Rebirth of the Spanish Empire

After sending away his Intelligence Minister Chirac and Energy Minister Bain, Alfonso pressed his head with a headache and took a deep breath.

"Tama, these guys seem to be relying on me more and more. This is not a good trend." Although Alfonso hopes that everyone will act according to his own orders, but if there are a lot of people who just know how to carry out their own orders, If you want to arrange for someone to act steadily, then it is better to just find someone who is more obedient and certain. Why bother looking for people like them?

What he needs are people with ideas, not executors who can only perform tasks. After all, he is not the British King George V, the British king who until now is still slowly gathering the power of powerful ministers and who has only been king for a few years.

Speaking of Britain, Alfonso naturally thought of their distant relative, the United States.

"George David? North American general manager of Standard Oil Company? Since everyone is asking to continue to increase their bets, then, what do I have to worry about, hehe!"

Alfonso looked at the other side of the Atlantic with a sly smile, as if something interesting to him was happening there.

…

Wilson was very busy during this period, so busy that he felt dizzy. Only now did he understand why Taft had a sudden look of relief on his face after losing the presidential re-election.

As the president of the country, he finally understood that although this position made people feel hot and glorious, it also made people feel how heavy the pressure was.

The evolving situation in Europe has made him feel as if war could break out in the United States at any time. The rise of Spain, a behemoth, has made it difficult for him, the new president, to sleep well.

Although he was not so hostile to Spain before, after all, the Democratic Party would focus more on domestic interests instead of paying more attention to overseas interests like the Republican Party. However, after all, as the president, he cannot only represent the Democratic Party. Act according to the inherent group, but try to win over as many citizens as possible to support themselves. For example, those on the fringes of the Republican Party. It is also the “object” that he will focus on during his term starting this year.

The phone rang, and when he saw the call, he knew it was his former rival in the party, who was later defeated by him. Now he is his right-hand man, William Jennings Bryan, the new US Secretary of State.

"Hi, old man. Why are you so anxious to find me? You want me to come to your house to eat together? Let me tell you. Mary doesn't seem to have much time today. You know, she is now I'm focusing on taking care of the kids," Wilson said mockingly. Brian had just left his office less than an hour ago. Why, he called again so impatiently. You must know that when they were opponents in the past, the two of them worked hard, which made him sigh and think: This world is really crazy, and the gap between before and after is really too big.

When Brian heard Wilson's joking voice, his face turned green with anger. This guy was not an ordinary greedy person, and he wanted to refute the other person naturally, but thinking about the urgency of the matter now, he was a little Turned off.

"No, no, no, President, now we are in trouble." He hurriedly stopped the other party's nagging. Without waiting for the other party's response, he directly followed: "The wave of small strikes in the West some time ago has begun to become more intense. It’s spreading..."

"What?" The phone Wilson was holding fell to the ground in an instant as his face turned pale. "Is it true that the Homestead Steel Company strike is happening again?"

"Maybe" Brian was also a little embarrassed, and suddenly said with a trembling sense of being in a daze.

In the 1890s, the workers' strike movement in the United States continued to rise. Among this long-term and large-scale White House movement, the most significant one was the 1892 steel workers' strike in Homestead.

At the end of 1892, many of the skilled workers at the Homestead Steel Plant of the Carnegie Steel Company, the main company of the steel king, belonged to the Mixed Railway Workers Association. The Homestead Steel Plant had promised these skilled workers a three-year contract. The above wage agreement was about to expire in 1892. When it was about to expire, the factory cut the wages of 300 skilled workers and fired them. At the same time, in order to prevent the fired workers from causing rebellion, the factory also Three hundred Pinkerton spies were recruited to protect the factory. This company is the famous Detective Agency, whose full name is Pingketun National Detective Agency. It is a company famous for suppressing workers with the goal of helping capitalists suppress striking workers.

Naturally, Homestead workers could not silently accept this kind of predatory exploitation and oppression by capitalists. In the end, skilled workers and unskilled workers gave up their past grievances, united to defend common interests, and went on strike. The form of the movement challenged the capitalists. For more than a month, the fierce fighting between the two sides entered a fierce stage. After fierce struggle, the workers of the Steel Union drove away the Pinkerton agents and took control of the entire city. Under such circumstances, Carnegie, the largest steel company in the United States, had to intervene and provide emergency support to the local Pennsylvania court. The state government later began to intervene.

However, in the United States, many officials and other representatives rely on funding from capitalists as an important electoral outlet, which is the so-called money election. Pennsylvania is the home base of the Carnegie Steel Company, so it naturally belongs to the company. As one of the government's spheres of influence, the governor immediately sent out a large number of guards after asking questions to protect the non-local workers who had to be transferred from other factories due to lack of employees. This naturally did not satisfy the strikers, and even said that this was even more caused irritation. Unable to compromise, the workers finally took the factory to court in 1893. After four months of litigation, the workers won. However, after spending a lot of energy and financial resources, in front of the wealthy capitalists, the workers finally I still went back to work in the factory and resumed work. Although I won, it was as good as losing.

The failure of the strike exposed many problems between the labor union and the steel union, and also disintegrated the union activities at the Homestead Steel Plant, and even led to the overall decline of the steel mixed association.

If this were the case, Wilson would certainly not be so worried about dropping the phone on the ground, and Secretary of State Brian would not be so uncool. The thing is, because this matter is far from over.

In the same year, in addition to the strike at Homestead Steel Mill, three other large-scale strikes broke out, such as the coal mine miners in eastern Tennessee who opposed the convict labor system, and the strike in Idaho. The Coeur d'Alene silver mine strike in New York State and the Buffalo Road switchmen's strike in New York State. Although these strikes were relatively large in scale and had a certain impact on the capital and corporate class, they did not escape the outcome of failure in the end.

There are many reasons for failure. Cash for machines weakens the status of workers, especially skilled workers. It is difficult for them to pose a real threat to capitalists, because new workers can operate it as long as they are trained, which reduces the negotiating weight in the hands of skilled workers. code. There were also capitalists who relied on the [violent] machine of the American government at that time. This large-scale cooperation between government and businessmen left the working class isolated and helpless in the entire balance of power.

The final result, naturally, was that under the premise of increasing accumulation and rising public dissatisfaction, in the summer of 1893, it finally erupted suddenly and violently like a volcano. The further intensification of the conflict between the working class and the capitalist class also caused the working class to suffer an unprecedented blow and rise up to fight. At the end of this year, more than 3 million people across the country became unemployed for various reasons.

Wilson shuddered when he thought about this number, because at that time he still clearly remembered that more than three million people walked together to Washington, the capital of the United States, to petition, hoping to change the status quo. At that time, he and former President Taft were One of the representatives of the working class. One of the people who avenged them.

He still vividly remembers the situation that almost paralyzed most of the country. At that time, he felt that the blood in his body was boiling. He seemed to be doing something great and glorious and had a sacred mission, fulfilling God's entrustment. However, looking at myself now, it seems that they are standing on the opposite side of them. This seems to be a 180-degree change from my previous position.

"There seems to be something wrong with this matter. After being silent for a long time," Wilson broke the silence between the two of them, holding the phone he picked up and frowning.

This happened so suddenly. It was fine before, so why did the scene become like this? It's so illogical.

Brian also nodded thoughtfully.

Jackson is a current affairs enthusiast. He especially likes to hear or see some news. Of course, there are international and domestic news. As one of the heirs of a capital family in the United States, although Sparrow is small, , but still complete. Their family is a small coal mining family in West Los Angeles, and is now one of the private companies in the American West's forward strategy. So their family can be considered a carefree middle class.

As a young man, he also dreamed of becoming the focus of everyone in the world. Well, he yearned for Spanish King Alfonso XIII more than US President Wilson, but he also knew that this could only be a dream. Just realized. I just lamented that I was born in the wrong child.

But God is so amazing. Today, he suddenly realized his desire to be noticed by the world. However, the way he realized it made him unhappy, because his family was the first company to start the strike in the west this time. "Leader", how happy this made him. (To be continued...)

ps: I'm back, updated chapter.