Born in 1937, John D. Rockefeller became one of the richest men in the world as the founder of the Standard Oil Company. Standard Oil dominated the oil industry, controlling roughly 90 percent of the refineries and pipelines in the United States by the early part of the 1880s. His donations to charitable causes exceeded $500 million. Unfortunately, he has also been accused of predatory behavior that would eliminate his competition, and his Standard Oil Corporation was the first example of a U.S. business trust, which is similar to a monopoly. Beginning in the 1870s, Standard Oil employed a number of cutthroat business practices, including:
Automaker Henry Ford treated his workers fairly well. He believed that well-paid workers would be happier and more efficient. For that reason, he instituted a $5-a-day pay rate, which was twice as much as other auto manufacturers paid. In addition, during a time when workers were required to work ten hours a day, six days a week, Ford scheduled his workers for eight-hour days, five days a week. Ford greatly disliked institutional charity, but he did contribute personal funds to organizations that he created, such as the Henry Ford Hospital for the working poor who could afford to pay some of the cost of their medical care. Over the course of his life, he donated approximately $14 million to this institution. Other organizations created by Ford included the 80-acre Valley Farm for orphaned boys, a school for African-American children in Georgia, and a Detroit trade school. He also was part of a peace ship to Europe that hoped to put an end to World War I, and he paid for work camps for boys during the Great Depression. Ford was anti-Semitic, and his anti-Jewish commentary helped to legitimize such sentiments.
Andrew Carnegie and his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland when he was 13. He built his fortune by investing in the steel industry and became the owner of Carnegie Steel Company, which by 1889 was the largest steel company in the world. Unfortunately, Carnegie engaged in tactics that were not in the best interests of his workers. In 1892, he attempted to lower worker wages at one of his steel plants, an act that resulted in the Homestead Strike and numerous deaths. Despite this action, Carnegie was extremely active in terms of philanthropy. In his efforts to contribute to society, he established the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the New York Public Library, and a college that would become part of Carnegie Mellon University. He also wrote “The Gospel of Wealth,” an article that argued that the wealthy have a responsibility to contribute to the greater good of society.
He invested in Thomas Edison and the Edison Electricity Company, helped to create General Electric and International Harvester, formed J.P. Morgan & Company, and gained control of half of the country’s railroad mileage. He also created the first billion-dollar company, U.S. Steel. At one point in his life, he was a board member of as many as 48 corporations. He was believed to head a money trust that controlled the banking industry and was commonly considered a figurehead of Wall Street. He created a monopoly by slashing the workforce and their pay in order to maximize profits while eliminating the competition. Workers’ wages were often as low as a dollar a day or less, and there was an increase in workplace fatalities even as profits grew. When confronted with the possibility of regulations that could threaten his bottom line, he and other robber barons of the time contributed money to ensure that their candidate, William McKinley, was elected president in 1896.
Despite the numerous negatives associated with how J.P. Morgan built his wealth, some of his actions did benefit society. He helped bail out the federal government twice during an economic crisis, first in 1895 and again in 1907.