Robber Barons vs. Captains of
Industry
-Pros and Cons of Industrialists
-Treatment of workers
-Antitrust Movement
Captains of Industry
I helped make
life easier for you
I created
jobs
We make
all those
nice things
you like!
If you work
hard you
can be rich
too!
We made this
country an
empire
I provide
affordable
products
Robber Barons
You work for
pennies while I
make millions
I gamble
with the
taxpayers
money
I get
government
bailouts…
We started
corporations
The people
you vote for
work for me
Corporations
are people and
have rights--right?
Opposing View Points
• Captains of Industry
–
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–
–
Created Jobs
Increased production
Provided cheap products
Gave money back to the
community
– Helped build the nation
• Robber Barons
–
–
–
–
Exploited workers
Corrupted the government
Greedy
Offered bribes for political
favors
– Above the law
Corporations are people????
• A corporation:
– Is owned by many
people (stockholders)
– But treated as a single
entity
– It can
•
•
•
•
Own property
Pay taxes
Sue or be sued
Make contracts
• Stocks
Corporations
– Shares of a corporations
• Share risk and reward
• Stockholder
– People who own a corporations via
stocks
• Buying/Selling STOCKS allows
corporations to expand/increase
–
–
–
–
Production
Employees
Factory
Research & Development
Corporations
• More money brings
–
–
–
–
New technologies
More workers
New machines
Bigger factories
• Economies of Scale
– Corporation can make
more goods at a lower
cost….passing the saving
on to you 
Costs
Operating
Fixed
• Money that you have
to pay regardless if
your business goes or
not…
–
–
–
–
Loans
Mortgages
Taxes
Rent
• Money used to make your
business GO!!!
–
–
–
–
–
–
Water
Electricity
Employees
Shipping
Wages
Materials
POOLS
• An affiliation of two or
more
people/companies
formed for the purpose
of attempting to
manipulate a products
price and/or volume.
– = gas station
$
$
$
$
$
Vertical Integration
• Corporation owns all of
the companies which it
depends on to improve
profits. Cut out the
profit margins of
“middle man”
companies.
• Ex. McDonalds
Horizontal Integration
• Combining or
merging LIKE
companies into one
LARGE company.
• Ex…Blockbuster
Video
Monopoly
• Exclusive control of a
product or service in a
particular market that
makes it possible to
manipulate prices.
TRUSTS
BIG OIL
• an organization of
businesses designed
to operate like a
monopoly to
circumvent antimonopoly laws
Trustee 1
Joe’s Oil
Trustee 2
Bill’s Oil
Trustee 3
Juan’s Oil
Holding Companies
• Corporation that
doesn’t really do
anything except own a
significant amount of
stock in real companies.
• Board of Directors
• CEOs
Cutting Costs
• Skilled Workers replaced by
Unskilled machine
operators.
– Production cost lower
• Deflation = profits
• Value of $ rises
• Prices drop
• Workers wage has more buying
power
• Terrible working conditions
•
•
•
•
Unsafe
Unsanitary
Long hours
Low wages
$3 a day
$10 a day
Workers Unite
– TRADE UNIONS- Limited
to Skilled Laborers
• Iron workers
• Shoemakers
– Industrial UnionsCommon Laborers and craft
Workers
• Carpenters
• Painters
• artisans
Workers Organize
Goal #1:
Shorter work day
Strikes
Goal #2:
End child labor
boycotts
Goal #4:
Worker owned
factories
Knights of Labor – formed
in 1869 as the first labor
union in the nation.
arbitration
Goal #3:
Equal pay for men
and women
Blacklisted
– Anyone that tried to start a
union considered a
troublemaker.
– Could not get a job
anywhere
– Had to
• Move
• Change Name
• Change Identity
LOCKOUT
• COMPANY ANSWER TO
STRIKE
– NO PAY
– NO WORK
– HIRE REPLACEMENT
WORKERS
• “STRIKE BREAKERS”
– SCABS
STRIKES
• Workers walk off the
job & protest working
conditions
• Early Strikes resulted in
Violent Riots
• Government normally
sided with Business
because they shared
similar interest in
companies making a
profit
• Pullman Strikes
• Great Rail Road Strike
• Haymarket Riots
• American Federation of
Labor (AFL)
•umbrella organization made up of many different trade
unions.
•Led by Samuel Gompers
•Unions stay out of Politics
•Closed Shops- Companies only hire Union Workers
Unions of the
AFL - CIO
A
F
L
United Farm
Workers of
America
Screen
Actors
Guild
United Steel
Workers of
America
American Postal
Workers Union
American
Federation
of Teachers
International
Association of
Firefighters
Justifications for Industrialists’
Extreme Wealth
• Social Darwinism
• Herbert Spencer
– Based on Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution
– Those who are rich are more
fit, than those who are poor
– Attempted to use science to
explain social classes
• Gospel of Wealth
• Andrew Carnegie
– God gave wealth to the most
capable people
– It is the duty of the wealthy to give
money to help the poor
• Carnegie gave millions of dollars
away to establish libraries,
colleges, and museums
Captains of Industry
• Andrew Carnegie- US Steel
• J. P. Morgan- Banking, and Insurance
Companies
• John Rockefeller – Standard Oil
• Cornelius Vanderbilt- Rail Roads