LIFE in the Trenches: 1936 Xibei San Ma

[Stuyvesant]

The fact that you can post this - I hope that means things are going okay. I hope they are and that things continue to get better. Take care and we'll see you when you have the chance, regardless of when that might be. Go take care of yourself and your family.

[mnplastic]

Just a note that my firstborn son was born 3 months prematurely on Memorial Day, so any further updates will be extremely sporadic until I get a regular schedule down.

Congrats, eqqman. I assume in no time your son will be playing strategic games

[loki100]

many congrats, hope it all works out ok

[Bornego]

That must be scary. I hope your family gets through this!

[Saithis]

Oh my, that's very early indeed. I hope things go well and that you make it through, my thoughts will be with you.

[Viden]

Just read the whole AAR. Enjoy you newly acquired fatherhood!

[KaiserMuffin]

Just read the whole AAR. Enjoy you newly acquired fatherhood!

This

[Squizz]

Just finished reading through this whole AAR. Excellent stuff.

[eqqman]

Congratulations! I hope everything is going well!

The fact that you can post this - I hope that means things are going okay. I hope they are and that things continue to get better. Take care and we'll see you when you have the chance, regardless of when that might be. Go take care of yourself and your family.

Congrats, eqqman. I assume in no time your son will be playing strategic games

many congrats, hope it all works out ok

That must be scary. I hope your family gets through this!

Oh my, that's very early indeed. I hope things go well and that you make it through, my thoughts will be with you.

Just read the whole AAR. Enjoy you newly acquired fatherhood!

This

Just finished reading through this whole AAR. Excellent stuff.

Thanks for your support, and welcome to Viden, KaiserMuffin, and Squizz! I'm glad you are enjoying the read.

Our son is doing quite well despite his age, it has been fairly miraculous how problem-free he has been. Here he is in his first week-

And here he is in his ninth week-

It's been rough trying to find windows of a couple of hours where I can just sit and try to focus on writing, but I should have my first post-baby LIFE update in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

[loki100]

so pleased for you ... must have been such stress but it seems to have worked out ok

[robw963]

that is just awesome! Congratulations eqqman! Welcome to this world little man

[Bornego]

Lot's of good news: Most importantly, more updates. Just kidding.

Your son is a very cute little boy, I hope he continues to surprise you with his toughness.

[Stuyvesant]

loki and Bornego said it better than I can, but I'll try anyway: I'm Very glad to hear that your little boy is doing alright. If there are updates forthcoming, that's just a bonus. Take care.

[eqqman]

so pleased for you ... must have been such stress but it seems to have worked out ok

that is just awesome! Congratulations eqqman! Welcome to this world little man

Lot's of good news: Most importantly, more updates. Just kidding.

Your son is a very cute little boy, I hope he continues to surprise you with his toughness.

loki and Bornego said it better than I can, but I'll try anyway: I'm Very glad to hear that your little boy is doing alright. If there are updates forthcoming, that's just a bonus. Take care.

Thank you all, and welcome to robw963! I would also like to thank everyone who voted for LIFE in the recent AARland Choice AwAARds.

[eqqman]

1940, Winter - Some Political Parties

With no activity on the front, French soldiers like this one have an easy time

14 January: News over the wireless from the SAFE group- our naval facilities in Beihai have expanded enough to accommodate the construction of the light cruisers that have been licensed from the United Kingdom and Australia, and several industrial complexes have been completed in Golmud. The first is going to produce our telephone equipment, the next infantry rifles, and the last one heavy vehicles- either trucks for the military or bulldozers and such for the Engineering Corps to get started on developing the road network in western China to a greater degree than we currently enjoy. All long overdue, I’m sure.

20 January: Word has come in that the first keel of one of our licensed light cruisers has been laid in Beihai. I hope to be there for the official christening when it sails, but that shouldn’t be a problem as completion of the vessel is many months away. I’ve also been getting reports that a full corps has been outfitted with anti-air artillery (of what type, I couldn’t say, military details frequently escape me). There seems to be some worry that if any sudden war breaks out with Japan, that the Mas’ infantry will be massacred by Japanese air power. We already have numerous reports of the efficacy of the Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-21 from former members of Chiang’s staff, and with no combat-capable aircraft coming in the near future, air raids could be a terrible problem. Of course, even with the troops reinforced with anti-air weaponry, what goes unsaid is what will happen to Chinese civilians if the Japanese decide to start bombing the major western cities like Chungking or even Canton.

Chinese and Western management staff pose before the opening of the latest expansion of the Beihai shipyards

5 February: I hear that the Soviet Union has pulled out the last of its diplomatic staff from Golmud and sent them to Wang Jingwei in Nanking of all places. Stalin must be getting tired of the continual rebuffs from Ma Hongkui and decided to switch horses. I don’t think much will come of this since the Japanese are already far more of a threat to him based on their past border clashes up in the Amur River region, and Jingwei is unlikely to support him. If he also wants to start making trouble over in Sinkiang the Gobi Desert will provide more than enough problems to minimize that danger.

8 February: Interesting reports coming back from Asia. The recent fighting there has several factions getting into an arms race of sorts. In the past week the Philippines, Manchukuo, and the Communist Chinese exclave have made announcements of surges of volunteers to swell the ranks of their armies. Naturally, Ma Hongkui would love to make a similar announcement I’m sure, but he has the tough dilemma of having to juggle too many balls at once. Countries with larger economies like the United States can think nothing of changing gears and cranking out infantry battalions by the dozen, but every yuan he diverts from industrial development to fund the military means that father down the road the Chinese economy will remain small. Investment groups like ours are doing what we can, but when there is so little there to start with it just takes time to get the ball rolling.

The Philippine Army expands. It is easy to hand a man a gun, but if war comes, how well will he use it?

Speaking of which, Peter sent me a wire regarding an interesting episode that occurred there last week. The local coal-mining operation that hired Paddy and Crosetti, along with several other private companies in the coal-mining sector, have been nationalized by the Mas in an effort to implement cost controls. The resulting state-owned operation is now the Qinghai Coal Industry Group. While perhaps necessary so that the Mas could siphon more of their hard currency to things like development supported by outside investors, this move caused a lot of dissent in the capital among the local workers who are afraid that they will now face lower wages. The militia division that has been present for years now, ostensibly to protect the capital from the Tibetans, apparently quickly broke up the strike that ensued. Ma Hongkui is fairly tolerant for a generalissimo, but people should remember he isn’t above doing a crackdown if his interests get threatened.

Roughing up the local populace is practice of sorts if the Tibetans ever get aggressive

10 February: Big party tonight to celebrate my mother’s birthday. I told dad we had to make it extra special since my efforts were insufficient last year, and it was her 60th no less! Jie and I already picked out a nice diamond necklace for her from Tiffany’s. After the party, to which we invited tons of her family and theatre friends, we’re off to see a performance of `Arsenic and Old Lace` at the Fulton Theatre. The play stars Boris Karloff as the villain, and I’m looking forward to seeing him in the flesh. So far I only know him from the occasional Universal picture that Konrad managed to screen; this should be quite interesting.

23 February: I’ve heard that some of Li Zongren’s lower-level commanders didn’t accept the terms of the surrender last year and took to the metaphorical hills. Now they are getting bold enough to start raids in several villages to undermine the people’s faith in the new regime. According to Ma Buqing, most of the army has been sent far to the southwest to participate in jungle warfare exercises. I hope this means that the Mas won’t be too slow to respond to these raids, since if these bandits get too close to the Japanese garrisons on the border, it would be exactly the kind of excuse for invasion they would love to have.

Japanese troops await any reason to move into Kwangtung

29 February: We spent the evening listening to the broadcast of the Twelfth Academy Awards show from Los Angeles, which came at a quite late hour for us as the broadcast originated on the American West Coast. `Gone With the Wind` won ten of the awards, setting a new record. Also of particular note was the fact that the lady who played the main maid character `Mammy `, Ms. Hattie McDaniel, was not only the first Negro woman to ever be nominated for an award, but is now also the first to win. Perhaps this award will start a new chapter for the Negro race in American entertainment; I will be interested to see what comes of this^[1].

5 March: Henry has all but begged me to come back down to Washington, but he won’t specify why. If I go, I’ll have to cancel one of our planned excursions into the American countryside. My father had been telling us of the work done on one of their Midwestern mountains that commemorates famous American Presidents. They have currently carved the faces of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, and just dedicated the carving of Theodore Roosevelt last year. According to my father, back in ’37 when they were still finalizing the designs for the work a resolution was passed to add the suffragette Susan B. Anthony’s visage, making her the only non-President to be featured in the sculpture. Currently there are just the four heads completed with work starting on the last, but my father says the grand scheme will have each figure be finished with a full torso^[2].

The completed sculpture, circa 1945 after the work was stopped due to lack of federal funds, which dried up during the war.
Jefferson was originally on the far left, but the granite crumbled away during work on his head, so it was dynamited and started over to the right of Washington.
Similar problems with the quality of the granite on the far right caused Anthony’s head to be finished off with concrete

Well, despite my curiosity to show Jie more of the States than the big cities of the East Coast, I owe it to Henry to see him if it is really so urgent. However, he is going to be forced to wait until after dad’s birthday, I’m not going to miss it!

12 March: Wonderful day with the family to celebrate my father’s birthday. Earlier in the day we presented him with a (purportedly) Ming-era bronze foo dog to guard the family home. Ideally it would be placed out front in the walkway to the residence, but with my parents living in the Dakota they don’t exactly have a front lawn per se, so the little guy will have to settle for watching their parlour. The Sheng family helped with the purchasing and shipping arrangements, with the price being reasonable enough that if I found out later it was only a reproduction, I wouldn’t be too upset.

For dinner we went out to Tavern on the Green, which I remembered from my youth in the city as being a run-down old sheep barn, but it was apparently turned into a restaurant by the city’s parks department back in `34. Dinner was excellent and I was pleased to see Mayor La Guardia there, who gave a nod of recognition to my father as he came into the restaurant with his party. Apparently dad has been something of a contributor to the Mayor’s reelection campaigns, even though he usually has Republican leanings. It’s been a source of amusement for me that dad can get quite caught up in American politics when he never became a citizen and can’t vote, but since he chose to stay here I suppose he just likes knowing his `home` is run right. Nearly everybody in the city loves the Mayor since he’s undoubtedly made it a showpiece of New Deal success with all the federal money he wrangled out of the President.

Now lambs are served up, not served. Ha!

After all this excitement I now have to prepare for a train ride back to Washington with Jie, as I can’t put Henry off any longer. I hope he’s enjoying keeping me in suspense.

15 March: Back at the Hay-Adams hotel, it feels like I was just here yesterday. Met with Henry and his wife Claire over lunch, and he still refuses to give me the skinny on why he wants me here, but I am promised that all will be revealed tomorrow. We spent the rest of the afternoon seeing some of the sights around the city, and I took some nice presentation photos of everyone.

Henry Luce and his wife Claire

16 March: Henry finally got to revel in his big reveal during lunch today. It was a `men only` gathering; Claire took Jie off to a shopping trip in the city. Our special guest, and Henry’s big secret, turned out to be a Mr. Wendell Willkie, a possible Republican nominee in the Americans’ upcoming Presidential elections at the end of the year. My knowledge of the man before today was pretty minimal, and was acquired from my father. Usually this came in the form of dad complaining about President Roosevelt’s `anti-business` practices.

Mr. Willkie is a lawyer who started out supporting the Democratic Party. However, Roosevelt’s New Deal creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority created problems for him as this agency would be competing directly with the Commonwealth & Southern power company that he was involved with. This created a rift between Willkie and the Democrats, and he spent a lot of time trying to fight against the TVA and any other New Deal organization that operated in areas already covered by private enterprise. His main bone of contention is that this is unfair to business since they cannot compete with a government service that is not required to make a profit (of course, this overlooks the fact that there are perhaps some aspects of life in which the profit motive should not actually play a part). Willkie’s predictions came true and Commonwealth & Southern ended up going bankrupt and selling their assets to the TVA last year. He is now a firm Republican, although still somewhat liberal by their standards. His rise in their party has been meteoric enough that Henry already graced him with a Time cover last year.

Wendell Willkie featured the cover of Time in July 1939

In the `36 elections the main topic of discussion was of course the Depression, but things have shifted and this election cycle the focus will be the war (or lack thereof, based on how things are going) in Europe. From what dad tells me Isolationist sentiments have risen fast in this country, to levels even higher than seen in the Great War. The Republican Party has gained enough momentum that they took control of both the House and Senate in the `38 mid-term elections. This turn-around effectively ended Roosevelt’s ability to push through new legislation, and it killed the Fair Labor Standards Act in the Senate, which would have set a minimum federal wage and limited the ability to employ children in the workplace. Alabama Senator Hugo Black had written this bill, and had also been nominated to the Supreme Court by the President after his Senate term ended, but the political shift there meant that the Republicans were able to kill his nomination. With the bleak outlook for the Democrats in this year’s elections, I doubt that the President will have any other opportunities to get liberal justices in the Court and he could find more of his New Deal work disappearing if lawsuits come up.

But that is neither here nor there. Henry wants to make sure that the American Congress is focused on China regardless of the party in power, so my mission here was to make sure that I provide good, first-hand knowledge of why the Mas should be supported. While the other possible Republican candidates, Thomas Dewey and Robert Taft, are both avowed isolationists, Willkie is not, and has already stated that the United States should immediately come to the aid of the United Kingdom if asked, so that made things easier for me. He was also known to be willing to support Chiang in the past, so I spent several hours over coffee extolling the virtues of Ma Hongkui and mentioning how he could be a firm ally in the region should the United States ever feel threatened by the Japanese. Mr. Willkie is nobody’s fool, however, and he adroitly brought up the matter of Chiang’s legendary corruption, and wanted to know why anyone would think Ma Hongkui any different. I was able to give him several examples of Hongkui’s anti-corruption stance, including how he had already demoted Ma Bufang twice from positions of authority when there was even a pretence of impropriety (and nothing proved, I had to emphasize). I also pointed out how his Muslim faith also provided a religious backing to his zero-tolerance policy on corruption. Finally I was able to mention how supportive Hongkui was of independent business ventures like the SAFE group, and was willing to hire out private business to improve things for everyone instead of tasking the government to handle it directly. This meshed nicely with Willkie’s newfound Republican ideals.

The meeting was largely agreeable but grueling, although I didn’t appreciate being waylaid by Henry in such a manner- I would have preferred to be forewarned so that I could come with prepared remarks. Some of the discussions continued on through dinner when the womenfolk returned. Mr. Willkie was warm but of course non-committal about anything he might pledge the Republican Party to do- and I would expect no less from both a lawyer and a budding politician. Henry seemed pleased with the outcome and warned me later I would need to give a repeat performance, but he wouldn’t say to whom, as he wasn’t sure if he could arrange the meeting.

Mr. Willkie had also brought an intern with him, a young man from Yale Law who is working with him on his Presidential campaign, named Gerald Ford if I have that right. During our conversation it came out that Mr. Ford had co-authored a widely circulated petition for the Congress to do more to enforce the Neutrality Acts. Willkie has him working on his campaign to provide a touchstone to the more isolationist wing of the party, and said he thought it would be interesting for him to come and speak with someone like Henry who tirelessly works to get the USA more involved in extra-national affairs. I was able to assure him that he has no worries about the Acts being enforced in China, as the USA has refused to sell anything beyond raw materials to the Mas, much to their chagrin. Of course, America isn’t exactly known for providing the world with leading-edge military technology, but even American cast-offs could be of use to the Mas’ armies while they continue to try and build industry at home.

20 March: Henry says that we have our next meeting arranged for tomorrow, with no-one less than Colonel Charles Lindbergh, who is now in town to work with other figures in the public eye on lobbying the Congress to avoid getting involved in the war in Europe. Of course, since there is no real fighting going on over there, I don’t see why the Americans would choose to get involved anyway.

21 March: Henry selected the Old Ebbitt Grill for our second big lunch meeting, a former saloon that boasts having been around since 1856. Since it is close to the White House (and therefore, the Hay-Adams) it made a convenient meeting place since I could just walk there. Once again I left Jie in the hands of Claire while business was discussed.

Colonel Lindbergh hadn’t come alone; he was also there with Mr. Joy Morton, founder of Morton’s Salt, which is the leading importer of the product of Golmud’s salt marshes. I was able to answer lots of his questions about the industry there, and could have provided him with some interesting pictures if only (curse him) Henry had forewarned me. Of course, I suppose to be fair I can’t blame Henry for that one, as Mr. Morton was a last-minute addition to the party.

This session didn’t go as well as Wednesday’s, and the conversation soon soured after leaving the salt marshes. Col. Lindbergh and Mr. Morton set the standard for isolationism and the Rock of Gibraltar would be sooner moved. After finding out that I was a Great War veteran they pressed me hard with questions on what, if anything, America’s involvement in the War had actually accomplished. I was well aware that the outcome made no real difference at all to the people in Asia, and the difference in Africa was questionable. I don’t think many Negroes have a real preference to being ruled over by Germans, British, French, or Italians- one overlord is the same as another. Of course, things *were* certainly different in Europe, but who’s to say that different is better? The new democracies that filled the map were unable to stem the tide of radicalism that swept the Continent after the Depression, and in some cases, provided a venue for extremist groups to seize power in a legal manner that would have been unavailable in the old days of monarchy. And Henry and I are well aware that Chinese civilization had done quite well without voting for a few thousand years.

The whole conversation was somewhat unpleasant since I am not comfortable trying to be an apologist for America’s foreign policies (especially as I’m not even American), and Henry either failed to pick up or chose to ignore my cues to have him handle more of that side of the conversation. We did have some success appealing to Mr. Morton, though, as a businessman. Since our main goal is to get support for China specifically and not send the United States on a series of worldwide adventures, we made a case that it is more economical to send over thousands of dollars as foreign aid to help solve problems before it requires millions to solve them via a war. It was a bit harder to get them to view Japan as much of a threat, since they are such a huge importer of American oil and steel at the moment. Discussing things later, after the gentlemen had left, it was pretty clear that if these men get their policies implemented by anyone in power, Ma Hongkui can expect nothing further at all from the States except a hearty `good luck`.

Since things weren’t going our way we ended up shifting the topic to other issues. It turns out that the upcoming November elections have inspired Colonel Lindbergh and others like him to start a new political party, since folks like young Mr. Ford in the Republican Party, who support isolationism, just don’t take that principle far enough to suit them. I was amazed that the Colonel was able to pull out Ford’s Congressional petition right there on the spot. He was also able to quote from it at length without reading it, since the material is going to be included as part of the manifesto for their organization. Lindbergh and Morton are in Washington to gather up other like-minded individuals not being served by the current establishment to form this new party.

They hope to work fast enough to be able to have names placed on the ballots this November. For reasons I can’t fathom, America has had trouble maintaining more than two viable political parties- I don’t know if this has anything to do with their lack of a Parliamentary system or not. There are at least half a dozen parties back in Canada I could name that regularly win seats (of course, some more so than others, naturally), but in the States it is a remarkable event for a third party to win even a single seat. I think the last time a third party made headway here was the `Bull Moose` party headed by Theodore Roosevelt, back when I was a boy. I was curious as to what they might call their new group, and the Colonel was very quick with an answer: `Why, America First, of course. `

Political infighting in the States over their Neutrality Acts was enough to spawn a new party in 1940.
Roosevelt’s book is titled `The Story of the Destruction of Religion Throughout the World. `
The little boy says: `Gee, that’s awful! Now read the one about Uncle Joe killing the fifty thousand Christians! `

`America First` is a fairly good name as it sums up their attitude quite well. I don’t envy Henry his ability to stay in this city and constantly deal with this politicking to try and get things done. Jie and I are eagerly awaiting our return to New York.


---
Editor’s Notes:
1. The Hollywood establishment wasn’t quite as liberal back then as they are perceived today; McDaniel had to sit at a segregated table apart from the other white cast members during the ceremony
2. Presumably the impending wars made any additional funds hard to come by, as the torsos were never started. Interestingly, at a cost of nearly $1 million dollars in 1938, no workers were killed during the construction of the project (reference the earlier discussion on the Golden Gate Bridge)

---

Back to previous Update

[loki100]

good to see you back on this, as ever an engaging mix of game events (that is quite a rebellion going on), your narrative and a very informative load of information

[robw963]

The completed sculpture, circa 1945 after the work was stopped due to lack of federal funds, which dried up during the war.
Jefferson was originally on the far left, but the granite crumbled away during work on his head, so it was dynamited and started over to the right of Washington.
Similar problems with the quality of the granite on the far right caused Anthony’s head to be finished off with concrete

Really impressive update eqqman. I especially liked this Alt-history version of Mt. Rushmore. Nice touch! This is all the more impressive in context with what's happening in your real life. I do hope your early new resident is doing well.

[eqqman]

good to see you back on this, as ever an engaging mix of game events (that is quite a rebellion going on), your narrative and a very informative load of information

In the short term, these partisans were a minor inconvenience, but in the long-term, they will cause me to make what I would consider a serious strategic error. I'll have to make sure I point it out when I get to that stage. Some of the other small details here will also lead to significant in-game consequences.

Really impressive update eqqman. I especially liked this Alt-history version of Mt. Rushmore. Nice touch! This is all the more impressive in context with what's happening in your real life. I do hope your early new resident is doing well.

Thanks! The best part of that story is that it is even half-true. In our own time-line, Member of the House Caroline O'Day (D, NY) and Elanor Roosevelt spearheaded a motion to get Anthony added to the tableau, which was approved, however, a rider was added to a separate appropriations bill to deny federal funding to start any new heads beyond the four that had begun already, so her addition was effectively quashed. Now I'm curious if the `no federal funding` provision means that if Mark Zuckerburg or Bill Gates decided to gift the Department of the Interior $100 million or so, they could start work on it. But I suspect that even if the funds were made available, the `leave well enough alone` rule would kick in and they still wouldn't do it.

Anyway, since this alternate time-line is going to get pretty crazy in a year or two, no reason not to add a little more spice!

I'm posting this from the hospital while I watch my wife hold our son. Before we leave we'll give him a bath. He's doing as well as anyone has a right to expect, so that's great news.

[Stuyvesant]

Read it, enjoyed the anecdotes, mulling over the contents and dreading a future that sees Charles Lindbergh in power in the US, and hence an ultra-isolationist America doing squat to stop the fascist powers of the world. I fear Xibei San Ma will have to face the Japanese alone, without American aid or troops to give aid or distraction...

[Saithis]

Oh dear, I'm not liking the look of the American political front. Wendell Wilkie? Blech!

On the flipside, lovely to see you back in the saddle!