Chapter 268

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The vice president of the State Federation of Labor was named Brian, a very common name.

Most people in the Federation have very common names; on the contrary, those strange and peculiar names are the abnormal ones.

He was very interested in the grading system proposed by Lance. What they had just discussed was a “scoring system,” which was to give skilled workers a score by judging their performance in professional skills.

From one to one hundred, one point for just starting, and one hundred for the best skills. In theory, no one would reach this level.

However, there were also some problems here that needed further discussion, and the grading system proposed by Lance had aroused some of his interest.

“Mr. Lance, you can elaborate. We can discuss it.”

Lance did not feign modesty and spoke directly, “We use different technical difficulties as the basis for different grade divisions. For example… a welder.”

“If they are only able to skillfully use tools for welding, then they are skilled workers.”

“Being able to weld two incompletely connected materials together smoothly, that is a first-level skilled worker.”

“If this crack continues to increase, or the material becomes more difficult to handle, then the technical level will increase accordingly.”

“In the end, they can weld two different materials with at least a ten-centimeter gap together, and all aspects meet the process standards, then that is the highest level of professional skill.”

“Of course, I’m just giving an example. I’m not sure if the difficulty of doing so can be measured, but I think this is more reasonable than scoring.”

“Because we can’t score every skill, but we can judge whether they are qualified based on whether they can do something.”

Lance’s words seemed to open a door, allowing them to see a new world.

“Mr. Lance is very right. Sometimes when we select workers, we often use ‘whether he can do something’ as the standard to recommend them.”

“This is actually a kind of grading system. We have already been using it, but no one has been able to summarize it!”

“Mr. Lance, you have a wise head. This method is very convenient and also very intuitive.”

The more Brian thought about it, the more he felt it was highly feasible. Not only did it solve some of the drawbacks of the scoring system, but it also completely divided the levels.

He was already a little impatient to share this harvest with the people of the Federation of Labor!

“I think the feasibility of this method is very high,” President Scott echoed from the side, as if he was really thinking about the meaning and value of doing so.

He glanced at Vaughn, then at Lance, and asked in a slightly tentative tone, “How about we try it out here first, what do you think?”

The commissioner of the national union was also constantly nodding, “This is a good suggestion. We’ll implement it first. If there are any problems, we can also discover them in time, which will be convenient for the brothers of the Federation of Labor to improve and adjust.”

Brian knew very well the purpose of them doing this. It was nothing more than hoping to gain a “first-mover” advantage, thereby bringing them a better-looking resume.

And this grading system would most likely become the common grading system of the Federation of Labor. Then they could completely use “the founder of the grading system” to give themselves a new label and obtain a large amount of political benefits from it.

Although thinking this way was indeed a bit… inappropriate, how could one maliciously harbor ill intentions towards worker brothers?

But now, some of the management of the Federation of Labor and the unions did indeed have some corruption. Their power was too great, and even the capitalists had to make concessions when necessary.

This gave them the value of being corrupted by the capitalists, and the means of the capitalists were so extreme that not everyone could resist this temptation.

Brian thought for a moment and still decided to hand it over to the Federation of Labor for discussion, “I think it’s better to implement it uniformly…”

He rejected President Scott’s decision. Although President Scott was the president, in front of the vice president of the State Federation of Labor, he indeed could not get an equal status.

The skills competition on the third day ended completely in the morning. Vice President Brian gave a closing speech for the skills competition. He talked about many things, especially about the issue of workers’ skills.

Perhaps because of the safety of the second day, the number of onlookers on the third day had increased a lot.

He gave some examples, examples of successful workers who had achieved the Federation Dream.

These workers were actually not a minority, it’s just that some people quickly disappeared from people’s sight, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t.

These people mostly had a common characteristic: they were very passionate about their work skills, and even after work, they would study their work skills.

When you do one thing to the extreme, you will discover a new world.

These people either improved the production process or invented some patents, thus giving them the opportunity to achieve a class leap.

Although some of the dockworkers below were rolling their eyes and complaining to their colleagues around them that wiping the deck for a lifetime probably wouldn’t produce any patents, the surrounding ship cleaners couldn’t help but start joking.

This kind of spiritual irrigation was at least not annoying!

Just as Vice President Brian was about to leave, Lance approached him with a kraft paper bag. The two of them talked behind closed doors for a good while, and then Lance left empty-handed.

When Vice President Brian came out, there was no difference on his face, as if what had just happened had not happened at all, and Lance had not left anything for him.

The three-day imperfect skills competition finally came to a close. What was strange, and yet not strange, was that not many media outlets reported on the shooting incident at the docks.

Even less was reported about the increasingly chaotic Golden Port.

In the past two days, Bill had called Lance to apologize and, incidentally, invited him to eliminate the Wolf Gang together. However, Lance ignored him on the grounds that he “needed to manage the Empire District well.”

In Lance’s plan, when he was ready, he would take care of the Red Dog Gang as well!

On Saturday, he attended the weekend gathering. This time he did not come alone, but brought a person with him, William.

Many people from the Empire knew William, and some even took the initiative to greet him. This was also the first time Lance had attended such a formal occasion with William. Everyone who saw this scene already understood Lance’s meaning.

He supported William to become the councilman of the Empire District!

“Patricia and I are in a relationship. If nothing unexpected happens, I will most likely marry her.”

“So William will become my wife’s father. Then I should naturally support him, not Mr. Jobav.”

“From my perspective, I believe William knows better than Mr. Jobav how to help us achieve some of the goals we have always longed for but have been unable to achieve.”

“For example, the issue of schooling, the issue of employment…”

These were all issues that the public was very concerned about. The people who could attend the gathering here on Saturday were all the kind of… people with a little influence, but not much.

It could be said that a considerable part of them were the middle class of the Empire District. This description sounded a bit strange, like picking a general from among dwarfs.

But that was the fact. Except for those who came to freeload, everyone else who could come to socialize represented that they at least had a stable life and a basic social environment.

William knew it was his turn to speak. He took a step forward and began to advocate his views to the public.

Regarding the establishment of more high schools, regarding the issue of how to increase the employment rate, everyone was very concerned about these issues. In a short while, he became the core around which people gathered…

This was not a political gathering, so William did not say too much. He just briefly outlined a few of his core views and then ended his speech.

Many people recognized his views because they were all based on reality. On the contrary, some of the very general concepts that Mr. Jobav talked about did not arouse much interest in them.

“It can be seen that people respect you very much.” William, his mouth dry, walked over with a glass of juice. Prohibition made it impossible to drink alcohol here, but people had nothing to complain about.

Drinking in the morning was not a good habit.

Lance seemed very calm, “When you don’t do things that hurt others, they will respect you. If you do a little more for them, they will respect you.”

A very ordinary dialogue, but it gave William a different feeling, like a very plain truth.

At first, it sounded very ordinary, but after chewing on it for a while, a flash of lightning would strike in his mind!

William felt that Lance was a very interesting person. He was like a treasure. As long as you kept digging, you would always get some surprises.

As the gathering was about to end, the priest ran over. He clearly had something to say to Lance.

William found an excuse and temporarily left here. This was the most basic social etiquette.

“Mr. Jobav did not continue to supplement the funds needed for the gathering, so… I don’t know what to say.” The priest seemed a little embarrassed, after all, he was here to ask for money.

Lance was stunned for a moment, “Did he forget?”

The priest shook his head, “Actually, he hasn’t come for three consecutive weeks, and he hasn’t talked to me about the fees either. In the past, he would transfer a sum of money at the beginning of each month, but now it’s almost the end of the month, and he hasn’t mentioned this matter.”

He looked at Lance cautiously, “There are rumors that he has fallen out with many people, including you, Mr. Lance…”

Actually, he didn’t need to be so cautious in his probing. He could confidently remove the “rumors.” Mr. Jobav had indeed fallen out with Lance.

The conflict between the two sides was irreconcilable. In order to deal with the bank run caused by distrust, Mr. Jobav had sold a portion of his bonds in advance, which caused him to lose a lot of money.

The situation of Jinda Bank was also not optimistic now. If it happened again, he might not be able to hold on.

He seemed to have no way back now and could only walk down one path. During this period, besides accompanying the mayor for social engagements, he was giving speeches everywhere.

He already saw becoming the city councilman of the Empire District as his chance to turn things around. There were many members of the Empire Merchants Association at the gathering. He didn’t care about this gathering at all now and simply didn’t come.

Lance took out his checkbook and signed a check for the priest, “Next month’s expenses, as well as some venue usage fees and fees for disturbing God’s rest. I hope God won’t think it’s too little.”

The priest’s eyes narrowed into a slit as he looked at the check, “You are a pious believer, God will understand you, Mr. Lance!”

Lance said with a bit of non-malicious sarcasm, “Can God understand what the numbers on the check represent?”

The priest, however, said with an indifferent smile, “God is omnipotent, Mr. Lance!”

As he spoke, he put the check into his own pocket. If there really was a God, and if God was really omnipotent, a bolt of lightning should have struck down right now and killed the priest.

After this little interlude, Lance left with William. It was the weekend, and Lance was going to spend it with Patricia.

The thing about feelings is strange. Why do so many men or women like their other half to be more innocent?

It’s not that they think innocent is necessarily good, it’s just that innocent is easier to deceive.

Of course, this is not to say that Lance was deceiving Patricia. He did indeed also like this relatively innocent girl. When the two were together, they would not feel tired, but would instead be very relaxed.

This is what emotional life needs. If you become painful and tired because you fall in love with someone, and you have to rack your brains every day on how to please the other person.

Then you are just a simple simp, and this is not love, because a simp cannot have love!

Lance had lunch at William’s house. Emily had prepared another large table of dishes.

Recently, many sound films had begun to be released in concentration. Lance and Patricia’s afternoon itinerary included going to see a movie together.

“I heard you also invested in a movie?” Emily was very interested in this. “Do you think I can act in a movie?”

She even struck a few poses, imagining herself as an actress.

Lance looked at her twice and nodded, saying, “You have very good conditions, Emily. You are beautiful, and you have maintained your figure very well. If you are willing to act in a movie, I believe people will watch.”

“But whether you can become a star, I’m not sure about that. Every person who can become a star, besides their own efforts, the more important thing is luck!”

Emily repeated, “Luck?”

Lance nodded again, “Now there are many movies being filmed in Valley City. You can see those beautiful girls or handsome men just by walking down the street, but the vast majority of them will only become ordinary actors in the end, not stars.”

“Even among very beautiful people, some you will like at a glance, but some you won’t find good-looking even after looking a few more times. That’s the principle.”

“You have to have the audience’s affinity. This has nothing to do with whether you are good-looking or have a good figure. The moment they see you for the first time, they decide whether they like you or not.”

Patricia looked at Lance with admiration, “You know so much!”

Lance shrugged, “I’m just speaking from the perspective of an audience member.”

William put down his knife and fork, “I’ve said it before, you’re actually not very suitable for acting in movies.”

Emily was unwilling. This was one of the few times in recent years that she had been so enthusiastic about something, “I still want to try.”

Lance agreed this time, “No problem. After my movie is released, we will start preparing for the next one.”

William found it a bit strange, “Are you so confident about the box office of the movie?”

Lance smiled mysteriously, “More than just confident?”

William could feel that there was more to Lance’s words, but he didn’t know what it meant.

After lunch, Lance left the house with Patricia. They went to the cinema as planned. Not far from the community where the Lawrences lived, there was a cinema. They walked there.

“Do you think… I can also act in a movie?” Patricia, like most girls, had various dreams.

Lance ruffled her hair, “Of course, you will become a screen goddess!”

“You’re making me shy, Lance. You always praise me like this. I’ll get embarrassed.” Although she said so, it was clear from the bright smile on her face that Lance’s praise made her very happy.

Who can refuse the nice words of someone they like?

“I’m just stating the facts. I don’t like to lie.”

The girl happily hugged his arm, “My colleagues want to treat you to a meal. They all want to get to know you.”

Lance had picked her up several times, and Patricia’s colleagues had also seen him, but they didn’t know who Lance was. Patricia had not revealed it to them.

On one hand, this was her private life, and she didn’t want colleagues to get involved, even very good friends.

On the other hand, she hadn’t communicated with Lance about it.

Recently, their relationship had been heating up very quickly, already reaching the stage of “rubbing against each other,” so some of her ideas had also changed.

Lance agreed, “I’ll treat them to a meal. After all, they took good care of you, and then I came along.”

“You choose a place. Don’t worry about the cost. you know, money is just a number to me.”

This was really not Lance bragging. In this era where the average monthly income was only over forty dollars, his daily income was hundreds or thousands of times this number.

A meal, no matter how good, for a few hundred or a thousand dollars, was just a small sum of money.

Sometimes time passes very quickly at specific times. Before they knew it, they had arrived at the cinema.

After buying tickets, the two found their seats and began to enjoy the movie.

The cinema was very crowded, almost full. Compared to Patricia, whose attention was all on the screen, Lance was thinking about pushing forward the acquisition of cinemas as soon as possible.

He had already acquired several plots of land and was in the process of construction, but this speed was far from enough. He had to acquire more cinemas more quickly, preferably finished cinemas that could be used directly.

The movie came to a grand finale, a tragic ending. Lance could even hear the sobs of many girls.

In his opinion, this fifty-minute movie was a bit inexplicable, but perhaps it was not meant for people like Lance to watch.