History USA Features Questions

Describe two features of the US economy in the 1920s

• ECONOMIC BOOM due to mass production, manufacturing rose by 40% in the 1920s also caused drop in price for objects and more consumerism

• STOCKS AND SHARES increased popularity in Wall Street, New York. They either used their own money or a method called “buying in the margin” to buy shares in a company. This involved borrowing money from a bank, or broker, to invest in shares. Once they sold the shares, usually at a profit, they could pay back the loan

Describe two features of the economic boom

• HENRY FORD & MASS PRODUCTION: conveyor belt introduced, workers would do one job over again as the car travelled along the belt which increased production time and had a drop in price which caused more cars to be made daily.

  original price: $950

  1925: $290

• ADVERTISING: Listerine popularised the term halitosis for bad breath & radio played a central role in advertising

  618 radio stations

  by 1929, $2 billion was spent on advertising, employing 600k women.

Describe two features of the Leisure Industry in the 1920s

• TELEVISION: Movies grew very popular in the 1920s. In 1924, around 40 million cinema tickets were sold each week. This figure had more than doubled by 1929 because the film industry did everything they could to attract more viewers: They produced films in colour: by 1922, the Technicolor Corporation had come up with a way to produce colour films. They introduced sound: early films were silent and sometimes accompanied by live musicians.

• RADIO: Radio in the 1920s became just as important in people’s homes as television and the internet are today. The number of radios in the USA grew from 60,000 in 1920 to 10 million in 1929. At first, there were hundreds of local stations, but these became part of networks from the late 1920s onwards

Describe two features of the lives of women in the 1920s

• JOBS: Most women had traditionally female jobs, working as secretaries or bookkeepers.  Only 12% of married women had jobs by the end of the 20s. Racial minority women remained in the lowest paid jobs, often as domestic servants 

• RIGHTS: Most women did not use their vote to gain more power by voting as a group, but instead followed their husband's decision. Only two women were in the House of Representatives, part of the centra government, in 1928. Women did not achieve equal pay. In December 1927, the average woman earned around $12 less than a man each week. Women were allowed to own land and had the right to education 

Describe two features of farming in the 20s

• Easy access to CREDIT: the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923 made it easier for farmers to borrow money in order to run and improve their farms.

• MECHANISATION: there were ten times as many tractors in 1920 than there had been in 1915. This speeded up food production and made it possible to farm more land with fewer people

Describe two features of older industries in the 1920s

• COAL MINING: produced fuel to heat homes and power machines, suffered considerably. In 1920, 568 million tonnes of coal had been mined, but this fell to 518 million tonnes in 1930, even though the population grew during this period. This was because oil began to replace coal as a means of heating homes. By 1929, 550,000 homes were heated by oil. Miners also faced competition from electricity and gas as alternative sources of power

• TEXTILES FACTORIES: During the period before the war, the cotton and woollen mills had processed the material needed for clothing Americans. Afterwards, the textiles industry faced a huge drop in the demand for its goods due to changing fashions and competition from silk and the new material, rayon. As a result, textile production began to decline in the mills of New England, the Appalachian regions and the rural South. This was a problem the mill workers shared with the cotton farmers of the southern states of the USA, who struggled to find a market for their crop

Describe two features of attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s

• There was a general suspicion of new immigrants as many were poorly educated. They were blamed for spreading disease and slum housing, as well as rising crime rates, alcoholism and gambling. They were also afraid the immigrants would threaten their WASP way of life.

• Another feature was the EMERGENCY QUOTA ACT, 1921 which limited immigration (357,000 per year) and Chinese people have a quota of 0 

Describe two features of the palmer raids

• SPIES: Palmer set up the Intelligence Division, headed by Hoover which was later known as the FBI where they would join and spy on radical groups and then arrest the members. The raids occurred in 33 cities on any group Palmer thought was radical. This caused 600 radical to be deported

• INCREASED SUPPORT FOR IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS: causing people to believe many immigrants supported radical ideas such as communism.

• Palmer tried to run for president. Palmer claimed there would be many violent communist attacks in May 1920s in order to stir up more fear. By May 1920s, there were no communist attacks, and his reputation was destroyed. The ‘Red Scare’ died out.

Describe two features of the red scare

• FEAR OF COMMUNISM: upper class Americans feared communism as the wealth would be redistributed. The red scare was an outbreak of unrest and anger amongst the working class

• BOMB ATTACKS AND STRIKES: there were 3,600 strikes and a general strike in Seattle with100,000 workers. In April 1919, 40 mail bombs addressed to important politicians were found by the postal service. In June 1919, 8 cities experience bomb attacks including one outside the house of attorney Alexander Palmer, pushing him into action.

Describe two features of the Sacco and Vanzetti Case

• BELIEFS: they both lied to the police about their beliefs but it was later discovered that they were anarchists and connected to the red scare bombings

• SHOWED THE AMERICAN COURT HAD NO SYMPATHY TO IMMIGRANTS: although they had an alibi and the gun didn’t match their DNA, they were executed on an electric chair. This caused a lot of people to show the support of Sacco and Vanzetti as they were Italian immigrants who they believed were wrongfully convicted.

Describe two features of attitudes to black Americans in the South

• KLU KLUX KLAN: a group of white Anglo-Saxon protestants (WASPs) who believed they were a superior race and needed to fight to survive and believed n traditional Christian values and that immigration must stop. Their methods resorted to violence and lynching of black Americans. They would protest and boycott and control education. They were heavily popular in 1923 when they reached 5 million members. However, their popularity heavily declined in 1925 after the Grand Dragon (state leader) David Stephenson was found guilty of murdering and raping a white woman.

• JIM CROW LAWS: the Jim Crow Laws were a set of laws which caused Black Americans to be segregated in churches, hospitals, theatres, schools. This put them in lower positions in society, politics and the economy. The supreme court legalised segregation and believed that black americans were “separate but equal”

Describe two features of the Klu Klux Klan

• WASP SUPREMACY: fought for white supremacy against black people and valued White Anglo-Saxon Protestants as a superior race, believed immigration needed to stop as it threatened the power of WASPs

• POPULARITY: membership rose quickly (reached 5 million members in 1923) and had very powerful members from all over the USA which included senators from southern states, had influence over the legal system as police officers and judges were members or were sympathetic to the Klan

• DOWNFALL: Klan’s power began to decline in 1925 as Grand Dragon (state leader), David Stephenson was found guilty of murdering and raping a white woman, contradicting the values at the time and by 1929, there were only 200,000 members left

Describe two features of the Monkey Trial

• PORTRAYAL OF FUNDAMENTALISTS: made fundamentalists look foolish as Bryan was asked if he believed Jonah was swallowed by a whale to which he agreed to. As they were embarrassed and appeared to be backward and outdated, they disappeared from the American political discourse until late 1960s

• RESULT: Darrow tried to challenge the beliefs of fundamentalists and make it a trial about ideas, to which the Protestant judge refused to accept, asked the jury if Scopes had taught evolution, they agreed and he was fined $100

Describe two features of Prohibition

• IMMORALITY OF ALCOHOLISM: campaign groups from the Temperance fought for the prohibition of alcohol as they believed it damaged society, leading to unemployment and DV, led to sinful behaviour and weakened the economy due to inefficient drunk workers

• GANGSTERS: provided an opportunity for organised crime to grow, although gangsters existed before prohibition, the alcohol ban made them more successful. they were extremely violent and in 1924 it was reported that 200 gang-related murders in Chicago

Describe two features of the Wall Street Crash

• BANKS: customers of banks lost their savings as banks had to deal with liquidity, but they had invested customer’s money in the stock market

• STOCKS: so many people were buying and selling shares to the point where wall street relied on confidence of investors more than success, but when the stock market leaders began to sell their shares as they expected prices to fall, panic replaced confidence

• PROBLEMS IN EUROPE: led to problems in Europe as the USA had lent the allied nations huge sums of money which they could not easily pay back. most of them relied on American loans to help recover their economy to pay back loans, they could not receive loans anymore due to the Wall Street Crash

Describe two features of the Economic Crisis after 1929

• INDUSTRY: caused a fall in demands for goods as industries cut wages & manufacturing wages fell by almost 50% between 1929 & 1933, got rid of workers an reduced production

• UNEMPLOYMENT: 3.2% of workforce were unemployed in 1929 → around 25% in 1933, decline in living standards and not a lot of support was available as there were no national benefits or help for unemployment

Describe two features of Hoovervilles

• ORIGINS: Hoovervilles were shanty towns built by the homeless during the Great Depression. They were named after President Herbert Hoover who had been criticised for doing too little to help the poor •

• FEATURES: Homes in Hoovervilles were usually basic, e.g. made out of wood or cardboard, and had few amenities. Notable Hoovervilles were located at Anacostia, near Washington DC, and in Central Park in New York.

Describe two features of Hoovers policy towards the depression

• VOLUNTEERISM: federal government didn’t have the right to force people to do things

• SELF-RELIANCE: individuals should be able to look after themselves and not become dependent on the government or charity to survive → rugged individualism

• LAISSEZ-FAIRE: belief that government should not interfere in a country’s economy & businesses and market forces should be left to fix any problems

Describe two features of the Election of 1932

• Hoover’s members did make a difference to the Great Depression and the reality was that a huge economic crisis could not be solved overnight and needed more government support and intervention, also the Bonus Marchers situation ruined his reputation

• therefore the country voted a Democratic president, Franklin D Roosevelt who won by a landslide in the 1932 Election, where Hoover only won over 6 states. FDR promised a New Deal

Describe two features of the Aims of the New Deal

• RELIEF: states provided with enough money to meet the immediate needs for relief from hunger and poverty

• RECOVERY: an increased income for farmers and farm workers, higher rates of industrial production and an end to the banking crisis

• REFORM: a social security system that looks after US citizens, improvements in the way banks and businesses were run to secure long-term recovery

Describe two features of the first hundred days for tackling the banking crisis

• EMERGENCY BANKING ACT: FDR asked Congress to pass this act, and closed all banks for 4 days to which Federal checks were carried out and only “financially sound” banks were allowed to reopen and to restore confidence, he asked Americans to deposit their savings once again in his first fireside chat

• FURTHER STEPS: after the success of the Emergency Banking Act, Roosevelt took further steps as he passed a law to insure bank deposits of up to $2,500 and restricting how banks could use the money, people knew that even if a bank failed they would get up to $2,500 back, aim of recovery was partially achieved

Describe two features of the alphabet agencies

• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): solved the problems in agriculture to help farmers

• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA): tacked industrial problems and established the National Recovery Administration (NRA) wrote rules for industries to follow

• Economy Act: reduced government running costs by 25% which lowered federal spending by around $450 million to save money

Describe two features of the AAA

• LIMIT OVERPRODUCTION: offered subsidies who limited production (stops overproduction). If a farmer kept an acre of land empty, he received around $11 to make up the lost income

• PRICE RAISE: they aimed to raise the price of agricultural goods. As a result, less wheat and cotton were harvested while demand remained much the same, causing a price rise

Describe two features of the NRA

• IMPROVED WORKING CONDITIONS: worked with major industries to create industry-wide codes which set quotas, limited working hours and banned child labour. business owners recognised this would improve working conditions

• LIMITED OVERPRODUCTION: set quotas on how much was produced, controlled prices and business leaders recognised that the codes would end over-production, and that if they ignored the codes, they would be useless

Describe two features of the WPA

• EMPLOYMENT: helped employ 8 million Americans, helping the poor white or black, men and women from both the town or country to find employment. provided work for manual labourers, writers and performers, young people and women

• ECONOMIC: spent $11 billion to help the unemployed, demonstrating how much the federal government as prepared to spend on relief

Describe two features of help for the poor during the new deal

• HOUSING: The Resettlement Administration, although set up to mainly help the rural poor, built new suburban towns for urban families. However, only three were constructed, so Congress passed the Housing Act, which set up a new agency to create new homes to replace shanty towns

• WORKING CONDITIONS: National Labour Relations Act, designed to help improve the working lives of industrial workers. A few years later, a minimum wage and maximum hours for workers in industry were introduced

Describe two features of help for the farmers during the new deal

ACCESS TO LAND: FDR wanted the rural poor to have their own farms rather than working for wealthy landowning farmers, his first measure was the Resettlement Administration, which set out to help resettle families from overworked land. However, this only resettled a few thousand which led to it’s replacement by the Farm Security Administration which helped the rural poor to buy their own farms and get new equipment to use them, offering $1 billion in loans to help farmers by 1941

MIGRANT WORKERS: Farm Security Administration took action to help migrant workers who travelled across the USA in search of work by setting up migrant camps to provide shelter & paid for doctors and dentists to look after migrants, helping them stay alive and healthy

Describe two features of help for workers during the new deal

• Wagner Act strengthened labour unions as workers were legally entitled to join a union and unions could operate closed shops, unfair practices like company unions and firing union members were banned

• offered federal protection to unions, and a National Labour Relations Board was set up, which supervised union negotiations, defended workers who had been fired and helped unions ain recognition from employers

Describe two features of rural electrification

• was a BIG SUCCESS because they electrified farms, by 1941, 35% of farms had electricity. they supported local groups: 417 cooperatives had been helped with loans to lay electric wires for new customers by 1939. boosted demand for electricity: the EHFA by 1938, had arranged 100,000 contracts for electrical goods

• was an INCONVENIENCE for utility companies as they were slowed down, and worried about losing profit. these companies tried to stop cooperatives by building spite lines, which usually linked up richer communities along a proposed REA route, leaving poorer farms without access. Nevertheless, the REA continued it’s work and by 1945, 40% of farms had electricity

Describe two features of supreme court challenge to the new deal

• ALPHABET AGENCIES: in 1935, they closed down the NRA after the Sick Chicken Case, as FDR did not have the power to interfere over trade within a state, they also said the AAA should be supervised by state government rather than federal agency. the supreme court opposed FDR’s political views and were unsympathetic to him when an individual tried to appeal against an agency or law

• THEIR POSITION AS A SIGNIFICANT THREAT BEGAN TO DECLINE as FDR requested to Congress that every judge over the age of 70 to be replaced, which was refused as he was exceeding federal government’s authority and started to act like a dictator, however the Supreme Court received the message and began to reflect public opinion, a lot of them began to retire or die which allowed Roosevelt to replace them with sympathetic judges

Describe two features of Liberty Leagues opposition to the New Deal

• business owners didn’t like being told what to do by the NRA codes and New Deal laws made businesses pay a minimum wage and restrict working hours, going against the traditional laissez-faire ideology many businesses had

• business owners feared that the support of unions on behalf of the NIRA and Wagner Act would lead to unions getting the power to challenge business managers

• businesses didn’t like the way government was spending so much: federal taxes were used to fund New Deal programmes, like the WPA and Social Security which businesses didn’t like. they wanted low taxation so people had more money to buy goods in order to create jobs

Describe two features of Huey Longs opposition to the new deal

• had objections of the New Deal, criticised that the NRA was controlled by businesses, AAA left poor tenant farmers homeless and the Social Security Act didn’t reduce the gap between the rich and poor

• set up Share Our Wealth Programme, heavy tax on wealthy & taking annual income of over $1.8M away and giving it to ordinary Americans, which was very popular with 8 million Americans joining it, but they didn’t have enough rich people to fund it

• Long was planning to run for presidency due to his popularity, and was campaigning for the 1936 election but was shot dead in September 1935, the Programme was now under leadership of Gerald Smith, but ran with little success

Describe two features of father Coughlin’s opposition to the new deal

• originally supported the New Deal, but turned against it as he believed that the cause of the Great Depression was the Wall Street financers and international bankers which the New Deal was influenced by and therefore ineffective.

• established a Social Justice Campaign, which called for currency & banking reforms, nationalisation of parts of the US economy and fairer taxation policy

• formed a team with Gerald Smith (new leader of Share Our Wealth Programme) and Francis Townsend (from Old Age Revolving Pensions), and formed the National Union Part, promoted William Lemke as candidate for president, who only received 828,000 votes compared to FDR’s 27.8M

• popularity began to decline as he was now attacking a well-liked president and began sharing anti-Semitic views, blaming the Jews for the Great Depression & also Roosevelt began placing some reforms which Long and Coughlin campaigned for

Describe two features of the St Valentines Day Masssacre

• Al Capone’s men dressed as policemen in 1929 and tried to kill Bugs Moran, the leader of his rival North side gang. Bugs Moran escaped the ambush

• Seven of his men were lined up and shot dead, showing the cruelty with which Capone maintained his territory

Describe two features of the Bonus Marchers

• VETERANS: 20,000 people marched to Washington DC in 1932 where they camped across the river from the Capitol to wait for congress to decide whether they’d get their homes, congress rejected the bonus bill but offered them $100,000 for their journey home

• HOOVER’S REPUTATION: Hoover gave the 5,000 bonus marchers who refused the $100,000 offered by congress a deadline to leave the camps and by the deadline, they refused to leave, he sent the police who shot two veterans dead and then sent the army who used military force, teargassed marchers and burned tents, destroying Hoover’s reputation

Describe two features of Hoover’s actions benefitting banks

• NATIONAL CREDIT CORPORATION (1931): $100 million was raised by businesses to help failing banks, but the NCC’s investors were afraid to lose their money and spent very little of it

• RECONSTUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION (1932): provided $2 billion by the government to rescue banks and other key organisations, but were criticised for using government money to help banks rather than people

Describe two features of Hoover’s actions benefiting farms

• AGRICULTUAL MARKETING ACT (1929): set up the Federal Farm Board to buy crops from farmers but the Farm Board built up huge amounts of extra goods and could not stop the fall in prices

• HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF (1930): raised import duties on foreign food by 40% to force Americans to buy their own goods, but led to higher tariffs on other nations to do the same, reducing international trade

• FEDERAL FARM LOAN ACT (1932): gave $12 million to the Federal Land Banks to provide farm messages, but the Federal Land banks provided mortgages but did not help farmers repay them

Describe two effects of Hoover’s actions on Industries

• NATIONAL BUSINESS SURVEY CONFERENCE (1929): Hoover arranged a meeting of 400 business executives, they made promises about production, expansion and wages, but promises made in 1929 by major employers were broken as the Depression worsened

• MORATORIUM ON WW1 DEBTS (1931): USA would stop collecting debts for 18 months to give Europe time to recover, which did not help enough to prevent the collapse of the international economy

• RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION (1932): made money available for banks to loan to industries, but most of the money loaned by the RFC went to the larger banks and companies

Describe two features of Hoover’s actions benefitting the unemployed

• PRESIDENT’S EMERGENCY COMMITTEE FOR EMPLOYMENT (1930-1): organised and encouraged donations for relief. it was later replaced by the President’s organisation for unemployment relief but the ECE and PUR could not raise the enormous sums of money needed to help the large numbers of the unemployed

• PUBLIC WORKS: the government doubled its spending on federal government projects over 3 years. these projects, like the grand coulee dam (Washington), created jobs for the unemployed, but federal spending on public works was very low, $210 million in 1930 whereas states spent around $2 billion a year.

• RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION (1932): allowed the federal government to loan $300 million to states for relief but states had to meet tough requirements in order to borrow the money, only $30 million had been loaned by the end of 1932

Describe two features of the first hundred days to help the industry to recover

• NRA: set quotas on how much was produced, controlled prices, set wages, limited working hours and banned child labour. any business which followed the code were offered incentives and allowed to display the symbol of the NRA, the Blue Eagle

• NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL RECOVERY ACT: gave workers the legal right to join unions, which gave them to power to join together to fight for better pay, working hours and conditions. caused union membership to rise from 3.1M in 1932 to 3.9M in 1939

Describe two features of the first hundred days in providing direct relief to the unemployed

• passed the FEDERAL EMERGENCY RELIEF ACT: providing $500 million for states to spend on relief, add to state relief funds and help with the immediate problems created by unemployment. Relief helped provide the unemployed with a basic income to survive in the short term

• HOME OWNER’S REFINANCING ACT was introduced to extend mortgage payments. Instead of the traditional 5 years, homeowners were given 20 years to pay off their mortgage which reduced their monthly payments and made it easier for around 1M people to keep their homes

Describe two features of the first hundred days in providing work relief to the unemployed

• CIVILLIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC): took unemployed men into the countryside and gave them tough outdoor jobs, including train building and reservoir digging for $30 a month, most of the income had to be sent back home which ensured families benefitted from the scheme too

• PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION (PWA): followed the CCC to help employ greater numbers, giving $3.3 billion of federal money to spend on big construction projects, such as the Grand River Dam in Oklahoma, to create jobs for construction workers

Describe two features of the first hundred days in providing relief provided by the federal government to the unemployed

• TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY (TVA): huge federal planning agency that would help seven states to recover from the Depression, aimed to provide work for southerners, generate and extend coverage of electricity to remote farms, control flooding and improve the productivity of land

• FARMER HELP: farmers were to be educated in new farming methods and ways to look after the land, while model farms were set up to put these new ideas into action, partly solved the drought and dust storms, making a similar environmental disaster less likely in the future

Describe two key features of Huey Long’s Share Our Wealth programme

• heavy tax on wealthy and taking all annual income over $1.8M away and giving it to ordinary Americans, forcing rich to give to the poor which is why it didn’t have enough rich people to fund it

• gained a lot of popularity as some believed the New Deal didn’t reduce the gap between the rich and poor, leading to 8 million Americans joining the programme

Describe two features of Francis Townsend’s Old Age Revolving Pensions Ltd

• gained a lot of popularity as his idea seemed good, therefore 500,000 people joined and 20 million Americans signed a petition to join the plan

• couldn’t seriously challenge Roosevelts proposed Social Security Act as the figures made no sense as there was no way such a huge pension could be funded by such a small tax

Describe two features of Upton Sinclair’s opposition to the New Deal

• exposed poor conditions for workers in the meat packing industry using his novels, most famously The Jungle

• run for governor in 1934 but his ideas were believed to be too radical and therefore the Californians elected the Republican candidate instead

Describe two features of the Social Security Act (1935)

• federal pension system: employees paid into a pension scheme for their retirement, with their contributions matched by a tax on their employer, initially 1% of their income rising to 3% later on

• federal unemployment insurance: employers of more than 8 people paid a tax to the federal government, the money was used to provide unemployment pay for up to 16 weeks at half the normal rate

• federal support for the disadvantaged groups: support funded by federal matching grants provided money for very poor old people, families with dependent children and disabled groups, including blind people

Describe two features of the Banking Act (1935)

• created a Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system chosen by the president, the Board was given various financial powers, taking them away from more powerful banks

• IMPACT: strengthened the central banking system as no nation bank closed and had very little to be paid out in deposit insurance, the US banking system had been modernised and a repeat of the 1929 crisis was far less likely

Describe two features of the Republican Party’s opposition to the New Deal

• In 1938, the Republican Part regained the strength they needed as the elections of Congress that year gave them a lot more seats. They also found that many conservative Democrats from states in the South disliked Roosevelt, they formed a coalition with a lot of support. they had power to defeat any new measures that Roosevelt tried to make into law, but not enough votes to remove the New Deal legislation completely

• they opposed Roosevelt because he was a Democrat, made the federal government too powerful and spent too much money and the Republicans didn’t like using borrowed money to do this or Roosevelt’s plan to raise taxes under the Revenue Act (1935). Their candidate of the 1936 election, Alfred Landon campaigned for power to be returned to the states but FDR won the election