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Text Chapter 589, Big Development (1)

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    The US government, and all the American businessmen behind the US government, are very concerned about the large-scale development of Alaska.  Although Alaska cannot actually accommodate a large population, it cannot provide the United States with nearly a century of development space like the west.  But after all, it is a large piece of wasteland to be developed, and now that a large amount of oil has been discovered, it should be possible to bring prosperity to the United States for a few years.  Especially for President Taft, this is already his second term, and it is estimated that there will be no third term. If this prosperity can continue until the end of his term, his evaluation in American history will be certain.  It will be good.  So, even for personal reasons, he was very happy to promote this big development.  So the White House proposed a stimulus bill for the development of Alaska, including tax reductions, a series of other concessions, and higher tariffs, and plans to submit it to both houses of Congress for consideration soon ->>Novel This update  The high tariffs immediately aroused the anger of the international community.  Even the British and Germans temporarily formed a united front. The British clamored for revenge and wanted to pay punitive tariffs on American goods entering the British Empire and its territories.  The Germans also jumped out and accused the United States of provoking all other civilized countries and violating the principles of free trade that the United States itself has always advocated.  They also vowed that if the Americans do not change this approach, Germany will unite all countries that support free trade and impose punitive tariffs on the United States.  The situation today is different from what it was when Lincoln was a few decades ago.  At that time, the United States exported agricultural products to foreign countries and imported industrial products. For the American business community, raising tariffs could not only preserve the domestic industrial product market, but also induce other countries to increase tariffs on the United States, which would cause the agricultural products in the South to  It can only be sold to domestic industrial and commercial enterprises at low prices.  At that time, raising taxes was the wish of all patriots who loved the United States, and the United States of America was not afraid of other countries raising tariffs on the United States.  But the situation is different now.  Today, the United States is already the world's largest industrial country. In addition to being sold in the United States and its colonies, a large part of the industrial products it produces are exported to South America, Europe and Asia.  There are not many Europeans in South America who can intervene, but the European market is now very important to the United States, and some important ports in Asia are also controlled by those Europeans.  Therefore, the gesture made by Europeans today still puts considerable pressure on the United States.  "However, this behavior of the Europeans was within President Taft's expectations. This attitude of Europe is very natural. It would be strange if they did not react in this way.  President Taft proposed such a "bill" to a large extent to bargain with those European countries.  The Europeans want to get a share of this big project, and they do have the ability to get a share of the pie in many aspects. It will definitely not work if they don¡¯t share it, but it won¡¯t work if they give it to them directly, at least.  In China, it is difficult to explain.  Therefore, let this kind of news be released first, and then explain it to the country. After waiting for the reaction from Europe, and then take a small step back, there will naturally be people in the country who can understand.  Secondly, this is also one of the common ways to take advantage.  Generally speaking, there are two common ways to take advantage. One is to cut sausages. Just like cutting sausages, only cut off a thin slice each time. If there is no big reaction on the other side, then cut another slice.  Move forward quietly a little more.  The second tactic is to first declare that this house is too dark and we should remove the roof for ventilation and lighting.  When others strongly object, take a step back reluctantly and express your willingness to open a window as proposed to them.  President Taft¡¯s tactics now fall into the second category. Anyway, the bill has not yet been submitted to the two houses, so there is still room for discussion, so all kinds of bargaining began.  In the end, the increase in tariffs that had made everyone nervous was of course canceled, but President Taft's administration still helped the United States and received a little compensation in Britain and Germany.  For example, the British promised not to interfere with certain cooperation between Americans and Chinese local governments.  The Germans have promised to crack down on any copycat behavior of American products.  Yes, copycat behavior.  At that time, German manufacturing was far from the myth of oil-paper bags, and copycats were common.  Although the number of products has decreased a lot in the past two years as Germany's strength has strengthened, there are still many instances of copycat British and American products.  This is an essential stage in the development process of almost all emerging industrial countries.  Just like the heifer riding a rocket cow in later generations, Toyota cars flashed and flashed. After World War II and until the 1960s, several major models produced were similar in appearance to some of Ford's models.  Only the car logo is different.  But these so-called promises are actually just empty words to a large extent. How much they can be implemented is actually unclear.It¡¯s hard to say, because President Taft¡¯s trick is actually known to everyone in this business.  In this case, how can there be too much gain?  Of course, such a promise is still very good for the president's reputation.  Of course, tax cuts and other matters are the internal affairs of the United States and absolutely do not allow foreign interference.  Moreover, this proposal is definitely in the interests of those entrepreneurs in the United States, so of course this thing was submitted to the two houses of Congress for review, and the criticism of this tax reduction subsidy by some foreign countries, especially the United Kingdom, has helped  Got this plan.  Because even members of the opposition party have to worry about whether they will be attacked as the spokesperson of the United Kingdom if they vote against it.  So this proposal was passed naturally.  However, no matter what, the United States, as a landowner, still has many natural advantages.  For example, transportation.  The port of Alaska is on the Pacific side. Many supplies from the United States can be boarded from San Francisco and shipped directly to Alaska. Even supplies from the Northeast, starting from New York and bypassing the Panama Canal, are not much closer than Europeans.  few.  The shipping cost is much cheaper.  What¡¯s more, the port is controlled by the Macdonald consortium. Of course, Macdonald uses various methods to prioritize unloading its own ships. As a result, some German goods have to be transported through Macdonald¡¯s transport fleet.  ¡­ ¡­ Now it¡¯s been a week since the first snow fell in Alaska, and the ground has been frozen solid.  That groundwater delayed Cook and his team's project progress by almost two days, so they were unable to dig into the permafrost zone before it froze.  But even in winter, the project cannot be stopped, even if the ground is frozen, the project cannot be stopped.  Of course, the frozen ground cannot be dealt with with shovels and the like. The only thing that can deal with them is explosives.  So today's work process has become: first drill a hole in the ground, then load it with explosives, then blast it, and then use vehicles or the like to clean up the blasted frozen soil, all the way to the permafrost layer.  The result of this kind of construction is that Cook¡¯s head is buzzing all day long.  "Okay, this depth is enough." Cook looked at the long ditch that was cleared, nodded and said, "It has reached the depth of the permafrost, and now it can be filled with rocks." Spewed out from Cook's mouth  The heat immediately condensed into frost, which hung on his eyebrows, turning them white.  But Cook is already used to this kind of weather. When he worked on the Siberian Railway, it was colder than this, much colder.  Today's temperature, Cook estimates, is just over ten degrees below zero, less than twenty degrees below zero.  In Siberia, there are many times when the temperature is more than 40 degrees below zero.  But the same cannot be said for other workers. Most of these American workers have no experience working in such cold conditions. Although they have received relevant training before, there are still a lot of frostbite and other things.  In addition, as time goes by, the daytime becomes shorter and shorter. Sometimes, in order to catch up with the progress, I have to continue working after dark. For example, it is already dark at three o'clock in the afternoon.  Fortunately, there is a gasoline generator on the construction site, and lights can be lit for lighting.  Of course this also further increases the cost.  In addition, it also brings some safety issues. The lights will attract wandering gray wolves and grizzly bears.  In the past two weeks, there have been four incidents of wild animals attacking humans throughout the construction site, and two people have become the fat reserves of grizzly bears or other things in these unfortunate incidents.  Although this number is nothing compared to the total number of 3,400 road construction workers, and is not even a fraction of the number of casualties caused by a crane accident, the fear of being eaten is far greater than that of being eaten by a crane.  Smashed to death, so the company had to prepare armed guards for each construction site, but they were not full-time.  Of course, humans are the top predators at the top of the food chain at any time. In this week, about ten bears and more reindeer became human food.  The arrival of winter still brings a lot of conveniences.  For example, a few days ago, vehicles transporting stones were unable to arrive because of the muddy roads. Even special crawler transport vehicles would get stuck in the mud if loaded with heavy stones.  Cook saw with his own eyes a crawler transport vehicle that completely sank, with even the roof of the vehicle sinking into the ground.  You should know that this kind of car is nearly four meters high.  Therefore, it is completely impossible to fill in stones and lay down the roadbed.  There are even shortages in the supply of some daily necessities.  But now, the ground is frozen, and crawler transport vehicles and even wheeled transport vehicles can run away. Of course, wheeled vehicles must have chains tied to the wheels.  The recovery of traffic has accelerated the progress of road construction a lot after the arrival of winter.  Perhaps by next spring's mud season, most of the work on the railroad will be completed except for the final track laying.¡­
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