Andrew Carnegie an Industrial Statesman

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Christina Rodriguez David Tait History 2493 February 8, 2013 Andrew Carnegie, an “Industrial Statesman” Industrial leaders of the nineteenth century were considered “baron robbers” because of the harsh treatments of their employees, the low wages that were paid to the employees, the harsh work conditions that no one was allowed to complain about, and the long work hours that were being forced upon them because they knew that the workers were desperate and needed the money to provide for their families. The business owners abused the power they had over the employees often by hiring others to do a job and those men would turn around and hire local men for lower wages and at times pocketing a huge profit. Most of the business owners would know of the side dealings but would turn a blind eye. These leaders displayed ruthless ethics, which destroyed their competitors, in order to satisfy their own greed. However, Andrew Carnegie was no angel in the business world; however, he can be considered more of an “industrial statesman” because he worked his way to his position of wealth through hard work. Carnegie enhanced and modernized the American capitalist system by making the nation more productive and therefore stronger economically. Andrew Carnegie’s economic power helped build America to what it is today. At the age of twelve, he emigrated from Scotland to the United States; he worked from a young age at various types of jobs, saving money and investing his savings, and within twenty years he had a substantial annual income. This was when he decided to invest his time in the iron business and go into business for himself. He “grasped the importance of technological improvements” and used it to build his company, The Carnegie Steel Company. However, Carnegie was a “merciless competitor”; the norm of business monopolies in the nineteenth century was crude and
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