Deck 9: The New Deal Experiment, 1932-1939

Question 1

What was the purpose of Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps?

A) It provided work for young women so that they could help their families.
B) It gave young men government jobs conserving natural resources.
C) It made use of surplus food donated by farmers to pay the working poor.
D) It established federally funded recycling programs to conserve natural resources.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What made it impossible for the National Recovery Administration (NRA)to regulate business effectively?

A) Large businesses that employed more workers were excluded from the agency's charge.
B) The codes written by industry leaders tended to serve the interests of corporations only.
C) The code system was so complicated that neither the government nor the corporations could interpret it effectively.
D) The government's NRA public relations campaign actually discouraged Americans from patronizing NRA businesses.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The New Deal made significant improvements in the quality of life in rural America by

A) expanding railroad lines to make travel and trade easier for rural Americans.
B) establishing programs to facilitate the opening of new overseas markets for farmers' surplus crops.
C) initiating federal oversight to ensure that sharecroppers and tenant farmers received a fair share of government benefits.
D) providing electricity to rural communities through the Rural Electrification Administration.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

To what was President Roosevelt referring when he said,"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?

A) Fascist aggression in Germany
B) Nationalist expansion in Japan
C) His paralysis from polio
D) The terror caused by the Depression

Question 5

What was the purpose of the Tennessee Valley Authority program that began in 1933?

A) It was created to establish a successful partnership between private utilities and the federal government.
B) It helped supply jobs and power to impoverished rural communities.
C) It was a financial aid program that made low-interest loans available to small businesses.
D) It was an agricultural assistance program designed to help farmers recoup their losses.

Question 6

What struggle was reflected in Dorothea Lange's famous photograph of Florence Owens?

A) The struggle of urban immigrants to assimilate
B) The struggle of African Americans who migrated north
C) The struggle of migrant farm laborers during the Depression
D) The struggle of women for equal rights

Question 7

What made the election of 1932 particularly historic?

A) Roosevelt won with only a bare majority of the popular and Electoral College votes.
B) For the first time in American history,the Socialist and Communist party candidates made a huge showing.
C) Roosevelt won 57 percent of the popular vote,and Democrats swept both houses of Congress.
D) It was the first time that a majority of African Americans cast their votes for a Democratic candidate.

Question 8

What strategy did President Roosevelt use to restore America's confidence in government and the private banking system?

A) He held daily press conferences at the White House.
B) He broadcast his reassuring fireside chats on the radio.
C) He strong-armed Congress to pass all the bills his administration proposed.
D) He issued unemployment checks to needy families.

Question 9

How did the Agricultural Adjustment and Farm Credit acts of 1935 aim to help American farmers?

A) They established programs that accelerated the rate of farm foreclosures to eradicate unproductive farms.
B) They initiated programs to pay farmers for their surplus crops so they could be used to feed people in developing countries.
C) They paid farmers not to grow crops and provided long-term credit on mortgaged farm property.
D) They provided benefits to sharecroppers and tenant farmers who were being squeezed by their landlords.

Question 10

Which of the following describes the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)?

A) It was one of Herbert Hoover's only effective responses to bank failures.
B) It guaranteed bank customers that the federal government would reimburse them for deposits if their bank failed.
C) It was an emergency measure Roosevelt passed to close the nation's banks until they were solvent again.
D) It was a system through which the federal government would deposit money into regional banks to strengthen them.

Question 11

The Emergency Banking Act of 1933 strengthened American banks by

A) bringing back the gold standard.
B) ending their dependence on holding companies.
C) nationalizing U.S.savings and loan associations.
D) releasing federal funds to bolster their assets.

Question 12

What was the unifying basis of the New Deal coalition?

A) Members united around specific policies.
B) Members came together to defeat an expansion of the welfare state.
C) Members came together around an anti-capitalist ideology.
D) Members expressed faith that government would change things for the better.

Question 13

What belief lay at the foundation of Roosevelt's New Deal?

A) Socialism held the solution to the nation's economic crisis.
B) Overconsumption was the greatest flaw in America's capitalist economy.
C) Government intervention in big business was bad business.
D) Capitalism held the solution to the nation's economic crisis.

Question 14

According to Map 24.2: Electoral Shift,1928-1932,which states were most likely to have voted Democrat in both the 1928 and 1932 elections?

A) Midwestern states
B) More recently admitted western states
C) States in the Deep South
D) States with highly concentrated urban areas

Question 15

What was the name of President Roosevelt's signature program?

A) The New Freedom
B) The Square Deal
C) The Works Progress Program
D) The New Deal

Question 16

What was Franklin D.Roosevelt's political experience before he won the presidential election of 1932?

A) He had served as the Republican mayor of New York City.
B) He had gained political experience as he worked his way through college.
C) He had served as governor of New York.
D) He had been lieutenant governor and then a two-term the governor of New Jersey.

Question 17

What was the three-part goal of Roosevelt's New Deal?

A) Experiment,Energy,and Employment
B) Workers' rights,unemployment relief,and civil rights
C) Relief,recovery,and reform
D) Coalition,compromise,and capitalism

Question 18

Opponents of the New Deal included business leaders and

A) some labor leaders.
B) the League of Women Voters.
C) western farmers.
D) workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Question 19

What was the name of the agency President Roosevelt established in 1933 to provide direct relief to more than four million households?

A) Federal Emergency Relief Association (FERA)
B) Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)
C) Social Security Administration (SSA)
D) National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Question 20

Which woman became the New Deal's unofficial ambassador in 1933?

A) Margaret Sanger
B) Jane Addams
C) Mary McLeod Bethune
D) Eleanor Roosevelt

Question 21

Where did migrant workers seeking to escape the chronic drought of the Dust Bowl typically look for work in the 1930s?

A) California
B) Texas
C) Michigan
D) New England

Question 22

On what grounds did Upton Sinclair challenge Roosevelt and the New Deal?

A) He believed that Roosevelt had enlarged the federal government too greatly.
B) He criticized Roosevelt for providing too much support for blacks.
C) He believed that the New Deal was the handmaiden of business elites.
D) He viewed the New Deal as infringing on the rights of business.

Question 23

"I can get a job today even if we got a depression.I don't mean that I wasn't on relief when things got tough because there was a time when everything was shut down and I had to get on relief for a job.It isn't so long ago I was working on WPA.Believe me it was a big help.But it wasn't the kind of a job I should have had because this town is Republican and I am a Republican and I was a good worker for the party-making voters and helping a lot of people out....Getting jobs for them.When it came my turn that I needed help the politicians told me that I had to go on relief-well,when I did I was handed a shovel and pick....Roosevelt is a damn good man....You know there shouldn't be a depression in this country ...the Democrats are in power and the Republicans won't let loose with the money.Well I say that the money men started this thing and I believe the government should make laws to force these capitalists to bring back prosperity.They can do it if they wanted to." Charles Fusco,whose testimony is featured in this excerpt,blamed what or whom for the Great Depression?

A) Republican politicians
B) Foreign immigrants who took American jobs
C) African American migrants to the North who took jobs from whites
D) Rich capitalists

Question 24

Republican Alf Landon ran for president in 1936 on which platform?

A) Balancing the federal budget
B) Maintaining the New Deal
C) Expanding Social Security
D) Increasing defense spending

Question 25

The Wagner Act helped which of the following unions to mobilize organizing drives in major industries?

A) The American Federation of Labor
B) The Committee for Industrial Organization
C) The National Labor Union
D) The National Association of Manufacturers Workers

Question 26

"Long ago,I wanted to join the AFL union,the Amalgamated Butchers and Meat Cutters,they called it and wouldn't take me.Wouldn't let me in the union.Never said it to my face,but reason of it was plain.Negro.That's it.Just didn't want a Negro man to have what he should.That's wrong.You know that's wrong.Long about 1937 the CIO come.Well,I tell you,we Negroes was glad to see it come.Well,you know,sometimes the bosses,or either the company stooges try to keep the white boys from joining the union.They say,'you don't want to belong to a black man's organization.That's all the CIO is.' Don't fool nobody,but they got to lie,spread lyin' words around." What organization did Jim Cole accuse of racism?

A) The AFL
B) The CIO
C) The WPA
D) The NRA

Question 27

The framers of Social Security agreed to fund the program

A) through a progressive tax on workers.
B) with tax contributions from workers and their employers.
C) by raising income taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
D) through the federal government's general tax fund.

Question 28

Why didn't southern tenant farmers benefit from the programs developed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act,the Commodity Credit Corporation,and the Farm Credit Act?

A) The farmers' loan applications were not processed correctly.
B) Southern states did not participate in these New Deal programs.
C) The programs benefitted large farmers rather than tenant farmers who rented land.
D) Tenant farmers did not qualify for these assistance programs because they didn't own the land they farmed.

Question 29

On what criteria were benefits provided through Social Security?

A) Benefits were based on workers' contributions and years of work.
B) Workers took a means test to prove they were needy.
C) All workers in all occupations received Social Security benefits.
D) Domestic and agricultural workers received extra benefits.

Question 30

What aspects of city life were emphasized in the "City Activities Mural"?

A) The vibrant entertainment culture of cities
B) The hard work performed by city dwellers
C) The ethnic diversity of cities
D) The patriotism and support for President Roosevelt common in cities

Question 31

What impact did New Deal programs have on the average national unemployment rate during the 1930s?

A) They reduced the average national unemployment rate to 5 percent by 1935.
B) They created millions of jobs but had little effect on unemployment because layoffs continued throughout the decade.
C) They reduced the average unemployment rate,but it remained high,at about 17 percent,through the 1930s.
D) They allowed the federal government to serve as the employer of last resort,thereby reducing average unemployment rates to near zero.

Question 32

Why did Roosevelt fail to push for more ambitious reforms for black Americans?

A) He was too busy with programs for workers and farmers.
B) He could not afford to lose the support of southern Democrats for his New Deal agenda.
C) He was unmoved by African Americans' circumstances and not concerned about civil rights.
D) He was afraid of creating disorder in the South by disturbing the balance of power between blacks and white landowners.

Question 33

In 1937,disgruntled workers at the General Motors plant in Flint,Michigan,acted on their grievances by

A) holding the managers of the plant hostage.
B) destroying the plant's assembly lines.
C) staging a sit-down strike.
D) organizing a massive walkout.

Question 34

Who championed the "Share Our Wealth" plan of income redistribution?

A) Huey Long
B) John Steinbeck
C) Francis Townsend
D) Charles Coughlin

Question 35

Father Charles Coughlin,an opponent of the New Deal,placed the blame for the nation's economic crisis on

A) Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic party.
B) Communists,bankers,and capitalists.
C) impoverished immigrants who taxed cities' resources.
D) Prohibition,which weakened the liquor industry.

Question 36

What was the outcome of the strike at Republic Steel outside Chicago in 1937?

A) Republic Steel made the United Steelworkers Union the sole bargaining unit for all of the company's workers.
B) Steelworkers won the biggest wage increase ever recorded in the industry.
C) Steelworkers' frustrations led them to tear up the railroad tracks that led to the plant.
D) Strikers halted their organizing campaign after the police attacked and killed ten of them.

Question 37

Which of the following describes the experiences of Mexican Americans during the 1930s?

A) They found it easy to integrate into American society.
B) They experienced substantially less discrimination in New Deal programs than did other minority groups.
C) They experienced a dramatic increase in wages through employment in New Deal programs.
D) Thousands were deported,many with their American-born children.

Question 38

By 1936,how did many American radicals-including Communists and socialists-respond to the New Deal?

A) They denounced it for failing to serve the interests of workers and their families.
B) They pronounced it fascist and called for the impeachment of President Roosevelt.
C) They dismissed it as inadequate and openly called for the overthrow of capitalism.
D) They had begun to support the New Deal's relief programs and its encouragement of labor unions.

Question 39

What event dealt the final blow to the NRA in May 1935?

A) Business leaders withdrew their companies from the NRA.
B) The Supreme Court ruled that the agency was unconstitutional.
C) Labor leaders marched on Washington to protest the agency.
D) Congress refused to fund the agency's budget.

Question 40

What was the outcome of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act on Native Americans?

A) It provided economic aid and other forms of assistance to help Indians in poverty.
B) It forced Native Americans back onto the reservations they had left after passage of the Dawes Act in 1887.
C) It restored Indians' right to own land communally and have greater control over their affairs.
D) It strengthened the federal government's policy of assimilation by dispersing concentrated populations of Indians.

Question 41

President Roosevelt's plan to remove judicial obstacles to New Deal reforms in his second term of office

A) was extremely popular with conservatives.
B) was popularly known as court-packing.
C) was widely accepted by Congress and the American public.
D) would allow Roosevelt to take his ideas directly to the American people.

Question 42

How did President Roosevelt attempt to change the economy in 1937?

A) He made it easier for Americans to borrow money.
B) He decreased deficit spending.
C) He made the difficult decision to maintain the gold standard.
D) He increased funding for relief projects to help unemployed women and their children.

Question 43

Which of the following statements describes the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938?

A) It provided jobs for all able-bodied workers.
B) It was often called the Time and Money Act.
C) It set standards for wages and hours.
D) It explicitly exempted women.

Question 44

The economist John Maynard Keynes argued which of the following?

A) Government intervention is needed in bad economic times to pump enough money into the economy to revive production and increase consumption.
B) A balanced budget is an absolute prerequisite for stopping inflation and creating long-term economic stability.
C) The principle of laissez-faire failed in the nineteenth century but is essential to a healthy U.S.economy in the twentieth.
D) The theory of supply and demand can be used to revive production and increase consumption throughout the nation.

Question 45

Which of the following statements describes the National Housing Act of 1937?

A) It met most cities' needs for affordable housing.
B) It provided free housing for over half a million Americans.
C) It made 160,000 residences available to poor people at affordable rents.
D) It symbolized the federal government's retreat from providing decent urban housing.

Question 46

The goal of the New Deal's Farm Security Administration,created in 1937,was to

A) help farmers invest in the lucrative securities market.
B) help tenant farmers become independent landowners.
C) take the place of the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
D) encourage crop surpluses of nonperishable grains to be stored in case of national emergency.

Question 47

What was the outcome of President Roosevelt's fiscal decisions in 1937?

A) Unemployment figures dropped.
B) The country returned to normalcy.
C) The country suffered a recession.
D) Conservative opposition to the New Deal lessened.

Question 48

Which of the following describes the overall impact of the New Deal?

A) It prevented the United States from turning toward authoritarian solutions to the nation's economic crisis.
B) It ended the Depression and eliminated the class hierarchy in the United States.
C) It weakened presidential power and strengthened the military-industrial complex.
D) It ended the Depression and led directly to the United States' involvement in World War II.

Question 49

What occurrence proved that opposition to the New Deal had increased by the end of 1938?

A) The public reacted to new social programs with apathy.
B) There was a nearly 60 percent turnover in President Roosevelt's cabinet.
C) Republicans made gains in Congress.
D) Roosevelt was unable to gain support for his plan to nationalize banking and agriculture.

Question 50

President Roosevelt's plan for enlarging the Supreme Court

A) became unnecessary when four conservative judges retired.
B) faced great opposition but was ultimately successful.
C) was ruled unconstitutional by the sitting Supreme Court justices.
D) was ratified by Congress but not by the required number of states.