They marched down Euclid Avenue, the sun glinting off their badges.
Amid the Great Depression, it was a celebration of progress. The 1,500 police officers and firefighters strode toward Public Square in their new uniforms to demonstrate Cleveland’s support of the National Recovery Administration — a tent pole of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
About 4,400 Cleveland-area companies pledged to abide by the administration’s wage, price and employment controls in an effort to create a planned economy.
On Aug. 1, 50,000 Clevelanders gathered for a grand parade — a municipal showing of the colors. The police traffic section in their shiny new pith helmets were followed by the fire department — better marchers in their new outfits, according to The Plain Dealer. A citizen’s committee purchased them for $60,000. “For once they had caps that looked like caps, uniforms that looked like uniforms,” wrote Roelif Loveland on Aug. 2.
As the crowd thronged Public Square, Mayor Ray T. Miller rose to speak. He struck a tone befitting a man born in Defiance, Ohio.
“Cleveland has laid aside its drab colors of the past,” Miller said. “We are showing the world that we are unafraid of the future, that we have confidence in the return of normal business.”
In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional. Congress reauthorized the organization, but it was disbanded again in 1936. It took the U.S. entry into World War II in 1941 for the economy to fully recover.
