The New Deal Review
US History/E. Napp Name: ______
- To identify significant topics and terms pertaining to the New Deal
- Match the correct numbered definition with the correct term
Activity 1: Matching
1. In his 1932 campaign, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had promised to try out many new ideas that might help solve the Great Depression. Through his first term and part of his second, the government programs that he favored were known collectively as the ______. / Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)______
2.In Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ______, his first three months in office, the Democratic majority in Congress cooperated with the president by passing more important laws than in the entire decade of the twenties. / Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
______
3.During Roosevelt’s first three months, he closed banks temporarily, insured bank deposits, paid farmers to reduce production in order to boost farm prices, encouraged businesses to set the lowest prices consistent with fair competition, and provided for a minimum wage and a ______- hour workweek. / Social Security Board (SSB)
______
4. The ______provided relief for the unemployed. It provided young people with jobs in flood control, soil conservation, and forest replanting. / New Deal
______
5.The ______provided recovery and relief. It used federal money to put people to work building bridges, dams, highways, and other public projects. / Forty
______
6.The ______reformed banking and provided government insurance for bank deposits to prevent the loss of a depositor’s money. / Public Works Administration (PWA)
______
7.The ______provided reform for the treatment of the elderly, the disabled, and the unemployed. It provided insurance benefits to nonearners because of age, handicap, or job loss. / “Hundred Days”
______
8. The ______provided for recovery of agriculture. It paid farmers to destroy crops and livestock as a means of limiting production and raising prices. / National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
______
9. The ______provided for reform of the stock market. It regulated the stock market and required stockbrokers to be truthful with the public. / Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
______
10. The ______enforced the right of workers to unionize. / Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
______
Activity 2: Matching
1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his many advisers (the “Brain Trust”) had three main goals – to provide ______to the poor and unemployed; to bring about the recovery of business, and to reform the economic system so that the mistakes that had caused the depression would not be repeated. / Washington______
2. The Wagner Act of 1935, named for a Senator from New York, guaranteed to all workers the right to join a union and to engage in ______by which workers and employers could work out their differences about wages, hours, and factory conditions. / “Pack”
______
3. One of the most ambitious New Deal programs was a successful effort to rescue an entire region from extreme poverty. In 1933, Congress created the ______to build dams to control floods, build power plants to provide electricity, charge fair prices for electricity, and build reservoirs to hold needed water. /
Two
______
4. During his first term, Roosevelt had a difficult time with the conservative justices of the Supreme Court, most of whom had been appointed by Republican presidents. Angered by the Supreme Court, Roosevelt proposed a bill to increase the number of justices from 9 to 15. Conservative critics denounced FDR’s attempt to ______the Court. Congress voted against the bill and preserved the system of checks and balances. / Unconstitutional
______
5. In 1935, a chicken-raising company complained that the National Recovery Administration set up industry codes that wrongly gave legislative power to the executive branch. The Supreme Court agreed and declared the National Industrial Recovery Act ______. / Relief – As in Relief, Recovery, and Reform
______
6. In 1940, Roosevelt was elected to a third term and in 1944 to a fourth. Republican critics accused him of breaking a two-term tradition since the time of ______. / Collective Bargaining
______
7. After Roosevelt’s death, Congress proposed the Twenty-second Amendment limiting future presidents to ______full terms. It was adopted in 1951. / Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
______
8. Critics of the New Deal accused the programs of weakening the ______system and being hostile to business. They referred to the New Deal as “creeping socialism.” / Free Enterprise
______
Activity 3: Multiple-Choice
1. A major reason for creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933 was to(1)build and manage a turnpike in the valley
(2)provide health care benefits for southerners
(3)encourage African Americans to settle in the valley
(4)improve economic conditions in a poor rural region
2. During President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were created as a way to
(1)provide jobs to those who were unemployed
(2)raise revenue for relief and recovery programs
(3)limit risks associated with savings and investments
(4)implement the new income tax amendment
3. Much of the domestic legislation of the New Deal period was based on the idea that the federal government should
(1)favor big business over labor and farming
(2)assume some responsibility for the welfare of people
(3)own and operate the major industries of the country
(4)require local communities to be responsible for social welfare programs
4. Which action by President Franklin D. Roosevelt challenged the principle of checks and balances?
(1)frequently vetoing New Deal legislation
(2)trying to increase the number of justices on the Supreme Court
(3)taking over the Senate’s treaty ratification power
(4)desegregating defense industries / 5. Which statement best illustrates a basic idea of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal?
(1)Communism provides the only real solution to economic problems.
(2)Unemployed workers should rely on the states rather than on the federal government for help.
(3)The United States reached its economic peak in the 1920s and is now a declining industrial power.
(4)The economy sometimes needs public money to encourage business activity.
6. New Deal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) were primarily intended to help
(1)farmers
(2)homeowners
(3)businesses
(4)unemployed workers
7. How did the power of government change during the Civil War and the Great Depression?
(1)Presidential powers were expanded.
(2)Congress exerted greater leadership.
(3)The Supreme Court expanded civil liberties.
(4)Power shifted from the federal government to the states.
8. The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) of 1935 strengthened labor unions because it legalized
(1)collective bargaining
(2)blacklisting
(3)the open shop
(4)the sit-down strike
9. The Supreme Court declared some New Deal laws unconstitutional because these laws
(1)overextended the power of the federal government
(2)forced the federal government into heavy debt
(3)ignored the rights of minority groups and women
(4)failed to solve the problems for which they were intended
Activity 4: Reading
“When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to the presidency in 1932, it was on a promise to restore the confidence of the American people and to bring America out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt stated in his first inaugural address that ‘we have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ His objectives were to calm the economic fears of Americans, develop policies to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression, and gain the support of the American people for his programs.
Immediately after his election, Roosevelt began to formulate policies to bring about relief from the economic hardships the American people were experiencing. These programs became known as the New Deal, a reference taken from a campaign speech in which he promised a "new deal for the American people." The New Deal focused on three general goals: relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform. During the One Hundred Days, Congress enacted 15 major pieces of legislation establishing New Deal agencies and programs.
…While developing programs to help America emerge from the Great Depression, Roosevelt also needed to calm the fears and restore the confidence of Americans and to gain their support for the programs of the New Deal, including the NRA. One of the ways FDR chose to accomplish this was through the radio; the most direct means of access to the American people…Roosevelt called his radio talks about issues of public concern ‘Fireside Chats.’” ~ archives.gov
Excerpt from a Fireside Chat:
First of all, let me state the simple fact that when you deposit money in a bank the bank does not put the money into a safe deposit vault. It invests your money in many different forms of credit…In other words; the bank puts your money to work to keep the wheels of industry and of agriculture turning round. A comparatively small part of the money that you put into the bank is kept in currency…In other words; the total amount of all the currency in the country is only a comparatively small proportion of the total deposits in all the banks of the country.
What, then, happened during the last few days of February and the first few days of March? Because of undermined confidence on the part of the public, there was a general rush by a large portion of our population to turn bank deposits into currency or gold – a rush so great that the soundest banks couldn’t get enough currency to meet the demand. The reason for this was that on the spur of the moment it was, of course, impossible to sell perfectly sound assets of a bank and convert them into cash except at panic prices far below their real value.
By the afternoon of March 3, a week ago last Friday; scarcely a bank in the country was open to do business. Proclamations closing them in whole or in part had been issued by the governors in almost all of the states.
It was then that I issued the proclamation providing for the national bank holiday, and this was the first step in the government’s reconstruction of our financial and economic fabric.
~ FDR – Fireside Chat
1-What promise did FDR make during his presidential campaign in 1932? ______
2-What were Roosevelt’s objectives as president? ______
3-How did Roosevelt try to calm the fears of the American people? ______
4-What was Roosevelt explaining in this excerpt from one of his fireside chats? ______
5-What is a bank run? ______
6-What is the purpose of a bank holiday? ______
Activity 5: Cartoon Analysis
Questions:
Who is the quarterback?
______
What is the role of a quarterback in football? ______
What does the quarterback want? ______
How many justices are on the United States Supreme Court? ______
What power does the Supreme Court have? ______
Define judicial review.
______
What had the Supreme Court declared about several New Deal programs? ______
Why did Roosevelt want to increase the number of justices on the Supreme Court? ______Why did Congress ultimately prevent Roosevelt’s “court-packing” scheme? What principle in American government did it violate? ______
Activity 6: Lyric Analysis
“In 1929, just prior to the Great Crash of the New York Stock Market, Milton Ager and Jack
Yellen recorded, ‘Happy Days Are Here Again.’ The song was an instant hit and would remain apopular refrain throughout the 1930s, as the theme of radio shows sponsored by Lucky Strikecigarettes.
In 1932, the song became closely associated to the presidential campaign of New YorkDemocratic Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his effort to unseat incumbent PresidentHerbert Hoover. When Roosevelt arrived in Chicago to accept his party’s nomination for president,he entered the room to the sound of ‘Happy Days Are Here Again.’ The song and its cheerful lyricsmatched Roosevelt’s upbeat tempo and stood in stark contrast to Hoover’s demeanor. In addition,the song resonated throughout the nation as most Americans were looking to Roosevelt in hopes that his pledge of ‘a new deal for the American people’ would usher them safely through the GreatDepression and into a new era of economic prosperity.” ~ teachingamericanhistory.org
The Song: “Happy Days Are Here Again” by Jack Yellen & Milton Alger
So long sad times, go long bad times,
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times, cloudy gray times,
You are now a thing of the past
Happy days are here again,
The skies above are clear again
So, let us sing a song of cheer again,
Happy days are here again
All together, shout it now,
There’s no one who can doubt it now,
So let’s tell the world about it now,
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone,
There’ll be no more from now on, from now on!
Happy days are here again,
The skies above are clear again
So, let us sing a song of cheer again,
Happy times, happy nights, happy days are here again
Questions:
1-When was “Happy Days Are Here Again” recorded? ______
2-Why did the song become identified with Franklin Delano Roosevelt? ______
3-What does the song suggest about FDR’s New Deal? ______
4-Why would such a positive hope be so popular during the Great Depression? ______
5-Can you identify a similar song today? ______