Deck 24: The New Era, 1920-1929

Question 1

The term welfare capitalism refers to

A) the policy adopted by some companies of offering benefits such as profit sharing and pension plans to their employees in an effort to make unions less appealing.
B) the nationalization of all industry.
C) public ownership of utilities and all means of transportation.
D) the creation of business trade associations.

Answer 1

the policy adopted by some companies of offering benefits such as profit sharing and pension plans to their employees in an effort to make unions less appealing.

Question 2

The new consumerism between 1922 and 1929 was fueled mostly by

A) installment plans.
B) declining prices.
C) the advent of department stores.
D) modern advertising.

Answer 2

installment plans.

Question 3

Which of the following statements is most consistent with the philosophy of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association?

A) African Americans should demand integration in all areas of American society.
B) African Americans should separate themselves from corrupt white American society.
C) African Americans must elect their own candidates to state and national offices in order to become an integral part of white society.
D) African Americans must prove their ability at manual jobs in order to achieve upward mobility.

Answer 3

African Americans should separate themselves from corrupt white American society.

Question 4

What caused the great influx of Puerto Ricans to the mainland United States in the 1920s?

A) The brutality of military rule in Puerto Rico
B) A shift in the Puerto Rican economy from sugar to coffee production
C) Positive encouragement from Puerto Ricans already living on the mainland
D) Federal financing for Puerto Ricans who wanted to come to the mainland

Question 5

At their 1924 national convention, the Democrats

A) nominated Robert La Follette as a compromise candidate.
B) approved a resolution calling for an end to Prohibition.
C) failed to pass a resolution condemning the Teapot Dome scandal.
D) failed to pass a resolution condemning the Ku Klux Klan.

Question 6

Which of the following is true of the National Woman's Party during the 1920s?

A) It joined with organizations composed of African American women to fight for the rights of minority women.
B) It campaigned tirelessly for enactment of sex-based labor legislation to protect employed working-class women.
C) It campaigned for an Equal Rights Amendment to guarantee women's equality with men under the law.
D) It encouraged women to engage in bloc voting.

Question 7

Which of the following was a characteristic of the American economy during the 1920s?

A) The federal government took a less active role in aiding business interests.
B) Consumerism became a major economic force as consumer protection groups abounded.
C) Increased competition within major industries led to renewed emphasis on product quality.
D) The trend toward the consolidation of economic power in the hands of oligopolies continued.

Question 8

In the 1920s, the ultimate symbol of social equality was the

A) washing machine.
B) radio.
C) house with electricity.
D) automobile.

Question 9

Which of the following was one of Harding's major problems as president?

A) He could not work with Congress.
B) He was too liberal.
C) He sought military solutions to most international problems.
D) He appointed to government positions friends who, through bribery and fraud, used their offices for personal gain.

Question 10

Which of the following statements is accurate concerning the American economy between 1919 and 1929?

A) The purchasing power of most American workers increased.
B) The gross national product fell slightly.
C) The new consumer goods that appeared in the marketplace were available only to the rich.
D) Most Americans were reluctant to spend their disposable income on new consumer goods because they feared a recession.

Question 11

The Supreme Court's ruling in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Company

A) overturned a minimum-wage law for women.
B) upheld mandatory retirement policies.
C) established the precedent that a striking union could be prosecuted for illegal restraint of trade.
D) voided restrictions on child labor.

Question 12

Which of the following was true of African Americans living in inner-city northern ghettos in the 1920s?

A) They successfully lobbied for the enactment of rent-control laws in most major northeastern cities.
B) By forming neighborhood protective associations, they were able to gain a great deal of political power.
C) As they acquired better paying jobs, they were able to move to spacious homes in suburban neighborhoods.
D) Because better housing was usually closed to them, they found it very difficult to escape from such areas.

Question 13

Which of the following is true of President Warren G. Harding?

A) He sought the repeal of all federal regulatory legislation.
B) He initiated a long era of Democratic party dominance.
C) His appointee to head the Veterans Bureau was convicted of fraud and bribery in connection with government contracts and went to federal prison.
D) His appointees to the Supreme Court were outstanding justices.

Question 14

Which of the following is true of progressive reform in the 1920s?

A) Both social and political reforms were enacted at the state and local levels.
B) The government-owned hydroelectric power project at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, was sold to private interests.
C) The major federal regulatory agencies were dismantled.
D) The federal government stepped up its antitrust activity.

Question 15

For the American economy, the period 1920 to 1922 was a time of

A) declining farm prices and rapidly rising unemployment.
B) increasing exports and heavy consumer spending.
C) record investment spending and rising prices.
D) low unemployment and double-digit inflation.

Question 16

Which of the following is true of President Calvin Coolidge?

A) He raised tax rates on incomes over $50,000.
B) He engaged in deficit spending.
C) He vetoed bills that would have established government-backed price supports for staple crops.
D) He supported attempts to enforce antitrust laws more strictly.

Question 17

The Universal Negro Improvement Association declined in the mid-1920s for which of the following reasons?

A) The Black Star steamship line went bankrupt and Marcus Garvey was deported for mail fraud.
B) The death of Marcus Garvey deprived the association of its persuasive and charismatic leader.
C) Investigations revealed that the Black Star shipping line was engaged in smuggling.
D) Poor African Americans, feeling exploited by Marcus Garvey, began to reject the UNIA's radical agenda.

Question 18

Which of the following statements best expresses the Supreme Court's ruling in Coronado Coal Company v. United Mine Workers?

A) A striking union can be prosecuted for illegal restraint of trade.
B) A corporation can be prosecuted for directing a hired security force to use violence against a striking union.
C) A corporation can be prosecuted for not allowing its workers to organize into a union.
D) A striking union can be prosecuted for encouraging violent tactics.

Question 19

Which of the following was true of the Justice Department during the 1920s?

A) It was the target of a congressional investigation concerning the harassment of dissidents.
B) It was the branch of the federal government that most assertively enforced liberal reform measures.
C) In a setback for organized labor, it helped end a nationwide strike by miners.
D) It supported the right of state governments to regulate business corporations in particular ways.

Question 20

Which of the following is true of the League of Women Voters during the 1920s?

A) It joined with organizations composed of African American women to fight for the rights of minority women.
B) It supported legislation to limit working hours and improve working conditions for employed women.
C) It encouraged women to engage in bloc voting.
D) It became the champion of feminism by campaigning for an Equal Rights Amendment to guarantee women's equality with men in all parts of society.

Question 21

As a result of the growth of the suburbs,

A) the boundaries of most central cities expanded as they annexed outlying areas.
B) the peer group's influence on children began to decline while the family's influence increased.
C) pollution and trash were spread over a larger area.
D) nonwhites were able to escape the overcrowding of the inner-city ghettos.

Question 22

The immigration quotas established by Congress in the 1920s

A) reflected a desire to increase immigration.
B) favored northern Europeans.
C) were opposed by labor unions.
D) were opposed by business executives.

Question 23

Modernists claimed victory in the Scopes trial because

A) they believed the testimony in the trial proved fundamentalism to be illogical.
B) they believed that William Jennings Bryan's eloquent defense of academic freedom led to greater national acceptance of that concept.
C) the Supreme Court subsequently overturned the conviction of John Scopes.
D) the state of Tennessee repealed its law prohibiting public-school instructors from teaching the theory of evolution.

Question 24

Which of the following is true of women in the work force in the 1920s?

A) Women began moving into occupations previously restricted to men.
B) Married women made up the majority of women workers by the end of the decade.
C) Married women joined the work force in increasing numbers.
D) Sex segregation in the workplace became less noticeable.

Question 25

Which of the following is a factor that caused prohibition to fail?

A) It became obvious that the "noble experiment" caused serious economic problems.
B) Enforcement of prohibition was lax at both the federal level and the state level.
C) Americans became disillusioned with prohibition once they recognized that it was linked to organized crime.
D) It was completely outside the traditional American value system.

Question 26

What was the common theme expressed in The Great Gatsby, Babbit, and Elmer Gantry?

A) The preoccupation with money in American society
B) The decline of intellect
C) The decline of manhood
D) The sexual liberation of women

Question 27

Which of the following is true of the Sacco and Vanzetti case?

A) Their conviction was a sign of strong sentiment against reactionary, racist organizations.
B) The two men were convicted largely because of their political beliefs and Italian origins.
C) The case indicates that African Americans could not be guaranteed a fair trial in the South.
D) The case indicates that the fear of radicalism that had led to the Red Scare had disappeared.

Question 28

He was called "The Lone Eagle" and was the most notable news hero of the 1920s.

A) Floyd Collins
B) Jack Dempsey
C) Charles A. Lindbergh
D) John Scopes

Question 29

Many of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance

A) accepted the accommodationist approach of Booker T. Washington.
B) expressed the same feelings as those expressed by the white "Lost Generation" writers.
C) rejected their African heritage.
D) rejected white culture and exalted the "New Negro."

Question 30

During the 1920s and after, the constancy with which same-age children were brought together in graded school classes, sports, and clubs

A) made the transition to adolescence easy for most children.
B) increased the importance of the peer group in socializing children.
C) made children more accepting of their parents.
D) reduced the self-esteem of most children.

Question 31

Which of the following is considered America's most distinctive art form?

A) Jazz
B) Motion pictures
C) Musical comedy
D) Ragtime

Question 32

Which of the following is true of the National Origins Act of 1927?

A) It allowed Europeans to freely immigrate to the United States, except for those who were defined as potential paupers.
B) It based immigration quotas on the 1890 census.
C) It was the first immigration act to exempt individuals with desirable professions from immigration quotas.
D) It did not establish quotas for immigrants from the Western Hemisphere.

Question 33

Which of the following is true of racist, nativist, and fundamentalist groups in the 1920s?

A) Such groups engaged in terrorist acts with the ultimate aim of overthrowing the U.S. government.
B) Almost all of the members of such groups were from poor, depressed rural areas.
C) Congress labeled such groups as subversive and required their members to register with the U.S. government.
D) The members of such groups were attempting to defend the older values associated with the late nineteenth century against the materialism and rapid social change of the 1920s.

Question 34

Which of the following is true of family life in the 1920s?

A) Parental influence increased.
B) The percentage of families with five or more children increased.
C) Family members devoted more time to family tasks.
D) The divorce rate rose.

Question 35

Which of the following became a standard job benefit for white-collar workers in the 1920s?

A) A company car
B) Annual vacations
C) Company-sponsored day-care centers
D) Dental insurance

Question 36

Which of the following is true of the Ku Klux Klan of the early 1920s?

A) It was anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, and anti-black.
B) It was confined to the Deep South.
C) It repudiated the vigilante tactics of its forerunner.
D) It appealed to fewer people than its forerunner.

Question 37

By the early 1930s, the increase in life expectancy and the accompanying increase in the number of elderly Americans caused which of the following to occur?

A) The federal government established a national program of old-age insurance.
B) State governments began to provide assistance to the needy elderly.
C) Most corporations began offering retirement plans to their employees.
D) The federal government established a comprehensive retirement plan for federal employees.

Question 38

One of the most popular movie stars of the 1920s was

A) Gary Cooper.
B) Cecil B. DeMille.
C) D. W. Griffith.
D) Rudolph Valentino.

Question 39

What feature of the 1928 presidential election had the greatest significance for the future of the Democratic party?

A) The Republican candidate made significant inroads in the South.
B) The Republican candidate captured the women's vote.
C) The Democratic candidate carried the nation's twelve largest cities.
D) The Democratic candidate captured a majority of the African American vote.

Question 40

New technology changed the role of housewives in which of the following ways?

A) Housewives began to be seen as specialists in certain tasks.
B) Fewer child-raising responsibilities were placed on the housewife.
C) Management of the household became more of a shared family responsibility.
D) The housewife became the family's chief shopper rather than its chief producer.

Question 41

Which of the following was true of many American businesses in 1929?

A) In anticipation of an economic downturn in the 1930s, they had significantly reduced their inventories.
B) Having misrepresented their assets to obtain loans, they were overburdened with debt.
C) They enjoyed relatively high profits because of the expansion of foreign markets.
D) They incurred heavy losses of capital by shifting their investments from the United States stock market to less profitable European markets.

Question 42

Underconsumption was caused by which of the following?

A) Farmers and workers built up large savings accounts that drew excessive interest.
B) Due to falling wages and rising unemployment, many middle- and lower-income Americans could no longer buy the products they needed and wanted.
C) A shortage of labor caused a drastic reduction in industrial production.
D) The public continually demanded consumer goods of a higher and higher quality.

Question 43

Why did European nations begin to default on repaying their debts to the United States in the late 1920s?

A) They had begun massive rearmament programs.
B) They were experiencing severe inflation.
C) They were pouring massive sums into social welfare programs.
D) They depended on reparations payments from Germany to pay their loans and, since American banks had stopped making loans to Germany, those reparations payments ceased.

Question 44

Which of the following best expresses prevailing thought in 1929 concerning economic depressions?

A) Massive government aid to business is the best way to overcome a depression.
B) Economic downturns are natural and simply must be allowed to run their course.
C) The proper course during a depression is to lower tariff levels and raise taxes.
D) The key to overcoming a depression is to raise interest rates.

Question 45

Which of the following factors contributed to the Great Depression?

A) The maldistribution of income
B) A high rate of inflation
C) The elimination of protective tariffs
D) A large and growing federal deficit