Chapter 24: The Great Depression and the New Deal 1929-1939

Question 1

Black Tuesday

Answer 1

October 29, 1929: When the bottom fell out of the stock market
~Millions of panicky investors ordered their brokers to sell when there were no buyers to be found

Question 2

“Buying on Margin”

Answer 2

Allowed people to borrow most of the cost of the stock

~Made down payments as low as 10%

Question 3

Gross National Product

Answer 3

The value of all the goods and services produced by the nation in one year

Question 4

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

Answer 4

Set tax increases ranging from 31-49% on foreign imports
~Meant to satisfy U.S. business leaders
~European countries retaliated by putting higher tariffs on U.S. exports

Question 5

Federal Farm Board

Answer 5

Authorized to help farmers stabilize prices by temporarily holding surplus grain and cotton in storage
~The program was much too modest to handle the continued overproduction of farm goods
~Actually created in 1929 prior to the stock market crash

Question 6

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

Answer 6

Funded by Congress as a means to prop up faltering railroads, banks, life insurance companies, and other financial institutions
~President reasoned that emergency loans from the corporation would help to stabilize these key businesses
~The benefits would “trickle down” to smaller businesses and ultimately bring recovery

Question 7

Bonus March Army

Answer 7

A thousand unemployed WWI veterans marched to Washington D.C. to demand immediate payment of the bonuses promised them at a later date
~Camped outside/near the Capitol
~Congress failed to secure the bonus they sought
~The encampment was broken up

Question 8

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Answer 8

Democratic nominee for president in the Election of 1932
~Pledged a “new deal”
~Expanded the size of the federal government altered its scope of operations and greatly expanded the power of the presidency

Question 9

20th Amendment

Answer 9

Shortened the period between presidential election and inauguration
~Set a new date, Jan. 20 for the start of the president’s term in office
~Known as the “lame duck” amendment

Question 10

Eleanor Roosevelt

Answer 10

FDR’s wife and Theodore Roosevelt’s niece
~The most active first lady in history
~Wrote a newspaper column, gave speeches, and traveled the country
~Influenced FDR to support minorities and the less fortunate

Question 11

Brain Trusts

Answer 11

A group of university professors who Roosevelt turned to for advice on economic matters
~Included Rexford Tugwell, Raymond Moley, and Adolph A. Berle Jr.

Question 12

Frances Perkins

Answer 12

Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in his cabinet

~First woman ever to serve on a presidential cabinet

Question 13

The First Hundred Days

Answer 13

Where Roosevelt called Congress to an immediate, special, 100 day session within a few weeks of being sworn into office
~During this, Congress passed into law every request of Roosevelt

Question 14

Bank Holiday

Answer 14

Where Roosevelt went on the radio and closed all banks until further notice
~Explained that the banks would be reopened after allowing enough time for the government to reorganize them on a sound basis

Question 15

21st Amendment

Answer 15

Repealed the 18th Amendment and ended Prohibition

Question 16

Fireside Chats

Answer 16

Announcements to the American people telling them what was going on

Question 17

Emergency Banking Relief Act

Answer 17

Authorized the government to examine the finances of banks closed during the bank holiday and reopen those judged to be sound

Question 18

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Answer 18

Guaranteed individual bank deposits up to $5000

Question 19

Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC)

Answer 19

Provided refinancing of small homes to prevent forclosures

Question 20

Farm Credit Administration

Answer 20

Provided low-interest farm loans and mortgages to prevent foreclosures on the property of indebted farmers

Question 21

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

Answer 21

Offered outright grants of federal money to states and local governments that were operating soup kitchens and other forms of relief for the jobless and homeless
~The director was Harry Hopkins, one of the president’s closet friends and advisors

Question 22

Public Works Administration (PWA)

Answer 22

Allotted money to state and local governments for building roads, bridges, dams, and other public works
~Such projects were a source of thousands of jobs
~Directed by Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickles

Question 23

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Answer 23

Employed young men on projects on federal lands and paid their families small monthly sums

Question 24

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Answer 24

A huge experiment in regional development and public planning
~Hired thousands of people in one of the nation’s poorest regions: the Tennessee Valley
~Paid to build dams, operate electric power plants, control flooding and erosion and manufacture fertilizer
~Sold electricity to residents of the region at rates that were well below those charged by the previous owners

Question 25

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Answer 25

An attempt to guarantee reasonable profits for business and fair wages and hours for labor
~Helped each industry set codes for wages, hours of work, levels of production, and prices of finished goods
~Gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively

Question 26

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)

Answer 26

Encouraged farmers to reduce production by offering to pay government subsidies for every acre they plowed under

Question 27

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

Answer 27

Was added to the PWA and other New Deal programs for creating jobs
~Hired laborers for temporary construction projects sponsored by the federal government

Question 28

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Answer 28

Was created to regulate the stock market and to place strict limits on the kind of speculative practices that had led to the stock market crash in 1929

Question 29

Federal Housing Authority (FHA)

Answer 29

Gave both the construction industry and homeowners a boost by insuring bank loans for building new houses and repairing old ones

Question 30

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Answer 30

Spent billions of dollars between 1935 and 1940 to provide people with jobs
~Paid workers double the relief rate but less than the going wage for regular workers

Question 31

Resettlement Administration (RA)

Answer 31

Provided loans to sharecroppers, tenants, and small farmers
~Established federal camps where migrant workers could find decent housing
~Headed by Rexford Tugwell, one of the Brain Trustees

Question 32

National Labor Relations Act (1935)

Answer 32

Guaranteed a worker’s right to join a union and a union’s right to bargain collectively
~Outlawed business practices that were unfair to labor

Question 33

Social Security Act

Answer 33

Created a federal insurance program based upon the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people’s working careers
~Used to make monthly payments to retired workers over the age of 65
~Workers without a job received payment as well as the disabled and the dependent

Question 34

Alf Landon

Answer 34

Challenged Roosevelt for the Republican nominee
~A Progressive that minded governor from Kansas
~Criticized Democrats for large spending but overall accepted the New Deal

Question 35

American Liberty League

Answer 35

An Anti New Deal organization headed by leading Republicans

~Avowed purpose to stop the New Deal from “subverting” the U.S. economic and political system

Question 36

Father Charles Coughlin

Answer 36

A Catholic priest and demagogue of the era broadcasted in the early 1930s
~Founded the National Union for Social Justice which called for the issuing of an inflated currency and nationalizing all banks
~His attacks on the New Deal became anti Semitic and fascist
~Superiors in the Catholic Church ordered him to stop
~Proposed simplistic schemes for ending the “evil conspiracies”

Question 37

Dr. Frances E. Townsend

Answer 37

A retired physician from Long Beach, California a demagogue
~Proposed a simple plan for guaranteeing a secure income for senior citizens
~Proposed that the federal government put aside 2% sales tax into a special fund in which senior citizens would receive $200 a month
~They would then spend the money and stimulate the economy
~Roosevelt responded with the Social Security Act

Question 38

Huey Long

Answer 38

The most dangerous demagogue, the “Kingfish” Senator from Louisiana
~Proposed a “Share Our Wealth” program that promised a minimum of $5000 annual income for every family
~This was to be paid by taxing the wealthy
~Challenged Roosevelt’s leadership by announcing his candidacy for president in 1935
~Was killed by an assassin before the election

Question 39

“Court Packing”

Answer 39

A bill proposed by Roosevelt, a judicial reorganization bill to appoint to the Supreme Court an additional justice for each justice over the age of 70.5
~Would have allowed Roosevelt to add 6 additional justice

Question 40

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Answer 40

The industrial unions combined into one big union

~Concentrated on organizing unskilled workers in the automobile, steel, and southern textile industries

Question 40

United Auto Workers (UAW)

Answer 40

The union of automobile workers

~Strikers of General Motors were yielded after the company recognized the union

Question 41

Fair Labor Standards Act

Answer 41

The last major reform in the New Deal that provided a host of regulations on business in interstate commerce
~Established:
1. A minimum wage (initially fixed at 40 cents/hour)
2. A maximum work week of 40 hours
3. Child labor restrictions on those under 16

Question 41

Keynesian Economics

Answer 41

Where deficit spending would be like “priming the pump” to increase investment and create jobs
~Federal spending on public works

Question 42

Dust Bowl

Answer 42

A severe drought in the early 1930s which ruined crops in the Great Plains
~Poor farming practices coupled with high winds blew away millions of tons of dried topsoil
~Thousands of “Okies” migrated to California
~John Steinbeck wrote about their hardship/heartbreak in “The Grapes of Wrath” (1939)

Question 43

Fair Employment Practices Committee

Answer 43

A committee to assist minorities in gaining jobs in the defense industry

Question 44

Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act (1934)

Answer 44

Repealed the Dawes Act of 1887

~Returned lands to the control of tribes and supported the preservation of Native American cultures

Question 45

Fair Employment Practices Committee

Answer 45

A committee to assist minorities in gaining jobs in the defense industry

Question 46

Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act (1934)

Answer 46

Repealed the Dawes Act of 1887

~Returned lands to the control of tribes and supported the preservation of Native American cultures