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HIS CH 15-1 FDR

Multiple Response
Identify one or more choices that best complete the statement or answer the question.
 
 
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Herbert Hoover
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
New Deal Actions

In 1932, the presidential election showed that Americans were clearly ready for a change . Because of the Depression, people were suffering from lack of work, lack of food, and lack of hope.

ELECTING FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

Although the Republicans renominated President Hoover as their candidate, they recognized that he had little chance of winning. Too many Americans blamed Hoover for doing too little about the Depression and wanted a new president in the White House.

The Democrats pinned their hopes on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, known popularly as FDR, the two-term governor of New York and a distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt. As governor, Franklin Roosevelt had proved an effective, reform-minded leader. He pushed a series of new measures through the New York legislature to combat the problems of unemployment and poverty. Unlike Hoover, Roosevelt projected an air of friendliness and confidence that attracted voters . Though practical at heart, he had a creative, adventurous side that allowed him to take risks that others might avoid. As he once said, "It is corrimon sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." This "can-do" attitude appealed to a public that regarded Hoover, rightly or wrongly, as a "do-nothing" president.

Roosevelt won an overwhelming victory, capturing 23 million votes to Hoover's 16 million and carrying the South, the West, and all but six states in the Northeast . In the Senate, Democrats claimed a nearly two-thirds majority. In the House, they won almost three-fourths of the seats, their greatest victory since before the Civil War.
 

 1. 

Who did the American people blame for the Great Depression?
 a.
President Herbert Hoover
 c.
Socialism
 b.
President Franklin Roosevelt
 d.
Communism
 

 2. 

Who was the Democrat candidate for President in 1932?
 a.
Herbert Hoover
 c.
Al Smith
 b.
Franklin Roosevelt
 d.
Thomas Dewey
 

 3. 

Who won the Presidential election in a landslide in 1932?
 a.
Herbert Hoover
 c.
Thomas Dewey
 b.
Franklin Roosevelt
 d.
Al Smith
 

 4. 

Which candidate for President in 1932 had a “can do” attitude that gave the American people hope?
 a.
Al Smith
 c.
Herbert Hoover
 b.
Franklin Roosevelt
 d.
none of these
 
 
WAITING FOR ROOSEVELT

Four months would elapse between Roosevelt's victory in November and his inauguration as president in March 1933. The Twentieth Amendment, which moved presidential inaugurations to January, was not ratified until February 1933 and did not apply to the 1932 election. Americans waited anxiously to find out what plans their new president had for solving the nation's problems. Meanwhile, the economy continued to worsen . Industrial production fell; more businesses and banks shut down; and more people lost their jobs, their homes, and their farms.

FDR was not idle during this waiting period, however. He worked with his team of carefully picked advisers-a select group of professors, lawyers, and journalists known as the brain trust. Roosevelt began to formulate a set of policies for his new administration .
This program, designed to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression, became known as the New Deal, from a phrase in a campaign speech in which Roosevelt had promised " a new deal for the American people ." New Deal policies focused on three general goals : relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform .

On taking office, the Roosevelt administration launched into a period of intense activity, known as the Hundred Days, lasting from March 9 to June 16, 1933. During this period, Congress passed more than 15 major pieces of New Deal legislation. These laws, and others that followed, significantly expanded the federal government's role in the nation's economy.
 

 5. 

The election for president took place in November. How long did the American people have to wait until Roosevelt took office?
 a.
30 days
 c.
2 months
 b.
4 months
 d.
1 year
 

 6. 

Roosevelt devised a program to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression. What was his program called.
 a.
The New Deal
 c.
Share the Wealth Program
 b.
The Square Deal
 d.
The Fair Deal
 

 7. 

Roosevelt got busy right away devising programs and policies to ease the effects of the Depression. What was this time period called?
 a.
the inauguration
 c.
the Second Hundred Days
 b.
the lame duck period
 d.
the Hundred Days
 
 
REFORMING BANKING AND FINANCE

Roosevelt's first step as president was to carry out reforms in banking and finance . By 1933, widespread bank failures had caused most Americans to lose faith in the banking system. On March 5, one day after taking office, Roosevelt declared a bank holiday and closed all banks to prevent further withdrawals . Then he persuaded Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which authorized the Treasury Department to inspect the country's banks. Those that were sound could reopen at once; those that were insolvent-unable to pay their debts-would remain closed . Those that needed help could receive loans. This measure revived public confidence in banks, since customers now had greater faith that the open banks were in good financial shape.

AN IMPORTANT FIRESIDE CHAT

On March 12, the day before the first banks were to reopen, President Roosevelt boosted confidence further through the first ofhis many fireside chats. These were radio talks that Roosevelt gave occasionally about issues of public concern, explaining in clear, simple language his New Deal measures . Informal and relaxed, these talks made Americans feel as if the president were talking directly to them . In his first chat, President Roosevelt explained why the nation's welfare depended on public support of the government and the banking system . "We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system," he said. "It is up to you to support and make it work." This is how he explained the banking system .

The president then explained that when too many people demanded their savings in cash, banks would fail. This did not mean that the banks were weak, because even strong banks could not meet such heavy demands.

Over the next few weeks, many Americans returned their savings to banks . Congress took another step to reorganize the banking system by passing the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933. Among other provisions, this law established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which provided federal insurance for individual bank accounts of less than $5,000 . The Glass-Steagall Banking Act reassured millions of bank customers that their money was safe.  Congress and the president also took steps to regulate the stock market, which had suffered a tremendous loss of credibility in the crash of 1929. The Federal Securities Act, passed in May 1933, required corporations to provide complete information on all stock offerings and made them liable for any misrepresentations. The following year, in June 1934, Congress created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market. One of the goals of this commission was to prevent people with inside information about companies from "rigging" the stock market, causing prices to go up or down for their own profit, regardless of the real value of the stocks

In addition, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to approve a bill allowing the manufacture and sale of some alcoholic beverages . This bill included an alcohol tax designed to raise government revenues . By the end of 1933, the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment had repealed prohibition altogether.
 

 8. 

Why were the American people loosing faith in the banking system?
 a.
there was no cash in the ATM machines
 c.
interest rates were too low
 b.
there was more money to be made in the stock market
 d.
many banks were failing
 

 9. 

One of the first actions that Roosevelt took was to declare a Bank Holiday. What was a Bank Holiday?
 a.
bank workers were given a thirty day vacation
 c.
the banks were closed so everyone could not take there money out at once
 b.
bank workers went on a 5 day work week
 d.
the banks were closed on holidays
 

 10. 

What was the Glass Steagall Banking Act of 1933
 a.
a law passed by Congress to reorganize the banking system
 c.
a law passed by Congress to regulate interstate commerce
 b.
a law passed by Congress to close all the small banks
 d.
a law that did not allow any more banks to open
 

 11. 

Roosevelt went on the radio to boost the confidence of the American people. What were these radio broadcasts called?
 a.
Saturday Presidential Messages
 c.
Presidential News Conferences
 b.
Fireside Chats
 d.
Presidential Debates
 

 12. 

What was the purpose of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)?
 a.
insurance for bank deposits so people would not loose all of their money if the bank went broke
 c.
keep the banks from over-charging their customers
 b.
provide life insurance and auto insurance for persons with bank deposits
 d.
to make sure the banks had enough money to make loans to customers.
 

 13. 

In June, 1934 Congress established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). What was the purpose of this organization? (pick 2)
 a.
regulate the Stock Market
 c.
reorganize the banking system
 b.
keep the Stock Market from being rigged by dishonest brokers
 d.
provide insurance for people who might loose money in the stock market
 

 14. 

Which Constitutional Amendment repealed prohibition?
 a.
18th
 c.
21st
 b.
19th
 d.
20th
 
 
Helping the American People

While working on banking and financial matters, the Roosevelt administration implemented programs to provide relief to farmers . It also aided other workers and attempted to stimulate economic recovery.

ASSISTING FARMERS

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) sought to raise crop prices by lowering production, which the government achieved by paying frriners to leave a certain amount of every acre of land unseeded. The theory says that reduced supply would boost prices .  In some cases crops were too far advanced for the acreage reduction to take effect . As a result, the govermnent paid cotton growers 5200 million to plow under 10 million acres of their crop. It also paid hog farmers to slaughter 6 inillion pigs. This policy upset many Americans, who protested the destnrction of food when many people were going hungry. It did, however, help raise firm prices and put more money in farmers' pockets .

HELPING PEOPLE WITH HOUSING

A number of' New Deal programs concerned housing and home mortgage problems. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) provided government loans to homeowners who faced foreclosure because they couldn't meet their loan payments. In addition, the National Housing Act created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) . This agency continues to furnish loans for home mortgages and repairs today.
 

 15. 

How did the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) attempt to help farmers?
 a.
by increasing farm production
 c.
by buying farmland from the farmers
 b.
by making farm products scarce so prices would rise
 d.
the AAA was designed to restrict alcohol consumption by the farmers
 

 16. 

What was the FHA designed to do?
 a.
Help banks to foreclose on property
 c.
help people with home loans and repairs
 b.
Provide more credit cards for low income people
 d.
help people with Federal Handicapped Assisstance
 
 
PROVIDING WORK PROJECTS

The administration also established programs to provide relief through work projects and cash payments . One important program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), put young men, aged 18 to 25, to work building roads, developing parks, planting trees, and helping in soil erosion and flood-control projects . The CCC paid a small wage, $30 a month, of which $25 was automatically sent home to the worker's family. It also supplied free food and uniforms . By the tune the program ended in 1942, almost 3 million young men had passed through the CCC. Man- of the camps were located on the Great Plains, where, within a period of eight years, the men of the CCC planted more than 200 million trees . This tremendous reforestation program was aimed at preventing another Dust Bowl .

Another program, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), seas funded with $500 million to provide direct relief for the neadv. Half of the rnoney was given to the states as direct grants-in-aid to help fin-furnish food and clothing to the unemployed, the aged, and the ill . An additional 5250 million was distributed on the basis of one federal dollar for every three state dollars contributed. Harry Hopkins, who headed this program believed that money helped people buy food, bit work enabled them to gain confidence and self-respect 

The Public Works Administration (PWA), created in June 1933, provided money to states to create jobs. These were chiefly in the construction of schools and other community buildings . \When these programs failed to make a sufficient dent in unemployment, President Roosevelt established the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in November 1933. It provided 4 million immediate jobs during the winter of 1933-1934. Some critics of the CWA claimed that the programs were "make-work" projects and a waste of money. However, the (ANA built 40,000 schools and paid the salaries of more than 50,000 school teachers) in America's rural areas . It also built more than half a million miles of roads.  Another major initiative of the Roosevelt administration was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), passed in June 1933. This act sought to promote industrial growth by establishing codes of fair practice for individual industries . It created the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which set prices of many products to ensure fair competition, and established standards for working hours and a ban on child labor. The aim of the NRA was to promote recovery by interrupting the trend of wage cuts,
falling prices, and layoffs .

Competing businesses met with representatives of workers and consumers to draft the codes of fair competition. These codes both limited production and established prices . Because businesses were given new concessions, workers made demands . Congress met their demands by passing a section of the NIRA guaranteeing workers' right to unionize and to bargain collectively.

Many businesses and politicians were critical of the NRA. Charges arose that the codes served large business interests. There were also charges of increasing code violations . The economist Gardiner C. Means, however, stated the goal of industrial planning.

Finally, the Roosevelt administration undertook an especially ambitious program of regional development. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), established on May 18, 1933, focused on the badly depressed Tennessee River valley. The TVA renovated five existing dams and constructed 20 new ones in the Tennessee Valley. It created thousands of jobs and provided flood control, hydroelectric power, and other benefits to an impoverished region .
 

 17. 

What program put young men, aged 18 to 25, to work building roads, developing parks, planting trees, and helping in soil erosion and flood-control projects .
 a.
FHA
 c.
AAA
 b.
CCC
 d.
ADA
 

 18. 

Which program provided direct relief to poor Americans?
 a.
Civilian Conservative Corps CCC
 c.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration FERA
 b.
Works Progress Administration WPA
 d.
Civilian Conservation Corp CCC
 

 19. 

Which program set prices on products so competition would be fair?
 a.
National Recovery Administration NRA
 c.
Works Progress Administration WPA
 b.
National Rifle Association NRA
 d.
Public Works Administration PWA
 

 20. 

Which program built dams to control flooding and provide electric power?
 a.
Otay Lakes Project OLP
 c.
Tennessee Valley Authority TVA
 b.
Eastlake Housing Authority EHA
 d.
Works Progress Authority WPA
 
 
The New Deal Comes Under Attack

At the end of the Hundred Days, President Roosevelt could look back on some major accomplishments . Together with Congress, his administration had moved decisively to implement a series of programs designed to provide benefits for millions of Americans. In general, public confidence in the nation's future had rebounded.

Nevertheless, opposition to the New Deal grew among some parts of the population. Liberal critics argued that the New Deal did not go far enough to Help the poor and to reform the nation's economic system. Conservative critics argued just the opposite : that Roosevelt spent too much on direct relief and used New Deal policies to control business and socialize the economy. Conservatives were particularly angered by laws such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act, Which they believed gave the federal government too much control over agriculture and industry.
Manv New Deal critics thought the Roosevelt administration was going too far in its attempt to regulate the production and supply of' goods and to control prices . They believed the New Deal interfered with the workings of a free market economy.
 

 21. 

Which statements were made by critics of the Roosevelt Administration? (pick 4)
 a.
Roosevelt took no action to solve Depression problems
 d.
The New Deal exercised too much control over the economy
 b.
The New Deal did not go far enough to help the poor
 e.
The New Deal interfered too much with the free market
 c.
The New Deal spent too much money on the poor
 f.
The New Deal put too many controls on television news.
 
 
THE SUPREME COURT REACTS

By the mid-1930s, conservative opposition to the New Deal had received a boost from two Supreme Court decisions .
In 1935, the Court struck down the NIRA as unconstitutional, declaring that the law gave legislative powers to the executive branch. It also argued that the enforcement ofindustry codes within states went beyond the federal government's constitutional powers, which are limited to the regulation of interstate commerce. The next year, the Supreme Court struck down the AAA on the grounds that agriculture is a local matter and should be regulated by the states rather than the federal government

President Roosevelt was dismayed by these rulings . Fearing that further Court decisions might dismantle the New Deal, in February 1937 he proposed that Congress enact a court-reform bill that would reorganize the federal judiciary and allow him to appoint six new Supreme Court justices . Although Roosevelt argued that the bill would make the judiciary more effective, it was clearly designed to create a Supreme Court more sympathetic to New Deal programs. Quickly labeled the "court-packing bill," Roosevelt's proposal aroused a storm of protest in Congress and the press. Many people believed that the president was violating principles of judicial independence and the separation of powers . The bill damaged the president's public image. Then events that the president could not have foreseen led to changes in the Court. Rulings of the Court began to shift in favor of the New Deal, and, without reorganizing the judiciary, President Roosevelt managed to appoint new justices who supported the New Deal . Because of resignations, the president was able to appoint seven new justices in the next four years .
 

 22. 

How did the Supreme Court react to the New Deal?
 a.
It ignored the New Deal
 c.
Ruled that all Deal Programs were constitutional
 b.
Ruled that two important programs were unconstitutional
 d.
The Supreme Court has no authority over New Deal Programs
 

 23. 

Rosevelt was accused of “Court Packing.” What is this?
 a.
Roosevelt tried to increase the number of Supreme Court judges so the court would be more friendly to the New Deal
 c.
Roosevelt tried to pack the court with Socialist judges
 b.
Roosevelt tried to appoint more Conservatives to the court
 d.
Roosevelt tried to pack the court with minority judges
 
 
In 1934, some of the strongest conservative opponents of the New Deal banded together to form an organization called the American Liberty League. This group was largely made up of Wealthv business leaders . It also included important political leaders : Al Smith and John W Davis, both former Democratic presidential candidates . The American Liberty League opposed New Deal measures that it believed violated respect for the rights of individuals and property. The group accused President Roosevelt of trying to establish a dictatorship.
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Al Smith Democrat Presidential Candidate 1928
 

 24. 

Which statements are true (pick 2)
 a.
The Liberty League said that Roosevelt was trying to be a dictator in the U.S.
 c.
Al Smith supported the Roosevelt administration
 b.
The Liberty League supported the New Deal
 d.
Al Smith was a member of the Liberty League
 
 
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Huey Long
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Father Charles Coughlin
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Dr. Francis Townsend

THREE FIERY CRITICS


Perhaps the toughest critics the president faced, however, were three men who expressed views that appealed to poor Americans: Charles Coughlin, Francis Townsend, and Huey Long.

One of President Iloosevelt's most vocal critics was Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest from a suburb of Detroit. Every Sunday, Father Coughlin broadcast radio sermons that combined eco nomic, political, and religious ideas. Initially a supporter of the New Deal, Coughlin soon turned against Roosevelt. He favored a guaranteed annual income and the nationalization of banks . At the height of his popularity, Father Coughlin claimed a radio audience of some 40 million people, but his increasingly anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) views eventually cost him support.

Another critic of New Deal policies was Dr. Francis Townsend, a physician and health officer in Long Beach, California. He believed that Roosevelt wasn't doing enough to help the poor and elderly, so he devised a pension plan that would provide monthly benefits to the aged. The plan was too expensive to work, but it found strong backing among the elderly and it undermined their support for President Roosevelt.

Perhaps the most serious challenge to the New Deal came from Senator Huey Long of Louisiana. Long was a former traveling salesman, but he had studied law and become a persuasive spokesman for the poor. He was elected governor of Louisiana in 1928 and later served in the United States Senate .

Like Coughlin, Long was an early supporter of the New Deal, but he soon turned against Roosevelt. Eager to win the presidency for himself, Long proposed a nationwide social program called Share Our Wealth . Under the banner "Every Man a King," he promised something for everyone .

Long's program for sharing the nation's wealth was so popular that by 1935, he boasted of having over 27,000 Share-Our-Wealth clubs with around 7 .5 million members. In 1935, however, at the height of his popularity, Long was assassinated by a lone gunman .

As the initial impetus of the New Deal began to wane, President Roosevelt started to look ahead. Ile knew that a lot more needed to be done to help the people and to solve the nation's economic problems .
 

 25. 

Which Roosevelt critic was accused of being anti-semetic (anti-Jewish)?
 a.
Father Coughlin
 c.
Dr. Francis Townsend
 b.
Huey Long
 d.
Al Smith
 

 26. 

Which Roosevelt cirtic had the “Share Our Wealth” program
 a.
Father Coughlin
 c.
Huey Long
 b.
Francis Townsend
 d.
Father Townsend
 

 27. 

Which Roosevelt critic was a former Governor and Senator?
 a.
Huey Long
 c.
Father Caughlin
 b.
Francis Townsend
 d.
All Smith
 



 
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