What does the term "Hundred Days" refer to in Franklin Roosevelt's presidency?
The opening months of his term, when Congress passed a flood of major laws
✓
The period between his election and his first inauguration
The months he spent recovering from polio before returning to politics
The final stretch of his 1932 campaign against Herbert Hoover
Correct Answer
The opening months of his term, when Congress passed a flood of major laws
In the opening months of his first term in 1933, Roosevelt and Congress passed an unprecedented wave of relief, recovery and reform laws. The period between his election and inauguration is the interregnum. His recovery from polio came years earlier, in the 1920s. The final stretch of the 1932 campaign came before he took office.
Category: First New Deal Programs
Question 2
Why did Roosevelt declare a national bank holiday days after taking office in 1933?
To give bank employees a paid vacation after the panic
To close banks so examiners could reopen the sound ones
✓
To transfer all private banks to federal ownership
To let banks foreclose on loans without interference
Correct Answer
To close banks so examiners could reopen the sound ones
Roosevelt shut the banks to stop the runs, and under the Emergency Banking Act federal examiners inspected them and allowed those found sound to reopen within days. A paid vacation for bank employees was not the purpose. Transferring private banks to federal ownership was never part of the plan. Letting banks foreclose without interference was not the purpose.
Category: Banking Reform
Question 3
What were Roosevelt's fireside chats?
Private meetings with business leaders at the White House
Newspaper columns written under a pen name
Radio talks explaining his policies to the public
✓
Debates held with Republican leaders in Congress
Correct Answer
Radio talks explaining his policies to the public
Roosevelt spoke directly to Americans over the radio in a calm, plain style, and his first talk on the banking crisis persuaded many people to return their savings to the banks. Private meetings with business leaders were not what the term meant. Newspaper columns under a pen name were not his method. Debates with Republican leaders were not what the term meant.
Category: First New Deal Programs
Question 4
What did the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, created by the banking law of 1933, do?
Bought stock to prop up falling share prices
Lent money directly to struggling farmers
Printed new currency to replace gold coins
Insured individual bank deposits up to a set amount
✓
Correct Answer
Insured individual bank deposits up to a set amount
The FDIC guaranteed deposits up to a fixed limit, at first $2,500, so depositors no longer had reason to rush their banks at the first sign of trouble. Buying stock to prop up prices was not its role. Lending money to farmers was handled by farm credit programs. Printing currency is not the FDIC's job.
Category: Banking Reform
Question 5
What was the main task of the Securities and Exchange Commission created during the New Deal?
Regulating the sale and trading of stocks and bonds
✓
Insuring home mortgages against default
Setting minimum wages for industrial workers
Managing the nation's supply of gold
Correct Answer
Regulating the sale and trading of stocks and bonds
The commission enforced new rules requiring companies to disclose accurate information about the stocks and bonds they sold, aiming to prevent the abuses that fed the 1929 crash. Insuring mortgages was the work of housing agencies. Setting minimum wages came under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Managing the gold supply was not its role.
Category: Banking Reform
Question 6
How did the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 try to raise farm prices?
By buying farmland to resell to new settlers
By paying farmers to reduce their production
✓
By banning imports of all foreign food
By setting a minimum wage for farmworkers
Correct Answer
By paying farmers to reduce their production
The act paid farmers to plant fewer acres and raise fewer animals, cutting supply so prices would rise; it was funded by a tax on food processors. Buying farmland for resale was not the method. Banning all food imports was not the method. A minimum wage for farmworkers was not part of it, and farmworkers were later left out of other labor protections.
Category: First New Deal Programs
Question 7
What happened to many Southern sharecroppers and tenant farmers under the Agricultural Adjustment Act?
They received most of the federal payments
They were given title to the land they worked
Landowners evicted them as they took land out of production
✓
They were drafted into the Civilian Conservation Corps
Correct Answer
Landowners evicted them as they took land out of production
Payments went mainly to landowners, who often took land out of production and pushed tenants and sharecroppers off it, which led to the founding of the interracial Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Tenants did not receive most of the payments. They were not given title to the land. The Civilian Conservation Corps was a voluntary program, not a draft.
Category: First New Deal Programs
Question 8
Under the National Industrial Recovery Act, the National Recovery Administration worked with industries to do what?
Break up large corporations into small firms
Ban labor unions from organizing workers
Sell factories to their workers at low cost
Draw up codes setting prices, wages and hours
✓
Correct Answer
Draw up codes setting prices, wages and hours
The NRA suspended antitrust rules so each industry could write codes on prices, wages and working hours, and businesses that complied displayed the Blue Eagle emblem. Breaking up large corporations was the opposite of suspending antitrust rules. The act encouraged union organizing rather than banning it. Selling factories to workers was not part of it.
Category: First New Deal Programs
Question 9
Which group did the Civilian Conservation Corps employ?
Young men from families on relief
✓
Retired workers over the age of sixty-five
Skilled engineers from private companies
Women who had lost factory jobs
Correct Answer
Young men from families on relief
The Civilian Conservation Corps put young men from relief families to work planting trees, fighting erosion and building parks, and most of their monthly pay was sent home to their families. Retired workers over sixty-five were the focus of old-age pensions, not this program. Skilled engineers were not its target. Women were not enrolled in its camps.
Category: First New Deal Programs
Question 10
What was the Tennessee Valley Authority created to do?
Move Southern factory workers to Northern cities
Build dams for flood control and electric power in a poor region
✓
Buy cotton from Southern farmers at guaranteed prices
Regulate railroad rates across the Southeast
Correct Answer
Build dams for flood control and electric power in a poor region
The Tennessee Valley Authority built dams that controlled flooding and generated cheap hydroelectric power, and it promoted reforestation and soil conservation in one of the nation's poorest regions. Moving Southern workers north was not its purpose. Buying cotton at guaranteed prices was not its role. Regulating railroad rates was not its role.
Category: First New Deal Programs
Question 11
What change to the presidential transition did the Twentieth Amendment, ratified in 1933, make?
It limited presidents to two terms in office
It allowed the federal government to tax incomes
It shortened the gap between election and inauguration
✓
It gave women the right to vote in national elections
Correct Answer
It shortened the gap between election and inauguration
The amendment moved inauguration day from March 4 to January 20, cutting the long interregnum during which the economy had worsened before Roosevelt took office; the first January inauguration came in 1937. Limiting presidents to two terms was the work of the Twenty-Second Amendment. The income tax came with the Sixteenth Amendment. Women's suffrage came with the Nineteenth Amendment.
Category: Roosevelt's Rise
Question 12
In which speech did Roosevelt declare that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?
His acceptance of the 1932 nomination
His request for war against Japan in 1941
His announcement of the court-packing plan
His first inaugural address in 1933
✓
Correct Answer
His first inaugural address in 1933
Roosevelt spoke the line on March 4, 1933, urging a frightened nation not to be paralyzed by panic as he took office. His acceptance of the 1932 nomination is where he pledged a new deal. His request for war against Japan came after Pearl Harbor. The court-packing plan was announced in 1937.
Category: Roosevelt's Rise
Question 13
On what grounds did the Supreme Court strike down the National Industrial Recovery Act and the original Agricultural Adjustment Act?
They gave the federal government powers beyond its constitutional authority
✓
They violated the rights of labor unions to strike
They spent money that Congress had never approved
They discriminated against African American workers
Correct Answer
They gave the federal government powers beyond its constitutional authority
The Court ruled that these laws overstepped the Constitution's limits on federal power: in Schechter (1935) the NIRA regulated local business beyond the commerce power and handed lawmaking power to the president, and in Butler (1936) the AAA used a tax to regulate farming, a matter left to the states. The rulings did not rest on union rights. Congress had approved the spending. Discrimination against African American workers, though real in many programs, was not the basis of the rulings.
Category: Critics and the Courts
Question 14
Which programs did the Social Security Act of 1935 create?
National health insurance and free hospital care
Old-age pensions and unemployment insurance
✓
Guaranteed federal jobs for every adult
Free college tuition for veterans
Correct Answer
Old-age pensions and unemployment insurance
The act created retirement pensions for older workers, a system of unemployment insurance, and aid to the blind and to dependent children. National health insurance was not included. Guaranteed federal jobs were not part of it. Free college tuition for veterans came later with the GI Bill.
Category: The Second New Deal
Question 15
What did Roosevelt's court-packing plan of 1937 propose?
Letting Congress overrule any Supreme Court decision by a majority vote
Reducing the number of justices on the Court from nine to seven
Adding a justice for each justice past seventy who would not retire
✓
Requiring justices to be reelected by voters every ten years
Correct Answer
Adding a justice for each justice past seventy who would not retire
Roosevelt proposed adding one justice for each sitting justice over seventy who stayed on the bench, which could have expanded the Court from nine to fifteen; Congress and the public rejected the plan. Letting Congress overrule decisions by majority vote was not proposed. Reducing the Court to seven justices was not proposed. Electing justices was not proposed.
Category: Critics and the Courts
Question 16
Which provisions were part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938?
A national sales tax to pay for relief
Federal insurance for savings accounts
A ban on strikes in defense industries
A minimum wage, a limit on weekly hours and limits on child labor
✓
Correct Answer
A minimum wage, a limit on weekly hours and limits on child labor
The act set a national minimum wage, capped the standard workweek at forty-four hours, falling to forty by 1940, and restricted child labor. A national sales tax to pay for relief was never part of it. Federal insurance for savings came from the banking law of 1933. A ban on strikes in defense industries was not part of it.
Category: The Second New Deal
Question 17
What was the Black Cabinet during Roosevelt's presidency?
An informal group of African American advisers to the president
✓
A secret committee that planned segregated relief camps
A group of Southern senators who blocked civil rights bills
The official name of the president's first cabinet
Correct Answer
An informal group of African American advisers to the president
Also called the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, the Black Cabinet was an unofficial circle of African American officials and leaders who advised Roosevelt on issues facing Black Americans. A secret committee planning segregated camps did not exist. Southern senators who blocked civil rights bills were opponents, not this group. The president's official cabinet was not called by that name.
Category: Impact on Americans
Question 18
How did the Congress of Industrial Organizations differ from the American Federation of Labor?
It admitted only skilled craftsmen in a single trade
It organized all the workers in an industry regardless of skill
✓
It opposed collective bargaining with employers
It refused to support any political party
Correct Answer
It organized all the workers in an industry regardless of skill
The CIO organized entire industries such as autos and steel, taking in unskilled and skilled workers alike, while the AFL organized skilled workers by craft. Admitting only skilled craftsmen describes the AFL. The CIO fought for collective bargaining rather than opposing it. The CIO backed Roosevelt and the Democrats.
Category: The Second New Deal
Question 19
What was the Brains Trust?
A federal agency that funded university research
A panel of judges who reviewed New Deal laws
A group of advisers who helped Roosevelt shape New Deal programs
✓
A union of teachers that backed Roosevelt in 1932
Correct Answer
A group of advisers who helped Roosevelt shape New Deal programs
The Brains Trust was an informal group of advisers, including Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell and Adolf Berle, who first worked with Roosevelt in New York and helped develop relief and recovery programs. A federal agency funding university research was not what it was. A panel of judges reviewing laws was not what it was. A teachers union was not what it was.
Category: Roosevelt's Rise
Question 20
What helped cause the sharp economic downturn of 1937 to 1938?
Congress raised the tariff to its highest level ever
The Supreme Court ordered banks to close
A new war in Europe cut off American trade
Roosevelt cut federal spending to balance the budget
✓
Correct Answer
Roosevelt cut federal spending to balance the budget
With the economy improving, Roosevelt cut federal spending, and together with tighter Federal Reserve policy and new Social Security payroll taxes, this helped bring rising unemployment and industrial decline; he returned to heavy spending in 1938. Raising the tariff to a record level was not the cause. The Supreme Court did not order banks closed. War in Europe began in 1939, after the downturn.
Category: The Second New Deal