Chapter 83: The Great Depression (Part Two)
Translator: Kim_Guo Editor: Tehrn
Rolin wasn’t a government official, so he was easily bought over. The noble guardian’s reason for existing was to make profits, and his principles were adaptable because he was corrupted. Any amount of profit was valuable in the glorified plane age. They would have destroyed another plane for it.
If Rolin were human, he’d be a Jew.
He caved in before Huang Xuan even began to weigh the pros and cons. Without a doubt, he had weighed them himself.
From this, Huang Xuan estimated that this artificial intelligence, which came from 100,000 years in the future, had the imagination and the intellect of a dog. Mr. Rolin wanted profits, yet he did not know how to earn it. Huang Xuan smirked. The low-intellect guardian was certainly his perfect match. Of course, all of this was a figment of Huang Xuan’s imagination.
Ford’s A-type cars were selling well at that time. However, they suffered huge losses when they stopped production during their transition period, which lasted half a year in 1927. During that period, Henry Ford and his son, Edsel Ford, began to invent the A-type car. While they took a short time, the mandatory transformation caused Ford to fall to the second place among the world’s car manufacturers.
Despite this, Ford kept the Rouge workshop. It was self-sufficient, as Ford had imagined it to be. Everything, from the raw materials to the finished cars, was stored in one location. Rouge continued to be the world’s biggest workshop owned by a single car manufacturer for the next 100 years. Furthermore, the popular circulating pipeline technology had also started here.
Since food was worth nothing, Huang Xuan lost interest in selling his food products. Detroit was a messy and rugged city. Huang Xuan felt influenced by its character. He stole an entire outfit and USD$1 from three individual gangsters.
This was enough for him to get to Rouge.
It was said that Ford used to live there when he was growing up. At that time, nature was still thriving. However, by the 1930s, the industrial revolutionaries revamped the place, leaving thick clouds of smoke in their wake.
Under normal circumstances, Rouge had a total of 100,000 workers working at the same time, which could be seen as a small, self-sufficient city.
Rouge was recruiting people every day. It was one of the few companies who raised its workers’ salaries during the Great Depression. The $5-a-day scheme itself, which was invented by Henry Ford, was said to have increased their salaries by 100%. The way Huang Xuan saw it, however, these schemes were not aimed at improving the economy. Instead, they were aimed to secure stable, skilled workers for the company.
The fact that the workers never rested spoke for itself. In an age where contractual terms were unclear, to keep the manpower numbers in the tens of thousands, the turnover rate was expected to be high.
Mr. Ford had to recruit hundreds of people each day, and on some days, he even had to recruit thousands of people. Increasing the workers’ salaries was an appropriate solution. Otherwise, the company would waste even more money and suffer lower productivity.
Those were the facts.
Most of the workers surrounding Huang Xuan had thick arms and bored expressions. Ford only had to ensure these workers were well-trained. They would only be concerned with nurturing talents in the 90’s, or even in 2000. They didn’t dream of doing so during the Great Depression.
While countless companies went bankrupt, men who only possessed physical strength stood no chance of earning USD$5 a day. However, most people wanted to try their luck anyway.
A middle-aged man in a purple sweater walked out. He stood outside and read from the perennial recruitment notice. He shouted, “All those who know how to operate a milling machine may enter!” After he was done, he raised his head and left.
About ten white young men skipped in happily. Not long after, half of them walked out, dejected. Huang Xuan attempted to find out more about Ford’s technical department. However, to his disappointment, most people thought that the factory was the technical department.
Huang Xuan was not flustered. On the one hand, he could stay for about ten days this time. On the other hand, he could not yet predict what he would be bringing home with him. He had to keep his eyes peeled. While the Great Depression was triggered by overproduction, there wasn’t always an excess of products. According to Rolin’s findings, agricultural products were the cheapest products in the market; however, they were also the most difficult to obtain. When the farmers realized that the cost of bringing a goat to the market was more than the revenue they earned from its sale, they killed their goats. They did the same for their wheat and corn.
Strangely, people questioned why the farmers didn’t just store them and wait for the prices to rise before they sold them. However, nobody could foresee when the Great Depression was going to end. The farmers could not tell if it was worth it to store their goats and harvest — they could have been wasting more money attempting to store them. In actual fact, the goats and harvest were going to be worthless for a long time.
These problems affected Huang Xuan in that while he had a huge sum of money in his hands, there was no supply to meet his demand. This was the core of the problem — everything was going against the laws of economics.
Yet again, there was shouting. Yet again, the people who met the requirements had opportunities to be interviewed. Huang Xuan remained outside the factory with the majority.
“Kid, what do you know?” a Hispanic asked Huang Xuan. He was a talkative old man who was growing a beard.
“Maybe…” Huang Xuan flipped his hand and continued, “Driving.” He was driving his kart well.
Every American knew how to drive. The old man turned his head. He was a skilled man. From their conversation, Huang Xuan learned that he had worked many jobs before: he berthed, he lathed, and he constructed. However, he was growing in years. Therefore, in 1930, he joined the unemployed army.
Huang Xuan surveyed his surroundings. He was far from Detroit. The black man whom he had hitched a ride from charged him an additional 10 cents to get here. Apart from through the big gate in front of him, there were few other ways to enter Ford’s factory.
He decided he could afford to wait for a while longer. As decently dressed as the people around him were, it was obvious that their standard of living was low. If 21st century Americans could choose, they would definitely decide that 1931 was a harder year than 1943. On this safe continent, people feared poverty more than they feared Nazis.
“Hi, kid.” The Hispanic lifted a palm and patted Huang Xuan, who had been studying material on his own. He said, “They need two drivers. There aren’t many. Don’t waste it.”
Huang Xuan struggled to focus on the plane he was in instead of on the energy screen. The recruiter was still the same man in the purple sweater. Huang Xuan tugged on the metal weaves on the corner of his shirt before he entered the factory.
About 300 people were fighting for these two vacancies. A few burly men made their way ahead of the crowd. The rest of them, unwilling to be left behind, followed closely.
“We need two people to drive these two cars from Green Village to this factory every day. They’ll have to load the goods on their own…” the manager seemed to be talking to himself yet, everyone was listening intently. When he was done talking, someone shouted, “I’ve driven cars for 20 years! Doing deliveries is not a problem!”
“Then why aren’t you doing deliveries?” Several people retorted immediately. Huang Xuan remained at the side, studying the surroundings.
They were at the borders of Rouge. The employee’s entrance was about a kilometer away, and In front of him stood an impressive bungalow. It was different from the ruins of the east, the newly built Rouge was modern and sturdy. Although it didn’t have a clear glass concept, the sheer number of machines displayed its strength.
As the interviewees continued to argue, a few white men in old-style tuxedos walked over. The man in the purple sweater approached them and put on his best smile. He asked, “Mr. Thomas, what do you need?”
“A few artists and skilled workers who are able to understand drawings.” Thomas’ eyes brushed over each of the interviewees. They rested on Huang Xuan. The Asian kid in the crowd of 30-year-old barbarians naturally drew attention.
The man in the purple sweater nodded and immediately headed for the gate, leaving behind over a hundred of people. Ford needed to recruit nearly 35,000 people each year to fulfill its manpower requirement of 50,000 workers. In other words, 70% of Ford’s workers left the company each year. Other factories were facing similar problems. This was the reason Ford implemented the USD$5-a-day scheme. Despite this, the workers remained of ordinary caliber. Training them up was going to cost far more than recruiting skilled and capable workers.
“Filipino?” Thomas asked as he approached Huang Xuan. He had nothing better to do.
“Close enough.” Huang Xuan was not interested in discussing his ethnicity.
Having received an unexpected reply, Thomas whistled under his breath and turned to the man next to him, who was in a black tuxedo. He commented, “There are more and more illegal immigrants these days. It’s disgusting.”
The other party shrugged. Huang Xuan raised his eyebrow. He paid no regard to the racist fella. There were animals like him everywhere, and he simply had no time to entertain them.
Another bearded man snickered and replied, “I’ll bet he needs a job. In fact, he looks like he desperately needs one.”
“He looks like he’s got the wrong place,” Thomas grinned.
At that moment, five more people joined them. The leader wore a condescending smile on his face. He said, “Perhaps he really needs it.”
“Oh, Julien. Do you need one?”
Many people chuckled. Huang Xuan understood what they were saying. He reached into his pocket for the remaining five cents he had. He flicked the coin with his thumb. It landed on the floor. He whistled at Thomas and said, “Honky, looks like you need that.”
“Honky” was an insulting way to refer to white people. It was much like the term “Nigger”. It was the term black people used when they looked down on white people. When Huang Xuan used it, the people in the factory burst into laughter.
They laughed not because of the term itself, but because they enjoyed watching the drama unfold. Detroit was a rough city. The workers often played football during their free time. The opportunity to attack without the protection of guards was thrilling for them. Huang Xuan was obviously picking a fight by saying what he did to eight white men.
Apart from Ford’s workers, everyone remained neutral regardless of race. They were all waiting for something exciting to happen. Although the workers wore suits, their arms were still big enough to wrap around Huang Xuan’s waist. Clearly, he didn’t stand a chance.
Huang Xuan knew he couldn’t win against the eight white men. Despite this, he continued to look down his nose at them. He slowly walked out of the crowd and said, “I’ll bet one cent that I can knock you out with two punches.”
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