Unit 4: the Great Depression

Question 1

How did the Great Depression happen, and how did Americans respond to economic disaster

Answer 1

panic spread

Question 2

What were the causes of the Great Depression

Answer 2

banks failed and depositors' savings were essentially gone, so millions of middle- and working-class people, lost their life savings
Credit dried up, and businesses began laying off workers

Question 3

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Answer 3

to lend capital to failing businesses, but these programs helped only owners, not workers

Question 4

unemployment rate

Answer 4

As unemployment rose, consumer spending plummeted, which led to further layoffs

Question 5

banking crisis

Answer 5

they had loaned large sums of money to stock speculators who couldn’t repay their bank loans

Question 6

Hoover administration economic policies

Answer 6

Much was expected of him because he had worked on humanitarian relief during World War I but he turned out to be timid trapped by the belief that helping the unemployed would make them lazy

Question 7

how did the Hoover administration react to the Great Crash and ensuing Depression

Answer 7

believed the downturn was temporary and would soon right itself. instead of stimulating the economy they acted on the belief that the budget must be balanced, it raised taxes

Question 8

“Bonus Army”

Answer 8

World War I veterans, asking for immediate payment of the service bonuses they were scheduled to receive in 1945

Question 9

Townsend Plan

Answer 9

help the elderly to retire and make more jobs available for younger people. it made social security possible

Question 10

Senator Huey Long

Answer 10

led a “Share Our Wealth” campaign that called for a guaranteed minimum annual wage, a shorter work week to boost employment, and universal free education

Question 11

Father Charles Coughlin

Answer 11

combined welfare demands with hate-talk toward Jews and admiration for Hitler

Question 12

German-American Bund

Answer 12

pro-Hitler German-American Bund attracted some 100,000 members

Question 13

What were five of the programs that FDR immediately implemented

Answer 13

civilian conservation corps
emergency banking relief acts
federal emergency relief acts
agricultural adjustment act
Tennessee valley authority
public works administration
national recovery administration

Question 14

what was the general intention of the programs we call the First New Deal

Answer 14

to provide relief for Americans

Question 15

emergency relief and Harry Hopkins

Answer 15

most popular program was emergency relief, headed by the decisive social worker Harry Hopkins

Question 16

federal communications commission and western electric

Answer 16

Federal Communications Commission investigated Western Electric and found that its monopolistic practices enabled it to overcharge its customers

Question 17

civilian conservation corps

Answer 17

employed men to plant trees, clear trails, build fire roads, bridges and other structures in national parks

Question 18

emergency banking relief acts

Answer 18

temporarily closed all banks for several days following confirmation by the department or treasury. banks with adequate cash reserves were allowed to reopen

Question 19

federal emergency relief acts

Answer 19

allocated funds to states to provide relied- in the form of cash payments and jobs to the unemployed and destitute

Question 20

agricultural adjustment relief act

Answer 20

attempted to increase farm prices by paying subsidies to farmers who agreed to cut crop production

Question 21

Tennessee valley authority

Answer 21

built dams, hydroelectric power plants and reservoirs in the Tennessee valley basin

Question 22

public work administration

Answer 22

funded construction or roads, bridges and public buildings such as post offices, courthouses and schools

Question 23

national recovery administration

Answer 23

established business/labor coalition to set standards for production, prices and working conditions

Question 24

“Second New Deal”

Answer 24

the federal government expanded by creating permanent programs

Question 25

the banking act of 1935

Answer 25

allowed a Federal Reserve Board to require banks to hold a certain amount of cash in reserve

Question 26

the most important new laws to the majority of Americans

Answer 26

Social Security, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act

Question 27

Social Security Act of 1935

Answer 27

it created a permanent, though limited, welfare system

Question 28

what top priority of FDR did not make into the law

Answer 28

public medical insurance

Question 29

Social Security program 3 enormous limitations stand out

Answer 29

1. women who did not work for wages were not eligible for old-age pensions.
2. conservative southern Democratic Senators insisted on excluding all agricultural workers and domestic servants. (meaning majority of all people of color were excluded, because they worked mainly in the excluded occupations)

Question 30

Social Security program 3 enormous limitations stand out

Answer 30

1. women who did not work for wages were not eligible for old-age pensions.
2. conservative southern Democratic Senators insisted on excluding all agricultural workers and domestic servants. (meaning majority of all people of color were excluded, because they worked mainly in the excluded occupations)
3. even women who were employed were often excluded because they tended to be employed by smaller firms

Question 31

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

Answer 31

was the legislative response to the vibrant labor movements
It guaranteed workers a right to form unions and to collective bargaining, and provided them with a legal remedy if employers tried to interfere with this right

Question 32

Fair Labor Standards Act

Answer 32

acknowledged that the principle of “liberty of contract” required an equality of contractors–the so-called level playing field–that did not exist when people were desperate for jobs

Question 33

Lend-Lease Act

Answer 33

providing Great Britain, the USSR, China, Free France and other allies with war materiel