Alphabet Agencies

Question 1

What did FERA stand for?

Answer 1

Federal Emergency Relief Administration

Question 2

What did the FERA do?

Answer 2

• help the poor, $500 million spent on soup kitchens, blankets and unemployment schemes

Question 3

What did CCC stand for and what year was it introduced?

Answer 3

Civilian Conservation Corps 1933

Question 4

Which group did the CCC aim to help and approximately how many were helped?

Answer 4

Young men (aged 17-24 / later 28)
Helped 2.5 million

Question 5

What were the 3Rs of the New Deal?

Answer 5

Relief, Recovery and Reform

Question 6

What did the AAA stand for and who did it aim to help?

Answer 6

Agricultural Adjustment Administration

Farmers

Question 7

What did the AAA do?

Answer 7

• Gave subsidies to farmers to grow produce less (set quotas)
• Helped farmers to modernise farm methods to protect the soil

Question 8

In what ways was the AAA criticised?

Answer 8

• Paid farmers to produce (kill livestock) less at a time of hunger
• Farm labourers (share croppers) lost jobs with modernisation
• Supreme Court said it interfered in state government

Question 9

What did the HOLC stand for and what did it do?

Answer 9

Home Owners Loan Corporation (1933)
Took over mortgages of many Americans struggling to pay so owners avoided eviction. Mortgages provided at a better rate of interest for repayment

Question 10

True or False - NRA stands for National Relief Agency?

Answer 10

False - it stands for National Recovery Administration

Question 11

Which of the following did the NRA do?

1. Tried to improve working conditions (fair wages, could join a trade union)
2. Outlawed child labour
3. Said firms signing up could have the blue eagle as an emblem

Answer 11

The NRA did all of them.

Question 12

Was the NRA successful? (Give YES and NO response)

Answer 12

Yes- over 2 million employers signed up thereby improving working conditions
NO- Shut down by the Supreme Court (declared unconstitutional)

Question 13

What did PWA stand for and how much was it given?

Answer 13

Public Works Administration

$3.3 billion

Question 14

What did the PWA do?

Answer 14

• created millions of jobs (short term)
• built 50,000 of roads and 13,000 school
• also built dams, hospitals, bridges and airports

Question 15

Why did the areas around the Tennessee River need assistance?

Answer 15

River flooded in wet season and in the dry season the soil and farmland around the river eroded, turning into a dust bowl and making it useless for farming.
Lots of poverty and little electricity.

Question 16

What did the TVA do to help the problems of the Tennessee Valley?

Answer 16

Constructed 20 dams across 7 states

Question 17

In what ways was the TVA successful?

Answer 17

• Controlled the floods
• Irrigated dried out land
• Produced cheap hydroelectricity
• Created thousands of jobs in the area

Question 18

Why the TVA criticised?

Answer 18

The dams cut across states and therefore interfered in state government

Question 19

The Social Security Act (SSA) of 1935 provided state pensions for the over 65s (started in 1940 and only if they had contributed to pension whilst working). What else did the SSA do?

Answer 19

Unemployment benefit (maximum of 16 weeks at $18 a week)

Question 20

What did the WPA stand for and what did it do?

Answer 20

Works Progress Administration 1935 (later Works Project Administration)

• brought all organisations trying to help create jobs together (approx 2 million employed at any one time)
• extended public work schemes (built 1,00 airport landing fields, 8,000 schools and hospitals, 12,00 playgrounds)
• employed for 1 year
• did jobs private contractors didn’t want such as surveying historic sites