Comparison Of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, And J. P. Morgan

The nation’s citizens were successful with the development of businesses and other forms of profit and economy in the early stages of the United States of America. However, successful individuals like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan became highly wealthy and dealt with their money in a variety of ways. Therefore, many affluent people had similar and differing attitudes towards their immense wealth during the late 19th century. The Gilded Age, a term created by American writer Mark Twain, was an era that lasted from 1870 to 1900 in the United States. The time was called such because of how the nation was “gilded,” or covered by the increase in money, but was full of concerning predicaments. During this time period, the

The Scottish immigrant began his interest in the steel industry after the Civil War and opened the first American steel mill in 1873. After approximately twenty years, in 1892, Carnegie Steel, as the company was named, became one of the greatest producers of steel in the United States. It was used for most building of railroads and architecture of the newly-created skyscrapers in the fast-growing cities. Subsequent to gaining immense affluence, Andrew Carnegie retired and sold his company at the age of 66. He later dedicated the rest of his life to writing novels and becoming a philanthropist. In his book, The Gospel of Wealth, which was published in 1901, Carnegie expresses the thought that “... It is criminal to waste our energies in endeavoring to uproot, when all we can profitably or possibly accomplish is to bend the universal tree of humanity a little in the direction most favorable to the production of good fruit under existing circumstances… Such, in my opinion, is the true Gospel concerning Wealth, obedience to which is destined someday to solve the problem of the Rich and the Poor, and to bring ‘Peace on earth, among men good will.’” He believed that the wealthy men, much like himself, had an obligation to share their earnings with others, and he did just that. Before retiring and selling Carnegie Steel, he was a generous man and gave

The main industrialist who gained his immense amounts of money in the oil refining industry was a man by the name of John Davison Rockefeller. His company, known as United States Standard Oil, or Standard Oil, for short, became possibly the largest and most powerful monopoly in the nation during this time period. Factories, constructors, and railroad creators relied on the service of the company to keep their own businesses running. When it came to his wealth, Rockefeller spent most of it on expanding and developing his already-successful oil refinery. By using the methods of vertical integration, being the purchasing all the businesses required for the company to function, horizontal integration, which combined businesses of the same industry into one corporation, and the buying out of his “competition,” he dominated the petroleum industry, granting him access to 90 percent of the oil in America. Rockefeller also believed and supported Social Darwinism. This theory, derived from English naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection, and adopted by Herbert Spencer, suggests that “in human society only the fittest individuals survived and flourished in the marketplace.” Supporting this idea, Rockefeller proclaimed that “[t]he growth of a large business is merely the survival of the fittest. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely