America topic 4 evidence bank

Question 1

1930s unemployment levels

Answer 1

12.8 million- 25% of the nations workforce
- as a consequence of the Wall Street Crash 1929 and the Great Depression

Question 2

New Deal Programmes: the NRA

Answer 2

• eliminated unfair trade practices
• set a minimum wage
• established 537 basic codes of workforce conduct
• prioritised and offered employment to white Americans first

Question 3

New Deal Programmes: the CCC

Answer 3

• employed more than 3 million men on conservation schemes
• relieved those who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression, was employment for 18-25 year old men
• largest enrolment at 1 time was 300,000

Question 4

New Deal Programmes: the AAA

Answer 4

• by 1935, the average farm income was 50% higher
• between 1933-34 AAA policies forced more than 100,000 black Americans off farming lands

Question 5

New Deal Programmes: the WPA

Answer 5

(The Work Progress Administration)
- was one of the only colour-blind New Deal scheme in practice
- 1935 employed approx 350,000 black Americans

Question 6

Truman ‘Fair Deal’ policies

Answer 6

• expanded social security
• extended the old-age benefit to approx 10 million more Americans

Question 7

1973 Oil Crisis

Answer 7

• fuel prices never returned to normal levels
• the price of oil quadrupled by 1974, up to $12 per 42 gallon barrel

Question 8

Home ownership:

Answer 8

• 1920= 6.7 mill Americans owned homes
• 1940= 15.2 Americans owned homes

Question 9

Electrification:

Answer 9

• 1935 Rural Electrification Administration set up by FDR
• 1950 9/10 farms electrified whereas in 1935 it was 1/10

Question 10

Government spending on healthcare:

Answer 10

• 1917= $3.1 mill
• 1930= $11 mill
• 1940= $32. 7 mill

Question 11

14-17 year olds attending school

Answer 11

• 1917= 27%
• 1940= 73%

Question 13

Coca Cola

Answer 13

-making $79 mill by 1959

Question 14

Teenagers:

Answer 14

• on average spent 38% of their income on transport
• on average spent 22% of their income on food and drink

Question 15

Poverty:

Answer 15

1966:
- 12% of whites below the poverty line
- 41% of non-whites below the poverty line

Question 16

LBJ:

Answer 16

• Great Society Programme’s passed between 1964-65
• 1964- economic opportunity act provided $947 mill in funding towards federal programmes
• War on poverty: 1964 LBJ created job corps for 100,000 disadvantaged men
• LBJ’s Head Start programme (an 8 week summer camp) served over 32 mill vulnerable American children

Question 17

Spectator Sports:

Answer 17

• Stadium Seats industrialisation and development: growth from 7,000 to 76,000
• Yankees stadium attendance, 1920= 1.29 mill

Question 18

Car-owning developments:

Answer 18

• 1929= 121,500 petrol stations, 1967= 216,000
• Highway expansion: Federal Aid Highway Act 1956- construction of 41,000 miles of highway over a 10 year period (large public work scheme) using $25 billion

Question 19

Average wage

Answer 19

Between 1929-1933 the average wage income fell by 42.5%

And national farm income fell from 16 bill in 1919 to 5 bill by 1932

Wealth was very divided in the US, by the 1920s, a third of all income was earned by just 5% of all people

Question 20

1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff:

Answer 20

Increased tariffs on foreign imports to the US by about 20% and in response at least 25 countries responded by increasing their own tariffs on American goods

Question 21

1933 Emergency Banking Act:

Answer 21

To do with bank stabilisation and financial recovery, only banks that were deemed trustworthy were able to reopen

Question 22

FDR welfare policies:

Answer 22

The Food Stamp Plan, a major new welfare program for urban poor, was established in 1939 to provide stamps to poor people who could use them to purchase food at retail outlets. The program ended during wartime prosperity in 1943 but was restored in 1961.

Question 23

1950s- decade of economic prosperity

Answer 23

The economy overall grew by 37% during the 1950s and unemployment remained low, about 4.5%. At the end of the decade, the median American family had 30% more purchasing power than at the beginning.

Question 24

Kennedy’s New Frontier policies:

Answer 24

He signed legislation raising the minimum wage and increasing Social Security benefits. He raised money for research into mental illness and allocated funds to develop impoverished rural areas

Altogether, the economic stimulus program provided an estimated 420,000 construction jobs under a new Housing Act, $175 million in higher wages for those below the new minimum, over $400 million in aid to over 1,000 distressed counties, over $200 million in extra welfare payments to 750,000 children and their parents, and nearly $800 million in extended unemployment benefits for nearly three million unemployed Americans

Question 25

Key FDR legislation:

Answer 25

Social Security Act 1935- established a system of old-age benefits for workers, benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, and aid for dependent mothers and children, persons who are blind, and persons with disabilities.

Wagner Act 1935- is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action such as strikes
In 1934, there was a large strike wave with 1.5 million workers going on strike for long-term union recognition, rather than immediate wage or hour concerns. National attention focused on the San Francisco docks when longshoremen formed a new local of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and went on strike in May 1934 due to the national ILA leadership ignoring their concerns.