Final answer:
The statement is false; it was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, not the Fordney-McCumber Act, that raised U.S. tariffs to historically high levels and stifled global trade during the Great Depression.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement in question is false; it was not the Fordney-McCumber Act but the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 that raised U.S. tariffs to historically high levels. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was designed to protect American farmers and industries from foreign competition by raising tariff rates another 20 percent on more than twenty thousand kinds of imported goods. This act resulted in foreign countries enacting their own high tariff rates in retaliation, which ultimately hampered global trade, contributing to a deepening of the Great Depression. Engineering a protectionist policy environment, it inadvertently stifled the industrial might of the United States, leading to job losses and a dramatic decrease in international trade.