Roosevelt and the New Deal

Question 1

What were ‘The Hundred Days’?

Answer 1

First 100 days of Roosevelt’s presidency when he tried to introduce a range of measures to help America recover

Question 2

What were closed for 4 days in America in March 1933?

Answer 2

Banks (officials would check them all to see if trustworthy to reopen)

Question 3

What name was given to the closing of banks for government officials to inspect the bank’s accounts?

Answer 3

The Emergency Banking Act 1933 (5,000 trustworthy banks were allowed to reopen)

Question 4

What kind of ‘chats’ did Roosevelt have with the American people to explain his policies?

Answer 4

Fireside chats (new political strategy of talking to the public via the radio). Roosevelt would explain what he was doing and why-estimated 60 million Americans listened every Sunday

Question 5

What 3 Rs was the New Deal intended to provide?

Answer 5

Relief, Recovery and Reform

Question 6

Name 2 agencies that provided relief?

Answer 6

• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) May 1933
• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). May 1933
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) March 1933
• Civil Works Administration (CWA) Nov 1933
• Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) 1933
• Social Security Act (SSA) 1935

Question 7

What does the CWA stand for and how long was it supposed to provide jobs for?

Answer 7

Civil Works Administration (emergency relief during winter of 1933-34)

Question 8

How much did the FERA give to spend on the poor (soup kitchens, blankets, work schemes etc)?

Answer 8

$500 million spent on urgent needs of the poor

Question 9

Which age group was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) targeted at and approximately how many young people did it involve?

Answer 9

17-24 year olds

2.5 - 3 million involved (signed up initially for six months but could be extended)

Question 10

How did the AAA help stop over-production?

Answer 10

Paid farmers to produce less crops to increase the crop prices (also helped farmers to use modern production methods and some in extreme cases helped with their mortgages)

Question 11

Why was the AAA criticised?

Answer 11

• Destroying crops and food at a time of hunger (6 million piglets killed but meat was canned and handed out to poor)
• the AAA didn’t help the ‘sharecroppers’ (helped farm the land for a share of the crop) modernisation now meant they had less work- many had to move to look for work
• 1936 AAA declared illegal by Supreme Court (said state government should tell farmers what to do not the Federal government)

Question 12

Name 2 agencies that provided recovery?

Answer 12

Public Works Administration (PWA) June 1933
Works Progress Administration (WPA) 1935
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) May 1933

Question 13

Give 2 benefits the TVA May 1933 brought.

Answer 13

1. Dams stopped the Tennessee river from flooding and ruining farmland.
2. Cheap hydro-electricity was produced
3. Lakes and waterways created could be used to transport coal, steel etc and irrigate land
4. Increased employment and made a poor area prosperous (wealthier)

Question 14

Which agency built 50,000 miles of road, 13,000 schools, 4 dams and created 4 national parks?

Answer 14

Public Works Administration June 1933 (short term created millions of jobs)

Question 15

In what year was the WPA created and approximately how many people did it employ each year?

Answer 15

Works Progress Administartion (later renamed Works Project Administration) 1935
2 million

Question 16

What did the HOLC do to help people?

Answer 16

Home Owners Loan Corporation 1933

• New loans for home buyers ( low rate mortgages to hopefully prevent people from losing their homes)
• 1933-36 helped 20% of American homeowners

Question 17

What is the name given to the idea that government spending would boost the economy and lead to economic growth?

Answer 17

Pump Priming

Question 18

Name 2 alphabet agencies that were about reform.

Answer 18

National Recovery Administration (NRA) 1933

Social Security Act (SSA) 1935

Question 19

How did the SSA help people in the short and long term?

Answer 19

• Old age pensions for over 65s (employer and employee would both contribute over years) and widows
• Unemployment benefit (maximum of $18 a week for 16 weeks)
• Federal government working with state government to provide help for sick and disabled

Question 20

How did the NRA try to help people?

Answer 20

• Better working conditions and fair wages
• Banned child labour
• voluntary, Blue Eagle symbol
• over 2 million employers joined
  The Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional in 1935

Question 21

How many states did the Tennessee Valley cut across?

Answer 21

7

Question 22

Before the TVA what problems did the Tennessee Valley experience?

Answer 22

• floods
• droughts
• dust bowl (eroded soil like a desert)
• social problems (poverty, no electricity)
• difficult for different states to co-operate to sort out the problems

Question 23

Why did Roosevelt introduce a second wave of New Deal measures in 1935?

Answer 23

• facing criticism from likes of Huey Long he was doing too little
• USA recovering less quickly than Europe from the Depression
• businesses losing enthusiasm for the NRA
• Roosevelt met advisers and decided to introduce more radical steps

Question 24

Which measures were introduced in 1935?

Answer 24

• Wagner Act (forced employers to allow trade unions)
• Social Security Act (pensions for elderly and widows, benefit for sick and disabled and unemployment benefit)
• Works Progress Administration ( jobs for office workers, artists, actors, photographers)
• Resettlement Administration (RA) helped small farmers or tenants not helped by AAA

Question 25

What did the Resettlement Administration (RA) do to help tenant or small farmers?

Answer 25

• Moved over 500,000 families to better quality land and housing
• replaced by Farm Security Act in 1937 which gave loans to small farmers to buy their land and built camps for migrant workers