The Industrial Age in America: Robber Barons and Captains of Industry

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; … and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer… to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves
—From "Wealth," by Andrew Carnegie, North American Review (1889)

Law? Who cares about the law. Hain't I got the power?
—Comment alleged to have been made by Cornelius Vanderbilt, when warned that he might be violating the law

Introduction

Though a century has passed since the heyday of the great industrialists and financiers, debate continues: were these men captains of industry, without whom this country could not have taken its place as a great industrial power, or were they robber barons, limiting healthy competition and robbing from the poor to benefit the rich? Where do we draw the line between unfair business practices and competition that leads to innovation, investment, and improvement in the standard of living for everyone? Would the industrial economy have succeeded without entrepreneurs willing to take competition to its extremes?

It has been argued that we are now in a comparable economic period, the formative years of the Information Age. Certainly we continue to struggle with similar kinds of questions about fair and unfair business practices and the benefits and costs of competition. Does the industrialization of America at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century hold any lessons for us today? Can market forces exert sufficient influence to rein in potentially harmful practices or does government have to intervene?

Note: This lesson may be taught either as a stand-alone lesson or as a complement to another EDSITEment lesson The Industrial Age in America: Sweatshops, Steel Mills, and Factories.

Guiding Questions:

What various practices of industrialists/financiers led to their being labeled "robber barons"? "Captains of industry"? In what ways did such industrialists/financiers harm and/or benefit the U.S. economy and the quality of life of its citizens?

Learning Objectives

After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to:

• State definitions of the terms "robber baron" and "captain of industry."
• List some of the actions, both positive and negative, of one or more captains of industry/robber barons.
• Take a stand as to whether a particular financier/industrialist is or is not a robber baron and support that stand with evidence.

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

• Review the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out selected documents and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Download the worksheet, Robber Barons or Captains of Industry?, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
• For concise background information on the industrialists/financiers of the early Industrial Age in the United States, consult the following resources:
• General Summary of Major Events (1876-1925): Timeline: Events of 1876-1999 on the EDSITEment resource Learner.org
• Andrew Carnegie: The Two Andrews from American Experience, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library
• John D. Rockefeller: John D. Rockefeller Timeline from Museum of American Financial History, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
• Cornelius Vanderbilt: Cornelius Vanderbilt on the Vanderbilt Mansion Historical Site of the National Park Service, of which the EDSITEment resource Links to the Past is an extension
• In this lesson, you and your students will attempt to establish a distinction between robber barons and captains of industry. Students will uncover some of the less honorable deeds as well as the shrewd business moves and highly charitable acts of the great industrialists and financiers. It has been argued that only because such people were able to amass great amounts of capital could our country become the world's greatest industrial power. Some of the actions of these men, which could only happen in a period of economic laissez faire, resulted in poor conditions for workers, but in the end, may also have enabled our present day standard of living.

1. Meet Some Real Robber Barons

2. Robber Barons or Captains of Industry?

3. Responding to the Workers

1. Meet Some Real Robber Barons

If necessary, review with your class the historical context in which the early industrialists thrived. Use your class text or other classroom resources, or refer to either or both of the following interactive timelines available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Learner.org:

• Events of 1876-1999 (but focus on 1876-1925)
• Interactive Timeline: Inventions 1868-1898

Introduce your students to some individuals for whom the label "robber baron" is universally regarded as appropriate. Jim Fisk and Jay Gould clearly earned the title because they did not contribute to building something such as a railroad system. Instead, they destroyed such systems through clearly illegal actions and disregard for anyone else. Their actions hurt the economy of the United States. Read their story with—or to—the class from The Robber Barons, available on the PBS website, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library. Now read with—or to—the class from The Panic of 1873, also on PBS. Ask students to explain why Jay Cooke deserves the title "robber baron."

Such behavior as Fisk's, Gould's, and Cooke's clearly fits the criteria for a robber baron. Tell the class that the label cannot always be applied with such assurance. What if an action is illegal but leads to a positive end? What if a legal action ends with many workers or consumers suffering?

Part of the students' job in Part 2, below, will be to evaluate situations that are similarly ambiguous in the life histories of famous industrialists.

2. Robber Barons or Captains of Industry?

Divide the class into four student groups (or eight, if you'd like each industrialist/financier to be researched by two groups). Assign one of the individuals below to each group. Distribute to the groups the chart "Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?" on page 1 of the PDF file (see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download instructions). Using the following resources and/or any other approved sources available in your classroom or online, each group should fill in the chart for their assigned individual.

• Andrew Carnegie
  
  It shall be the rule for the workman to be Partner with Capital, the man of affairs giving his business experience, the working man in the mill his mechanical skill, to the company, both owners of the shares and so far equally interested in the success of their joint efforts.
  —Andrew Carnegie



• From the EDSITEment resource American Memory
• Today in History
• Edgar Thomson Works, Carnegie Steel Co (Click on any of the images for photographs.)
• From America's Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
• Andrew Carnegie
• Andrew Carnegie Grows Up Working (Click "Next" for succeeding pages.)
• Andrew Carnegie and His Parents (Click "Next" for succeeding pages.)
• Andrew Carnegie Philanthropist (Click "Next" for succeeding pages.)
• From The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie on The American Experience, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library (NOTE: This site contains a great deal of information and documents relating to Carnegie, including those listed below.)
• Letters about the Homestead Strike
• Information about the Carnegie Mansion
• Carnegie Biography
• Interactive Timeline (Frames Version; Text Only Version)
• The Two Andrews
• Scotland to America
• Welcome to Pittsburgh
• Love Carnegie Style
• The Wrong Career Path?
• The American Experience | Andrew Carnegie | Gilded Age
• Andrew Carnegie Page of Entrepreneurs and American Economic Growth, a link from Internet Public Library
• How to Succeed in Life by Andrew Carnegie on the EDSITEment resource Learner.org
• The Gospel of Wealth on The Internet Modern History Sourcebook, an extension of the EDSITEment resource The Internet Medieval Sourcebook

• From the EDSITEment resource Harp Week
• Cartoon, "The Great Race for the Western Stakes" (and brief text)
• Cartoon, "Justice on the Rails" and explanatory text
• A Ferry to a Fortune on PBS, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library
• A Business Biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, available via a link from the EDSITEment resource Links to the Past
• "Cornelius Vanderbilt" and "The Erie Railroad Wars" (move down the page until you locate the sections entitled "Cornelius Vanderbilt" and "The Erie Railroad Wars") from American History 102: Civil War to the Present, a link from the EDSITEment resource History Matters
• Vanderbilt Mansion Historical Site (including Biographical Material) on the National Park Service, of which the EDSITEment resource Links to the Past is an extension
• Cornelius Vanderbilt Page of Entrepreneurs and American Economic Growth, a link from Internet Public Library

• From the EDSITEment resource Learner.org
• Labor Union versus Morgan
• Brief Biography from The American Experience, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library
• Morgan on The Museum of American Financial History, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
• First Public Demonstration of Edison's Light Bulb from America's Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
• Morgan Finances Edison on The Smithsonian Museum of American History, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia (Note: This archival document and the previous article are here for their reference to Morgan as one of Edison's "main investors," showing how a financier like Morgan contributed to the American economy and quality of life.)

• From Museum of American Financial History, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
• John D. Rockefeller Timeline
• John D. Rockefeller: A Photographic History
• Rockefeller Family Life
• From The Rockefellers on The American Experience, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library (NOTE: This site contains a great deal of information and documents relating to Rockefeller, including those listed below.)
• Biography of John D. Rockefeller, Senior
• Paragraph on Rockefeller's cornering of the market and game
• Annotated Timeline
• Rockefeller's Mark on America: Interactive Map
• Critical Letter to the NY Times about Rockefeller
• Letters to Rockefeller Requesting Donations
• John D. Rockefeller Page of Entrepreneurs and American Economic Growth, a link from Internet Public Library
• Standard Oil of New Jersey (move down the page until you locate the section entitled "Standard Oil of New Jersey") on American History 102: Civil War to the Present, a link from the EDSITEment resource History Matters

3. Responding to the Workers

Read with—or to—the class any or all of the following pieces, available on the EDSITEment resource History Matters, written by workingmen and published in newspapers or magazines during the heyday of the industrialists.

• The Workingman's Ten Commandments
• Selfish Wealth is Never Good
• A Labor Newspaper Derides the Myth of the Self-Made Man

Extending the Lesson

• Students with special interest can read all or part of Personal Recollections of Andrew Carnegie by Frederick Lynch, published online by the Electronic Text Center of the University of Virginia Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library.
• The Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, a feature of the EDSITEment-reviewed website Links to the Past, offers an inquiry-based lesson plan about the Vanderbilt Mansion complete with texts, images, and correlations.
• On June 1, 2000, then—U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said this in reference to the controversy over Bill Gates and Microsoft: "America was not made the industrial giant of the world by the robber barons alone. It was made the industrial giant of the world by competition, by encouraging new developments, by encouraging young entrepreneurs to break into the market. It's the best system I've seen so far." Does Microsoft constitute an unfair monopoly? Students can read a detailed timeline of Bill Gates' life from the Bill Gates Page of Entrepreneurs and American Economic Growth, a link from Internet Public Library. They can also read a related editorial by James Gleick featured on American History 102: Civil War to the Present, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website History Matters. Is Bill Gates a captain of industry or a robber baron?
• The Richest Man in America: Andrew Carnegie, available on the American Experience, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library, offers Suggestions for the Classroom you might want to try.

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• American Memory
  [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html]
  • Learning Page: Economic History
    [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/resources/inres/
    ushist/economic.html]
  • Museum of American Financial History
    [http://www.financialhistory.org/]
  • John D. Rockefeller Timeline
    [http://www.financialhistory.org/rock-timeline.html]
  • John D. Rockefeller: A Photographic History
    [http://www.financialhistory.org/photo-history.htm]
  • Rockefeller Family Life
    [http://www.financialhistory.org/kids-3.html]
  • Morgan
    [http://www.financialhistory.org/morgan/index.htm]
  • America's Library
    [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/]
  • First Public Demonstration of Edison's Light Bulb
    [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/gilded/jb_gilded_edison_1.html]
• American Studies at the University of Virginia
  [http://xroads.virginia.edu/]
  • The Smithsonian National Museum of American History
    [http://americanhistory.si.edu/]
  • Between a Rock and a Hard Place:
    A History of American Sweatshops, 1820 to the Present
    [http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/]
• CongressLink [http://www.congresslink.org/]
  • House of Representatives [http://www.house.gov/]
• Digital Classroom
  [http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html]
  • U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
    [http://www.archives.gov/]
• Harp Week [http://www.harpweek.com/]
• History Matters [http://historymatters.gmu.edu]
  • American History 102: Civil War to the Present
    [http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/index.html]
  • Homepage of James Gleick
    [http://www.around.com/microsoft.html]
• Internet Public Library [http://www.ipl.org]
  • American Experience [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/index.html]
  • The Richest Man in America: Andrew Carnegie
    [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/index.html]
  • The Rockefellers
    [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/index.html]
  • Entrepreneurs and American Economic Growth
    [http://voteview.uh.edu/entrejdr.htm]
  • Andrew Carnegie Page [http://voteview.uh.edu/carnegie.htm]
  • Bill Gates Page [http://voteview.uh.edu/gates.htm]
  • John D. Rockefeller Page [http://voteview.uh.edu/entrejdr.htm]
  • Cornelius Vanderbilt Page [http://voteview.uh.edu/vanderb2.htm]
  • Biography [http://www.biography.com/]
  • Bill Gates
    [http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=15061]
  • Learning Adventures in Citizenship
    [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/index.html]
  • The Gilded Age
    [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/episode3/
    topic7/e3_t7_s2-cc.html]
• Learner.org [http://www.learner.org]
  • Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh [http://www.clpgh.org/]
  • How to Succeed in Life by Andrew Carnegie
    [http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/oakland/
    oak_n751.html]
• Links to the Past [http://www.cr.nps.gov/]
  • National Park Service [http://www.nps.gov/]
  • Vanderbilt Mansion Historical Site
    [http://www.nps.gov/vama/about.html]