The Captains of Industry - Heroes?

Nearing the end of school, the class is finishing up some final lessons- one of them was on Carnegie and Rockefeller, and people like them. The Essential Question posed to us in class was: Were the captains of industry a positive or a negative impact to the public? Or, to phrase it differently; Did the captains of industry have a positive or negative impact on the public?

An illustration from ‘Puck’ (an early political satire magazine) depicting robber barons relaxing on their ‘throne’ of the general popiulace

These 'captains' of industry were the bigwigs of the steel and oil industries, known as robber barons. Two prime examples of these barons are Andrew Carnegie and John Davidson Rockefeller. Carnegie held a successful monopoly on the steel industry, buying out all opposing companies and jacking up prices to profit greatly. Rockefeller started an oil company in his youth, and worked his way up the economic ladder, buying other companies, merging them with his own, and just having a general monopoly on the oil industry. These monopolies proved to greatly benefit Carnegie and Rockefeller themselves, but the general public wasn’t happy with the inflated prices due to one person having all the power, and the those struggling to stay in business alongside these tycoons despised their overpowered competition. The term ‘robber baron’ was coined as a result of this unhappiness, a derogatory term applied to wealthy and influential 19th century businessmen - basically, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and the likes. Though the public viewed these men as greedy and only in it for themselves, they did contribute a lot to society.

Carnegie donated innumerable amounts to education, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching still lives on today. Despite this generosity, Carnegie’s image was further tarnished by The Homestead Strike This strike unveiled a plan made by Carnegie to destroy the steel worker’s union - the general public was not happy about this.

Rockefeller controlled an oil company called Standard Oil, which sold most of the oil in the United States in the late 19th going into the early 20th century. This made him a lot of money. He was considered the first billionaire in the history of the world. He is also thought to be the richest man in American history. Today, the money he made would be worth more than half a trillion dollars. Rockefeller used his money to do various charitable things, including starting the University of Chicago, and also funding important medical research. Despite this charity, however, he was only recognized as a hero after his time.

For an interesting video about the robber barons and their actions, try checking out ‘The Players’ from ABC-Clio here. (An account is needed, sorry!)