America 1881: Legend of the West

The people attending the meeting filed in and found their seats to sit down.

A waiter in white clothes closed the door of the room after all the bosses entered the room, blocking other irrelevant people outside.

The governor walked to the center seat.

Chen Jianqiu found a chair farthest from the governor.

He took out a palm-sized comic book from his arms and began to read it under the table.

Astor asked someone to draw this comic book based on his novel, and it is said to be selling very well in New York.

When Chen Jianqiu came back from Europe and passed through New York. Little Astor stuffed him with seven or eight books no matter what.

He flipped through two or three of them on the train and found the contents surprisingly interesting.

Seeing everyone sitting down, the governor started today's topic.

He stood up straight and his butt had not touched the chair since entering the room.

"Everyone, as I stated in my letter to you, a strike of unprecedented scale will occur in California in the near future."

The governor pointed his fingertips on the table and said forcefully.

“I don’t want the city’s trams to stop running and a bunch of people to take to the streets and march with signs!”

This sentence sets the tone first.

I am a politician, and maintaining stability is my priority.

"Everyone here has made considerable contributions to the development of California. You will bear the brunt of the strike and suffer losses. This is why I informed you of this news in advance."

The second sentence comforted the businessmen present.

Many of these people provided substantial financial support for the governor's election.

"So, I called everyone together to give everyone an opportunity to discuss a plan to properly resolve the strike issue."

The governor looked around the venue again.

He found that everyone was looking at him, except for a Chinese man at the end of the table who kept his head lowered.

This caused some discomfort to the governor, but it did not affect him from continuing to speak.

"That's all I have to say. Next, you can discuss it among yourselves."

After that, he walked straight out of the door of the room.

Come in a hurry, go in a hurry.

Businessmen understand the governor's behavior.

The government, especially state governments, were unwilling to get themselves into the muddy waters of labor and capital, which violated the non-intervention norm of the government at that time.

After all, this is a matter between workers and capitalists.

If the government can be the referee, it will do its best to be the referee, and it will not step down if it can.

Unless the fire actually burns them.

The fact that the governor can appear here has already explained a lot of things, and no more statements are needed.

So, after the governor left, the venue became noisy.

Everyone was discussing this matter in small groups, but they did not realize that the owner of the house, Jack Brannan, had quietly sat down in the chairman's seat where the governor was standing just now.

"Everyone, everyone, if we discuss like this, nothing will come of it." He cleared his throat and said loudly, "Everyone, please be quiet."

Only then did everyone turn their attention to him.

This "rich second generation" is in his thirties, with a square face, thin lips, and pointed ears.

The businessmen looked at him with different eyes, but their expressions were basically the same.

Basically: why do you sit in that position?

"I'm the host, I'm just the record-keeper for everyone at the moment." Brannan said with a smile as if he could see what everyone was thinking.

But his expression soon changed.

"However, I was the one who told the governor all the information about the strike."

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the merchants present changed.

It turns out that the governor was just giving this person a platform, and he was the real convener of the meeting.

"I just think the workers are united. If we don't unite, we won't be able to fight them." Brannan said seriously.

"You're not afraid of workers, are you? How often do these guys not make trouble? When did they succeed in the last time?" A lumber factory owner was somewhat disapproving.

"Then do you have any good suggestions?" Brannan asked with his hands crossed on the table.

"They won't do the old method. There are plenty of people doing it. Let's recruit some Chinese workers." The owner of the lumber factory said, "They are cheap and easy to use."

Brannan shook his head: "It won't work this time. Not to mention that the bill drove many Chinese workers away from California. Judging from the recent situation, those Chinese workers and white workers chose to stand together. It is not so easy to deal with." ."

"What about divided unions? As we all know, those people are never monolithic. We just need to find a way to bribe their leaders to solve the strike."

Brannan shook his head again: "In the past, strikes were carried out by unions and various organizations in various industries, but this time it is different. The union organizations in California have been unified. Now there is only one organization, the California Knights of Labor. As for the leader?"

He paused.

"This person's identity is very suspicious, but his leadership position in the union organization is currently quite solid."

"He led the Stone Springs strike perfectly, and the victims of that strike were right there with us."

After saying that, he began to look for Chen Jianqiu in the venue, and finally found him in the corner.

"Mr. Chen, have you ever dealt with that person?" Brannan asked.

"No." Chen Jianqiu didn't even raise his head. "I asked my manager to handle it, but he sold me."

"I fired the manager when he came back." Chen Jianqiu bowed and still looked under the table, "This bastard cost me a lot of dollars."

"But that's not what you told the people at the Carbon Mining Association at the time."

Brannan's eyes were intriguing.

"Otherwise? Have you admitted to those guys who are trying to add insult to injury that you were tricked?"

Chen Jianqiu still had no intention of raising his head.

The Pacific Railroad majority owner seemed to have a particularly good temper.

As a result, everyone's topic returned to the strike itself.

"Is it possible to declare those unions illegal organizations through the courts? I know that this is what some eastern states have done."

Brannan said nothing again.

The experience of eastern states does not apply to California.

Each state's laws are different.

In California, if the unions don’t do something particularly outrageous, it’s hard to blame illegal organizations on their heads.

"This won't work, that won't work either. Why don't we just ask the governor to send the police and the military to handle the budget!"

A grumpy fishery boss complained.

This person is a fish seller, he is not very good and has a reckless attitude.

After saying this, everyone looked at him like a fool.

If the governor is willing to intervene directly, what else can the governor do?

Only Brannan and Chen Jianqiu did not express their emotions too obviously.

Brannan crossed his arms on his chest and looked ahead silently, wondering what he was thinking.

Chen Jianqiu, on the other hand, was reading comic strips.

No one here knew people like the governor better than he did.

As a former federal military district commander,

If the situation really gets out of control, such people are extremely willing to lead the police and militia to the scene.

Of course, the premise is uncontrollable.

After all, he is still a soldier.

Sometimes, these people just need a reason to go on a killing spree so that they can silence the people in a high-sounding way.

This is not surprising.

However, Chen Jianqiu was a little interested in this second-generation rich man named Brannan.

This person seemed to know a lot about the union. He had conducted an investigation into the relationship between himself and the union. Although he didn't find anything, he still had his own judgments and guesses.

It seems that there is probably a mole on Holly's side.

A group of people discussed it for a while, but still couldn't come up with a reason.

Finally, at Brannan's initiative, it was decided to form an anti-strike alliance.

There will be meetings here every other week between now and the strike.

They elected Brannan as the general commander of the anti-strike alliance in response to the strike action of the Knights of Labor.

"Mr. Chen, what do you think?"

Brannan named Chen Jianqiu.

I finally finished reading Chen Jianqiu’s comic strip.

He raised his head for the first time in the whole meeting, with a relaxed smile on his face:

"No."