Survive as a World War II Soldier - Chapter 86



Only Noblemtl

#086

As his name Fiorello La Guardia suggests, he was a second-generation immigrant born to Italian immigrants.

Guardia’s parents were unlike the typical first-generation immigrants who were homesick and stuck with their own group.

Guardia was raised speaking only English at home, rather than learning Italian from his parents as a child.

His parents wanted their children to live as full-fledged Americans.

It’s a bit odd that they gave it an Italian name for something like that.

Anyway, it was while he was staying in Italy as a consulate employee that Guardia learned Italian.

Guardia, who entered politics as a member of the House of Representatives, has a long career as a lawyer.

Judge Guardia was a man of the highest integrity and fairness.

According to one anecdote, an old man was fined $10 for stealing bread to feed his starving grandson.

The audience, who initially frowned at Guardia’s ruling as excessive, exclaimed in admiration at his subsequent remarks.

“The government of the United States and the people around him did not help, so that poor old man became a criminal today, so he should pay the fine. The amount of the fine is 50 cents.”

He paid the fine from the money he earned and gave the rest to the old man.

In any case, his life as a lawyer was of great help to him as he entered politics and found success.

In particular, his image of integrity played a role in his ability to become mayor of New York City by an overwhelming margin, even though he was a Republican.

But ousting Jimmy Walker did not break the chain of corruption.

The Mafia, whose black hands were spreading throughout New York City, also approached Guardia.

In particular, the Mafia emphasized the fact that Guardia was of Italian descent like themselves.

‘Hey, we’re going to lose.’

‘You have Roman blood flowing through your veins, just like us.’

‘If we join hands, will you be the mayor of New York? That’s just gum. I’ll get you elected.’

Even just before the mayoral election, mafia boss Luciano did not hesitate to ask Guardia to cooperate with him and help him get elected mayor.

Of course, Guardia would not fall for such a temptation.

‘What? You’re rejecting our offer? Ha, I don’t think this kid knows how scary we are.’

Luciano did not hesitate to use blackmail to pressure Guardia, including taking secret photos of his family and sending them photos daubed with red paint.

Naturally, the first thing Guardia did after being elected mayor was to root out the damn mafia.

Flirting with him? That kind of thing could have easily been overlooked.

Has there not been anyone who has tried to seduce, entice, and threaten him up until now?

however,

“It is clearly crossing the line to even touch a family member. So I fully understand the mayor’s feelings.”

And the war on crime was actually a necessity.

As criminals like the mafia become more active, who will find their lives more difficult?

Of course, they would be the poor and the powerless.

In particular, the illegal arcades that Guardia is currently focusing on are a shortcut to stealing people’s hope and pushing them into greater despair and frustration.

In that respect, Guardia’s method was not wrong.

But there was more to do than just catching the mafia.

Tents and shacks cover New York’s once proud parks.

Of course, Guardia also had something to say.

“I don’t want to leave that damn Hoovertown as it is. I’ve tried to do some civil engineering work to give those bastards jobs.”

Guardia protested, saying it was not that he didn’t try.

“But it wasn’t easy.”

Actually, I was also responsible for this.

There are currently major civil engineering projects in New York City that have stalled, such as the construction of the Triborough Bridge.

Perhaps, if someone other than me had been governor, support for that civil engineering project might have already been in place.

“So, Governor, do you have a solution?”

At Guardia’s declaration of surrender, I nodded with a confident smile.

“of course.”

The idea that providing jobs would save the people of Hoover Village was not wrong, but it was not perfect.

“Large-scale civil engineering works are good. How about something like the currently suspended Triboro? If you’re going to do it anyway, instead of changing the plan, if you build it as originally planned, with 16 lanes on the second floor, you’ll need a lot of workers.”

At my words, Guardia, as well as other New York City officials who were listening to our conversation, had grim expressions on their faces.

“But can we hire all those guys over there?”

“!”

“And what do you think will happen when word gets out that there’s a job opening?”

Since the announcement of the new town plan, Hoover Village’s population growth has slowed somewhat.

This is because some people stay in their hometowns because they think they can find jobs without having to go to an unfamiliar big city.

The idea of ​​making various processed foods from apples was originally conceived with the idea of ​​building a processing plant and hiring workers at the plant rather than selling apples.

However, not everyone stayed in the countryside. Still, there were quite a few who left, saying that they thought the big city was better or that they would take this opportunity to escape the stuffy countryside and settle down in the city.

Wasn’t the city originally a land of dreams and fantasies for country children?

“Are you saying that there could be more migrants coming to the city for jobs?”

“Then don’t you think so?”

“!”

People often tend to focus only on the big things that they see.

If you ask 21st century people about Roosevelt’s New Deal policy that overcame the Great Depression, nine out of ten will talk about the construction of the Hoover Dam, now known as the Boulder Dam.

That large-scale civil engineering projects provided jobs to people.

It is true that the construction of the Boulder Dam was a large-scale project in human history, requiring over 20,000 workers over five years.

20,000 is a lot. But the current U.S. population is over 120 million.

And that 20,000 people are the total number of people employed over a five-year period. The highest number of workers employed was 5,251 in 1934, the previous year.

Okay, let’s think about it.

How many people would be employed in New York City if they were to undertake a mega-civil engineering project?

Rather, it was more likely that we would see a repeat of the situation in Las Vegas, where 20,000 people were swarming into a city of 5,000 after construction of the Boulder Dam began.

“This one bill is worth $100, but wouldn’t it be the same if you collected ten $10 bills?”

“!”

Guardia sighed with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“I understand what you mean, Governor. But what kind of construction are you planning on doing? There are already a number of small construction projects underway.”

“I know.”

In New York, construction work that had begun because of the metric system was still ongoing. Guardia was a Republican, but he actively supported Roosevelt’s New Deal rather than opposing it.

But that’s not what I thought.

“If we’re going to get rid of that Hoover Village, shouldn’t there be a house for those guys to live in?”

In 21st century Korea, there were houses that the government rented out at low prices to the poor.

It is called public rental housing.

And in New York, there were people who had similar thoughts and even tried.

Henry Phipps Jr.

Henry Phipps, a business partner of the famous steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, was a philanthropist who took the lead in donating his fortune to the public in his later years.

He gave large sums of money to the Phipps Institute for tuberculosis research at the University of Pennsylvania, to the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and to building homes for the poor.

He donated about $1 million to build a townhouse for workers, which resulted in the Phipps House in New York.

The only problem was that it was too well built.

The Phipps House, built solidly with concrete and complete with a playground for children, was extremely luxurious.

As a result, contrary to its original goal of providing poor workers with better living conditions, the current Phipps House has become a place where only the middle class, not the poor, can live.

But aren’t his intentions very cool?

“We even have greetings like Phipps, so how can the government just sit back and do nothing?”

It didn’t even have to be built as well as the Phipps House.

Any building made of concrete, no matter how roughly constructed, would be better than those shacks and tents, right?

“Instead of building huge buildings like the Empire State Building, let’s build public housing on empty lots all over the city to replace those shantytowns.”

“What about the construction costs?”

As expected, the first thing that came up in my explanation was money.

“Are there only a few people like Phipps?”

Originally, when there was a recession like the Great Depression, the poor got poorer, and the rich got richer.

And while some people’s goal is to become rich, others pursue other things after becoming rich.

For example, power or fame.

There’s one person among the people I know.

Joseph Kennedy Jr.

In this vast land of America, there could not be only one person so rich and so thirsty for fame.

“However, it is unreasonable to proceed with public projects based on personal feelings.”

“That’s right. It’s rare to find a wealthy person like Phipps.”

“Yes. If you put forward strange conditions or···.”

There were concerns that some people might try to take things in a direction different from the poem’s intention.

“That may be true. But do you think only the rich have a desire for honor?”

In 21st century Korea, those who reach out to the poor and provide help are often not the rich, but people similar to them.

Of course, the reason they make such donations and volunteer work cannot be explained simply by the word “honor,” but let’s just skip over that now since it’s not important.

“How about creating a public foundation like the Rainbow Foundation at the New York City level and receiving small donations from ordinary citizens?”

Let’s see if a little bit of dust can become a mountain.

Well, come to think of it, considering the small donations that came into the Rainbow Foundation right after the bonus incident, it seemed more than possible.

“And I don’t think what those Hoovertown people need is just jobs.”

I told the answer to Guardia and the New York City officials, who looked at me as if they had no idea what I was talking about.

“What they need is not just a job that pays well, but a sense of hope for the future. What does the market think?”

“Is this hope?”

“Construction workers? How much do you get paid when you’re hired as a day laborer? That might keep you from starving for a few days, but won’t it really prepare you for the future a month, a year, two years, or ten years from now?”

The Bonus Army’s Hoover Village in Washington and the Hoover Village in Central Park.

The difference between the two did not simply come from their membership.

The Bonus Army, which gathered with the hope that receiving the bonus in advance would provide a way out, and those who cannot be sure what will happen tomorrow.

Naturally, the hygiene and security conditions are bound to be poor.

Would those who live only for today really fear tomorrow’s disease or punishment?

Although not everyone was like that, there were many who, having tasted unrestricted freedom, refused to re-enter the confines of the community and the law.

In order to reduce these cases as much as possible, the Rainbow Foundation has been operating its cafeteria in a way that requires people to order anything instead of handing out free food.

But those who had no hope for the future only thought about that day.

Those with children were not much different.

Of course, there are some parents who work hard, but not all parents do a good job as parents.

Because of that, there were quite a few children in Hoover Village who did not go to school and just wandered around naked.

“How about building a house that you will live in rather than a skyscraper or a huge bridge that you might be able to step on once it is completed?”

Jobs alone weren’t enough.

“What they need is not a meal to eat today, but a dream and hope that if they endure the hardships and pains now, they will definitely be able to live a better life. People live by dreaming and endure the sufferings of the present by feeding on hope.”

“Hope···.”

At my words, the eyes of Guardia and everyone else there changed.

“The governor is right.”

As soon as Guardia shouted, enthusiastic applause erupted from those gathered.

“MacArthur, MacArthur.”

“Dreams and hopes.”

“We also have hope.”

“We can do it with the Governor!”

It wasn’t just those in Hoover Village who needed dreams and hope.

And that evening I had a private meeting with Guardia.

I’m sorry to him, but I had something to ask for your understanding.

The magic of the Olympics