Andrew Carnegie: Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?

Harold Livesay's biography of Andrew Carnegie portrays a man who can be called at once both a Robber Baron and a Captain of Industry. This paper attempts to show how each title applied to Carnegie in his lifetime and how, in fact, the two titles — far from being dissimilar — may actually be considered synonymous.

Andrew Carnegie's humble beginnings do not necessarily qualify him for the title of "Captain of Industry" simply because he rose from poor immigrant status to tycoon. What Livesay's portrayal does accomplish is showing how Carnegie came to personify the "American Dream" — even if that dream was also a nightmare. Carnegie's unflagging disposition and drive helped him thrive in an industry that was rapidly changing even as he himself was growing up.

His work in the Pennsylvania Railroad gave him the experience he needed to manage investments that would ultimately allow him to develop his own steel company. Like the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was the biggest corporation of the day, Carnegie's steel business would become the number one industry on the planet. Part of what made Carnegie a "Captain of Industry" was the fact that he was in the right place at the right time: as Livesay states, "The United States transferred much of its capital, manpower, and technology from the old agricultural world to the new industrial one" (21), and Carnegie found himself right at the center of it.

By controlling his investments and overseeing the rise of his steel manufacturing industry, Carnegie placed himself more and more at the forefront of the industrial revolution. He was a serious reader, a friend of intelligent men, and — most importantly — driven to succeed.

What Carnegie absorbed was a true sense of capitalism — a point that ties the two titles of "Captain of Industry" and "Robber Baron" together. As Livesay asserts, "The successful capitalist views money as something to use to make more money, not as something to spend; its value depends on what it will earn, not on what it will buy. One has to overthrow the consumer's mentality and replace it with the accumulator's" (53). Making money out of nothing but money is the essence of the capitalist endeavor, and Carnegie understood this lesson well.

Carnegie's philosophy was ruthless, derived as it was from the social Darwinism of the day: survival of the fittest translated into kill or be killed. In the business world, this meant that a "Captain of Industry" should be just as ready to act as a "Robber Baron" if he wanted to hold onto that first title. Carnegie's partner in the steel industry was Henry Frick, who was staunchly anti-union.

The Homestead Strike of 1892 resulted — as a consequence of Frick's organizing of strikebreakers and the men hired to protect them — in a confrontation that left several men dead and many more badly injured. The strike and the violent attempt to break it cast a long shadow over Carnegie's reputation. After all, he had left Frick in charge to settle the dispute, and he must have known that Frick would not shy away from violence.

Carnegie's philosophy could also be seen in the way he forced J.P. Morgan to buy out Carnegie's steel manufacturing business for nearly half a billion dollars. By threatening to undermine the market — lowering his prices to such a degree that Morgan's own steel operations would be crippled and unable to keep up with the competition — Carnegie compelled Morgan to meet his asking price. This maneuver allowed Carnegie to retire from the business side of things and turn to philanthropy and his own "gospel of wealth."