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Was Andrew Carnegie A Robber Baron Or A Captain Of Industry

971 Words4 Pages

Andrew Carnegie was born November 25 of 1835 in the small town of Dunfermline in the United Kingdom. Raised in an impoverished family his parents worked hard and finally decided to find a new start in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an up and coming factory city. Working his way up from a meager factory worker to the superintendent of the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad company in just 8 years, and then creating Carnegie Steel, which he would sell for $480 million was no easy feat. At least it was no easy feat, according to Carnegie’s personal testimony at his trial last week, where he was charged with reckless endangerment, hypocrisy, and greed; all of which make him a robber baron, rather then a captain of industry. Despite Carnegie’s …show more content…

It seems that everything Carnegie did (concerning Carnegie Steel) was in some form caused by greed, and his low wages and frequent cuts were not the only actions that portrayed it. The defense’s strongest argument was Carnegie’s philanthropic efforts. By the end of his lifetime he gave away $350 million dollars, mostly to fund the creation of libraries and music halls (“Andrew Carnegie’s Story”). At face value, such an investment would seem extremely generous. However, as Carnegie was giving away millions of dollars to help the future, he was letting those who worked for him suffer under wages as lower than $2.00 a day. Furthermore, although the Lyle family was compensated under the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, tens of thousands of applications for recompense were turned away. These facts help paint a picture of Carnegie’s real philanthropic motivations; to leave himself a legacy. The Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees, in exhibit 4, describes how creating a library benefitted richer children and Carnegie’s legacy, but robbed the impoverished community who wouldn't have time to read, because their parents were working long factory hours for little

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Andrew Carnegie is a steel plant owner who claims to support unions and the working man. His charge is that he ignored the legitimate grievances of his employees at his plant in Homestead Pennsylvania and that his neglect contributed to the death of several of his employees during a strike at Homestead in June of 1892 and that he should be held accountable. Andrew Carnegie has dealt with strikes at his plants before. One strike was at his plant in Braddock Pennsylvania where he settled with the workers by agreeing to higher pay but without input from the Union, essentially ruining it. The union at Homestead was one of the last unions in any of his plants.

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His workers worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week for barely anything, and then he tried to implement a 30% pay reduction. While he sat and did nothing, earning millions, his workers worked tirelessly for hours upon hours and barely earned enough to survive. He was a Robber Baron in the sense that he took advantage of his workers. Andrew Carnegie was a Captain of Industry. He donated $9.5 billion dollars to charities, libraries

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Another reason that his practices are justified is that there was nobody before him to set the example in ethics and no laws requiring a certain pay. His goal was to make as much money as humanly possible and when push comes to shove that is what a business is for. “What few people realize about Carnegie is that his insatiable drive for more and more wealth , without limit, was tied to his conviction that it was his duty to give it all away by the time of his death- so that the richer he became, the more beneficial he could become”. This shows that he was not a greedy scumbag who was only concerned for himself and reiterating the fact that he was a captain of industry and not a robber

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American businessmen, of the 1800’s, built America to be one of the greatest superpowers in the world. To start, businessmen of the 1800s consisted of men like John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie. Some of these men were split by how they got their money; Captains of Industry and Robber Barons. Captains of Industry were business leaders that helped the nation in a positive way. On the other hand, Robber Barons were men that shrewd capitalists, swindled the poor and benefitted for themselves.

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The context of Andrew Carnegie is the robber baron. Industrialisation the expansion of factories and the mass production of manufactured goods like steel. The Industrial Revolution of the early 1900s set the foundation for the rise of Carnegie steel. While some say Andrew Carnegie is a caption of industry because he wanted to help others who were poor evidence suggests he is a robber baron because he made the vertical monopoly which makes it harder to compete with him and he had very poor working conditions and even killed some people with those horrible conditions. Andrew Carnegie made it hard for anyone else to produce steel and other various items so he could eliminate his competition which he pretty much did.

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Yet another charitable act was when he donated 5 million dollars to the New York Public Library. He also started the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1910. Carnegie once wrote that the wealthy have “a moral obligation to distribute [their money] in ways

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Carnegie reduced the wages of working employees in his steel company (document D). But as a business man he needed to do the most conventional thing to win more money. The more money he won the more he gave to the poor. If working employees don’t get enough pay they are considered poor so the employees still benefit for pay and donated things from Carnegie. Plus people that were employees to Carnegie’s industry of steel at least had a job so they can survive longer.

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Andrew Carnegie was one of the most famous and wealthiest American industrialist during the Industrial Age. He was a robber baron who made a fortune in the steel industry and applied vertical integration to his business. Carnegie contradicted his views as a robber baron because he supported, but destroyed many unions. This made many of his views unethical.

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Carnegie was born in Scotland where he started working in a cotton factory at 13 years old to get that 1 dollar and 20 cents an hour to his struggling family. Carnegie became financially stable at 30 years old when he started getting involved in both that iron and oil business. As Carnegie experience grew, he developed a system under which he became both the supplier and manufacture od his steel. His helped minimize expense and maximize profits and efficiency of production. US Steel became Andrew Carnegie’s biggest success which helped him amass a financial net worth almost equivalent of Rockefeller’s.

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Carnegie was admittedly less worried about the ethicality of what he was doing, but instead the legality. This created the opportunity for greater profit margins, but also cost people’s lives. No amount of money is worth one’s life. Finally, Russ Juskalian argues whether or not Andrew Carnegie was truly generous. He also makes the larger argument that affluent people in general have more of a responsibility to contribute to society and therefore should not be praised for it.

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Who Was Andrew Carnegie A Captain Of Industry Essay

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Carnegie was considered a Robber Baron for many reasons. For example, he gained huge profits because of his workers low wages. In the excerpt, “Who was Andrew Carnegie,” the author said, “his steel workers were often pushed to long hours and low wages.” Workers worked in harsh conditions and received no benefits causing them to live in poverty with scarce food, clothing, and shelter. Workers were tired of the low wages and decided to go on strike.

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Andrew Carnegie Is Not A Hero Essay

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Carnegie is not a hero because he took money, only gave to other wealthy recipients, and contributed largely to his own.     Andrew Carnegie took money away from deserving people. Carnegie cut the wages of his workers to donate money elsewhere. In document D, there are two images of Carnegie, one is giving a wage cut notice to the workers and the other is giving a check to Scotland and donating a library to Pittsburg. Carnegie’s employees were working hard and trying to survive in a tough economy, their wages did not deserve a cut.

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For instance, Carnegie presented his library named Carnegie Library, he considers this “the best kind of philanthropy” (Ernsberger). By this he indicates the correct way a wealthy individual should live,is by giving back to the community. On the contrary, Richard argues this as negative affect to the company due to the loss of income. Richard believes that Carnegie shouldn’t have spent his money on helping the community instead, he should have continued to invest it on the steel industry. Overall, Richard views Carnegie as “little capitalist who urged presidents to do right things in Philippines, Panama and international diplomacy [but] had never done the right or moral thing as a businessman,” (Ernsberger).

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