Wealth Corrupts

When one individual person has total control over a group of people or a single industry, people will suffer. This past week in Honors History 10 we studied two different monopolies in the United States during the late 19th century. The two monopolies we covered were those of, Andrew Carnegie, and John Rockefeller. Carnegie dominated in the steel business with his company, Carnegie Steel. Rockefeller was an oil mogul with his company Standard Oil. To learn more information about these two moguls, we started off by watching a series of ABC Clio videos, and then went on to read and analyze biographies on both men. After having analyzed the given information, the teacher asked the class to come up with an essential question for the lesson, which we decided was: “How did the actions of monopolistic leaders, such as Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller, affect the common worker?” Personally, I believe that the actions of monopolistic leaders, like Rockefeller and Carnegie had negative effects on the common workers. Both men had such immense power and a great drive to make money that they lost track of their lower level employees, and ended up hurting them. Also they hurt employees of other companies that they put out of business.

Andrew Carnegie

First, we have Andrew Carnegie, who as previously stated was a very powerful individual in the steel business. Carnegie did not come from an overly wealthy background yet he constantly seemed to have zero care for the common workers he had power over. When he partnered with a well known man in the coal business, H.C Frick, they decided to lower the wages of many factory workers. This lead to extreme struggle for these workers, and they struggled to buy the necessities. Also, the duo implemented “yellow dog contracts” which made it impossible for one to join the labor union. Both of these actions made life very difficult for the common worker, but they both helped make Carnegie more money so he did not necessarily care. The workers began to strike to try and help their cause, but Frick had the government called into to take out the strikes. This lead to making both the new wages and the “yellow dog contracts” permanent. This is an example of a monopoly using their power to take advantage of the common worker.

Rockefeller

Second, there is John Rockefeller, who was the owner of Standard Oil. Rockefeller came from humble beginnings and grew up in a family centered around agriculture. After High School he wanted to attend college, but his father insisted on him going into business. Rockefeller’s first major move in the business world was to partner with Maurice Clark and act as suppliers of grain, meat and hay. Business began booming for these two men during the civil war. When things started going well for Rockefeller he was chosen to enlist in the war but he paid the necessary 300 dollars to hire a substitute for himself.  During the Civil War Rockefeller noticed an increase in the oil business. He decided to hop ship from the merchant business and test the waters in the oil industry. He proceeded to buy out all of his business partners, which was a controversial move and affected the lives of many common workers.  Rockefeller had great success in the business, but he had several questionable tactics. First, he was known for slashes prices and then buying out other companies. This move frequently left people out of jobs. Secondly, he was known for bribing government officials. Finally, he took part in a trust system which essentially stretched the laws as far as they could be stretched in order for him to make more money. These tactics lead to Rockefeller being considered a mean, greedy, monopolistic leader. His actions lead to the suffering of many common workers but he was just concerned about making money like most wealthy men are.

ABC Clio