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Name:_________________________________

Document Based Questions (DBQ)

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?
Directions: Read the documents that follow and complete the accompanying graphic
organizer.
Key Terms:

Gospel of Wealth

an article written by Andrew Carnegie where he claims that the rich

should be allowed to make as much as they can. After they have made
it however, they should give it all away through charity and donations,
benefitting the public.

Social Darwinism -

Stems from Charles Darwins theory of natural selection. Idea claims

that Darwins ideas of natural selection a.k.a. survival of the fittest
should be applied to the marketplace and that the those individuals and
businesses who have the wealth should be allowed to thrive and
everyone will benefit from the success of the fit (wealthy/successful
businesses) and the weeding out of the unfit.

Captain of Industry

where business leaders are claimed to have served the nation in a

positive way by building factories, raising productivity, expanding
markets, creating jobs, and using their fortunes to benefit the public.

Robber Baron

Where business leaders are considered ruthless exploiters who used

unethical means to destroy competition, create monopolies, and
corrupt free trade.

Document 1:

Document 2:
Source: Maury Klein, The Robber Barons Bum Rap, Urbanities, Winter 1995, Vol. 1
The men Josephson caricatured were in fact the creators of the industrial system that gave the United States
the most powerful and dynamic economy in the world. They were masters of organizationvisionaries and
risk takers who thought and acted on a grand scale
The entrepreneurs who came to dominate this scramble were to the American economy what the Founding
Fathers were to the political system. They also transformed New York into the financial, commercial,
corporate, social, and cultural nerve center of the nation. Among the hundreds of ways to look at New York
and what it reflects about the American experience, one important if overlooked way is to see it as the largest
living monument to the misnamed Robber Barons.
The Robber Barons put their stamp on cultural as well as business institutions in New York and most other
cities. There is scarcely a museum, art gallery, concert hall, orchestra, theater, university, seminary, charity, or
other social or educational institution that does not owe its beginnings and support to these men. Whatever
their motives, the enduring results remain one of the most impressive monuments to the Robber Barons'
careers.
Not all of the city's landmarks bear the name of the endower, as Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller Center do, but
mostfrom New York University to the New York Public Libraryhave money from the entrepreneurs
behind them.
Thanks to the efforts of the entrepreneurs, wealth congregated in New York as nowhere else in the land.
When the New York Tribune attempted in 1892 to identify every millionaire in the nation, by state and city, it
came up with a list of 4,047 names. Of that number, 27 percent lived in New York City, a figure not remotely
approached by any other place.

Document 3:
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/mf_flames.html
For Carnegie's workers, however, cheap steel meant lower wages, less job security, and the end of creative
labor. Carnegie's drive for efficiency cost steel workers their unions and control over their own labor.
To the casual observer a Carnegie mill was chaos. "Wild shouts resounded amid the rumbling of an overhead
train," McClure's Magazine reported of the Homestead mill in 1894. "On every side tumultuous action
seemed to make every inch of ground dangerous. Savage little engines went rattling about among the piles of
great beams. Dimly on my left were huge engines, moving with thunderous pounding."
Indeed, flames, noise, and danger ruled the Carnegie mills. "Protective gear" consisted only of two layers of
wool long-johns; horrible injuries were common. Wives and children came to dread the sound of factory
whistles that meant an accident had occurred.
"They wipe a man out here every little while," a worker said in 1893. "Sometimes a chain breaks, and a ladle
tips over, and the iron explodes.... Sometimes the slag falls on the workmen.... Of course, if everything is
working all smooth and a man watches out, why, all right! But you take it after they've been on duty twelve
hours without sleep, and running like hell, everybody tired and loggy, and it's a different story."
For Carnegie, efficiency, not safety, was paramount. His vast steel mills at Braddock, Duquesne, and
Homestead boasted the latest equipment. As technology improved, Carnegie ordered existing equipment to
be torn out and replaced. He quickly made back these investments through reduced labor costs, and his mills
remained always the most productive in the world.

Document 4:
Source: Letter from A Workman to the National Labor Tribune. Reprinted in The Coming Nation, 10 February
1894.
Oh, Almighty Andrew Philanthropist Library Carnegie, who art in America when not in Europe spending the
money of your slaves and serfs, thou art a good father to the people of Pittsburgh, Homestead and Beaver
Falls. We bow before thee in humble obedience of slavery. . . . We have no desire but to serve thee. If you
sayest black was white we believe you, and are willing, with the assistance of . . . the Pinkertons agency, to
knock the stuffin[g] out of anyone who thinks different, or to shoot down and imprison serfs who dare say
you have been unjust in reducing the wages of your slaves, who call themselves citizens of the land of the free
and the home of the brave. . . .
Oh, lord and master, we love thee because you and other great masters of slaves favor combines and trusts to
enslave and make paupers of us all. We love thee though our children are clothed in rags. We love thee
though our wives . . . are so scantily dressed and look so shabby. But, oh master, thou hast given us one great
enjoyment which man has never dreamed of beforea free church organ, so that we can take our shabby
families to church to hear your great organ pour forth its melodious strains. . . .
Oh, master, we thank thee for all the free gifts you have given the public at the expense of your slaves. . . .
Oh, master, we need no protection, we need no liberty so long as we are under thy care. So we command
ourselves to thy mercy and forevermore sing thy praise.
Amen!