This lesson is the first of three lessons where as a class we will divide into groups, analyze documents, and then come up with a total of forty multiple choice questions that will appear on our final exam. This lesson focused on John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, along with their effects on the common worker in America after the Civil War. After discussing as a class, we decided on the following essential question, “How did the actions of monopolistic leaders, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, affect the common worker?” A monopolistic leader is a leader who has control over an industry, according to this definition. This definition is similar to that of a monopoly, which is when a single corporation controls all of a product of industry.We divided ourselves into five groups, assigning each group a topic to research, my group’s start was the main ideas of the lesson. To familiarize ourselves with our topics, we watched several videos on ABC Clio as a class while taking notes. After we finished watching these videos, we then split into groups and took notes on each of our topics. After everyone had finished analyzing the documents and watching the videos, we then came up with eight multiple choice questions that went on with each of our topics. After we completed this part of the lesson we felt that we could answer the essential question. The actions of monopolistic leaders, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie affected the common worker in both positive and negative ways.
Rockefeller affected the common worker in mostly positive ways, but in a few negative ways, too. Rockefeller was an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so. To learn more about Rockefeller each group read the “John D. Rockefeller Biography.” He helped create the American petroleum industry and donated millions of dollars towards the advancement of education, medicine, and science, thus characterizing him as a philanthropist. In the 1870s Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, which wiped out almost all rival oil businesses due to his smart business tactics, reduction in prices, and negotiating with people. In 1880, the Standard Oil company managed to secure a monopoly over oil refining and transportation and thus became one of the largest corporations in the United States. Although this was a good business move, he cost the jobs of many people in other oil businesses, thus affecting the common worker negatively. During this time, Rockefeller was being criticized by the public, who thought his actions were based off of greed. To counter this, Rockefeller donated money to charities and schools. He even established a medical research center and the Rockefeller Foundation, which went towards helping eliminate yellow fever. Although Rockefeller donated all of this money, he was considered the wealthiest man in American history. He had more money than the financial government had at the time. In an interview William Hoster, which is quoted God’s Gold (1932) by John T. Flynn, Rockefeller says, “I believe the power to make money is a gift of God...to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind. Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience.” Rockefeller positively affected the common worker by donating money to help medicine, education, and science, but he also negatively affected the common worker by taking away people’s jobs who worked at other oil companies than his own.
This is a picture of Rockefeller from the “John D. Rockefeller Biography.”
Andrew Carnegie was similar to Rockefeller in that he affected the common workers positively and negatively. To learn more about Carnegie, we read the“Andrew Carnegie Bio.” Carnegie was once poor, but then he become one of the wealthiest men in the world, demonstrating a “rags to riches” type of story. He became wealthy by gaining power in the U.S. steel industry. He also used vertical integration, which was a system in which a company’s supply chain is controlled by that company. This allowed him to control raw materials, transportation, and distribution within in the steel industry, managing every stage of the production process from beginning to end. Similar to Rockefeller, Carnegie was also a philanthropist and he to donated millions of dollars to medicine, education, and science. He also donated money to create libraries and promote world peace. Carnegie also demonstrated the idea of gospel of wealth which is defined as the moral obligation to use wealth for public good. However, although this quality of him was beneficial to the common worker, in the year of 1892 there was homestead strike of Carnegie's homestead mill. The strike, which we learned about by watching the Homestead Strike Video, revealed Carnegie’s plan to destroy the iron and steel worker’s union, which resulted in a public outcry. His reputation was ruined by this outcry as seen in the Editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, early August, 1892. This editorial declares the following about Carnegie, “Three months ago Andrew Carnegie was a man to be envied. Today he is an object of mingled pity and contempt. In the estimation of nine-tenths of the thinking people on both sides of the ocean he has not only given the lie to all his ascendants, but confessed a moral coward…” The Homestead Strike showed how Carnegie negatively affected the common worker. When the depression hit the United States in 1893, Carnegie used the depression to his advantage and acquired land to connect the steel producing center to the northwest water routes. This also demonstrates how Carnegie negatively impacted the common worker.
This is a picture of Carnegie in the “Andrew Carnegie Bio.”
I think that Rockefeller and Carnegie both positively and negatively affected the common worker. We see this pro and con relationship in political and business figures all the time. For example, some would say President Obama has helped everyone by establishing Obama Care, while others would argue that the economic crisis that our country suffered through during his leadership negatively overshadowed any improvements to our healthcare system . I enjoyed reading the documents for this lesson in my groups and taking notes in a Google Doc with my entire class. I felt this was an effective way of learning. Both Rockefeller and Carnegie were leaders of the industrial growth and for the most part liked by the public.
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