“In [the fall of 1932, the American Federation of Labor (AFL)] drafted a bill that limited hours per week to 30. The AFL had considered a constitutional amendment for the regulation of hours in their November convention, but settled on legislation suggested to the organization by such groups as the National Citizens' League for Industrial Recovery and the National Grange. In December [1932, conservative Senator] Hugo Black [D, Ala.] introduced the AFL bill to the 72nd Congress, to prohibit, in interstate or foreign commerce, all goods produced by establishments where workers were employed more than five days a week or 6 hours a day.
          “Several affiliated unions had argued that provisions for a minimum wage should be included in the bill. The AFL, however, concluded that such a piece of legislation would have less political support and would almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional. Moreover, most labor leaders opposed minimum-wage provisions, reasoning that a minimum wage could easily become a maximum wage. [Editorial comment: this is exactly what has happened for unskilled workers.]
          “The best course of action would be to enforce a nationwide reduction in the supply of labor. This would bring immediate 'work relief.' Then, as more people were put back to work at 30 hours, [they would be earning money,] purchasing power would expand..\..buyer confidence would return...and the economy would recover. Once the economy improved, labor could bargain effectively for higher wages [from a strong position of] labor scarcity....”   (From Ben Hunnicutt's *Work Without End, Temple Univ. Press, 1988, page 150).
          The bill passed the U.S. Senate on April 6, 1933 by a vote of 53-30.

          What happened to the Black Bill?  FDR took one look at it and essentially said (A) It's not mine!   (B) It's SOCIALISM! - and proceeded to tie it up in committee of the House, whence it emerged five years later as the Fair Labor Standards Act with all its 30-hour teeth pulled (see our 40/40/40 page and/or overview). Meanwhile, Saint FDR initiated more socialist government regulations and programs than you could shake a stick at, from social security to workmen's compensation to minimum wage to unemployment insurance to a whole alphabet soup of makework campaigns (WPA, CCC, NRA, NIRA, TVA...),

• much of which came straight out of the 1928 platform of the Socialist Party of America (see Milton Friedman's Free to Choose, Appx. A),
• none of which worked beyond a feel-good level,
• none of which would have been necessary if FDR had pushed through the Black Bill spreading the vanishing work and enabling everyone to support themselves without further government intervention, and
• none of which succeeded until World War II in solving even half the unemployment of the Depression (the New Deal got the officially admitted 25% unemployment of the Depression down to 14% in 1937).  

For further information on worktime economics, see our "social software" manual alias campaign piece, Timesizing, Not Downsizing, which is available online from *Amazon.com and on the 3rd floor of The Harvard Coop in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., USA in the economics and mgmt sections.