The months of peace after thedeath of Jack Reed were not wasted. In the northern reaches of the Northwest-Vancouver Syndicate, the Sasketchewan Royalist Front were weeded out mostly by First Nations tribesfolk who were paid in Syndicate Credits and assurances of improved conditions. The reservation system was also disassembled during this time, as was the Baffin Island Prison Colony system. The leaders of the AUS, those who remained anyway, were relocated along with the rest of the colony into the general prison system of the CSNA.
Prescott Bush, for exceptionally good behaviour was released and given a sinecure in Detroit under close supervision, where his knowledge of the motor industry was put to work aiding the various Reed-Detroit Automobile (formerly Ford Industries) projects going on in the vast industrial complex that directly or indirectly employed a full 65% of the population.
Meanwhile the artscene was undergoing a controversy, as the leftist surrealist and cubist movement - which had emigrated from Spain and Russia to both the Commune of France and the CSNA since the later part of the 30's came up against the popular and it was felt more egalitarian and accessable 'Socialist Realism' movement, supported quietly by a few government members, including Maurice Rose, who felt that it gave the necessary splendour to the reconstructivist spirit the nation was undergoing.
Wedding on Tomorrow Street by the russian immigrant artist Pimenov, who lived in downtown Chicago, was bought by Maurice Rose and framed before being placed in the Congresshall of the Combined Syndicates so that visiting delegates could view the famous artwork for themselves. Indeed it was so popular amongst the member of the Congress of Syndicates, that the Combined North American Postal Service issued a series of stamps. It was thought at the time that perhaps Maurice Rose had taken a particular liking to it perhaps because his relationship with Ms. Blackford had taken a step beyond the professional. Indeed the pages of the Chicago Free Press were practically alight with allegations that the smouldering tension displayed between the General Secretary and the Speaker of Congress meant that they were conducting a quiet courtship in some of the smaller, quieter corners of the capital and it's outlying suburbs.
The Speaker of Congress however had nothing to say on the topic despite repeated questioning through the summer of 1942. Finally after the second biannual congress in September, he announced for public consumption, the 'Syndicate Spires' project. These skyscrapers were to be 'Palaces of Culture for the new nation' and seven were scheduled for construction - Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Atlanta and Vancouver. The Chicago and Detroit Palaces were built in direct competition by the respective Syndicates of the two cities, each one racing to complete the building for the honour of having the first one. Abe Simpson, who had been appointed a Greater Detroit City (Windsor having being merged into the Detroit metropolitan zone during late 1940) Commissioner for the Steel manufactories on the shores of Lake Erie after his resounding endorsement of Ms. Blackford, was credited with helping the Detroit syndicate win it, through a process he called 'Assembly Line Implementation.' The use of assembly lines had been a consistent feature through the war effort since 1940, though they dated to slightly earlier in the Ford factories. What Simpson had done was he had developed the usage of construction materials for the building so that the erection of the Detroit Palace of Culture could be performed by practically anyone willing, capable of using a socket wrench and had a crane.
The others were scheduled to begin construction once the construction of the Pan-American-Highway was completed. The Intersyndicate Highway Network was the brainchild of Jack Reed and it was improved and finalised by Paul Mattick - his time of directing production of nearly everything personally had began to wane by this point as a network of Union and Syndicate level organisers had first grown up around the offices he occupied in downtown Chicago, before returning to their respective areas, armed with a thick notepad full of telephone numbers.
The 'highway project' as it was informally known, was a great boon to the immense masses of demobilised soldiers returning from Europe, generating tens of thousands of jobs for former Syndicate Expeditionary Forces troops. Others still were offered the chance to remain in the Army on reservist pay, in return for their willingness to return to Europe for occupation duties, or to attend military functions, such as the Victory in Continental America and Victory in Europe parades.
During December 1943, after almost a years worth of frenetic gossiping and rumours of them being seen alone together in various places across the entire length and breadth of the Syndicates as well as occasionally abroad (one of the most popular, perhaps for absurdity, was that they had been seen together on the Quadriga in Berlin) Flora Blackford and Maurice Rose both publically announced their relationship and were married within one week of the announcement at the Detroit Palace of Culture by respected Detroit Union Organiser, Walter Reuther, with Abe Simpson and Oliver Law acting as the official witnesses, whilst a crowd of thousands of wellwishers was in attendance.
Blackford and her Mother outside the Palace of Culture, Detroit before her wedding.
The wedding also coincided with Maurice Rose resigning his post as Speaker of Congress - the reason for which he said was simple 'I need to spend my time ensuring that I am ready to defend the woman and the nation that I love. Thus I have made a very hard choice. The peoples of the Combined Syndicates have been kind to me, and I hope that they will support me as and when I need them.' A rumour was spread that the stress of managing both jobs was prematurely aging him, until Flora Blackford made a personal statement to the Chicago Free Press, that the pair of them felt that there would be a conflict of interests in Congress - since the Guardian platform's stated purpose was to objectively ensure that the government stayed true to the ideals of the revolution and Maurice was obviously no longer objective.'
The winter of 1943 saw a frenzied bid for the election as new speaker of Congress, with Norman Thomas, James Cannon and Walter Reuther emerging as the three leading contenders.
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