Without doubt, the Captains of industry were responsible for creating enormous wealth in U.S. society. However, also without doubt is the fact that they were ruthless monopolists who were abusive to their workers and competitors and ultimately were more dangerous to the U.S. economy than beneficial.
After 1893, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie ôcontrolled the heart of the economyö (Wasserman 84). By April, 1901, the House of Morgan offered public shares of the nationÆs first billion dollar trust, the U.S. Steel Corporation (Wasserman 84). Despite the boon to the U.S. economy from the rise of the steel, coal, banking, and oil industries, these men were ruthless in business and engaged in unfair practices to maintain a monopoly. Rockefeller required rebates from roads that carried his oil, and insisted they charge more to his competitors. RockefellerÆs virtual ownership of the oil industry permitted him to gobble up competitors while ômanipulating price and markets at willö (Wasserman 84).
Carnegie sat atop the steel industry, a man as ruthless as Rockefeller or Morgan when it came to his competitors and workers, despite his deserved reputation as also being a philanthropist. Carnegie, according to Wasserman (84) was known ôto his associates as a pirate and to the workers in his factories as a killer.ö In one ugly instance of worker suppression, Carnegie hired Pinkerton agents who killed workers in his own factory. The power of these three men climbed in comparison to their escalating wealth. They began to have a detrimental influence on the U.S. market and government because of creating a virtual nobility of wealth among a handful of families in the U.S. As Wasserman (85), Washington had become the laughing stock of the nation while ôCongress was transformed into a mart where the price of votes was haggled over, and laws, made to order, were bought and sold.ö
The impact on the economy from such
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