Guided Reading Questions
FDR: A Politician in a Wheelchair
Know: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt
1. What kind for man was FDR?
Franklin Roosevelt was suave and conciliatory while Theodore Roosevelt was pugnacious and confrontational. FDR had beens stricken with polio in 1921 and during his time, his wife, Eleanor, became his political partner. Franklin has also lost a friend in 1932 when he and Al Smith both sought the Democratic Nomination.
Presidential Hopefuls in 1932
2. What was Roosevelt's campaign message in the 1932 election?
IN the campaign, Roosevelt seized the opportunity to prove that he was not an invalid, and his campaign also featured an attack on Hoover's spending (ironically, he would spend even more during his term). The Democrats found the expression in the airy tune "Happy Days Are Here Again," and clearly, the Democrats had the advantage in this race. He wanted to prove to the people that he was not an invalid due to his current state in a wheelchair.
Hoover's Humiliation in 1932
3. What were the immediate results of Roosevelt's victory?
Hoover had been swept into the presidential office in 1928, but in 1932, he was swept out with equal force as he was defeated 472 to 59. Noteworthy was the transition of the Black vote from Republican to the Democratic Party. During the lame-duck period, Hoover tried to initiate some of Roosevelt's plans, but was met by stubbornness and resistance. Hooverites would later accuse FDR of letting the depression worsen so that he could emerge as an even more shining savior.
FDR and the Three R's: Relief, Reform and Recovery
4. What were the immediate results of Roosevelt's victory?
On te Inauguration Day, FDR asserted, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He called for a nationwide bank holiday to eliminate paranoid bank withdrawals, and then he commenced with his Three R's. The Democratic-controlled Congress was willing ot do as FDR said, and the first Hundred Days of FDR's administration were filled with more legislative activity then ever before. Many of the New Deal Reformers had been adopted by European nations a decade before.
Roosevelt Manages the Money
Know: Fireside Chats, Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Managed Currency
5. What were the key aspects of FDR's monetary policy?
The Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 was passed first. FDR Declared a one week "bank holiday" just so everyone would claim down and stop running on the banks. Then, Roosevelt settled down for the first of this thirty famous "Fireside Chats" with America. The "Hundred Days Congress" passd the Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, that provided the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which insured individual deposits up to $5,000, thereby eliminating the epidemic of bank failure and restoring faith to banks. FDR then took the nation off of the gold standard and achieved controlled inflation by ordering Congress to buy gold at increasingly high prices. He announced that the US would pay foreign gold at a rate of one oz per every $35 due.
Creating Jobs for the Jobless
Know: Pump Priming, CCC. FERA. Harry Hopkins, AAA, HOLC, CWA
6. Explain the differences between New Deal agencies and what radical critics wanted the government to do.
Radical critics wanted the government to give payment toward workers.
A Day for Every Demagogue
Know: Father Coughlin, Huey Long, Dr. Francis E. Townshend, WPA
7. List other historical demagogues.
Father Coughlin was a Catholic priest in Michigan who at first was with FDR then disliked the New Deal and voiced his opinions on the radio. Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana was popular for his "Share the Wealth" program. Proposing "every man a king," each family was to receive $5,000 from the rich. His chief lieutenant was former clergyman Gerald L.K. Smith. Dr. Francis E. Townshend of California attracted the trusting support of perhaps 5 Million "senior citizens" with his fantastic plan of each senior receiving $200 a month, provided that all of it would be spent within the month. Congress authorized the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935, which put $11 Million on thousands of public buildings.
New Visibility for Women
Know: Frances Charles Coughlin, Huey Long, Dr. Francis E. Townshend, WPA
8. Explain the factors that mad eit possible for these women to gain fame.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the most visible, but other ladies were famous as well: Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins was the first female cabinet member and Mary McLeod Bethune headed the Office of Minority Affairs in the NYA, the "Black Cabinet," and founded a Florida College. Anthropologist Ruth Benedict helped develop the "culture and personality movement" and her student Margaret Mead reached even greater heights with Coming of Age in Samoa. Pearl S. Buck wrote a beautiful and timeless novel, The Good Earth, about a simple Chinese farmer which earned her the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.
Helping Industry and Labor
Know: NRA, Sick Chicken Decision, PWA, Harold Ickes
9. How did the NRA attempt to restore industry?
There were maximum hours of labor, minimum wages, and more rights for labor union members, including the right to choose their own representatives in bargaining. The Public Works Administration also intended both for industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. One of the Hundred Days Congress's earliest acts was to legalize light wine and beer with an alcoholic content of 3.2% or less and also levied a $5 tax on every barrel manufactured.
Paying Farmers Not to Farm
10. How did the federal government attempt to help farmers?
Congress established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which paid farmers to reduce their crop acreage and would eliminate price-depressing surpluses. The New Deal Congress also passed the Soil COnservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, which paid farmers not to farm actually conserving plants like soybeans or to let their land lie fallow. The Second Agricultural Adjustment Administration Act of 1938 was a more comprehensive substitute that continued conservation payments but was accepted by the Supremer Court.
Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
Know: Dust Bowl, Okies and Arkies, The Grapes of Wrath, Indian Reorganization Act
11. how did nature cause problems for some farmers on the plains?
After the drought of 1933, furious winds whipped up dust into the air, turning parts of Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma into the Dust Bowl and forcing many farmers to migrate west to California and inspired Steinbeck's classes The Grapes of Wrath. The dust was extremely hazardous to the health and to living, creating further misery. In 1935, FDR set up the Resettlement Administration, charged with the task of removing near-farmless farmers to better land.
Makers of America: The Dust Bowl Migrants
Know: San Joaquin Valley, Farm Security Administration, Okievilles
12. In what ways were things better in California? In what ways were they the same?
The climate was much better in California than in was in the Mid West region. They were the same through the job oppurtunities because both locations were crowded with people.
Battling Bankers and Big Business
Know: Federal Securities Act, SEC
13. "Reformist New Dealers were determined from the outset to curb the 'money changers'..." Explain.
The Federal Securities Act ("Truth in Securities Act") required promoters to transmit to the investor sworn information regarding the soundness of their stocks and bonds.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was designed as as tock watchdog administrative agency, and stock markets henceforth were to operate more as trading marts than as cannons. In 1932, Chicagoan Samuel Insull's multi-billion dollar financial empires had crashed, and such cases as his resulted in the Public Utility Holding COmpany Act of 1935.
The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River
Know: TVA, Creeping Socialism
14. What arguments were used for and against the TVA project?
The TVA sought to discover exactly how much money it took to produce electricity and them keep rates reasonable. It constructed dams on the Tennessee River adn helped the 2.5 million extremely poor citizens of the are improve their lives and their conditions. Hydroelectric power of Tennessee would give right to that of the West.
Housing Reform and Social Security
Know: FHA, Social Security
15. How did the FHA and Social Security attempt to help some of society's least fortunate?
FDR set up the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in 1934 to stimulate the building industry though small loans to householders. Congress bolstered the program in 1937 by authorizing the US Housing Authority (USHA), designed to lend money to states or community for low-cost construction. The Social Security Act of 1935 was the greatest victory for New Dealers, since it created pension and insurance for the old-aged, the blind the physically handicapped, delinquent chldren, and other dependents by taxing employees and employers. Republicans attacked this bitterly, as such government-knows-best programs and policies that were communist leaning and penalized the rich for their success.
A New Deal for Labor
Know: Wagner Act, National Labor Relations Board, CIO, John L. Lewis, SIt-Down Strike
16. How did labor respond to the improvement of conditions brought about by the New Deal?
A rash of walkouts occurred in the summer of 1934, and after the NRA was axed, the Wagner Act (AKA National Labor Relations Act) of 1935 took its place. The Wagner Act guaranteed the right of unions to organize themselves into effective unions, one of which was John L. Lewis, the boss of the United Mine Workers who also succeeded in forming the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) within the ranks of the AF of L in 1935. The CIO also won a victory against the US Steel Company, but smaller steel companies struck back, resulting in such incidences as the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 at the plant of the Republic Steel Company of SOuth Chicago in which police fired upon workers, leaving scores killed or injured.
Landon Challenges "the Champ"
KnowL Alfred Landon, AMerican Liberty League
17. What was the significance of the 1936 election?
The Republicans nominated Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon to run against FDR. Landon was weak on the radio and weaker in personal campaigning, and while he criticized FDR's spending, he also favored enough of FDR's New Deal to be ridiculed by the Democrats as an unsure idiot. In 1934, the AMerican Liberty League had been formed by conservative Democrats and wealthy Republicans to fight "socialistic" New Deal schemes. Roosevelt won in a huge landslide, getting 523 electoral votes to Landon's 8. FDR won primarily because he appealed to the "forgotten man," whom he never forgot.
Nine Old Men on the Supreme Bench
18. Why did Roosevelt ask Congress for a bill that would allow him to add justices to the Supreme Court?
The 20th Amendment had cut the lame-duck period down to 6 weeks, so FDR began his second term on January 20th, 1937, instead of on March 4. He controlled Congress, but the Supreme Court kept blocking his programs, so he proposed a shocking plan that would ass a member to the SUpreme Court for every existing member over the age of 70, for a maximum possible total of 15 total members.
The Court Changes Course
Know: Court-Packing, Hugo Black
19. What were the consequences of FDR's attempt to pack the Court?
FDR's court-packing scheme failed bt he did get some of the justices to start to vote his way, including Owen J. Roberts, formerly regarded as a conservative. SO FDR did achieve his purpose of getting the Supreme Court to vote his way. However, his failure of the court-packing scheme also showed how Americans still did not wish to tamper with the sacred justice system.
Twilight fo the New Deal
Know: Roosevelt Recession, John Maynard Keynes, Hatch Act
20. Assess the successfulness of FDR in his second term.
In 1937, the economy took another breif downturn when the "Roosevelt Recession," caused by government policies. FDR announced a bold program to stimulate the economy by planned deficit spending. Congress relented to FDR's pressure and passed the Reorganization Act, which gave him limited powers for administrative reforms, including the key new Executive Office in the White House.
New Deal or Raw Deal?
21. What criticism of the New Deal seems most fair to you? Least fair?
Foes of he New Deal condemned its waste, citing that nothing had been accomplished. Critics were shocked by the "try anything" attitude of FDR, who had increased the federal debt from $19.487 million to $40.440 million. It took WWII, though, to really lower unemployment. But the war, also created a heavier debt than before.
Varying Viewpoints: How radical was the New Deal?
Know: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Carl Degler, Constraints School of Historians, New Deal Condition
22. What did William Leuechtenburg mean when he called the New Deal a "half way revolution?"
Leuechtenburg ment that before Franklin Delano Roosevelt had come alone this country was in dire need of a revolution, a change in it's political standing. When Roosevelt proposed this, his proposition only took out half of the problems.
Know: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt
1. What kind for man was FDR?
Franklin Roosevelt was suave and conciliatory while Theodore Roosevelt was pugnacious and confrontational. FDR had beens stricken with polio in 1921 and during his time, his wife, Eleanor, became his political partner. Franklin has also lost a friend in 1932 when he and Al Smith both sought the Democratic Nomination.
Presidential Hopefuls in 1932
2. What was Roosevelt's campaign message in the 1932 election?
IN the campaign, Roosevelt seized the opportunity to prove that he was not an invalid, and his campaign also featured an attack on Hoover's spending (ironically, he would spend even more during his term). The Democrats found the expression in the airy tune "Happy Days Are Here Again," and clearly, the Democrats had the advantage in this race. He wanted to prove to the people that he was not an invalid due to his current state in a wheelchair.
Hoover's Humiliation in 1932
3. What were the immediate results of Roosevelt's victory?
Hoover had been swept into the presidential office in 1928, but in 1932, he was swept out with equal force as he was defeated 472 to 59. Noteworthy was the transition of the Black vote from Republican to the Democratic Party. During the lame-duck period, Hoover tried to initiate some of Roosevelt's plans, but was met by stubbornness and resistance. Hooverites would later accuse FDR of letting the depression worsen so that he could emerge as an even more shining savior.
FDR and the Three R's: Relief, Reform and Recovery
4. What were the immediate results of Roosevelt's victory?
On te Inauguration Day, FDR asserted, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He called for a nationwide bank holiday to eliminate paranoid bank withdrawals, and then he commenced with his Three R's. The Democratic-controlled Congress was willing ot do as FDR said, and the first Hundred Days of FDR's administration were filled with more legislative activity then ever before. Many of the New Deal Reformers had been adopted by European nations a decade before.
Roosevelt Manages the Money
Know: Fireside Chats, Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Managed Currency
5. What were the key aspects of FDR's monetary policy?
The Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933 was passed first. FDR Declared a one week "bank holiday" just so everyone would claim down and stop running on the banks. Then, Roosevelt settled down for the first of this thirty famous "Fireside Chats" with America. The "Hundred Days Congress" passd the Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act, that provided the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which insured individual deposits up to $5,000, thereby eliminating the epidemic of bank failure and restoring faith to banks. FDR then took the nation off of the gold standard and achieved controlled inflation by ordering Congress to buy gold at increasingly high prices. He announced that the US would pay foreign gold at a rate of one oz per every $35 due.
Creating Jobs for the Jobless
Know: Pump Priming, CCC. FERA. Harry Hopkins, AAA, HOLC, CWA
6. Explain the differences between New Deal agencies and what radical critics wanted the government to do.
Radical critics wanted the government to give payment toward workers.
A Day for Every Demagogue
Know: Father Coughlin, Huey Long, Dr. Francis E. Townshend, WPA
7. List other historical demagogues.
Father Coughlin was a Catholic priest in Michigan who at first was with FDR then disliked the New Deal and voiced his opinions on the radio. Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana was popular for his "Share the Wealth" program. Proposing "every man a king," each family was to receive $5,000 from the rich. His chief lieutenant was former clergyman Gerald L.K. Smith. Dr. Francis E. Townshend of California attracted the trusting support of perhaps 5 Million "senior citizens" with his fantastic plan of each senior receiving $200 a month, provided that all of it would be spent within the month. Congress authorized the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935, which put $11 Million on thousands of public buildings.
New Visibility for Women
Know: Frances Charles Coughlin, Huey Long, Dr. Francis E. Townshend, WPA
8. Explain the factors that mad eit possible for these women to gain fame.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the most visible, but other ladies were famous as well: Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins was the first female cabinet member and Mary McLeod Bethune headed the Office of Minority Affairs in the NYA, the "Black Cabinet," and founded a Florida College. Anthropologist Ruth Benedict helped develop the "culture and personality movement" and her student Margaret Mead reached even greater heights with Coming of Age in Samoa. Pearl S. Buck wrote a beautiful and timeless novel, The Good Earth, about a simple Chinese farmer which earned her the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.
Helping Industry and Labor
Know: NRA, Sick Chicken Decision, PWA, Harold Ickes
9. How did the NRA attempt to restore industry?
There were maximum hours of labor, minimum wages, and more rights for labor union members, including the right to choose their own representatives in bargaining. The Public Works Administration also intended both for industrial recovery and for unemployment relief. One of the Hundred Days Congress's earliest acts was to legalize light wine and beer with an alcoholic content of 3.2% or less and also levied a $5 tax on every barrel manufactured.
Paying Farmers Not to Farm
10. How did the federal government attempt to help farmers?
Congress established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which paid farmers to reduce their crop acreage and would eliminate price-depressing surpluses. The New Deal Congress also passed the Soil COnservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936, which paid farmers not to farm actually conserving plants like soybeans or to let their land lie fallow. The Second Agricultural Adjustment Administration Act of 1938 was a more comprehensive substitute that continued conservation payments but was accepted by the Supremer Court.
Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
Know: Dust Bowl, Okies and Arkies, The Grapes of Wrath, Indian Reorganization Act
11. how did nature cause problems for some farmers on the plains?
After the drought of 1933, furious winds whipped up dust into the air, turning parts of Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma into the Dust Bowl and forcing many farmers to migrate west to California and inspired Steinbeck's classes The Grapes of Wrath. The dust was extremely hazardous to the health and to living, creating further misery. In 1935, FDR set up the Resettlement Administration, charged with the task of removing near-farmless farmers to better land.
Makers of America: The Dust Bowl Migrants
Know: San Joaquin Valley, Farm Security Administration, Okievilles
12. In what ways were things better in California? In what ways were they the same?
The climate was much better in California than in was in the Mid West region. They were the same through the job oppurtunities because both locations were crowded with people.
Battling Bankers and Big Business
Know: Federal Securities Act, SEC
13. "Reformist New Dealers were determined from the outset to curb the 'money changers'..." Explain.
The Federal Securities Act ("Truth in Securities Act") required promoters to transmit to the investor sworn information regarding the soundness of their stocks and bonds.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was designed as as tock watchdog administrative agency, and stock markets henceforth were to operate more as trading marts than as cannons. In 1932, Chicagoan Samuel Insull's multi-billion dollar financial empires had crashed, and such cases as his resulted in the Public Utility Holding COmpany Act of 1935.
The TVA Harnesses the Tennessee River
Know: TVA, Creeping Socialism
14. What arguments were used for and against the TVA project?
The TVA sought to discover exactly how much money it took to produce electricity and them keep rates reasonable. It constructed dams on the Tennessee River adn helped the 2.5 million extremely poor citizens of the are improve their lives and their conditions. Hydroelectric power of Tennessee would give right to that of the West.
Housing Reform and Social Security
Know: FHA, Social Security
15. How did the FHA and Social Security attempt to help some of society's least fortunate?
FDR set up the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in 1934 to stimulate the building industry though small loans to householders. Congress bolstered the program in 1937 by authorizing the US Housing Authority (USHA), designed to lend money to states or community for low-cost construction. The Social Security Act of 1935 was the greatest victory for New Dealers, since it created pension and insurance for the old-aged, the blind the physically handicapped, delinquent chldren, and other dependents by taxing employees and employers. Republicans attacked this bitterly, as such government-knows-best programs and policies that were communist leaning and penalized the rich for their success.
A New Deal for Labor
Know: Wagner Act, National Labor Relations Board, CIO, John L. Lewis, SIt-Down Strike
16. How did labor respond to the improvement of conditions brought about by the New Deal?
A rash of walkouts occurred in the summer of 1934, and after the NRA was axed, the Wagner Act (AKA National Labor Relations Act) of 1935 took its place. The Wagner Act guaranteed the right of unions to organize themselves into effective unions, one of which was John L. Lewis, the boss of the United Mine Workers who also succeeded in forming the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) within the ranks of the AF of L in 1935. The CIO also won a victory against the US Steel Company, but smaller steel companies struck back, resulting in such incidences as the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 at the plant of the Republic Steel Company of SOuth Chicago in which police fired upon workers, leaving scores killed or injured.
Landon Challenges "the Champ"
KnowL Alfred Landon, AMerican Liberty League
17. What was the significance of the 1936 election?
The Republicans nominated Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon to run against FDR. Landon was weak on the radio and weaker in personal campaigning, and while he criticized FDR's spending, he also favored enough of FDR's New Deal to be ridiculed by the Democrats as an unsure idiot. In 1934, the AMerican Liberty League had been formed by conservative Democrats and wealthy Republicans to fight "socialistic" New Deal schemes. Roosevelt won in a huge landslide, getting 523 electoral votes to Landon's 8. FDR won primarily because he appealed to the "forgotten man," whom he never forgot.
Nine Old Men on the Supreme Bench
18. Why did Roosevelt ask Congress for a bill that would allow him to add justices to the Supreme Court?
The 20th Amendment had cut the lame-duck period down to 6 weeks, so FDR began his second term on January 20th, 1937, instead of on March 4. He controlled Congress, but the Supreme Court kept blocking his programs, so he proposed a shocking plan that would ass a member to the SUpreme Court for every existing member over the age of 70, for a maximum possible total of 15 total members.
The Court Changes Course
Know: Court-Packing, Hugo Black
19. What were the consequences of FDR's attempt to pack the Court?
FDR's court-packing scheme failed bt he did get some of the justices to start to vote his way, including Owen J. Roberts, formerly regarded as a conservative. SO FDR did achieve his purpose of getting the Supreme Court to vote his way. However, his failure of the court-packing scheme also showed how Americans still did not wish to tamper with the sacred justice system.
Twilight fo the New Deal
Know: Roosevelt Recession, John Maynard Keynes, Hatch Act
20. Assess the successfulness of FDR in his second term.
In 1937, the economy took another breif downturn when the "Roosevelt Recession," caused by government policies. FDR announced a bold program to stimulate the economy by planned deficit spending. Congress relented to FDR's pressure and passed the Reorganization Act, which gave him limited powers for administrative reforms, including the key new Executive Office in the White House.
New Deal or Raw Deal?
21. What criticism of the New Deal seems most fair to you? Least fair?
Foes of he New Deal condemned its waste, citing that nothing had been accomplished. Critics were shocked by the "try anything" attitude of FDR, who had increased the federal debt from $19.487 million to $40.440 million. It took WWII, though, to really lower unemployment. But the war, also created a heavier debt than before.
Varying Viewpoints: How radical was the New Deal?
Know: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Carl Degler, Constraints School of Historians, New Deal Condition
22. What did William Leuechtenburg mean when he called the New Deal a "half way revolution?"
Leuechtenburg ment that before Franklin Delano Roosevelt had come alone this country was in dire need of a revolution, a change in it's political standing. When Roosevelt proposed this, his proposition only took out half of the problems.