Andrew Carnegie: Robber Baron Or Captain Of Industry?

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Andrew Carnegie: Robber Baron or Captain of Industry? During the late 1800’s with new businesses imagine, technology advancing, railroads to new places being made, and a bunch of people looking for jobs it was a great time to start a business, if you were competitive. Being a business leader in the late 1800’s was a “cutthroat, dog eat dog” situation. Each company's leaders and investors looked to gain as much money as they could, as quick as they could. A Robber Baron is known as a ruthless, selfish, and corrupt business owner, a Captain of Industry is known as a person who is a good business leader with foreton and has contributed positively to the country in some way. Personally with Andrew Carnegie I am tied, he treated his workers …show more content…
Dirty and unsafe factories, low payment, and long hours is what you could expect working for any company that was owned by Andrew Carnegie. Most factory workers worked 12 hour shifts seven days a week, with one day off, July 4th. One worker from a factory ran by Carnegie said he lost 40 pounds in 3 months, he would drink 2 buckets of water in the 12 hours in which time he would sweat so much it would fill his shoes. They did not receive breaks, some managed to find 3-5 minutes when they had to oil engines, 12 hour shift with a couple 3 minute breaks. I don’t think anyone in today's time would be able to do that. They received no lunch breaks, some used the 3-5 minute down time for that. Many workers did not bring food because they didn’t have anytime to eat. During this time if you were 40 years old you were considered old because you can’t do the job that is needed to be done in these factories, these factory jobs were man beaters. Most people don’t retire until their late 50’s and 60’s today, we see 40 year olds as middle aged, just let that sink in. After all this work and time put in the average worker recieved around $10.00 a week, just over the poverty line at $500.00 a year. It took the earnings of 4,000 factory workers to meet the income for …show more content…
Carnegie believed in the “Gospel of Wealth” He became a Philanthropist, a person who gives money to good causes. He made donations before 1901 but after 1901 people considered giving away money to be his new occupation. In 1902 he created the Carnegie Institution to fund scientific research, he also made a pension fund for teachers with a $10 Million donation. Carnegie gave money to towns which created over 2,000 free public libraries (he loved to read, he decided to do this because he used to live near Colonel James Anderson who was rich and allowed any boy who worked for him free access to his library. He also donated $125 to the Carnegie Corporation to aid in colleges and schools. Carnegie also believed in world peace, he created the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and donated the money for the construction of the Hague Palace of Peace which holds the world court in the Netherlands. By 1911 Carnegie had given away over 90% of his
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