While in America, the system says Roosevelt was an emperor.

Chapter 88 Contact with Engineering Leaders

After finding a hotel, Tom did not prepare for his speech as Carnegie had suggested:

He didn't follow the version Carnegie implied, preparing to assassinate the troublemaker.

Instead, he took three or four men and began visiting each household.

Of course, Tom and his men changed all their clothes.

I specifically bought a set of clothes that were commonly worn before Tom traveled through time, the kind of clothes everyone wore.

Anyway, I have money, and it's easy to buy used clothes.

He wore cheap, worn-out, patched-up everyday clothes and old leather shoes that had clearly been repaired, but looked well-maintained.

Katz, Nate, Sned, Gaslin, Van Diehl—

Tom visited each household and recorded their situation in a notebook.

Despite being known as "America's youngest city councilor," Tom wasn't worried about being exposed, given the level of political awareness among the American underclass.

In addition, their sunny and approachable appearance, similar attire and manner of speaking, and similar upbringing—

Who would connect Tom with the Tom in the newspaper?

At that time, most of the lower classes in America still believed that members of Congress were powerful elites.

Tom's reason was that he was looking for relatives, and he only knew that a distant relative worked in a factory in Detroit;

With a small gift in hand, no family refused Tom's visit.

But they didn't know Tom's true purpose.

In just one afternoon, Tom visited hundreds of engineer families and got a general idea of ​​their situations.

The five leading figures are the same five who were listed at the very beginning of the document:

Katz, not too old and not too young, is the engineer who is most firmly against returning to work. He will not go back to the factory unless his salary is increased and his total working hours are guaranteed. His family situation is extremely simple, a standard case of one person being fed and the whole family having no worries.

Nate, the kindest engineer, stepped forward to save his coworkers in an accident at the factory last year, and was injured in the process. He has the highest prestige and doesn't participate in work only because he cares about his fellow workers. He is a kind and honest man with young children and elderly parents to support. He is short of money and has two young sons who are at the age where they can eat a lot.

Especially since she has a beloved eldest daughter who is eleven years old this year, if they don't have money soon, she might have to get married.

Snett and Gaslin are brothers. They are both married and have established their own careers. They are both highly skilled workers and have a little bit of savings, about a few tens of dollars.

Fearing rejection from veteran workers and a lack of available workers in the future, he joined most of the engineers in refusing to work.

The last one, Van Diehl, is the youngest, but seems to have connections with a major Eastern European country;

Tom saw many books from major Eastern European countries in his home.

Living alone, his resistance was the strongest, and he kept spreading it to other engineers.

It is no exaggeration to say that Van Diehl was the most influential among all the engineers who came together.

March 4, 1942, noon, the second day after Tom arrived in Detroit:

Tom invited five core engineers to lunch.

The location was an ordinary family restaurant in Detroit.

At noon, everyone arrived, and Tom and five engineer representatives gathered in a small private room at the family restaurant.

This time, Tom wasn't wearing tattered clothes; instead, he wore an expensive, custom-made suit, as usual.

Upon seeing Tom's attire, each of the five reacted in their own way.

Katz and Van Diehl, the two young men, were extremely annoyed with Tom, as they already knew his purpose.

Nate, Sneeze, and Gaslin were alright; all three were quite pragmatic and thought Tom had found a wealthy relative, so they all congratulated him.

After chatting with them for a while and once all the food was served, Tom asked, "Gentlemen, I've found my relative."

"You guessed right, it's a very wealthy relative."

"He is one of the shareholders of the car factory area next door, and he gave me a management position in the car factory area next door. Tom's words make sense, as they all know that Tom is 'looking for relatives'."

Tom then added, "My relative said their car factory has been experiencing a steel shortage lately. I'd like to know what the situation is like here?"

Before the three veteran engineers could say anything, Van Diehl slammed his fist on the table and roared at Tom, "Enough! You government official! The factory owner's lackey!"

"We won't talk to you any further."

"We won't go back to work unless the issues of wages and working hours are resolved!"

Nate, Sned, and Gaslin were completely confused, not knowing what Van Dill was saying.

Katz explained, "You might not know this, but Tom wasn't really looking for his family."

"He entered the factory's office building as early as noon yesterday."

"I and a few of Van Diehl's workers saw it all."

Nate, Sneeze, and Gaslin's expressions changed instantly, and the way they looked at Tom also changed.

Katz continued before he could finish speaking, "We also investigated yesterday, and Tom is more than just an ordinary rich man."

"He is also the youngest city councilor in the United States, and his district is Brooklyn, New York."

Tom showed no anger at being exposed, so he simply stopped pretending and said directly, "I originally wanted to interact with you as an ordinary person."

"There's no other way now. I'm not pretending anymore. I'm coming clean."

"I have a partnership with American Steel. If you don't work, it will be difficult for me to get the goods."

"I just want to know how you guys manage to get to work."

After Tom finished speaking, he clapped his hands twice.

"Slap! Slap!"

Immediately, Luca and Totti picked up two suitcases and poured over ten thousand dollars' worth of cash onto the table.

Everyone present looked at the banknotes.

But everyone reacts differently.

Nate, Sneeze, and Gaslin stared wide-eyed at Qian Shan.

Only Van Diehl looked on with disdain, regarding money as dirt.

Katz, the last one, glanced at the money, then at Van Diehl, and then clumsily imitated the latter, no longer looking at the mountain of money.

Tom took in the reactions of the five people, and the banquet was considered a great success.

He had already figured out how to divide and utilize them based on their personalities.

Van Diehl stood up abruptly and walked outside, angrily saying, "Mr. Tom, stop daydreaming."

"All of us engineers refused to work this time for the sake of the welfare of all engineers."

"Don't even think about bribing us to harm the interests of other engineers."

Katz followed immediately, but still couldn't help glancing at Qian Shan.

Nate, Sned, and Gaslin looked at each other, but then left the private room together.

As Nate was leaving, he kindly said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Tom, I have to think about the other engineers."

"I still want to thank you for the scarf you gave my daughter; she loves it."

Tom watched the five men leave, his plan finalized.

>