Reds! Mahan to the Second American Revolution: 1909-1917
Alfred Thayer Mahan is thought to have been a good man and a good Naval Secretary, but not a good president. Elected to win a war that was really finished before he even took office, Mahan actually did little during his time in office. The United States during the years following the Great War was mostly concerned with administering the new territory. Vancouver Island was split off from British Columbia and was to be administered as the Vancouver Territory and the city of Victoria was renamed Houston after former United States President Sam Houston. British Columbia was renamed the Washington Territory. Corruption plagued the Mahan administration, such as when Albert B. Falls accepted bribes from corporations such as Standard Oil to drill in the new territories without bidding on the drilling rights. In 1911, Representative Joshua Wellman (this timeline's equivalent of Jack London) of Pennsylvania advocated a bill that would declare maximum work hours during the week and set minimum wage. Both bills were killed on the house for during a filibuster.
One of the most important figures in American history began his rise in the early 1910s; Calvin Coolidge. Born in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge's family moved to Massachusetts when he was but a young lad. A series of misfortunes drained the family of their wealth and Calvin's father was killed in a work related accident. Calvin, needing to provide for his family, began working in a meatpacking plant. Work was hard, the conditions unsafe, Calvin's faith in the American Dream began to fall apart. At first a loyal voter for the Liberty Party, the harsh conditions and the lack of political inaction turned him towards the Socialist Party of America. In 1912, only a few months after President Mahan's reelection by a razor thin margin, Calvin Coolidge was one of the leaders during the Meat-packers Strike of 1912. There, he and others called for better pay, safety regulations, and a maximum work week. In turn, when asked by the plant owners, the Governor of Massachusetts sicked the National Guard on the strikers in a massive raid and made close to 300 arrests, including Calvin Coolidge. Not allowing the bars of his cell to stop him, he continued to make speeches to his fellow inmates and reports who came to interview him. It was the Boston Globe that attributed him his now famous nickname "Loud Cal."
During Mahan's time in office, the United States became rocked with strikes and labor conflicts. Nearly 40 years of no regulations being passed and the very real influence of monopolies and trusts in politics stunted such regulations, and it was becoming worse. Mahan, however, kept his focus on foreign affairs. Despite the harshness of the peace on Great Britain, Mahan was still weary to leave it with any Carribean holdings, such as Antigua. Then there were the raids by Mexican rebels across the border under the command of individuals of men like Pancho Villa. The Republic of California was in increasingly higher debt to the United States after the Great Earthquake of 1906 ruined them financially. While San Francisco was not the capital, it was still a major city and the government was struggling to deal with the fallout even six years later. Mahan's Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes had even proposed annexation, much like what Texas had done in the 1860s. In America's new possessions, the hills of Jamaica were teaming with anti American guerrillas, many former British soldiers, others simply wanting independence from all colonialist powers. In Africa, while the Congo prospered under Colonial Governor William Howard Taft, the American government still worried about the Cape Colony and the other British colonies in the area. To combat this and to provide a useful buffer state, the USA proposed a union between the Orange Free State, Natalia, and Transvaal. This union would become the United States of Africa (Verenigde State van Afrika/VSA).
On December 1st, 1914, President Mahan died, leaving Vice President Fairbanks to inherit the mess of a country that had been dominated too long by monopolies. Fairbanks was the obvious choice for the Libertarian candidate in 1916. The Democrats however, had a much less certain future. With the Socialist party siphoning off votes from the more progressive wing of both parties, the Democrats proposed a merger in 1914 to capture the White House in 1916. Agreeing, the Democratic Socialist National Convention met in Boston in July of 1915. After close to a hundred ballots, Eugene V. Debbs was named the Democratic Socialist presidential candidate. For his running mate was the apolitical Democratic Admiral George Dewey.
The 1916 election, perhaps the last normal election, was hard fought by both parties. Trusts tried to influence the election. Some corporations declared that any worker who voted for the Debbs/Dewey ticket would be fired on the spot. Striking workers marched in the streets carrying banners that read "Workers for Debbs" and "Down With UNFairbanks." Many papers declared the Democratic Socialist ticket to be one of desperation. Which it was. On the Democrats' part. The labor unrest had been simmering below the skin of many in the USA for a long time. America in truth was on the verge of a revolution. The 1916 election was just to determine if it was to be through the ballot box, or the sword.
In November, the Debbs/Dewey ticket prevailed over the Fairbanks/Harding ticket. Workers, desperate for any change, celebrated in the streets, leading to mass firings by many corporations. To show solidarity, Loud Cal Coolidge organized a protest of this with a recent Socialist convert, Theodore Roosevelt shortly after the mass firings. The jubilation would not last however, as when Debbs was in the midst of giving his inaugural speech, a lone gunman fired three shots before being captured by security, making Debbs the shortest serving president in American history, a total of fifteen minutes.
Debbs shortly before being shot.
George Dewey, the Vice President elect had died at the age of 79 in January. Instead, the Pro Tempore of the United States Senate Willard Saulsbury Jr. was sworn into office. This was followed by outrage from those who voted Debbs. Even worse was when later that month, the Boston Globe exposed that the hit man had been paid to assassinate Debbs by one of the monopolies. The hit man named Rockefeller as his backer. When the information went public, it was the end of normalcy in America. After the stunning revelations, the workers of America, no longer willing to stand by and watch, took up arms and marched on the White House with Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge at the head of the column. On April 12th, 1917, the horde of workers drug President Saulsbury and his cabinet out of the White House and had them clapped in chains. The governor of Maryland called upon the national guard to put down the uprising. However, nearly a third mutinied and joined the workers. Calvin would give a speech declaring that Saulsbury was illegitimate and that America needed a president that represented America.
"Today is a proud day. For today is the day we throw off our shackles! No more will we be slaves to the elite! No more will we toil for company script! Today, we rise up and we say NO MORE!" - Calvin "Loud Cal" Coolidge to the newly formed Workers' Army.
Loud Cal with members of the Workers' Army.
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