CHAPTER 19 Safe for Democracy: The United States
and World War I, 1916–1920
TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss the ways in which Progressive presidents promoted the expansion of American power overseas.
2. Explain how the United States got involved in World War I.
3. Examine how the United States mobilized resources and public opinion for the war effort.
4. Assess the way in which the war affected race relations in the United States.
5. Analyze the reasons why 1919 was a watershed year for the United States and the world.
Multiple Choice
1 At the beginning of the twentieth century, what was the major currency of international trade?
a. the American dollar
b. the German mark
c. the British pound
d. the Chinese renminbi
e. the Japanese yen
2. What term do historians use to describe the foreign policy of the Wilson administration?
a. Progressivism
b. entangling alliances
c. containment
d. liberal internationalism
e. Dollar Diplomacy
3. Compared to Great Britain and France, American presence in the world was
a. very small.
b. overwhelmingly large.
c. about the same size.
d. much larger but very fragmented.
e. smaller but in key places.
4. By 1914, Great Britain continued to dominate financial banking, but the U.S. emerged as
a. the world military leader.
b. the largest world empire.
c. the leading industrial power.
d. the economic world leader.
e. the largest and most powerful navy in the world.
5. W. T. Stead
a. argued the United States had become a territorial empire.
b. predicted the United States would no longer get involved in international affairs.
c. criticized Americans’ lack of ambition.
d. predicted the United States would emerge as the greatest of world powers.
e. located the source of U.S. power in its military strength.
6. Theodore Roosevelt’s taking of the Panama Canal Zone is an example of
a. his ability to speak softly in diplomatic situations when he knew he was outgunned.
b. international Progressivism—the United States was intervening with the sole purpose of uplifting the
peoples of Central America.
c. liberal internationalism, because he worked closely with the French to work out a deal favorable to Panama.
d. his belief that civilized nations had an obligation to establish order in an unruly world.
e. one of the many wars in which Roosevelt involved the United States.
7. Why did the United States conduct military operations in Caribbean countries between 1901 and 1920?
a. to spread American ideals
b. to create an economic environment conducive to U.S. corporations
c. to fight communism
d. to gain territory
e. to help European interventions
8. What country controlled Panama before the canal was built?
a. Colombia
b. Canada
c. Russia
d. Brazil
e. Great Britain
9. Which of the following statements is accurate about William Howard Taft?
a. Like his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft emphasized military intervention to achieve American strategic
goals in the Western Hemisphere.
b. Taft discouraged the United Fruit Company from establishing banana plantations in Honduras.
c. Taft believed the best way to promote American interests in the Caribbean and Central America was
through economic investment.
d. Taft coined the term “Dollar Diplomacy” in describing the foreign policy approach of Theodore Roosevelt.
e. He allowed an American-friendly government in Nicaragua to fall to a coup d’état.
10. Dollar Diplomacy
a. characterizes the foreign policy of Theodore Roosevelt.
b. was put in place by Woodrow Wilson regarding Mexico.
c. was used by William H. Taft instead of military intervention.
d. was seldom used and never successfully.
e. was applied only in Asia.
11. The completion of the Panama Canal in 1914
a. ended U.S. interest in the area.
b. facilitated negotiations between Panama and Colombia.
c. promoted a violent U.S. military intervention.
d. reduced the length of the voyage between the two coasts of the United States.
e. led to a coup d’état in Panama.
12. Which of the following assessments of the Roosevelt Corollary is accurate?
a. It translated into an alliance with France to defend the hemisphere.
b. Stipulated that private investment in Latin America and the Caribbean should not be greater than that of the
United States.
c. It showed the United States would not intervene in other countries’ local affairs.
d. It showed Roosevelt was prepared to do whatever possible to prevent U.S. corporations from investing in
Latin America and the Caribbean.
e. It proposed the United States could function as an international police power within the Western
Hemisphere.
13. Woodrow Wilson’s moral imperialism in Latin America produced
a. eight years of unprecedented stability in the region.
b. more military interventions than any president before or since.
c. economic growth and diversity for the region.
d. very little to show for the policy, as his attention was mostly on Europe.
e. strong allies for the United States in World War I, especially Mexico.
14. President Woodrow Wilson
a. promoted racial equality.
b. promised to respect Latin America’s independence.
c. stopped U.S. investment in Latin America and the Caribbean.
d. aligned with Dollar Diplomacy.
e. designed a program to instill American values in Latin American schools.
15. Assess the effectiveness of President Woodrow Wilson’s response to Mexico’s civil war.
a. While the United States was able to bring peace to the region, it also undermined the democratic process.
b. In his zealous attempt to remove the dictator Porfirio Díaz, Wilson ended up destabilizing all of Central
America.
c. Wilson’s attempts to teach Mexican people how to select good men only led to the war spilling over into the
United States.
d. President Wilson’s efforts to support the popular leader “Pancho” Villa resulted in 10,000 U.S. troops
joining the fight between the troops of Huerta and Madero.
e. If General John Pershing had not undermined the military operation with his own corruption, Wilson’s response
to Villa would have been very effective.
16. Why did World War I transform Western civilization so profoundly?
a. The bitter war between the anti-militaristic neighbors of Germany, France, and Britain shook the popular
conceptions of politics deeply.
b. Because a vast majority of the victims were civilians, the war forever changed public perception of the
acceptability of military conflict.
c. As a global conflict between socialist nations and monarchies, the war signaled the ideological divisions of
the twentieth century.
d. The war generated an economic boom in Europe and the United States that marked the beginning of the so–
called Roaring Twenties.
e. The mass slaughter of World War I was hard to reconcile with the claim that Western civilization was the
triumph of reason and progress.
17. Why were Americans divided over the outbreak of the Great War?
a. The American public wanted to join the conflict, but Congress remained opposed to any intervention.
b. Irish-Americans and Russian Jews resented Allied powers Great Britain and Russia.
c. Some Americans welcomed the military buildup that would accompany American involvement; others
worried about large tax increases.
d. Democrats hoped to shore up support for Wilson’s reelection as a “war president,” while Republicans
objected to “foreign entanglements.”
e. Republicans hoped to gain new territory in eastern Europe while Democrats wanted to focus energies at
home.
18. What ideology had the greatest impact on incentivizing fighting during World War I?
a. socialism
b. colonialism
c. nationalism
d. republicanism
e. humanism
19. Who was Venustiano Carranza?
a. a good friend to Pancho Villa
b. a Mexican dictator
c. a Mexican leader who promoted modernization
d. a Mexican revolutionary leader
e. a leader of the Mexican Immigration Commission in the United States
20. U.S. intervention in Mexico
a. stimulated domestic economic development there.
b. was the result of a negotiation with the Mexican resistance.
c. was Wilson’s greatest success.
d. demonstrated Wilson’s strategic command and U.S. military power.
e. demonstrated that it would be harder than Wilson expected to intervene in the internal affairs of other
countries.
21. What was a result of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915?
a. The United States declared war against Germany a week later.
b. Woodrow Wilson criticized the British for storing arms on the vessel.
c. Germany declared war against Great Britain.
d. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan became more forceful with his push for war.
e. The American public was outraged.
22. In the presidential election of 1916, Woodrow Wilson
a. chose not to run for reelection.
b. lost to the Republican candidate, Charles Evans Hughes.
c. was reelected when he promised to support the war effort.
d. used the campaign slogan “He kept us out of war.”
e. received fewer votes in states where women had the right to vote.
23. How were women so influential in the outcome of the election of 1916?
a. The campaign of Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes relied almost exclusively on female
volunteers.
b. The Wilson administration actively sought the endorsement of women working in war industries.
c. Women were able to vote in the presidential election in twelve western states and heavily favored Wilson.
d. Although her chances of victory were at best remote, the presidential candidacy of Alice Paul galvanized
public opinion.
e. Suffragists exercised unprecedented influence and pressure on their husbands, fathers, and brothers.
24. Which of the following statements about World War I is accurate?
a. It began with the assassination of the heir to the British throne.
b. It produced casualties on a massive scale, due in part to new military technologies such as tanks and
submarines.
c. It had very little to do with European colonial possessions overseas.
d. It inspired a new sense of American identity, as Americans all supported the same side in the war.
e. Feminists and social reformers were convinced the war would bring about social equality.
25. American neutrality in the Great War
a. divided the American public.
b. decreased industrial production.
c. showed the country had never considered expanding its military power.
d. was proclaimed by Theodore Roosevelt.
e. lasted for the duration of the war.
26. What was one result of Wilson’s Fourteen Points?
a. It served as a treaty in place of a peace conference.
b. Germany was allowed to station troops along its border with France.
c. It set an agenda for the peace conference after the war.
d. Germany declared war against the United States.
e. Mexico agreed to aid Germany in a war with the United States.
27. When American troops finally arrived in Europe,
a. they were too late to participate in the Meuse-Argonne campaign.
b. they helped push back a German offensive near Paris.
c. they immediately tried to establish a peace treaty.
d. the British and French were in full retreat.
e. they organized alliances after the war among fourteen prominent nations.
28. The Zimmermann Telegram
a. showed Germany’s interest in investing in U.S. corporations.
b. was a German invitation sent to the Mexican government asking them to join them in a war against the
United States.
c. assured Wilson that no real threat could come from Europe.
d. pushed Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war against England.
e. outlined Russian plans to attack the United States.
29. Wilson issued the Fourteen Points hoping to
a. expand the American empire.
b. provide a clear statement of America’s war aims to the people.
c. justify neutrality.
d. sign a secret treaty with Russia.
e. stop colonization.
30. Approximately what percentage did U.S. soldiers comprise of the total killed during World War I?
a. 30 percent
b. 1 percent
c. 5 percent
d. 10 percent
e. 15 percent
31. Most Progressives saw World War I as a golden opportunity because
a. they believed that the United States would profit from the war.
b. they supported the socialist ideas of Vladimir Lenin.
c. they hoped to disseminate Progressive values around the globe.
d. they saw an opportunity to completely restrict immigration.
e. it offered blacks a chance for economic improvement through defense jobs.
32. Which of the following elements of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points was created to maintain social
harmony and preserve peace around the world?
a. the promotion of closed-door diplomacy
b. the principle of free trade
c. the idea of self-determination
d. the principle of freedom of the seas
e. the League of Nations
33. The U.S. Army saw an increase in enlistments due to the Selective Service Act. What pair of numbers reflects
the number of soldiers before and after the Selective Service Act was implemented?
a. from 10,000 to 2 million
b. from 120,000 to 5 million
c. from 210,000 to 8 million
d. from 1.5 million to 15 million
e. from 2.4 million to 24 million
34. Why did the War Industries Board establish standardized specifications during World War I?
a. to prevent private businesses from extracting excess profits
b. to fulfill the long-standing demands of consumer rights groups
c. to meet the demands of labor unions
d. to increase efficiency and speed production
e. to ensure that workers were well protected and looked after
35. How did the Committee on Public Information present its message to encourage Americans to remain loyal
and support the war effort?
a. The Creel Committee often relied on veiled threats.
b. The CPI frequently invoked the Alien and Sedition Acts.
c. The CPI rhetoric commonly tried to pit immigrants against native-born Americans.
d. The CPI packaged its appeals in the language of social cooperation and an expanded democracy.
e. The Creel Committee combined its patriotic appeals with advertisements for special bargains on household
goods.
36. During World War I, the federal government
a. paid more attention to European affairs than domestic events.
b. intervened minimally in local affairs.
c. deregulated labor relations.
d. accumulated power and used it to influence the everyday lives of Americans.
e. reduced corporate taxes.
37. Wilson’s wartime propaganda effort
a. indirectly led to the “public relations” profession.
b. convinced the IWW and the Socialist Party to reverse their positions and support America in the war.
c. relied on private agencies, as direct government involvement was opposed by a skeptical public.
d. successfully galvanized American public opinion against tsarist Russia.
e. was not very effective in convincing the American public to support the war.
38. The Committee on Public Information
a. was directed by William Jennings Bryan.
b. protected civil liberties.
c. was a federal effort to shape public opinion.
d. was affiliated with the Socialist Party.
e. was limited in its efforts.
39. Why did World War I threaten to tear the women’s suffrage movement apart?
a. A large number of activists were German-American.
b. The leadership of the suffrage movement was predominantly socialist.
c. Many of the women in leadership positions were recruited into government service.
d. Many suffragists had been associated with opposition to American involvement in the war.
e. The demands of the home front pulled women away from political activism.
40. Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress,
a. was a socialist.
b. supported limited women’s suffrage.
c. was pro-German.
d. supported U.S. entry into World War I.
e. opposed U.S. entry into World War I.
41. Late in her life, how did Jeannette Rankin remain true to her ideals?
a. Hitler invited her to visit Nazi Germany and she accepted.
b. She resigned as secretary of state.
c. The government prosecuted her under the Espionage Act.
d. She negotiated a cease-fire for the Korean War.
e. She participated in a march against the Vietnam War.
42. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for the final passage of the Nineteenth Amendment?
a. Suffragists’ state–by–state efforts had largely failed.
b. Congressmen from western states backed the amendment in exchange for an end to suffragist support of
Prohibition.
c. The Wilson administration eventually supported the amendment in response to public pressure.
d. Jeanette Rankin of Montana cast the deciding vote.
e. Suffragettes refused to support the war effort unless they were promised the vote at the end of the war.
43. Who led the Committee on Public Information?
a. Eugene Debs
b. George Creel
c. Louis Brandeis
d. Woodrow Wilson
e. Theodore Roosevelt
44. Which of the following groups supported Prohibition?
a. urban politicians wishing to bolster the city machines
b. female reformers who believed women squandered their earnings on alcohol
c. employers who hoped Prohibition would create a more disciplined labor force
d. German immigrants who saw beer as a national value
e. Catholic priests who wished to curb the abuse of alcohol by parishioners
45. What did employers, urban reformers, and women reformers hope Prohibition would achieve during the war
years?
a. a larger turnout among men for the draft
b. a decline in desertions and acts of sabotage
c. a reduction in the public expense associated with alcoholism
d. peace and order on the home front
e. all hoped for a more pious, spiritual, and god-fearing community
46. Which of the following is true of Alice Paul?
a. As head of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association, she spoke for all women.
b. She pointed out the hypocrisy of fighting for democracy abroad while denying it to women at home.
c. She was the first woman member of Congress, and was staunchly pacifist.
d. She founded the Committee on Public Information in order to spread pro-war propaganda.
e. She spent seven years in prison for the crime of treason.
47. In 1915, what region of the United States most completely banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol?
a. Northwest
b. Southwest
c. Midwest
d. Southeast
e. Northeast
48. What best exemplifies Randolph Bourne’s statement that war unleashed the “least democratic forces in
American life”?
a. ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment
b. passage of the Sedition Act
c. creation of a draft board
d. the application of the War Industries Board
e. passage of the Sixteenth Amendment
49. The Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918)
a. were the first federal restrictions on free speech since 1798.
b. drew mostly from similar language in state law.
c. came after strong public calls for a more “defensible democracy.”
d. copied similar legislation from Germany, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.
e. were put on the books but never applied.
50. Which of the following statements would have been prosecuted under the Sedition Act of 1918?
a. “I like German music.”
b. “We may lose this war.”
c. “I call on you to boycott the draft.”
d. “Conscientious objectors deserve to be shot.”
e. “Heil Hitler.”
51. The American Protective League
a. supported radicals charged under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.
b. was concerned about protecting immigrants from persecution.
c. was concerned about the threat to civil liberties.
d. sought to protect women from abuse.
e. worked with the Justice Department to identify radicals.
52. The government and employers cooperated to dismantle which of the following unions during World War I?
a. International Workers of the World
b. American Federation of Labor
c. American Protective League
d. Knights of Labor
e. Congress of Industrial Organizations
53. Which of the following is true of Eugene V. Debs?
a. He cited fascists in defense of Americans’ freedom to dissent.
b. His arrest for violation of the Espionage Act was the result of an anti-war speech.
c. His prison sentence was commuted by President Wilson before his stroke.
d. He ran for president while in prison and received 500 votes.
e. He was sentenced to ten months in prison.
54. Why was Eugene Debs convicted in 1918?
a. because he used public funds for private needs
b. because he violently attacked a U.S. congressman
c. because he violated the Eighteenth Amendment
d. because he delivered an anti-war speech
e. because he refused arrest
55. Regarding demographics, what worried Madison Grant?
a. Not enough immigrants came to the United States in the early twentieth century.
b. Too many Anglo-Saxons existed in the United States.
c. The U.S. Native American population was too high.
d. The segregation of blacks and whites in the South denigrated American civilization.
e. Native white women had a low birth rate.
56. Eugenics is the
a. study of the supposed mental characteristics of different races.
b. movement toward colonization in Africa by blacks from the United States.
c. practice of using poison gas by the Germans during World War I.
d. socialist strategy of infiltrating labor unions in the United States.
e. genetic modification of human behavior.
57. How did eugenics shape public policy during World War I?
a. It opened Americans’ eyes to the commonalities both native-born citizens and immigrants had.
b. It successfully undermined nativism and exposed it for the bigotry it was.
c. It supported anti-immigrant sentiment with an air of professional expertise.
d. It proved the superior traits of Allied soldiers over German soldiers.
e. It led to a ban on military service for African– Americans.
58. Why did Americanization programs often target women?
a. Proponents of Americanization did not want to antagonize men.
b. Immigrant women had the most visible presence in public.
c. They understood women as the bearers and transmitters of culture.
d. Women offered less resistance to Americanization programs.
e. Women tended to speak English whereas men typically did not.
59. What did the Ford Motor Company do to immigrant employees who did not Americanize after a certain
amount of time?
a. Henry Ford demanded that these immigrants be deported.
b. Ford management fired these employees.
c. They were sent to Hull House.
d. The immigrant employees were pushed to live with a native-born American family.
e. Ford management destroyed the employees’ homes.
60. What present-day term summarizes Randolph Bourne’s ideas on the ideal American society?
a. multitasking
b. downsizing
c. veganism
d. multiculturalism
e. environmentalism
61. In his speech to the jury before being sentenced in 1918, who did Eugene Debs state was the group “almost
alone” in defending the Constitution?
a. Democrats
b. Progressives
c. Republicans
d. Socialists
e. Greenbackers
62. Which of the following groups used the discourse of eugenics to support their ideas?
a. anti-immigration groups
b. Protestants
c. female activists
d. socialists
e. anarchists
63. During World War I, Americans reacted to German-Americans and Germans in all of the following ways
EXCEPT
a. in Iowa, the governor required that all oral communication be done in English.
b. “hamburger” was changed to “liberty sandwich.”
c. the director of the Boston Symphony was interned for playing the works of German composers.
d. the teaching of foreign languages was restricted in many states.
e. the federal government barred German immigration to the United States.
64. Which of the following statements about immigration policy during World War I is true?
a. Congress conferred citizenship upon Filipinos.
b. Congress required that all immigrants pass IQ tests (intelligence tests).
c. Congress required that immigrants be literate in English at a college level.
d. The government temporarily exempted Europeans from the literacy test.
e. The state of California barred Asians from owning and leasing land.
65. Eugenics aimed to
a. “improve” the quality of the population.
b. justify gender equality.
c. provide a scientific basis to promote open immigration.
d. explain the importance of studying the human anatomy.
e. cure genetic diseases.
66. In Buck v. Bell (1927), the Supreme Court ruled against Carrie Buck. What did the Court say to reject Buck’s
plea?
a. That she was in a mental institution and therefore could not have control over her body.
b. That the sterilization was unconstitutional, but they would perform a different procedure on her.
c. That the sterilization was in the name of the public good and therefore constitutional.