Deck 25: The Great Depression, 1929-1939

Question 1

By 1935, the National Recovery Administration had become unpopular.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The main purpose of the Civilian Conservation Corps was to:

A) train young men for the Army Corps of Engineers
B) provide work relief for young men
C) give young women an opportunity to earn money for higher education
D) promote conservation practices by the general public
E) build environmental education projects at the first national parks

Answer 2

provide work relief for young men

Question 3

Eleanor Roosevelt was a shy person who shunned attention, but she did much work behind the scenes to raise support for her husband's New Deal.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Hoover's early efforts to end the Depression included:

A) cutbacks in public works, to shore up the public treasury
B) a stricter credit policy by the Federal Reserve, to stop the flow of "easy money" available for speculation
C) an increase in aid to farmers, to allow them to produce more
D) extending federal loans to individuals
E) asking businessmen to maintain wages and avoid layoffs, in order to keep purchasing power strong

Question 5

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath told of Wall Street businessmen brought to their knees after Black Tuesday.

Question 6

Despite the New Deal, full recovery from the Depression did not come until the crisis of World
War II.

Question 7

The Bonus Expeditionary Force was organized to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

Question 8

All of the following is true of the National Youth Administration EXCEPT:

A) it provided part-time employment to students
B) it was part of the Works Progress Administration
C) it set up technical training programs
D) it was the parent organization for the Civilian Conservation Corps
E) it provided Richard Nixon with a job

Question 9

The Civilian Conservation Corps addressed the problem of overcharging by doctors and others in
the medical and health professions.

Question 10

In 1932, how many people were unemployed in America?

A) 25 million
B) 35 million
C) 15 million
D) 40 million
E) 50 million

Question 11

By executive decree, Roosevelt reorganized all federal farm credit agencies into the Farm Credit Administration.

Question 12

Early in his presidency, Roosevelt ended Prohibition.

Question 13

Franklin Roosevelt made black civil rights a major priority, ordering that New Deal programs not practice racial discrimination.

Question 14

Herbert Hoover refused to involve the government in efforts to relieve the effects of economic depression.

Question 15

At the outset of his presidency, to deal with the banking crisis, Roosevelt:

A) pushed through a bank bailout bill worth more than $7 billion
B) used his emergency powers to nationalize the banking industry
C) put strict limits on the issuance of paper currency
D) ordered the Federal Reserve Board to lower interest rates
E) declared a bank holiday, shutting the banks down briefly

Question 16

The Fair Labor Standards Act forbade racial discrimination in hiring.

Question 17

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration required farmers to donate surplus crops and livestock to feed the poor.

Question 18

Although the New Deal initiatives produced mixed results, they halted the economic downturn and provided the foundation for a system of federal social welfare programs.

Question 19

The Wagner Act helped dramatically boost union membership.

Question 20

FDR called the Social Security Act the "supreme achievement" of the New Deal.

Question 21

In November 1930:

A) Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives
B) Herbert Hoover won a second term as president, but by a very small margin
C) Republicans won a majority in the House of Representatives
D) Herbert Hoover was soundly defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt
E) the House of Representatives, Senate, and presidency remained in the hands of the incumbent parties

Question 22

Huey Long:

A) developed a program called the Share-the-Wealth Society
B) founded the National Union for Social Justice
C) challenged FDR for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1936
D) complained that the New Deal had gone too far by infringing on "the rights of persons and property"
E) called Social Security a "socialistic share-the-wealth program"

Question 23

All of the following were objectives of the Tennessee Valley Authority EXCEPT:

A) the production of cheap electric power
B) opening rivers to boats and barges
C) flood control
D) soil conservation and forestry
E) the development of Smoky Mountain National Park

Question 24

Franklin D. Roosevelt:

A) was born into a family of sharecroppers
B) was twice elected governor of Georgia
C) was permanently disabled after contracting polio
D) supported the continuation of Prohibition
E) was a graduate of the Naval Academy

Question 25

The greatest failure of the New Deal was its inability to:

A) restore economic prosperity and end record levels of unemployment
B) end segregation
C) be duplicated in Europe
D) prevent World War II
E) end partisan politics

Question 26

The fair practices codes of the NRA did all of the following EXCEPT:

A) prohibit child labor
B) establish minimum wages of $13 per week
C) set a forty-hour workweek
D) break up large corporations
E) establish minimum wages of $12 per week in the South

Question 27

Richard Wright:

A) led the conservative outcry against New Deal business regulation
B) starred in the original version of Scarface
C) wrote Native Son, a story of racial prejudice
D) was the outspoken head of the Farm Security Administration
E) was the economist who originally dreamed up Social Security

Question 28

The Marx Brothers:

A) came up with the most revolutionary theory in the history of labor relations
B) consisted of Curly, Larry, and Moe
C) produced some of the most serious dramatic films of the thirties
D) typified the German communists at work in Detroit's unions
E) produced plotless masterpieces of irreverent satire

Question 29

In the case of Norris v. Alabama, the Supreme Court:

A) upheld the state's Democratic white primary
B) overturned a state law restricting the sale of petroleum products beyond certain quotas
C) upheld Alabama's claim that the Scottsboro Boys were not entitled to public defenders
D) dealt a major blow to FDR's New Deal
E) ruled that the systematic exclusion of blacks from juries denied Scottsboro defendants equal protection of the law

Question 30

Just before his election to the presidency in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was serving as:

A) secretary of state
B) vice president
C) governor of New York
D) national chairman of the Democratic party
E) professor at West Point

Question 31

To earn the federal payments for reducing crops:

A) tenants and sharecroppers had to stick with lucrative staples such as cotton
B) farmers had to let fields go idle for three years in a row
C) many landowners kicked off black tenants in favor of whites
D) farmers often starved because they were not allowed to grow even small vegetable gardens
E) many landowners took their leased lands out of production

Question 32

The literary work that best captured the ordeal of the Depression was The Grapes of Wrath by:

A) Lucy Mercer
B) Margaret Mitchell
C) Paul Muni
D) William Faulkner
E) John Steinbeck

Question 33

The 1937 economic slump was caused in part by:

A) a sharp decrease in government spending
B) a sharp rise in private spending
C) the huge government deficit
D) the repeal of the Revenue Act of 1935
E) the announcement that Social Security payroll taxes would be postponed

Question 34

Whose campaign song was "Happy Days Are Here Again"?

A) Alfred Smith
B) Franklin D. Roosevelt
C) Herbert Hoover
D) Eugene Debs
E) Theodore Roosevelt

Question 35

This organization sought to set workplace standards, such as child labor restrictions:

A) Agricultural Adjustment Act
B) Federal Emergency Relief Association
C) National Recovery Association
D) Works Progress Administration
E) Civilian Conservation Corps

Question 36

Codes of fair practice were part of:

A) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
B) Home Owners Loan Corporation
C) National Recovery Association
D) Public Works Administration
E) Workers Progress Administration

Question 37

One drawback of the Tennessee Valley Authority was that:

A) a drought could cause electricity rates to increase
B) it forced people to move if their land was needed for dams and lakes
C) Tennessee became one of the most polluted states in the nation
D) it put all of the private power companies in the South out of business
E) Alabama refused to accept "socialized electricity"

Question 38

The goal of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 was to raise farm income mainly through:

A) cutbacks in production
B) intensive farming
C) a government takeover of the commodity trade in Chicago
D) state and federal subsidies
E) marketing quotas

Question 39

The Dust Bowl can be associated with:

A) large migrations from the impacted area to the Atlantic coast
B) terrible storms that plagued the Great Basin
C) a severe blow to farmers in Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin
D) the blowing away of millions of acres of topsoil
E) a movie made by the Works Progress Administration filmmaker Ansel Adams

Question 40

Who served as secretary of agriculture under FDR?

A) Henry Morgenthau
B) Arthur Laffer
C) Milton Friedman
D) John Maynard Keynes
E) Henry A. Wallace

Question 41

Who headed the Works Progress Administration (WPA) at its creation in 1935?

A) Frances Perkins
B) John Nance Garner
C) Henry Wallace
D) Hugh Johnson
E) Harry Hopkins

Question 42

Which of the following refused to apply for a Social Security card?

A) Alfred Smith
B) Herbert Hoover
C) Theodore Roosevelt
D) Eugene Debs
E) Franklin D. Roosevelt

Question 43

The Revenue Act of 1935 (sometimes called the Wealth-Tax Act):

A) provided for a regressive tax
B) increased federal revenue significantly and thus helped finance the New Deal
C) raised taxes on incomes above $50,000
D) created a more equal distribution of wealth in America
E) was an FDR response to Long's "soak-the-rich tax"

Question 44

Labor's new direction in the late 1930s was toward:

A) decentralization of union organization
B) industrial unions
C) women in unions
D) the Republican party
E) craft unions

Question 45

Which of the following statements about the Social Security Act is NOT true?

A) It was, according to Roosevelt, the "supreme achievement" of the New Deal.
B) It committed the national government to a broad range of welfare activities.
C) It provided old-age pensions.
D) It was based on a progressive tax that took a larger percentage of higher incomes.
E) It was a regressive tax that pinched the poor more than the rich.

Question 46

During the 1936 election, Roosevelt wound up carrying every state except:

A) Maine and Ohio
B) Iowa and Vermont
C) Maine and Vermont
D) New Jersey and Florida
E) Texas and Utah

Question 47

Like Huey Long, Charles Coughlin:

A) appealed to people who had lost the most during the Great Depression
B) emphasized tax breaks for big business
C) was involved in the creation of a fascist dictatorship
D) called for unadulterated free-market capitalism
E) was involved in closing down Wall Street brokerage firms

Question 48

Roosevelt's court-packing scheme became unnecessary when:

A) the Supreme Court ruled that the president, and not Congress, has authority to adjust the number of justices
B) the Supreme Court agreed to an extension of the number of justices
C) Congress removed cases involving the New Deal from the Supreme Court's jurisdiction
D) the Supreme Court began reversing previous judgments and upholding the New Deal
E) he began using executive orders to circumvent the Supreme Court

Question 49

Eleanor Roosevelt:

A) primarily played the role of White House hostess
B) had more influence than her husband in shaping New Deal policies
C) was an official member of FDR's cabinet
D) was especially supportive of women, blacks, and youth
E) became most famous for her "fireside chats"

Question 50

In the case of Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States, the Supreme Court:

A) overturned the Farm Credit Act
B) overturned the National Industrial Recovery Act
C) decided that Schechter was involved in interstate, not local, trade
D) upheld the constitutionality of the second Agricultural Adjustment Act
E) said that the Agricultural Adjustment Act was unconstitutional

Question 51

Charles E. Coughlin:

A) was the "radio priest"
B) headed the Tennessee Valley Authority
C) headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs
D) wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin
E) ran on the Union ticket with Huey Long

Question 52

Who was known as "Kingfish"?

A) Charles Coughlin
B) Theodore Roosevelt
C) Huey Long
D) Francis Townsend
E) Alfred Smith

Question 53

Conservatives lambasted the Social Security Act as:

A) an unfair tax
B) communistic
C) pure socialism
D) tyrannical
E) fascism

Question 54

The "sit-down strike" was used successfully in 1937 by:

A) black workers
B) southern workers
C) steel workers
D) automobile workers
E) western miners

Question 55

Which programs helped people refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates so as to avoid bankruptcy?

A) Workers Progress Administration
B) Civilian Conservation Corps
C) National Recovery Association
D) Home Owners Loan Corporation
E) Securities and Exchange Commission

Question 56

In early 1937, FDR proposed to reform the Supreme Court by:

A) requiring justices to retire at age 70
B) adding up to six additional members
C) removing justices appointed by previous presidents
D) making justices regularly run for election
E) requiring Senate confirmation hearings

Question 57

The National Labor Relations Act:

A) was upheld by the Supreme Court in United States v. Butler
B) gave jobs to several thousand unemployed miners
C) was often called the Wagner Act
D) was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1935
E) gave employers the right to control union activities

Question 58

Which is true of the 1936 presidential election?

A) FDR was reelected, but Republicans made big gains in Congress.
B) Huey Long ran one of the strongest third-party campaigns in history.
C) FDR defeated Alf Landon in a landslide.
D) Concerns over the coming war in Europe dominated the campaign.
E) FDR won every state but Texas.

Question 59

During the presidential election of 1936:

A) African Americans voted overwhelmingly Republican for the first time since Reconstruction
B) Republicans won most of the western farm vote and almost upset Roosevelt
C) Republicans hoped that third-party candidates might split the Democratic vote and throw the election to them
D) Socialist and Communist candidates together received over 2 million votes
E) Roosevelt's illness put vice-presidential candidate Harry Truman in the spotlight

Question 60

The Farm Security Administration:

A) administered the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (the "Second AAA")
B) offered loans to marginal farmers (so they could avoid falling into tenancy) and to tenant farmers (so they could purchase their own farms)
C) provided federal subsidies for the expansion of large farms
D) established educational programs to teach farmers new agricultural methods
E) concentrated on rehabilitating devastated soils on the Great Plains

Question 61

How did the nation's perceptions of the role of government-its powers and responsibilities-change in the 1930s?

Question 62

By the end of 1937, which group had coalesced against the New Deal?

A) African Americans
B) liberal Democrats
C) all western Democrats
D) Populist party members
E) a bipartisan conservative bloc

Question 63

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.
Frances Perkins

A)author of The Grapes of Wrath
B)created the Share-the-Wealth program
C)served as secretary of labor
D)was a BIA commissioner
E)was the Republican presidential candidate in 1936
F)was a CIO leader
G)proposed to pay $200 a month to those over 60 who retired and promised to spend the money
H)was interior secretary
I)was the "radio priest"
J)headed the FERA and the WPA

Question 64

Although the New Deal programs helped ease the devastation wrought by the Depression, some widespread human suffering continued. Discuss this suffering and the hardships Americans still faced.

Question 65

In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt for the first time presented:

A) the Social Security Act
B) the Fair Labor Standards Act
C) the Civil Conservation Corps
D) no new reform programs that year
E) the National Recovery Administration

Question 66

The conservative Democratic opposition to the New Deal in the late 1930s:

A) was heaviest in the South
B) succeeded in removing three of Roosevelt's cabinet members
C) supported plans to replace Roosevelt with Henry Wallace as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1936
D) supported plans to replace Roosevelt with Huey Long as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1936
E) was heaviest in New England

Question 67

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.
Harold Ickes

A)author of The Grapes of Wrath
B)created the Share-the-Wealth program
C)served as secretary of labor
D)was a BIA commissioner
E)was the Republican presidential candidate in 1936
F)was a CIO leader
G)proposed to pay $200 a month to those over 60 who retired and promised to spend the money
H)was interior secretary
I)was the "radio priest"
J)headed the FERA and the WPA

Question 68

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.
John Steinbeck

A)author of The Grapes of Wrath
B)created the Share-the-Wealth program
C)served as secretary of labor
D)was a BIA commissioner
E)was the Republican presidential candidate in 1936
F)was a CIO leader
G)proposed to pay $200 a month to those over 60 who retired and promised to spend the money
H)was interior secretary
I)was the "radio priest"
J)headed the FERA and the WPA

Question 69

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.
John Collier

A)author of The Grapes of Wrath
B)created the Share-the-Wealth program
C)served as secretary of labor
D)was a BIA commissioner
E)was the Republican presidential candidate in 1936
F)was a CIO leader
G)proposed to pay $200 a month to those over 60 who retired and promised to spend the money
H)was interior secretary
I)was the "radio priest"
J)headed the FERA and the WPA

Question 70

How did the political pressure, and opposing views shape New Deal policies?

Question 71

During the elections of 1938:

A) Roosevelt was defeated in his bid for reelection
B) Roosevelt's attempts to "purge" the Democratic party were largely unsuccessful
C) Republicans won control of the House and the Democrats kept a majority of only two in the Senate
D) Republicans won control of the Senate and Democrats kept a majority of only two in the House
E) Roosevelt's decision to run for a third time led to Republicans calling him a fascist

Question 72

Describe the First Hundred Days of FDR's presidency. What, if any, accomplishments did he have?

Question 73

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.
Harry L. Hopkins

A)author of The Grapes of Wrath
B)created the Share-the-Wealth program
C)served as secretary of labor
D)was a BIA commissioner
E)was the Republican presidential candidate in 1936
F)was a CIO leader
G)proposed to pay $200 a month to those over 60 who retired and promised to spend the money
H)was interior secretary
I)was the "radio priest"
J)headed the FERA and the WPA

Question 74

Why did Roosevelt attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court? Did he achieve his goals?

Question 75

Describe the gains made by labor during the New Deal.

Question 76

Describe the various measures that President Roosevelt undertook in his first term to help relieve the human misery in America.

Question 77

How did New Deal reforms attempt to raise farm prices and stabilize industry?

Question 78

Discuss the impact the New Deal had on immoralities in the United States.

Question 79

Describe the impact the Great Depression had on popular culture in America.

Question 80

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938:

A) set a minimum wage of 40¢ an hour
B) protected workers' right to form unions
C) was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
D) required equal pay for female workers
E) prohibited the employment of children under the age of twelve