Deck 24: The Great Depression and the New Deal

Question 1

Francis Townsend's Revolving Pension plan would have provided $200 a month to __________.

A) all unemployed people
B) every head of household
C) all people over sixty
D) devoted Roman Catholics

Answer 1

all people over sixty

Question 2

Father Charles E. Coughlin blamed America's economic problems on __________.

A) Republicans
B) Wall Street, international bankers, and plutocratic capitalism
C) people who hoarded their money and did not spend it
D) industrial and farm overproduction

Answer 2

Wall Street, international bankers, and plutocratic capitalism

Question 3

The Federal Reserve's tightening of credit and Congress's adoption of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff __________.

A) worsened the economic situation
B) stabilized the economy
C) raised farm incomes sharply
D) freed up federal funds for relief programs

Answer 3

worsened the economic situation

Question 4

The CIO differed from the AFL in that it __________.

A) included blacks and women
B) distinguished between various gradations of labor
C) organized only skilled labor
D) avoided conflict with mass-production industries

Question 5

Which of these was suggested by the popularity of Father Coughlin, Upton Sinclair, Francis Townsend, and Huey Long?

A) The Republicans were losing support in the Northeast and the larger Midwestern cities.
B) The country was moving rapidly in a conservative direction.
C) Roosevelt might be losing support among workers, farmers, the aged, and the unemployed.
D) Most Americans saw the New Deal as a rousing success.

Question 6

Buying stock with credit offered by a broker is called "buying on __________."

A) the curb
B) margin
C) the split
D) your cuff

Question 7

How did joblessness affect families?

A) The traditional authority of the male breadwinner eroded.
B) Women and men shared housework equally.
C) Child labor increased dramatically.
D) Women lost their jobs and became full-time homemakers.

Question 8

Which New Deal initiative had the greatest impact on southern communities?

A) electrification
B) federal subsidies paid to tenant farmers and sharecroppers
C) greater voting rights for African Americans
D) new systems of wage labor and agribusiness

Question 9

Proposed by Senator Robert Wagner, the Wagner Act was officially called the __________.

A) Fair Industrial Practices Act
B) National Labor Relations Act
C) Fair Labor Standards Act
D) Emergency Relief Appropriations Act

Question 10

What conclusion can be made regarding gains and wages among American workers during the 1920s?

A) Workers in more traditional industries enjoyed pay increases, while workers in newer industries dealt with falling wages.
B) Workers in the farm sector were more secure economically than urban industrial workers.
C) Economic prosperity during the 1920s led to higher, equitable wages among industrial workers.
D) Workers in newer industries enjoyed pay increases, while workers in more traditional industries dealt with falling wages.

Question 11

In contrast to the American Federation of Labor, the Committee of Industrial Organization organized workers by __________.

A) income
B) location
C) level of skill
D) industry

Question 12

In the election of 1932, __________.

A) Roosevelt won by a razor-thin margin
B) Hoover pledged, if reelected, to launch a "new deal"
C) Roosevelt won in an unprecedented landslide
D) Republicans retained control of Congress

Question 13

The economic development of the West during the New Deal can be attributed to __________.

A) the cowboy spirit
B) laissez faire economic practices
C) western initiative and rugged individualism
D) federal subsidies and rational planning

Question 14

The National Recovery Administration sought to stimulate production through __________.

A) increased competition
B) government purchase of private corporations
C) government loans to corporations
D) government-enforced industrial codes

Question 15

Workers at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, used the following tactic to win their demands.

A) a sit-down strike
B) a slowdown
C) a walkout strike
D) destruction of plant machinery

Question 16

The stock market crash triggered a depression because __________.

A) almost all Americans owned stocks
B) stock prices were used to set interest rates
C) businessmen and the well-to-do lost confidence in the economy
D) rising prices put most consumer goods out of reach of the middle class

Question 17

The most powerful sign of a deepening depression in the early 1930s was __________.

A) rising unemployment
B) inflation
C) government welfare
D) soup kitchens

Question 18

President Hoover's plan for recovery focused on restoring the confidence of __________.

A) the consumer
B) business
C) local governments
D) international markets

Question 19

As a result of New Deal programs, southern agriculture __________.

A) moved away from sharecropping and cotton production toward diversity and agribusiness
B) collapsed completely
C) provided new jobs for thousands of unemployed industrial workers
D) remained stagnant and unproductive

Question 20

California repatriated Mexicans and Mexican Americans because __________.

A) unemployed whites wanted jobs held by Mexicans
B) the Dust Bowl had destroyed California agriculture
C) Mexico experienced labor shortages
D) Mexican Americans found better opportunities in other states

Question 21

New Deal programs for the arts-writers, painters, musicians, and others-were administered by the __________.

A) Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
B) Works Progress Administration (WPA)
C) Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
D) National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Question 22

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which was soon made into a film, sympathetically portrayed the plight of __________.

A) Oklahoma Dust Bowl migrants
B) unemployed Detroit factory workers
C) new immigrants in New York City
D) poor black farmers in Georgia

Question 23

After 1938, the New Deal __________.

A) lost momentum and was largely over
B) entered its most radical phase
C) faced repeated Supreme Court challenges
D) was no longer necessary

Question 24

The Public Works Administration (PWA) was based on the principle of stimulating the economy through __________.

A) providing jobs and increasing consumer spending
B) making credit available to businesses, banks, and industries
C) encouraging small businesses and self-employment
D) setting prices at a 1909‒1914 purchasing power average

Question 25

Overall, federal agricultural and reclamation programs probably helped which group the most?

A) sharecroppers
B) large-scale farmers and landowners
C) migrant farm workers
D) Mexican day laborers

Question 26

Besides providing the cheapest electricity in the United States, the Grand Coulee Dam also __________.

A) became a significant tourist attraction
B) brought African American farmers to the region
C) produced wealth for Mexican American workers
D) brought new manufacturing to the region

Question 27

Which First New Deal program was aimed mainly at jobless young men?

A) National Recovery Administration (NRA)
B) Public Works Administration (PWA)
C) Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
D) Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

Question 28

President Roosevelt's plan to restructure the Supreme Court in 1937 __________.

A) passed overwhelmingly in Congress
B) was denounced in the press and opposed by many conservative Democrats
C) shifted the balance of power to the Court
D) delighted conservatives but appalled his liberal supporters

Question 29

As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt __________.

A) played a traditional and uncontroversial role
B) openly opposed many New Deal programs
C) was a powerful voice for liberal causes
D) alienated many women with her activism

Question 30

The New Deal for Indians would best be described as __________.

A) bringing important but limited improvements to Native Americans
B) insensitive and harmful to traditional Indian culture
C) enormously beneficial to Native Americans
D) underfunded, halfhearted, and ineffective

Question 31

The Boulder Dam and Grand Coulee Dam projects __________.

A) were expensive, wasteful failures
B) caused extensive environmental damage
C) were carried out over strong western objections to FDR's "socialism"
D) harnessed the potential of the upper Mississippi River

Question 32

The most popular form of entertainment in the 1930s was __________.

A) radio
B) movies
C) spectator sports
D) live theater

Question 33

Clifford Odets's play, Waiting for Lefty, was controversial because __________.

A) it advocated radical, even communist, labor activism
B) it blamed the depression on FDR
C) conservative Republicans underwrote the production
D) the New York Group Theater refused to allow its performance

Question 34

When Roosevelt, with an improved economy, cut federal spending and tightened credit in 1937, __________.

A) the economy reached nearly full recovery
B) a sharp recession occurred
C) Democrats made dramatic gains in the 1938 elections
D) there was little impact on the economy

Question 35

A major development in popular music during the 1930s, exemplified by Benny Goodman, was __________.

A) rock and roll
B) cool jazz
C) folk music
D) swing

Question 36

The influence of the women's network in the New Deal is exemplified by FDR's appointment of Frances Perkins as __________.

A) secretary of labor
B) the first woman on the Supreme Court
C) attorney general
D) the first female army general

Question 37

In Schecter v. United States, the Supreme Court struck down the __________.

A) National Recovery Administration
B) Wagner Act
C) Social Security Act
D) Works Progress Administration

Question 38

John Collier played a leading role in what area of New Deal policy?

A) expanding the rights of African Americans
B) Indian policy
C) industrial recovery
D) jobs programs

Question 39

The Fair Labor Standards Act established __________.

A) a federal minimum wage
B) credit card laws
C) a public housing construction program
D) union collective bargaining rights

Question 40

During the New Deal, Roosevelt and his administration __________.

A) fought hard to guarantee equal rights and opportunities for African Americans
B) did little to combat entrenched racism and discrimination
C) lashed out at blacks to win votes from southern whites
D) adopted scrupulously administered quotas to ensure blacks participated fully in programs

Question 41

The Resettlement Administration was meant to __________.

A) help European refugees
B) create new kinds of model communities
C) aid Mexican migrants
D) provide aid to urban neighborhoods

Question 42

The Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) fought both landlords and the policies of the __________.

A) National Recovery Administration (NRA)
B) Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
C) Works Progress Administration (WPA)
D) Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

Question 43

The creation of the Soil Conservation Service, which conducted research into controlling wind and soil erosion, more than likely had its origins in the problems associated with the __________.

A) Dust Bowl
B) flooding in the Tennessee River basin
C) lack of an adequate domestic water supply in southern California
D) build-up of salt deposits on the Colorado River

Question 44

Why were many artists and intellectuals attracted to the Communist Party during the Depression years? How did events both within the United States and in Europe during these years shape this attraction?

Question 45

In which of these industries did wages fall in the 1920s?

A) textiles
B) automobiles
C) electrical manufacturing
D) plastics

Question 46

How did European nations, including Great Britain, contribute to the global economic crisis after Germany defaulted on its reparation payments to the Allies in the 1920s?

A) They abandoned the gold standard and devalued their currency relative to the dollar, thus making it more difficult for American businesses to sell their goods abroad.
B) They purchased greater amounts of American stocks, leading to a glut in the stock market and its eventual collapse.
C) They lowered or removed tariffs on American-made goods, thus reducing their prices and causing manufacturers to lose profits.
D) They increased their deposits in American banks, which devalued the American dollar's purchasing power abroad.

Question 47

The purpose of the Glass-Steagall Act was to __________.

A) protect minority groups from employment discrimination
B) protect individual Americans from the consequences of bank failures
C) protect farmers from falling crop prices
D) protect the federal government from international defaults

Question 48

What impact did the Depression have on Mexicans and Mexican Americans?

Question 49

The Social Security Act of 1935 __________.

A) placed maximum limits on personal wealth
B) guaranteed lifetime employment
C) provided old-age pensions and unemployment insurance
D) established a national health care system

Question 50

In the 1920s, __________ percent of the nation's families had no savings at all.

A) 20
B) 40
C) 60
D) 80

Question 51

Describe the psychological effects of unemployment during the Depression on men, women, and their families.

Question 52

Even before the 1929 stock market crash, what was the most important factor that predicted an imminent economic collapse of the American economy?

A) the unequal distribution of income that resulted in a concentrated amount of wealth in the control of a small percentage of Americans
B) the collapse of the German economy, which led to that nation's default on war reparations payments
C) Britain and France's inability to repay American war loans
D) the government's failure to pay World War I veterans a promised bonus and its harsh treatment of the Bonus Army

Question 53

Mary McLeod Bethune was a member of the __________.

A) United Autoworkers
B) Southern Tenant Farmers Union
C) Black Cabinet
D) Department of Labor

Question 54

In his failure to face the facts of the depression, President Herbert Hoover worried more about undermining individual initiative than providing what?

A) actual relief for victims
B) credit for ailing banks and railroads
C) a series of constructive fireside chats
D) low interest rates

Question 55

Which of these was at the heart of Huey Long's economic proposals?

A) the abolition of the income tax
B) the elimination of government regulation
C) wealth redistribution
D) supply-side theories

Question 56

Briefly describe the Roosevelt coalition that emerged in the election of 1936. Why did each of these groups support FDR?

Question 57

By 1933, the share of the American workforce that was unemployed was just over __________.

A) 25 percent
B) 50 percent
C) 10 percent
D) 5 percent

Question 58

Although meant to protect the interests of American farmers, how did the Smoot-Hawley Tariff hurt the global economy?

A) Other nations raised their own tariffs, which caused world trade to decline sharply.
B) Increased demand for American farm products by foreign markets put too much stress on American farm production and caused farmers to go bankrupt.
C) The tariff lowered the prices of American agricultural products, which caused a loss of profits for farmers.
D) The cheaper price of American farm goods caused overbuying by foreign markets, which were unable to sell them, thus causing American farmers to lose money.

Question 59

Describe and analyze the differences between the First New Deal and the Second New Deal. How and why did the focus shift in Second New Deal programs?

Question 60

What group was excluded from enjoying the benefits of the Social Security Act and the National Labor Relations Act?

A) auto workers
B) farm laborers
C) salesmen
D) actors

Question 61

Why was President Franklin D. Roosevelt reluctant to challenge racial segregation?

A) He was worried about offending powerful Southern Democratic congressmen.
B) He had a personal dislike for black people, though he did not express it publicly.
C) Under the Hoover administration, African Americans had already made much headway.
D) African American community leaders had told him to focus on economic recovery first and civil rights later.

Question 62

Which statement best describes the reasons for the second New Deal?

A) Roosevelt feared the loss of electoral support on the left and conservative sabotage in the Supreme Court.
B) Roosevelt had always intended to follow his first round of reforms with a second one.
C) The critique on the first New Deal in the Supreme Court had prompted Roosevelt to send his advisers back to the drawing board.
D) Roosevelt had focused on deficit-spending programs in the first round of reforms, while the second round was going to focus on budget cuts.

Question 63

Which statement best describes the historical significance of Roosevelt's first one hundred days?

A) During this period, FDR pushed through Congress an extraordinary number of reform and relief measures.
B) In this active period of the first New Deal, FDR's policymakers designed a coherent and ambitious unified reform program in which every single law had its particular place.
C) The first hundred days produced a series of measures that were supposed to mark the end of modern capitalism in America.
D) During the first one hundred days, Roosevelt found himself frustrated and delayed by the Republican majority in Congress.

Question 64

What was the group of conservative businessmen established in 1934 that vehemently attacked the administration for what they considered its attack on property rights, the growing welfare state, and decline of personal liberty?

A) American Liberty League
B) National Union for Social Justice
C) Congress of Industrial Organizations
D) Share Our Wealth Society

Question 65

How were American working women impacted by the Great Depression?

A) Jobs long associated with women's labor were less affected by unemployment than jobs traditionally held by men.
B) Women who performed unpaid domestic labor within their own homes qualified for benefits associated with the new Social Security Act.
C) The number of women in the workforce declined significantly as unemployed men took over their jobs.
D) The number of married women in the workforce remained relatively small, around 15 percent, as many wives and mothers stayed home to run their households.

Question 66

How did the Great Depression and the New Deal impact the Bureau of Reclamation's role and responsibilities within the federal government?

A) Its focus shifted from promoting the growth of small farms to building huge multipurpose dams to control entire river systems, such as the Colorado and Columbia rivers.
B) It was tasked with creating water recreational areas as its primary function to keep people's minds off the hardships associated with the Great Depression.
C) It became the largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States after overseeing the construction of 16 dams on 800 miles of the Tennessee River basin.
D) It helped irrigate and revive the Dust Bowl of the southern Great Plains.

Question 67

Which of the following groups was among the New Deal coalition that voted Franklin D. Roosevelt into office in 1936?

A) white Southern Democrats, unionized workers, and African American voters in the North and West
B) African Americans in the South, "economic royalists," and conservative Democrats
C) most voters in Maine and Vermont, Catholics, and Jews
D) ethnic groups who supported big-city political machines, Charles Coughlin and his supporters, and members of the Union Party

Question 68

Why did President Franklin D. Roosevelt suggest the appointment of additional justices to the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court for every sitting justice over age 70?

A) He wanted to ensure that his programs would be upheld by the Supreme Court.
B) He was concerned about the excessive workload of the elderly justices.
C) He wanted to capture the power of the Supreme Court as a first step to consolidating federal power.
D) He believed that a nation the size of the United States needed a larger Supreme Court.

Question 69

How did contracting polio prove a turning point in Franklin Roosevelt's life?

A) The privileged Roosevelt learned what it was like to struggle in hardship.
B) Roosevelt found out about the inadequacies of American health care firsthand.
C) The forced break from his busy schedule with a law firm gave him the opportunity to engage in politics.
D) His public announcement that he suffered from polio was met with almost unanimous respect and admiration.

Question 70

What common goals united the very diverse programs that made up the New Deal?

A) relief, reform, and recovery
B) socialism, demagoguery, and charity
C) militarism, capitalism, and property rights
D) conservation, redistribution of wealth, and industrialism

Question 71

How did President Roosevelt respond to the challenge of Republican Alfred M. Landon in the 1936 election?

A) He decried the "economic royalists" who denied that government could protect its citizens in their right to work and live.
B) He lambasted his critics on the left for their irresponsible spending plans and immature proposals.
C) He could do little else except point out that, under his administration, the Great Depression had been defeated and good times were back again.
D) He tried to focus the debate on the difference between his likable personality and the stiff deliveries of his opponent.

Question 72

How did Eleanor Roosevelt revolutionize the role of First Lady during her husband's presidential administration?

A) She transformed a traditional, passive role into one in which she could independently act as a guardian of human values.
B) She expanded the role to an international level, as she persuaded the United States to join the League of Nations to take collective global action against the Depression and to promote human rights around the world.
C) She convinced her husband to make the position of First Lady a permanent cabinet-level position.
D) She was elected to Congress while simultaneously fulfilling her traditional obligations as First Lady.

Question 73

How did the federal government respond to the soil erosion in the Dust Bowl region?

A) It altered land-use patterns and restored grasslands.
B) It forced farmers in the Dust Bowl off the land.
C) It turned much of the region into a national park.
D) It pushed urban redevelopment in the areas where agriculture no longer had a future.

Question 74

How did the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) most significantly affect the lives of rural Southerners during the Great Depression?

A) The TVA made electricity available to many rural residents in the South for the first time.
B) The TVA reduced the electric rates to the large percentage of rural residents who already had access to electricity in their homes.
C) The dams constructed by the TVA allowed rural farmers and planters to irrigate previously uncultivated land in the more arid regions of the South.
D) Canals, which provided southern cities with fresh drinking water, linked the Tennessee River basin to large urban areas in the South, including Atlanta and New Orleans.

Question 75

How did the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) affect poor sharecroppers?

A) It often led to their eviction since prosperous landowners used subsidies to buy more efficient machinery.
B) By raising the prices of their crops, it increased the share for sharecroppers and improved their living conditions.
C) The AAA completely ignored sharecroppers, and as a result they could only watch as subsidies for big farms depressed price levels.
D) The AAA imposed strict rules of conduct on landlords, which helped improve the civil rights situation for southern blacks.

Question 76

In the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, what did the federal government do for the first time?

A) guaranteed the right of American workers to join, or form, independent labor unions
B) gave company unions the same status as craft unions
C) gave industrial unions preferential treatment over older craft unions
D) established minimum wages and maximum hours nationwide

Question 77

How did access to the water of the Colorado River change the social relations of Californians in the Central Valley?

A) Access to this water system made some large farmers very wealthy but left many Mexican farmworkers unprotected and unorganized.
B) Access to this water system helped foster a new generation of family farms.
C) Access to this water system helped promote the development of organic farms for a more health-conscious urban market.
D) Access to this water system was cheap, so it allowed California growers to raise wages for their workers.

Question 78

Why did Father Charles Coughlin attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his passionate broadcasts from suburban Detroit?

A) He charged that Roosevelt wanted dictatorial powers and that New Deal policies were part of a communist conspiracy.
B) He complained that the New Deal had done too little to help the ailing automobile industry in Michigan.
C) He alleged that Roosevelt was really trying to aid big corporate monopolies in gaining more control over the U.S. economy.
D) He lamented that Roosevelt's policies favored the rural population over black urban dwellers who needed assistance first.

Question 79

How did New Deal programs, such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA), support African Americans during the Depression?

A) These agencies constructed integrated housing complexes and hired a higher-than-average percentage of African American workers.
B) These agencies were responsible for the passage of antilynching laws and worked to help African Americans in the South regain long-denied voting rights.
C) These agencies employed many displaced African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers and worked closely with Congress to pass legislation preventing landowners from evicting them from the farms they rented.
D) These agencies developed educational reading programs to reduce African American illiteracy.

Question 80

Which statement best describes the historical significance of the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO)?

A) For the first time ever, the labor movement had gained a permanent place in the nation's mass-production industries.
B) Although the growth of the CIO was welcome, it made little difference in an economy that would soon see a decline in manufacturing.
C) The triumph of the CIO over the AFL meant a complete reversal of craft unions on race and gender issues.
D) The emergence of the CIO triggered many years of infighting between the AFL and CIO that at times took on criminal proportions.