Deck 22: The Roaring Twenties

Question 1

In 1910, 8.6 percent of American 17-year olds were high school graduates.  By 1938, this figure _____.

A) had fallen to 5 percent.
B) equaled 15 percent.
C) had risen to nearly 50 percent.
D) had not changed appreciably.

Answer 1

had risen to nearly 50 percent.

Question 2

Which of the following is not accurate about the roles of women in the 1920s?

A) There was a large increase in the number of two earner families.
B) Women gained the right to vote.
C) There was an increase in educational opportunities for women.
D) Women gained a significant amount of cultural and social freedom.

Answer 2

There was a large increase in the number of two earner families.

Question 3

"Marriage bars"

A) became popular with "flappers" during prohibition.
B) became more widespread in the 1920s
C) forced female employees to leave work when they married.
D) Both a and b are correct.
E) Both b and c are correct.

Answer 3

Both b and c are correct.

Question 4

Which of the following is most accurate about the economic conditions in the 1920s?

A) The large increases in demand for products generated significant cyclical unemployment.
B) There was a significant decrease in the number of hours worked per week.
C) Agriculture was the leading growth sector of the economy.
D) The net migration pattern was from urban to rural.

Question 5

What is the best description of the US economy between 1921 and 1928?

A) Many sectors were growing very rapidly.
B) Hyperinflation led to large decreases in the standard of living.
C) Real average wage growth was stagnant.
D) Unemployment fluctuated dramatically.

Question 6

What best describes the reason for the large migration of African-Americans from the south to the north during the 1920s?

A) This movement was just a continuation of the same trend that had been occurring in large scale since the end of the Civil War.
B) African-Americans moved north to reunite families that had been divided during the many years of slavery.
C) The African-Americans who had worked in the south had mostly been employed in the manufacturing sector, which suffered a downturn in the 1920s.
D) Employers in the North who had traditionally hired many immigrants had to search elsewhere when immigration restrictions were imposed.

Question 7

During Prohibition overdose and accidental poisoning due to alcohol _____ and the variation in the quality of alcohol  _______.

A) fell; fell
B) fell; increased.
C) increased; fell.
D) increased; increased.

Question 8

During Prohibition crime ____ and the amount spent on law enforcement ____.

A) stayed roughly the same; remained level
B) increased dramatically; more than doubled
C) remained level; more than doubled
D) decreased slightly; more than doubled

Question 9

Which of the following is most accurate about the 1920s?

A) There was an increased use of advertising.
B) There was a significant increase in travel and the building of highways.
C) There was an increase in leisure time.
D) The rapid increases in income reduced the use of credit

Question 10

Which of the following was not a major source of economic growth in the 1920s?

A) construction of residential housing
B) production of consumer durables
C) railroad construction
D) automobile production

Question 11

Which of the following is not accurate about the 1920s?

A) There was a significant increase in mass production and mass marketing.
B) There was a significant increase in urbanization.
C) The ability of many Americans to afford consumer goods dropped sharply.
D) Consumer credit policies were developed and instituted on a large scale for the first time.

Question 12

During the 1920s, income inequality ______ and the return on schooling was relatively _____.

A) increased; low.
B) increased; high
C) decreased; low.
D) decreased; high

Question 13

Union membership declined during the 1920s due to

A) the growth of the service sector.
B) increased use of high-tech, labor-saving devices in the manufacturing sector.
C) firms' use of "yellow-dog" contracts.
D) poor union leadership.
E) All of the above.

Question 14

For the first time in the nation's history, by 1920 over ____ percent of the population were urban dwellers.

A) 25
B) 50
C) 75
D) 90

Question 15

The 1920 census reported that ________ percent of Americans were urban dwellers.

A) just over 10
B) approximately 20
C) more than 50
D) 75

Question 16

In the 1920s, American (non-farm) labor benefited from all of the following except :

A) low unemployment rates.
B) falling weekly hours.
C) legal limits on immigration.
D) passage of federal minimum wage legislation.

Question 17

Which of the following is least accurate about the period between the end of World War I and 1930?

A) African Americans migrated in large scale from the north to the south.
B) There was a significant increase in activity by the Ku Klux Klan.
C) A Constitutional Amendment gave women the right to vote.
D) A Constitutional Amendment prohibited the manufacture, distribution, and sale of intoxicating liquor.

Question 18

According to recent research by Goldin and Katz, __________ led the way in establishing high schools in the 1920s.

A) the urban centers of the North
B) the mid-Atlantic states
C) California
D) the Middle West, including Iowa and Nebraska

Question 19

The ownership of radios increased from ___ percent in 1920 to ___ percent in 1930.

A) 10; 70
B) 5;10
C) less than one; 40
D) Radio was not popularized beyond hobbyists until the 1930s

Question 20

During Prohibition the consumption of alcohol _____ and the crime rate _______.

A) fell; fell
B) fell; increased
C) increased; fell.
D) increased; increased.

Question 21

Which of the following is most accurate about the market for call loans.

A) During the 1920s, the supply of loans increased more than the demand.
B) During the 1920s, credit was being pulled into the stock market by the rising interest rates on call loans.
C) An increased willingness of banks to supply call loans was the decisive factor in causing the bull market.
D) The interest rates on call loans decreased significantly during the 1920s.

Question 22

_____ illustrates the speculative temper of the 1920s.

A) The Ponzi scheme
B) The New York pyramid scandal
C) The Florida Land Boom
D) Both a and b are correct.
E) Both a and c are correct.

Question 23

What method was not used by the US between 1880 and 1920 to limit the number of immigrants?

A) Outlawing the practice of prepaying the cost of an immigrant's voyage in exchange for future labor services.
B) Implementing a financial test for potential immigrants.
C) Utilizing a literacy test for potential immigrants.
D) Allowing only immigrants who had family members in the US to come in.

Question 24

Research by Warburton, and more recently Miron and Zwiebel on alcohol consumption during and after prohibition indicates that

A) the demand for alcohol is fairly price inelastic.
B) the demand for alcohol is fairly income inelastic.
C) the demand for alcohol is fairly price elastic.
D) the demand for alcohol has a price elasticity of zero.

Question 25

During the stock market boom of the late 1920s stock prices ______.

A) rose at about the same rate as dividends.
B) rose faster than dividends.
C) rose more slowly than dividends.
D) there is, surprisingly, not enough information to know what happened to prices  relative to dividends.

Question 26

The 1920s were characterized by large numbers of bank failures each year, especially among country banks.  Country banks were particularly inclined to fail because

A) they tended to open too many branches.
B) they were not allowed to issue checking accounts.
C) they were not allowed to join the Federal Reserve system.
D) farm mortgages constituted the major portion of their loans.
E) All of the above.

Question 27

Most historians today agree that

A) Britain was right to demand reparations from Germany.
B) trying to extract reparations from Germany was a mistake.
C) Germany's reckless spending in the 1920s was chiefly to blame for the Great Depression.
D) U.S. loans to Germany merely postponed an otherwise inevitable Great Depression.

Question 28

Investors should be willing to pay more for a stock when (controlling for all other things):

A) Future interest rates are expected to increase.
B) Future interest rates are expected to decrease.
C) Future dividends are expected to decrease.

Question 29

The best explanation for the end of free immigration in the 1920s is _____.

A) the belated recognition that immigrants remitted large sums of money to their homelands undermining the balance of payments.
B) the fear that America would be deluged by immigrants fleeing the war devastated economies of central and eastern Europe.
C) the growing realization that free immigration produced a burdensome increase in welfare roles.
D) the growing realization that free immigration undermined the incomes of blacks and women.

Question 30

Which of the following best describes trends in unionization and immigration in the 1920s?

A) Both decreased.
B) Both increased.
C) The number of new immigrants increased while the number of union members decreased.
D) The number of new immigrants decreased while the number of union members increased.

Question 31

Which groups were least likely to support restrictions on immigration?

A) Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.
B) Unionized labor.
C) Employers
D) The south.

Question 32

Which of the following pieces of agricultural legislation might be thought of as a solution to a problem that did not exist?

A) the Federal Intermediate Credit Act
B) the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
C) the Agricultural Marketing Act
D) the Capper-Volstead Act

Question 33

Although the McNary-Haugen bill never became law, it was widely discussed during the 1920s.  Which of the following was NOT a provision of the bill?

A) government purchase of crops in order to raise agricultural prices
B) government sale of excess crops on the world market
C) payment for the program through capital gains taxes on business
D) high tariffs on agricultural imports
E) All of the above were provisions of the McNary-Haugen Bill.

Question 34

Which of the following is most accurate?

A) Most economic historians believe that the policies of the federal government were an important cause of the Great Depression.
B) Most economic historians believe rapid increase in inequality caused the Great Depression.
C) The US experienced a relative absence of cyclical unemployment and was relatively free from the mass joblessness that had previously plagued the nation.
D) More homogenous communities chose to have higher taxes to fund schools.

Question 35

In the 1920s, the Federal Reserve followed a policy of _____ because it believed that the insolvent banks ____.

A) letting insolvent banks fail; were too small to be profitable and were badly managed.
B) bailing out insolvent banks; too big to be allowed to fail.
C) letting insolvent banks fail; would be purchased by solvent banks anyway
D) bailing out insolvent banks; this was what the Federal Reserve had been founded to do

Question 36

In the debate between Gerald Sirkin and Eugene White over the causes of the Stock Market Boom in the late 1920s, Sirkin maintains that prices of shares were ____, while White maintains that prices of shares were ____.

A) not too high because investors assumed that the current rate of growth of dividends would continue; too high because prices had risen much more rapidly than dividends.
B) too high because prices had risen much more rapidly than dividends; not too high because investors assumed that the current rate of growth of dividends would continue.
C) not too high because interest rates were extremely low in the late 1920s; too high because interest rates were extremely high in the late 1920s.
D) too high because interest rates were extremely high in the late 1920s; not too high because interest rates were extremely low in the late 1920s.

Question 37

Between 1922 and 1929 stock prices increased by more than

A) 100%
B) 200%
C) 300%.
D) 1000%.