Robber Barron's or Captains of Industry

The essential question from class was, Should Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller be classified as robber barons or Captains of Industry? To answer this question from class we watched a series of videos about the economy of America In the 19th century. Robber barons were people who lead the industry but were seen as corrupt by the people of America. The idea of a Robber Barron was to control the whole industry, whether that would be destroying other companies or buying all of them so that one single person could own them all. Robber Barron's created huge monopolies and trusts throughout America. A captain of the Industry is when was a business leader whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributes positively to the country in some way. Before we start I would like to tell you that I personally believe that Carnegie was a Captains of the Industry and Rockefeller was a Robber Barron, and here's why. Carnegie spent his excess wealth on stuff like giving it to charity building libraries and donating to advance education. His donations helped him build a university that was called Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie's reputation was soon ruined when there was a strike in one of his factories in Homestead Pennsylvania. But In my opinion Carnegie did more good than bad in his lifetime and that why I classified him as a Captain of the industry. But John D. Rockefeller is a different story, he was known for bribing politicians and bought and destroyed other companies. Rockefeller would keep his prices down so that other companies would go out of business because they were too expensive and people would just buy the cheaper oil, which was Rockefeller's. The public did not like Rockefeller because they thought everything he did was greed because he was mad for oil. In conclusion Rockefeller should be known as Robber Barron because of how he became the leader of the oil Industry, but Carnegie should be known as a Captain the Industry because of his work to further education and how he went about his business. 

John D. Rockefeller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

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