American comics: You're asked to fish, but you catch a Superman template?

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Having lost his position as Manolo's agent, he was no longer in a position to negotiate.

If you upset Xu Fu, you might even lose your last chance, so you'd better be realistic, express your stance, and you might still have a chance.

"cooperate?"

Looking at the middle-aged man waiting in front of him, Xu Fu did not soften his attitude because of the sincerity shown by the other party.

After all, during the Great Depression, the streets were full of poor people like Lange, including unemployed people who had previously applied for jobs at the newspaper.

“I don’t see anything worthwhile in cooperating with you, Mr. Rehnquist. After all, as I mentioned before, you recently lost your printing press, and realistically speaking, you’re currently just an unemployed man everywhere. Why should I risk refusing to cooperate with you? Give me a convincing reason, Mr. Langueus.”

Faced with Xu Fu's question, Lange sighed deeply; his unemployment was indeed an unavoidable difficulty.

“You are right, Mr. Xu Fu.”

At that moment, Lange seemed to return to the time when he quit his job as a repairman at the printing plant and fought for the agency status of Manroland Company.

“I am indeed unemployed now, but as I said, I haven’t lost the Manroland agency for long. In fact, even the workers don’t know that I have lost the agency. This means that I still have a group of capable workers who have worked in the printing industry for many years and have a wealth of experience.”

“As Manroland’s agent in New York, I have connections with all the major printers, know exactly how they work, and can persuade one in ten of them to replace their printing presses.”

Given the current state of New York printers, one-tenth is already a significant figure.

After all, during the Great Depression, most factories were trying to reduce production costs. For example, Xu Fu's color rotary printing press was a machine that had never been used in printing plants before.

For Lange, it seemed obvious that he could not persuade Xu Fu to hand over the technology of the four-color double-sided offset printing machine to him as an agent with just his words.

Then, gritting his teeth, he made another offer that was hard to refuse: "Besides all this, I am willing to take only 3% commission on the sale of each printing press, just to pay for my work, and just for Mr. Xu Fu—Mr. Xu Fu agrees to represent me."

Even in his previous agency agreement with Manroland, Lange received a 7% commission, which suggests Lange's real predicament.

A sales commission of 3% is indeed an attractive offer.

After all, producing printing presses is one thing, selling products is another.

Lange's three sales commissions, in the end, amounted to working for a few cents of total news profit.

If Xu Fu were a slightly greedy capitalist, he might have agreed to the terms offered; after all, such a cheap contract wouldn't have much of an impact on him, even if it failed.

"No, I will give you a 5% sales commission."

However, he suddenly rejected Lange's request and even increased the commission rate for Lange's sales.

Upon hearing Xu Fu's words, Lange looked at him with some disbelief; he had never imagined that someone would be willing to pay extra fees these days.

Under Lange's surprised gaze, Xu Fu slowly said, "I can not only give you a basic sales commission of 5%, but you can also get a commission of 1% for every printing press you sell in the future, on a three-month basis, with no limit on the commission."

"...Is the commission per unit 1?"

Lange's exclamation echoed in the newspaper's newsroom.

This was not what he had hoped for at all. Initially, he only wanted to get the printing press agency rights from Xu Fu, so that even if the sales commission was very low, at least he could survive the Great Depression.

However, Xu Fu offered more than just keeping him alive.

On the contrary, he was allowed to survive the Great Depression, and even live better than he did before it.

Lange estimated that in a very short time, he successfully persuaded about half a dozen printers to upgrade their printing presses. If you add the 5% basic sales commission guaranteed by Xu Fu, the total commission is 13%, which is even higher than the agency commission he previously signed with Manroland.

The thought of earning 13 commissions from a single order made Langer's breathing quicken.

Lang took a deep breath, trying to suppress his excitement, and looked at Xu Fu standing in front of him, asking him incredulously, "Mr. Xu Fu, is what you're saying true? Is it really a 1% commission per unit?"

"It's true."

Xu Fu had no intention of deceiving Lange in this regard; even in later times, commission rewards were a very common marketing strategy.

The goal is to motivate employees and spread the message that those who can do more can do more.

Although at first glance Xu Fu did not seem to impose any restrictions on this commission, the fact that it was based on a three-month period was a restriction, and printing presses were different from other products sold. Apart from printers and newspapers, the general public would not buy machines of this size, which meant that the machines were sold to a limited group.

Moreover, once new printing presses are purchased, the factory will not replace them for a very long time to come.

Chapter 662 The Complete Choice

Of course, unless Lange can convince the factory to replace the printing press with a new one every time.

If Lange can achieve this, Xu Fu won't mind giving him a higher sales percentage. In any case, no matter what he does, he will eventually make money himself; the only question is how much he makes.

After confirming his collaboration with Xu Fu, Lange left the newspaper office full of anticipation.

On the other hand, Xu Fu had completed the patent application for four-color double-sided offset printing technology for paper and found suitable factory space near Sunset Park in Brooklyn.

The Great Depression led to the closure of many banks and factories, so Xu Fu did not start his own machinery factory from scratch.

He wasn't a tycoon like Howard Hughes, who strived for perfection in everything.

In Xu Fu's view, everything was effective; after all, the cost of building a factory was obviously much higher than buying a non-working factory, which often cost half or even more than a third of the former. Even during this Great Depression, he could make a complete choice before buying.

Therefore, too many factories are closing down.

After purchasing a machinery factory in Brooklyn, Messenger Machinery Factory was officially established.

Lange voluntarily took over the organization of the factory. Before becoming an agent for Manroland, he had worked as a service worker in a printing plant, had extensive experience in printing production, and knew many printing plant workers who had lost their jobs due to the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, spurred by the sales contract, Lange was even more eager than the factory owner, Xu Fu, for the day when the machine workshop would start operating and the four-color double-sided offset printing machine would begin production.

With the established printing company, Lange, overseeing things, factory owner Xu Fu's workload became quite light.

Inside the restaurant at 21 West 52nd Street.

After leaving the machine factory in Brooklyn, Xu Fu went to Restaurant No. 21.

"Congratulations, Mr. Roosevelt."

After greeting the person in the wheelchair, Xu Fu then congratulated Roosevelt.

It is now widely believed within the Democratic Party that Roosevelt defeated his party rival, Al Smith, to become the next Democratic nominee in the general election.

"Thank you."

Roosevelt nodded to Xu Fu, but did not show any joy.

Although he successfully won a primary within the party, Roosevelt's situation was not very optimistic: Democrat Al Smith refused to endorse his campaign, causing a slight split within the party, while on the surface, the Republican Party was gaining strength and was already operating its election machine, with the Tammany Association even beginning campaign mobilization.

At the same time, Roosevelt was also uncertain about the outcome of his presidential campaign.

After all, no matter how badly Hoover performed, the advantage of governing still lay with the incumbent president.

Roosevelt received information that the Republican Party was now planning a passive war in the presidential election, portraying Roosevelt as a weak man, convincing voters that even if Roosevelt were elected, he could not change the Great Depression, and thus disillusioning voters so that Hoover could continue to be re-elected.

Compared to Roosevelt's anxious attitude, Xu Fu, as a later arrival, was clearly not worried about this issue.

After all, he learned from his later life that Roosevelt would not only win the election, but would win a resounding victory.

Hoover's unpopularity far exceeded Republicans' expectations, and voters would vent all their anger over the Great Depression on him after the election.

"Thank you, Mr. Roosevelt, for your help with the previous patents."

At the dinner table, Xu Fu picked up a piece of steak, glanced at Roosevelt who seemed somewhat distracted, and then changed the subject.

Without Roosevelt's help, Xu Fu's requested patent might not have appeared so soon.

"I just did what I had to do."

Roosevelt responded to this.

He simply did what he had to do to speed up the entire patent examination process.

At the dining table, Xu Fu nodded indifferently and took a small sip of juice.

As the election drew near, Roosevelt became extremely cautious in carrying out his routine duties to avoid making mistakes that would become targets of his opponents, which of course included enforcing Prohibition.

"There is now a basic consensus within the Democratic Party regarding the 18th Amendment law, with the vast majority of party members opposing its continued implementation."

After taking another sip of juice, Roosevelt told Xu Fu about the situation with Prohibition.

Clearly, Prohibition will be one of the main themes of Roosevelt's next campaign.

“I look forward to the day when French eucalyptus trees are abolished, and then I will certainly invite you, Mr. Roosevelt, for a drink,” he said.

"I also look forward to that day."

Having accepted Xu Fu's blessing, Roosevelt finished his juice, and waiters came forward to pour it back into his glass.

"Perhaps Mr. Roosevelt could consider using the Great Depression as a weapon."

On the other hand, after placing the last piece of steak on the plate, Xu Fu put down his knife and fork, wiped the sauce from his mouth, and then offered a suggestion.

"The Great Depression, guns?"

Under Roosevelt's gaze, Xu Fu nodded and slowly explained, "That's right, the Great Depression occurred during the Hoover administration. That's a reality, and no matter how the other side explains it, they can't walk away from it. So as long as we keep bringing up the Great Depression, deepen the voters' memory, and even make them believe that the Great Depression will happen again once Hoover is successfully re-elected."

"Of course, in addition to that, the distinction in image is also very important. If Hoover created the Great Depression, then you are the economic restorer, the leader who brought the country out of the Great Depression. You can come up with new policies to persuade voters to choose between these two options. I believe that the masses who suffered in the Great Depression would never want to experience such a thing again."

Ultimately, elections are about manipulating voters' emotions.

Xu Fu clearly has a lot of experience in this regard, not only because he has seen some relevant elections in recent days, but also because the process of gaining faith is, in some ways, a manipulation of emotions.

Chapter 663 Daily Herald

"New policy?"

He muttered Xu Fu's description repeatedly, and Roosevelt was particularly interested in this description of what he called the "New Deal" for some reason.