Carnegie: Robber Baron and Captain of Industry
On November 25, 1835, Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland to a poor family. When he was 13, his family moved to the U.S. As a young child, he went to go work at a railroad as a assistant and a messenger for Tom Scott, one of the owners on the railroad. On a quest to build a bridge across the mississippi, he came upon a new steel refining process. After taking many loans, and using most of his money, he build a new factory using this new process, called the Carnegie Steel Company. The demand for his steel became extremely high, giving Carnegie huge profits. He can be considered both a robber baron, and a captain of industry. A robber baron is someone who gains massive wealth at the expense of others. A captain of industry is someone who leads their field, and uses their wealth to benefit society. At the time of Carnegie, industrialization was very much underway. There …show more content…
In “Who was Andrew Carnegie?” it states that “Carnegie’s steel workers were often pushed to long hours and low wages.” This shows that Carnegie did not treat his workers well and that he paid them low wages so that he could keep more money for himself. Also from the same document “Carnegie threw his support behind plant manager Henry Frick, who locked out workers and hired Pinkerton thugs to intimidate strikers. Many were killed in the conflict.” Instead of negotiating with the workers, Carnegie decided to do what was best for himself and hired thugs to remove the strikers. From “A Workingman’s Prayer for the Masses”, “We love thee though our children are clothed in rags”. In this quote, the author is sarcastically talking about how he loves Carnegie even though he can not afford to buy new clothes for his children because of his very low pay. Carnegie paid his workers very low and did not care to negotiate with them because he prefered to help himself, and not
On November 25, 1835, Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland to a poor family. When he was 13, his family moved to the U.S. As a young child, he went to go work at a railroad as a assistant and a messenger for Tom Scott, one of the owners on the railroad. On a quest to build a bridge across the mississippi, he came upon a new steel refining process. After taking many loans, and using most of his money, he build a new factory using this new process, called the Carnegie Steel Company. The demand for his steel became extremely high, giving Carnegie huge profits. He can be considered both a robber baron, and a captain of industry. A robber baron is someone who gains massive wealth at the expense of others. A captain of industry is someone who leads their field, and uses their wealth to benefit society. At the time of Carnegie, industrialization was very much underway. There …show more content…
In “Who was Andrew Carnegie?” it states that “Carnegie’s steel workers were often pushed to long hours and low wages.” This shows that Carnegie did not treat his workers well and that he paid them low wages so that he could keep more money for himself. Also from the same document “Carnegie threw his support behind plant manager Henry Frick, who locked out workers and hired Pinkerton thugs to intimidate strikers. Many were killed in the conflict.” Instead of negotiating with the workers, Carnegie decided to do what was best for himself and hired thugs to remove the strikers. From “A Workingman’s Prayer for the Masses”, “We love thee though our children are clothed in rags”. In this quote, the author is sarcastically talking about how he loves Carnegie even though he can not afford to buy new clothes for his children because of his very low pay. Carnegie paid his workers very low and did not care to negotiate with them because he prefered to help himself, and not