Robber Barons Exposed In Andrew Carnegie's Robber Baron

Andrew Carnegie was a “robber baron” as shown in the way he acted towards the people who helped him reach the top and the terrible working environment that he subjected his workers to. He did various things in an attempt to positively alter his public image by overshadowing the awful things he had done. At the start of Carnegie’s career in business, he worked under Thomas Scott where he learned how to be successful in business. Minimizing costs were the best way to make a business profitable and lowering those required cutting wages, demanding 13 hour days and utilizing spies as a way to thwart possible strikes. He would use many of these ideas and practices in his own business causing him to eventually become the undisputed king of steel.

By spying on his workers, a practice he learned from Scott, he was able to remain well-informed on his workers and more specifically on any troublesome workers who could become organizers of resistance to his control. After Carnegie was too old and tired to try to compete with J.P. Morgan’s steel companies, he sold Carnegie Steel for 480 million to Morgan. Giving away 350 million dollars of this money, Carnegie was trying to rebuild his former reputation of being the benevolent businessman. Some people would say this is an example of Carnegie being a “captain of industry”, but it really shows just how unnecessary it was for him to refuse to increase wages and keep working conditions so poor in his factories. He used his money to help the same people who he had subjected to terrible working conditions and had paid next to nothing. Carnegie was a “robber baron” who constantly tried to create an image of himself as a “captain of industry”, but he would have been more successful if he helped the employees in his factories rather than trying to help them outside of