TOPIC Document–Based Questions...

Part III: Document-Based QuestionsThis task is based on the accompanying seven documents. Some of these docu-ments have been edited for the purposes of this task. This task is designed to testyour ability to work with historical documents. As you analyze the documents,consider both the source of each document and the author’s point of view.

Directions: Read the documents in Part A and answer the questions after each docu-ment. Then, read the directions for Part B and write your essay.

Historical Context

Task

Using information from the documents and your knowledge of U.S. his-tory, write an essay in which you explain how the New Deal both solvedand created problems for the nation in the 1930s.

The Great Depression hit the nation in the fall of 1929. In the years thatfollowed, businesses failed, leaving millions without jobs. Farmers fellinto debt and lost their farms. Dissatisfied and angry, Americans electedFranklin Roosevelt as President in 1932. Together, he and Congress ap-proved an unprecedented wave of legislation to combat the depression.Called the New Deal, Roosevelt’s new programs brought great changesto the country in the 1930s.

80© Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall. All rights reserved.

Document–Based QuestionsPROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION

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Part A: Short-Answer QuestionsDocument 1:


Document–Based QuestionsPROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION (continued)

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Unemployment in the United States, 1929–1940

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10

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25

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1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940

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SOURCE: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970

1. During which year was the rate of unemployment in the United States highest?

2. Every 1 percent drop in the unemployment rate corresponds toapproximately 500,000 people returning to work. If approximately 13,000,000workers were unemployed in 1933, approximately how many wereunemployed in 1935?

3. What does the graph suggest about the effectiveness of the New Deal programs?

Document 2 An article by political commentator Walter Lippmann, January 29, 1935:

4. According to Lippmann, how did average hourly wages in 1933 comparewith those of 1923–1925? How did the cost of living in 1933 affect the worthof these wages?

5. How does Lippmann assess the NRA’s impact on income of Americanworkers?

6. How does Lippmann assess the NRA’s impact on American manufacturers?

In the autumn of 1933, the N.R.A. [National Recovery Administration]succeeded in raising the average hourly earnings in dollars of all employedwage-earners from about 84 percent of the 1923–1925 level to 100 per cent.Since, however, the cost of living had fallen, the real hourly earnings of theemployed were about 132 per cent of the 1923–1925 level. This looks like again for labor. In fact, it was not. For there was relatively little employmentto be had at this very high rate. Thus, in spite of the high wage rate, the realweekly earnings of the employed were only about 90 per cent of their1923–1925 earnings. . . .

What did this mean? It meant that the employed, though they earned a lotmore per hour, were employed so few hours that their income wasconsiderably smaller. It meant, too, that a vast army of men were in theposition where they would have earned high wages if they had had any work.But they did not have the work. So they were unemployed. . . .

Although the high hourly wage rate did not benefit even those who hademployment, it was very effective in promoting unemployment. For in mostindustries wages are a very important item in the cost of production. . . .

N.R.A. raised this cost. Then it permitted and compelled manufacturers tomaintain prices and even to raise prices so that they could pay the hourlywage rates. These high prices were more than the general public, which hadsuffered a great reduction in income, could afford to pay. So there was aninsufficient demand for goods at these high prices, a lack of orders, andconsequently unemployment. Thus instead of increasing “purchasing power”by raising [the] hourly wage rate, the N.R.A., by raising costs and prices,reduced the purchasing power of the people as a whole. . . .



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Document 3 Stanley Watson describes his experiences in the CivilianConservation Corps, (CCC), 1937:

7. What did Stanley Watson do before he joined the CCC?

8. How did the CCC help Watson improve his life?

9. The CCC provided jobs for more than 2 million young men. Based on thisaccount, what impact do you think the CCC had on the nation in the 1930s?

After eighteen months of riding box cars, begging and robbing for my food,fighting, dodging policemen, and committing other forms of petty larceny, Iarrived in the village of Woodridge, New York, where I called upon an auntand uncle. They talked to me of an organization called the CivilianConservation Corps in which I could earn $30 a month and my room andboard. . . .

My first assignment was that of a “galley slave,” . . . I peeled vegetables,washed dishes, and scrubbed floors until I almost did them in my sleep. . . .

Evenings I took advantage of the many educational advantages offered to theenrollees. I studied Psychology, Sociology, and Speech. Through the winter Iworked with but one picture in my mind—that of a beautiful green campuswith big brick buildings and of myself going to and from classes—a beautifulpicture if only it could be realized. . . . Knowing that I would have to work myway through, I made several applications for work and received many offers,two of which I answered and accepted. . . .

On September . . . the eighteenth I was enrolled and registered as a memberin full standing in the [college] freshman class. At the present time I am doingon the average of twenty-five hours work a week and am carrying a fullschedule of school work. . . . My dreams have been realized, thanks to aneducational advisor and the lessons learned in the CCC.



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Document 4:



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Georgia

AlabamaMississippi

Missouri

Arkansas

Illinois

Tennessee

Kentucky

Virginia

NorthCarolina

SouthCarolina

WestVirginia

Miss

issip

pi R

iver

Tennessee River

Ohio River

Cumberland River

Atlanta

Nashville

Memphis

Birmingham

Chattanooga

Knoxville

Region served by the TVA

Dam built by TVA for flood control or power generation

Power plant built by TVA

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The Tennessee Valley Authority

10. Name two rivers on which the TVA built dams.

11. What does the map suggest about how the TVA helped American workersduring the Great Depression?

12. What does the map suggest about how the TVA benefited people living inthe shaded area?

Document 5 Article written by African American leader John P. Davis in TheCrisis, May 1935:

13. According to John Davis, how did the number of African Americans on reliefchange between October 1933 and January 1935?

14. What was the goal of the AAA regarding farm output, and why?

15. According to Davis, how did the New Deal affect African Americans?

In October, 1933, six months after the present administration took office,2,117,000 Negros were in families receiving relief in the United States. Theserepresented 17.8 per cent of the total Negro population as of the 1930 census.In January, 1935, after nearly two years of recovery measures, 3,500,000Negroes were in families receiving relief, or 29 percent of our 1930population. . . . Thus the increase in the number of Negroes in relief familiesis an accurate indication of the deepening of the economic crisis for blackAmerica.

The Agricultural Adjustment Administration has used cruder methods inenforcing poverty on the Negro farm population. It has made violations ofthe rights of tenants under crop reduction contracts easy; it has rendered[made] enforcement of these rights impossible. The reduction of the acreageunder cultivation through the government rental agreement renderedunnecessary large numbers of tenants and farm laborers. Although thecontract with the government provided that the land owner should notreduce the number of his tenants, he did so. The federal courts have nowrefused to allow tenants to enjoin [defy] such evictions. . . . Farm laborers arenow jobless by the hundreds of thousands, the conservative governmentestimate of the decline in agricultural employment for the year 1934 alonebeing a quarter of a million. The larger portion of these are unskilled Negroagricultural workers—now without income and unable to secure work orrelief.



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Document 6 Letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt from Minnie A. Hardin ofIndianapolis, Indiana, December 14, 1937:

16. Does Minnie Hardin believe that there is a need for New Deal programs tohelp the people living in her community? Why or why not?

17. According to Hardin, who is being hurt by the New Deal and who isunjustly benefiting from it? How is this occurring?

18. What do you think Hardin’s purpose was for writing to Eleanor Roosevelt?

We have always had a shiftless, never-do-well class of people whose one andonly aim in life is to live without work. . . . We cannot help those who will nottry to help themselves and if they do try, a square deal is all they need, andby the way that is all this country needs or ever has needed: a square dealfor all and then, let each paddle their own canoe, or sink.

There has never been any necessity for any one who is able to work, beingon relief in this locality, but there have been many eating the bread of charityand they have lived better than ever before. . . .

During the worst of the depression many of the farmers had to deny theirfamilies butter, eggs, meat, etc. and sell it to pay their taxes and then had tostand by and see the dead-beats carry it home to their families by the armload, and they knew their tax money was helping pay for it. . . . Thecrookedness, selfishness, greed and graft of the crooked politicians is makingone gigantic racket out of the new deal, and it is making this a nation of dead-beats and beggars and if it continues the people who will work will soon benothing but slaves for the pampered poverty rats and I am afraid thesehuman parasites [people clinging to others for their own advantage] aregoing to become a menace to the country unless they are disfranchised[denied the right to vote]. No one should have the right to vote theirself aliving at the expense of the taxpayers.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers



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Document 7 Political cartoon, 1937:



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19. Who or what do the three figures in the cartoon represent?

20. What is the meaning of the cartoon?

21. To what 1937 FDR plan does the cartoon probably refer? Did FDR followthrough with that plan? Why or why not?

Part B: Essay

Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several para-graphs, and a conclusion. In the body of the essay, use evidence from at least four docu-ments. Support your response with relevant facts, examples, and details. Include addi-tional outside information. Use a logical and clear plan of organization.

Using information from the documents and your knowledge of U.S. his-tory, write an essay in which you explain how the New Deal both solvedand created problems for the nation in the 1930s.

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TOPIC Document–Based Questions...

Documents

Transcript of TOPIC Document–Based Questions...