Local Presidents Questions

1. Local Presidents Questions Elementary/Middle Divisions #25-34

2. #1 (6 points) I spoke out in favor of the civil rights of African Americans and Catholics. I appointed no known members of the Ku Klux Klan to office; indeed the Klan lost most of its influence during my term. I repeatedly called for anti-lynching laws to be enacted, but most Congressional attempts to pass this legislation were filibustered by Southern Democrats. My best-known initiative was the Kellogg–Briand Pact, named for my Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg. (4 points) My Secretary of Commerce Herbert C. Hoover and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon added to the business tone of my administration and were responsible for one of the greatest economic booms in American history. I summed up my policies in one sentence: "The chief business of America is business." (2 points) Although I was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private I was a man of few words and so the adjective "Silent" was often placed in front of my name. I am buried beneath a simple headstone in Notch Cemetery in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.

3. #2 (6 points) I made full use of new technologies. I communicated with the war front by telegraph, started the first press room at the White House, and talked to newspaper reporters by telephone. My predecessor as president was from the opposite party. (4 points)Foreign relations took a front seat in my presidency. I proposed linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America by a canal. (2 points) I was the first president to ride in the new invention, the automobile. After I was shot, I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

4. #3 (6 points) When the Soviet Union blockaded the western sectors of Berlin, I created a massive airlift to supply Berliners until the Soviet Union backed down. Meanwhile, I was negotiating a military alliance to protect Western nations through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (4 points) When the early months of the Korean War showed how poorly prepared the Defense Department was, I fired Secretary of Defense Louis A. Johnson and named George Marshall (pictured) as Secretary of Defense. (2 points) Even though I had been vice-president, I did not know of the ultra secret Manhattan Project until my Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson told me following my first Cabinet meeting as president. The Soviet Union’s leader, Joseph Stalin, knew about the bomb project long before I did through espionage. I ended the war with Japan by ordering the use of this new weapon.

5. #4 (6 points) My first wife Alice and my mother (pictured) died on the same day. I abandoned my political work for some time. I invested part of the fortune I had inherited in a cattle ranch in the Badlands of Dakota Territory. I later married my second wife Edith. While I was president, the White House became a playground to my children. (4 points) I appointed William Howard Taft as Secretary of War. Taft met with the Emperor of Japan who alerted him of the probability of war with Russia. I later received a Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end the war between these countries. (2 points) I sent the “Great White Fleet” around the world to demonstrate American sea power. I am one of only four presidents on Mount Rushmore.

6. #5 (6 points) I was Secretary of Commerce before becoming president. I campaigned for efficiency and the Republican record of prosperity against Democrat Alfred E. Smith. We differed on the Volstead Act, which outlawed the sale of liquor and beer. Smith was a “wet” who called for its repeal, whereas I gave limited support for prohibition, calling it an “experiment noble in purpose.” (4 points) My wife Lou Henry had already made her own reputation when we moved into the White House. She graduated from Stanford as the only woman in her class with a degree in geology. During my presidency, I went on a seven-week goodwill tour of several Latin American nations to outline my economic and trade policies to other nations in the Western Hemisphere. (2 points) Less than a year into my presidency, the Stock Market crashed and the world economy spiraled downward into the Great Depression.

7. #6 (6 points) I tried to improve relations with the Soviet Union by organizing a series of cultural exchanges with Nikita Khrushchev. My vice president hosted him on his visit to the U.S. Relations ended when one of our spy planes was shot down over Soviet air space. (4 points)During my presidency, the U.S. feared Communism. Investigations into possible communist activities in the U.S. were carried out by Senator Joseph McCarthy. These investigations ruined the reputation of many innocent people. (2 points) I gained popularity as a war hero in World War II before becoming president. I originally didn’t want to run for president saying that a professional military man should not be president.

8. #7 (6 points) My foreign policy was called “Dollar Diplomacy.” I wanted to rely more on financial rather than military means to promote U.S. interests abroad. My main focus was Latin America where I was assisted by my Secretary of State Philander Knox. (4 points) I was the first president to protect federal lands on which oil and coal had been found. I was from the same political party as my predecessor. (2 points) Right at the end of my one-term presidency, the Sixteenth Amendment, authorizing Congress to collect income taxes, was ratified. My successor, who was from the opposite party, put the amendment into effect.

9. #8 (6 points) My secretary of state, Charles Evans Hughes (pictured) made treaties at the Washington Conference on Naval Limitation of Armaments. My secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, pushed tax cuts and the reduction of the national debt. Both these men continued their services under my successor’s administration. (4 points) I appointed former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Graft and corruption charges ruined my administration. The most notorious scandal was the Teapot Dome affair, which came to light long after my death. (2 points) I was the first president to use a series of Radio Conferences headed by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. Also, I was the first president to have a radio in my office. I was the first president to openly speak out for black political, educational, and economic equality during the 20th century. I died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in the middle of a conversation with my wife, Florence.

10. #9 (6 points) I was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy. I wanted to give up this post and join the Navy when World War I began, but the president told me my work was too important. (4 points) During my presidency, thousands of banks failed. I declared a bank holiday which closed all the banks, then re-opened them a few at a time with government assistance. (2 points) I greatly admired my cousin, who had also served as a U.S. President.

11. #10 (6 points) I dropped out of law school after a year and a half. I studied on my own and passed the bar exam at age 26. However, I found practicing law dreary and realized I preferred to study writing, literature, and politics. So I got a Ph.D. in political science at Johns Hopkins University. (4 points) I was born and died in the South. I served in the White House between presidents from the opposite party. I was very ill the last year and a half of my presidency. My second wife, Edith Galt, took care of me during that time. (2 points)A major event while I was president was the sinking of the British ship Lusitania by a German submarine. Public opinion in the United States changed concerning the war in Europe as a result of this attack.

12. #11 (6 points) One of my nicknames was “Trust Buster.” I forced the break up of companies that banded together to control the market in a certain area such as railroads. Earlier in my life, I served as governor of my native state. (4 points) President Benjamin Harrison appointed me to a position on the Civil Service Commission. Grover Cleveland liked my performance so well that he reappointed me to the commission. San Juan Hill in Cuba was an important place in my life. I served more than four years as president. (2 points) I was born and died in the same state. One of my favorite expressions was “Bully!” which meant “Great” or “Wonderful.” Some say I behaved like a bully in the way I helped Panama separate from Columbia so that we could start a canal across the new country.

13. #12 (6 points) After four years of marriage, my wife Ida suffered a breakdown following the death of our two infant daughters. She never recovered and spent the rest of her life as an epileptic. Even my Democratic opponents were amazed at my devotion to her. (4 points) I appointed Russell Alger as my Secretary of War. He was criticized for the inadequate preparation and inefficient operation of the department during the Spanish-American War. (2 points) Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, shot me twice in the stomach. I died eight days later from gangrene caused by the bullet wounds.

14. #13 (6 points) I was one of five brothers who lived to adulthood. All five of us graduated from high school, which was unusual at that time. I played baseball and football at Abilene High School in Kansas. I also played football in college. (4 points) I was born in the town of Denison and died at Walter Reed Hospital. I married my wife Marie Doud when I was 25 and she was 19. One of our sons, John, had a military career and wrote several books on military history, including Allies: Pearl Harbor to D-Day. (2 points) My best-selling memoir Crusade in Europe was published three years after World War II. I defeated Senator Robert Taft, son of former president William Howard Taft, to win the Republican nomination for president.

15. #14 (6 points) The Twenty-First Amendment was ratified in my first year as president. This amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, which established Prohibition. The term “Axis Powers” became popular around the world during my time in the White House. A small island named Guadalcanal in the Pacific also became well known as well. (4 points) I was born and died on opposite sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. My predecessor was from the opposite party, but my successor belonged to my party. I graduated from Harvard, then attended Columbia University Law School. (2 points) In my first Inaugural Address, I uttered these immortal words: “First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I almost didn’t make it to that moment because a 32-year-old bricklayer named Guiseppe Zangara tried to assassinate me in Miami in the period between my election and my inauguration.

16. Answers #30 Calvin Coolidge #25 William McKinley #33 Harry Truman #26 Theodore Roosevelt #31 Herbert Hoover #34 Dwight Eisenhower #27 William Howard Taft #29 Warren G. Harding #32 Franklin Roosevelt #28 Woodrow Wilson #26 Theodore Roosevelt #25 William McKinley #34 Dwight Eisenhower #32 Franklin Roosevelt