The Great Depression POLs (13.1-13.6)

How did the Great Depression affect employment in the United States?

Almost one fourth of all workers lost their jobs.

How did the Great Depression affect American workers?

Almost one fourth of all workers were unemployed.

Why did mass entertainment become such big business during the 1930s?

Americans sought to escape their worries through movies and radio.

What was one reason that money funneled through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation didn't get to the people who needed it?

Businesses did not use the money they borrowed to hire more workers.

How did U.S. demographic patterns change during the 1930s?

City populations grew as farmers left their homes on the Great Plains in search of urban work.

What did John Maynard Keynes's theory of pump priming argue?

Deficit spending would stimulate the economy and end the depression.

Why did many banks fail in 1929?

Depositors withdrew their money all at once.

What happened as a result of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff?

Foreign nations increased their tariffs in response, leading to a decline in trade

Why did so many families migrate from the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl era?

Geographic factors made it difficult to farm successfully.

What happened to some Mexican Americans during the Great Depression?

Government repatriation efforts forced them to return to Mexico.

Why did President Roosevelt refuse to support a federal antilynching law?

He feared that southern Democrats would turn against him and prevent him from passing other reforms.

How did President Roosevelt's treatment of the Bonus Army differ from Hoover's approach?

He showed that the government cared and sympathized with the marchers.

Why did Roosevelt's presidency prompt the passage of the Twenty-second Amendment?

His four election victories increased support for restricting the presidency to two terms.

What happened in 1929 as a result of stock speculation?

Investors lost their expected profits and faced economic devastation.

Why was President Roosevelt's reform policy more successful than Hoover's approach?

It advocated strong leadership by the federal government.

How did Superman affect the American public?

It demonstrated that ordinary people could be heroes.

What policy did the Bureau of Indian Affairs pursue in the 1930s?

It encouraged the practice of Native American customs and languages

How did the New Deal affect American artists?

It provided artists with job opportunities and federal funding.

How does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation continue to affect the American public today?

It strengthens confidence in the financial system by insuring bank deposits.

What role did the Federal Reserve play in causing the Great Depression?

Its policies discouraged lending at a time when more money was needed in the economy.

How did voting patterns change during the 1930s?

Many African Americans began to vote Democratic in support of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Why did some Americans push for Mexican American and Asian American repatriation?

Some white people wanted to eliminate minority competition for jobs.

Which 1929 event sparked a chain reaction that led to the Great Depression?

The stock market crashed.

Explain how the Hawley-Smoot Tariff was intended to combat the depression but instead made the depression worse.

The tariff aimed to make American products more desirable than foreign products by raising taxes on imported goods. Instead, the tariff lead to other countries experiencing their own depression and therefore imposing tariffs on American products in retaliation. Now, there was an even smaller market for American producers and irreversible damage to international trade.

How did new farming methods in the 1920s impact the Great Plains?

They altered landscapes and made the land more vulnerable to drought.

Why did many conservatives criticize Roosevelt's New Deal?

They argued that the massive expansion of the government threatened individual liberty and the free market system.

What does it mean to say that factory workers sometimes went "from unemployed to unemployable"?

They took on a ragged appearance that kept employers from hiring them.

How did the Great Depression affect European immigrants?

Thousands left the country for both voluntary and involuntary reasons.

According to John Maynard Keynes, what was the main cause of the Great Depression?

a lack of government interference in the economy

How did the Federal Reserve try to limit speculation in 1929?

by limiting the money supply

What fueled the high stock prices of the 1920s?

confidence

What did Eleanor Roosevelt's newspaper column promote?

equal justice for all Americans

What were Roosevelt's fireside chats?

radio speeches in which Roosevelt explained his policies and tried restore the confidence of Americans

Which policy did Huey Long support in opposition to the New Deal?

taxing corporations and the wealthy to redistribute income

Which New Deal program focused more on spreading culture?

the Federal Art Project

Which region experienced the most severe effects of the Dust Bowl?

the southern Great Plains

Why did the Bonus Army march on Washington, D.C., in 1932?

to demand the early payment of an anticipated bonus

What was the purpose of the Congress of Industrial Organizations?

to organize workers who were excluded from other unions

What was the main purpose of the WPA cultural projects?

to provide work for unemployed Americans

Which factor led to underconsumption during the late 1920s?

uneven distribution of wealth