captains of industry
...lowed them to receive a percent of the trust's profit. John D. Rockefeller was the first captain of industry to set up a trust. His trust was the Standard Oil Trust. A trust also allowed for a greater profit. It did this by eliminating competition and allowing the companies in the trust to have a fixed rate. Rockefeller became very rich because of this method and his Standard Oil Trust. His company was estimated to be worth one billion dollars at it's peak. The last form was the interlocking directorate. This existed when the directors of one firm were also the directors of another one. All of the “captains of industries” started out with similar ideas. These industrial methods were used in almost every industry. The industries ranged from simple sew shops to more complicated ones such as steel manufacturing and oil refining. The advantages of these large scaled businesses was that they could manufacture the same product for less and therefor sell it for less and make the same profit. They also eliminated waste by cutting out repetition. Which also saves money. Many people felt that the men that controlled these industries were, so called "Robber Barons", meaning that they cared nothing about the nation, other people or anything besides themselves. These false accusations came from mostly from people who had no education on what the captains of industry had done for the nation, and only the hard hours that they had made people work. The truth is that these entrepreneurs were very caring of our nation, and all the people in it. One of the most charitable men was John D. Rockefeller, the owner of the Standard Oil Trust. Which was worth about one billion dollars at it's peak of manufacturing. Rockefeller actually donated about five hundred fifty million dollars to charities and such organizations. These tremendous donations consumed about 80 percent of his earning. He had four main charities which he donated most of his money to. They were founded by Rockefeller, and dealt with education in many different forms, such as a library and a medical center. Another Captain of Industry that was far from a "Robber Baron" was John Pierpont Morgan. He controlled one of the six major railroads in the United States. In 1895 he organized an association of firms in order to pass the bond issue negotiated by President Grover Cleveland for increase of the United States gold reserve. This helped to stabilize the shaky economy after thepanic of 1893. Besides this contribution to the well being of his nation, Morgan was famous as an art collector and philanthropist. He contributed to art museums, cathedrals, churches and hospitals. Morgan clearly cared about his country and the people around him. He was a big part in stabilizing the nations economy and he contributed vast amounts to churches, museums and hospitals. Other captains of industry that also contributed greatly to the well being of the people were Cornelius Vanderbilt and his son William Henry Vanderbilt. Their fortune came from Cornelius's hard work, and his eventual ownership of the New York Central Rai...