times maintain an up-to-date and complete list of manufacturers of incubator equip- ment (see Article I, Section 2, of this Code) which shall be available to any interested parties. Article VI RIGHTS OF workers (a) Employees in the Poultry Equipment industry shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, re- straint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives or in self-organizations, or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining, or other mutual aid or protection, as provided for in Section 7 of the National Industrial Recovery Act. (b) No employee in the Poultry Equipment industry, and no one seeking employment therein, shall be required as a condition of em- ployment to join any company union, or to refrain from joining a labor organization of his own choosing, as provided for in section 7 of the National Industrial Recovery Act. (c) Employers of labor in the Poultry Equipment industry agree to comply with the maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay, and other working conditions approved or prescribed by the President. (d) It is clearly understood that the foregoing paragraph does not impair in any particular the constitutional rights of the employee and employer to bargain individually or collectively as may be mutually satisfactory to them; nor does it impair the joint right of employer and employee to operate an open shop. (e) Nothing in this Code is to prevent the selection, retention, and advancement of employees on the basis of their individual merit, without regard to their affiliation or nonaffiliation with any labor organization. (f) It is expressl}^ stipulated that neither any provision of this Code nor the fact or manner of its preparation, ])resentation, adop- tion, or filing shall be construed as constituting a waiver of any con- stitutional right which the several members of the Poultry Equip- ment Association or industry might otherwise have and enjoy. Any such provision which ma}^ limit or abrogate any constitutional right is inserted under the unavoidable requirements of the National In- diistrial Recovery Act as the same is understood by said members and not voluntarily nor with their approval as a contractual relin- quishment of such right. Article VII HOURS AND WAGES The minimum wages which shall be paid to male employees shall be 40«* per hour, and to female employees 30^ per hour, except that apprentices and learners may be paid not less than 75% of the above minimum. The total of such exceptions shall not be more than 5% of the total pay roll; however, any employer in this industry located in a section of the country where a lower minimum wage rate has been prescribed and accepted by the President of the United States in the code of another industry for employees in the same crafts or classifications of labor employed in this industry shall have the right to employ such crafts or classifications of labor at such lower rate. Employees covered hereby (excluding executives; supervisory staffs and their assistants, traveling salesmen, collectors and commis- sion agents, and all employees engaged in the preparation, care, and maintenance of office, plants, machinery and facilities, efficiency research, and designing engineers; planning, stock-keeping, order, service, and shipping; outside supervisory service and erecting serv- ice) — shall work not more than 48 hours in any one week and not more than 40 hours per week average, excepting regular employment reasonably in excess of such standards for not more than 10% of the employees in any operation where required by the nature of their work, and further excepting temporary employment in case of emergency. It is further understood that each manufacturer shall have the privilege of exempting from the provisions of this section a certain number of so-called pensioner employees; i.e., employees who by reason of age or physical disability are not capable of performing the Avork of an able-bodied man but whom it is desired to retain because of their long connection with the business. Such employees shall be reported separately in the making of necessary current labor reports to the Administrator. We further agree that, with the approval of the President, the above rates may be revised from time to time in such manner as will currently reflect an equitable adjustment to variations in cost of living. We further agree not to employ any minor under the age of sixteen years. Article VIII — Selling Prices 1. It shall be unfair competition for any producer of Incubator equipment to sell his merchandise below his own cost, plus a reason- able profit. 2. The cost of merchandise, as mentioned in the preceding para- graph, shall include not only all direct material and normal direct labor costs entering into the article in question but also a propor- tionate share of all normal indirect costs of the productive process, c such as management, maintenance, operating, and other overhead expenses of both factory and shipping departments phis a propor- tionate share of the normal administrative, research, advertising and selling expense of the business. 3. The term " Merchandise " as used in this Code shall constitute any and all incubator equipment made in whole or in part by the manufacturer, except obsolete models or used equipment which can only be priced on a basis of age and state of repair. Article IX — Sales Practices 1. Breach of Sales Contract. — The wilful interference by any man- ufacturer by any means whatsoever with any existing sales contract between anotlier manufacturer and his customer which has the effect of attracting business away from the manufacturer interferred with is hereby declared to be an unfair trade practice. 2. Unfair Trade Practice. — (a) The solicitation of the services of salesmen or other employees of other members of the industry with- out notice to the employers involved is condemned. (b) The defamation of a competitor by words or acts which call in question his business integrity, his ability to perform his con- tract, his credit standing, or the grade, quality, or reliability of his goods is condemned as unfair trade practice. (c) The Industry hereby records its approval of the practice of handling disputes in a fair and reasonable manner coupled with spirit of moderation and good will, and every effort should be made by the disputants themselves to arrive at an agreement. Arbitration is suggested as preferable to litigation. Article X — Production Control We agree that, because existing productive capacity far exceeds the normal demand, for a period of twelve (12) months from the effective date of this Code, not to increase our productive capacity except insofar as it might be normally increased through the substi- tution of new and improved equipment for existing equipment or through more efficient methods of manufacture, or it becomes neces- sary for a present manufacturer to provide his own production facili- ties to produce incubators or incubator equipment now being manu- factured for him by other parties. In view of the foregoing agreement we specifically ask that the Administrator establish a rule which will make it necessary for any concern desiring to undertake the manufacture of incubator equip- ment to show a necessity for such increase in productive capacity or that the product he intends to manufacture will better serve the public interest than such products as are now available. Article XI — Amendments 1. Amendments to this Code may be proposed to the Executive Secretary by any member or members of the Incubator Manufac- turers Association, or may be initiated by the Executive Committee and may be adopted by the affirmative vote of a two-tliirds majority of the members of the association, and when approved by the Presi- dent of the United States shall be effective. Any amendments pro- posed shall be submitted in writing to all members of association not less than two weeks before coming before the association for action. 2. This Code or any of its provisions shall be cancelled or modified and any approved rule issued thereunder shall be ineffective to the extent necessary to 'conform to any action by the President under Section 10 (b) of the National Industrial Recovery Act, in cancella- tion or modification of any order, approval, license, rule, or regu- lation pertaining thereto. Article XII This Code shall become effective ten days after it is approved by the President of the United States. Respectfully submitted for the Incubator Manufacturing Industry by Executive Committee : Chairman. Executive Secretary. Dated at , , the day of , 1933. o UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 3 1262 08584 7787