US 1930s

Question 1

What did the Revenue Act do and when was it passed?

Answer 1

•increased taxes on large incomes and corporations
•1934
•response to Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth programme
• received criticism from far right - American Liberty League
• however only raised $250m

Question 2

How much did taxes increase by under the New Deal

Answer 2

• 80% on wealthy individuals
• tax revenue increased by 328% - negative, taxes placed on goods like alcohol, businesses raise prices of goods, harder for the poor to access them

Question 3

What did the Banking Act do?

Answer 3

• extended federal control over private banking
• response to Father Coughlin’s criticism over radio talks attacking Roosevelt and capitalism
• deemed as unconstitutional
• however was a long term reform

Question 4

What was the Wagner Act?

Answer 4

•1935
• combated failures of NRA in 1933, established a minimum wage, limited workers hours
• upheld by Supreme Court in 1937

Question 5

What was the Social Security Act?

Answer 5

• introduced pensions, unemployment insurance, more long term reform
• 1935
• response to Francis Townsend’s call for $200 monthly pensions

Question 6

What did the Resettlement Administration do?

Answer 6

• Helped relocate 45,000 farming families from areas most affected by the Dustbowl
• 1935

Question 7

What did the Rural Electrification Administration Act do?

Answer 7

• Helped to provide electricity to rural areas - 40% of farms had electricity by 1940

Question 8

What did the Works Progress Administration of 1935 do?

Answer 8

• helped groups that received less support - women through CCC camps, African Americans, artists and musicians
• spent $4bn getting people to work in 1935, then spent $11bn getting 8m people into work until 1943

Question 9

What caused the Roosevelt Recession?

Answer 9

Roosevelt tried to balance budgets by making cuts in federal spending and increased taxation but this led to higher unemployment

Question 10

What was unemployment in 1933 compared to 1937

Answer 10

1933 - 25%
1935 - 22%
1937 - 20%

Question 11

What was gnp in 1929 to 1937

Answer 11

1929 - 37%
1937 - 42%
GNP increased by 5%

Question 12

Roosevelt ideology

Answer 12

• In his 1932 run for presidency he asserted he would help ‘the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid’
• Sought to reassure the public in his First Inaugural Address saying ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself’
• Roosevelt argued the New Deal was animated by spirit, and of ‘bold, persistent experimentation’

Question 13

How did Roosevelt connect to Americans using radio?

Answer 13

• Delivered live radio ‘fireside chats’
• In 1933 in his first chat, spoke of the banking crisis and what the government were doing to solve it
• delivered 30 fireside chats in simple, reassuring language throughout New Deal and WW2

Question 14

What was the court packing plan and why did Roosevelt do this?

Answer 14

• 1937
• adding an additional justice to the Court for every justice over the age of 70 to try and get his reforms passed without resistance
• denounced by Congress and criticised by the public
•

Question 15

What was the NYA and when was it established?

Answer 15

• 1935
• Mary Bethune, FDR’s special advisor helped to establish it
• provided skills training for 300,000 young black Americans (including women)

Question 16

How did the New Deal provide ethnic minorities with jobs?

Answer 16

• jobless numbers of black Americans fell from 50% to 30% (government was the largest employer of African Americans)
• WPA provided work for 350,000 black Americans in 1935, 15% of its overall workforce

Question 17

What did the Agricultural Adjustment Act do and when was it established?

Answer 17

• 1933 - boosted agricultural prices by offering government subsidies to farmers to reduce output
• however was responsible for the unemployment of two million Americans in the South as the policy favoured larger farms
• Therefore African Americans, who often were sharecroppers, were the first to lose their jobs
• controversial as it paid farmers to destroy their food to stop overproduction whilst people were starving

Question 18

What did the Civilian Conservation Corps do?

Answer 18

• employed young men at federally funded jobs on government lands

Question 19

When did Hoover win the election and what were his aims?

Answer 19

• won 1928 presidential election
• focus on individualism
• promised a ‘chicken in every pot’ (1928 election)
• ‘Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action of executive pronouncement’

Question 20

Why did Hoover fail to end the depression?

Answer 20

• believed in rugged individualism and laissez faire - had been successful under Coolidge in economic boom of early 20s
• needed support of both Houses of Congress - until Nov 1930 Congress was dominated by Republicans who wanted to do very little
• Hoover believed that the causes were outside of USA - Allied govts owed USA money
• 1931 Hoover put in place a MORITORIUM to avoid a global crisis and cancelled German Reparation payments in 1932 - too little too late

Question 21

What was the disastrous Smoot Hawley tariff?

Answer 21

• 1930 average tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods rose to 40% (highest level in US history, damaged international trade)
• 1000 economists signed a petition asking Hoover to reverse the tariffs

Question 22

Great Depression stats

Answer 22

• 1933 - 25% unemployed
• 13million Americans had lost their jobs
• 62% of the 13m had been out of work for more than a year
• 4,000 banks shut down between 1929 and 1933, leaving depositors with nearly $400 million in losses

Question 23

Successes and failures of Hoover’s RFC

Answer 23

• Designed to lend up to $2bn to banks but 50% went to the 7 largest banks in the USA
• prevented the depression from getting worse - from Feb-March 1932, it helped 160 banks, 60 railroads and 18 mortgage companies
• However banks didn’t lend businesses money so there were no signs of recovery
• Used by Roosevelt to bail banks out in 1933 under Emergency Banking Act

Question 24

How was Hoover’s Emergency Relief Construction Act a major change in government thinking?

Answer 24

• 1932
• lent up to $1.5 bn for public works projects to generate employment (however only if states were bankrupt they could borrow money)

Question 25

How did Hoover try to prevent homelessness during the Great Depression?

Answer 25

Federal Home Loan Bank Act - tried to save mortgages but limited at 50% of the value of the home

Question 26

How did Hoover fail to deliver emergency relief?

Answer 26

• Hoover refused direct government relief
• Congress allocated $47m in loans which had to be repaid

Question 27

Why did the bonus army march make Hoover unpopular?

Answer 27

•1932
• Over 17,000 veterans marched on Washington to demand their immediate cash compensation as promised 8 years prior by Congress
• Hoover ordered the army on the army (not respecting the people)

Question 28

How much of the popular vote did Roosevelt win in 1932 and 1936?

Answer 28

• 1932 - 57.3%
• 1936 - 60.8%

Question 29

What was the democrat voting coalition?

Answer 29

Racial and ethnic minorities, white southerners, blue collar workers, labour unions
• marked the shift of voting geographically to ideologically

Question 30

What were the sources of New Deal ideas?

Answer 30

• 1932 Brain trust comprised of intellectuals
• Roosevelt’s cabinet - included conservatives, liberals, Democrats, Republicans, anti-inflationists and inflationists to blend and create often conflicting ideas

Question 31

What did the 1933 Emergency Banking Act do?

Answer 31

• passed on a bank holiday within 40 mins
• designed to restore confidence and encouraged citizens to put their money back in banks
• RFC took on bank debts
• Over $1bn had been put back in banks by April 1933, crisis over

Question 32

What did the 1933 Glass Steagall Act do?

Answer 32

• separated out different types of banking, individual bank deposits were to be insured
• prohibited bankers from using depositors money to pursue high risk investments
• (However criticised by Hoover supporters as it was argued he would have done this)
• (criticised by left wing opposition claiming this was protecting rich and powerful)

Question 33

What was the Tennessee Valley Authority and what did it do?

Answer 33

• 1933
• Designed to harness the power of the Tennessee River (dams, tree planting, new farming techniques, job creation, hydroelectricity)
• average income rose by 200% between 1929 and 1949
• Still remembered today - Jason Isbell 2009 made a song titled TVA (lyric ‘thank god for the tva’

Question 34

What did the Federal Securities Act do?

Answer 34

• 1933
• aimed to stabilise the stock market
• created the Securities and Exchange Commission which regulated stock exchange and share transactions (protected capitalist system)

Question 35

What was the NRA?

Answer 35

• 1933
• Firms had to agree to codes of practice to regulate unfair competition, working conditions and minimum wages
• However was optional, codes favoured large companies over small, unions still had weak powers
• deemed unconstitutional by Supreme Court in 1935 and didn’t help industrial recovery

Question 36

What did the 1934 Indian Reorganisation Act do?

Answer 36

• recognised and encouraged Native American culture, made them self-governing bodies with their own police and legal system
• however didn’t help poverty - too extreme, had been neglected for too long

Question 37

What did the Federal Housing Administration do?

Answer 37

• 1934
• Helped to give federal insurance to protect low interest, long term mortgages for those buying new homes.
• However only for new homes not existing ones
• So didn’t help inner cities, many moved to suburbs, mostly helped white middle class families

Question 38

What New Deal measures were Hispanic Americans excluded from?

Answer 38

• 1933 NRA
• 1935 Wagner Act
• 1938 Fair Labour Standards Act

Question 39

How did Father Charles Coughlin oppose the New Deal?

Answer 39

• had a radio show criticising the New Deal with 35m listeners
• advocated nationalisation of banking and currency
• demanded a living minimum wage
•claimed there was an international bankers conspiracy that Jews were responsible for

Question 40

What did Dr Frances Townsend want Roosevelt to do?

Answer 40

• introduce pensions - pay $200 a month to people over 60
• would be financed by a 2% national sales tax - pensioners would have to spend money in 30 days to stimulate economy

Question 41

How did Senator Huey Long oppose Roosevelt?

Answer 41

• guaranteed minimal annual income of $2000 yearly for every American by confiscating wealth of people who made over $5million per year
• by early 1935 Long had created 27,000 Share our Wealth clubs across the USA (popular)