In the 18th and 19th centuries, the captains of industry, more popularly known as robber barons, controlled big businesses, but through unethical, cut-throat ways. Robber barons were the wealthy citizens who owned successful businesses which used tactics that kept them on top, and there competitors below them. These tactics included, trusts, pools, and holding companies, which were all forms of monopolies. There were many individuals who qualified as a robber baron, but three of the most well known are Andrew Carnegie, John Davidson Rockefeller, and John Pierpont Morgan.
According to the Preliminary Report of the Factory Investigating Commission, “There were “lack of precautions to prevent fire, inadequate fire-escape facilities, insanitary (sic) conditions that were insidiously undermining the health of the workers were found existing everywhere” (Wagner, 1912, p. 1). The factory was in desperate need of investigating and
Just like the treatment his workers endured Carnegie wasn't any nicer to his competitors. Andrew Carnegie was a phenomenal businessman. Much of his success is due to how he operated his business. He watched the costs of his business intently (Document C), always making sure that the steel was being produced at a lower price than what it was being sold for (Document D), and he watched his competitors even closer. In March 1889, when Allegheny Bessemer Steel built a mill directly across from Carnegie's mill it intimidated Carnegie.
A radical aspect that he stated was to make it where you can’t make 100 to 300 times the size of the average family income. If make more than a 1,000,000 you would have to pay an annual levy tax as well. Most of his ideas did become a reality but some of them did. The first one that became reality was education and training for all children to be equal in all schools. Getting an income when we get old and finally to limit or regulate the hours of work.
The United States began to enter a prosperous and increasing period after the civil war known as industrialization. Despite the fact that industrialization led the United States to wealth, it also led it to many social and economic problems during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this time, Upton Sinclair and Andrew Carnegie were the people who responded to the economic and social problems generated by industrialization. Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthy men in America and was very charitable, he impacted the United States with his steel to transform cities. During these economic and social problems generated by industrialization, he responded by providing money to fund charities.
During the period of industrialization, between 1865 and the early 1900’s, corporate
Frederick W. Taylor’s book, “The Principles of Scientific Management,” is a book where he described how the company could be more efficient by managing time, breaking tasks down into small parts, and using standardized tools. They wanted either a council-manager system or a commission plan which means a city’s government would be divided into several departments under the control of an expert commissioner. They also said that if a board of commissioner or a city manager that has the knowledge in city
Document 4 shows that Carnegie was able to cut costs by more than $20 per ton. The natural question that arises is this: how was he able to get costs so low? Document 5 suggests that the practice of vertical integration was essential to profits, as it enable Carnegie to own a monopoly on the entire industry of steel production, all the way from the iron ore mines to the ships that transported materials to the steel mill itself. Although ingenious, this strategy usually results in market monopolies, which can end up being harmful to both competitors and the consumer. In addition to the tactic of vertical integration shown in Document 5, Documents 6 and 7 reveal the extreme exploitation of workers that Carnegie used to increase his profits.
After the Civil War, the United States experienced many events in terms of economy, culture and social, and those events made a big change to the U.S. One of the richest person in the world, “Andrew Carnegie”, who is also known as the civil leader, built the steel mill by 1900. While, most of the firms were working by themselves or family at that time, he was good at vertical integration. Including him, thanks to the genius and rich inventors, the concept of social and economy of U.S. had changed. On the contrary, because these rich people had most of the finance, the number of people who were under the lower-class had been increasing.
The life of a coal miner is not so different from the views of Andrew Carnegie. In the Gilded Age, a lot of youthful boys and men would work endless hours to only get from sixty cents to a dollar every day. Carnegie would focus on how the upper class would misuse their money for selfish needs. These young coal miners would work more than these rich “snobs” and still get a salary of less that 200 dollars a year. That is what Carnegie was stressing in his Gospel of Wealth.
Topic: Should Andrew Carnegie be described as a “captain of industry” or a “robber baron”? Abstract: Nowadays, there still exists lots of controversial comments towards Andrew Carnegie. Some of them hold the view that Andrew Carnegie should be described as a captain of industry while others contend that he was only a robber baron. As far as I am concerned, Andrew Carnegie, known as the King of Steel, built the steel industry in the United States, and in the process, became one of the wealthiest men in America.
C. A. Campbell’s arguments. Taylor’s philosophy. Conclusion.
He was the founder of rationalization. He believed that rationalization was a central problem in this world and the power of ideas shapes and changes society. Members of preindustrial societies embrace tradition. To him Industrial societies describe by rationality. Rationalization is historical changes from tradition to rationality as the main type of human thought (societies differ in how people think of world).
He based his ideas and theories on social structure, economics and politics.
He developed a universal theory of management rather than Taylors ‘one best way’ approach to doing
