Robber Baron and Business Men

During this “Gilded Age” business men have been creating large business organizations known as trusts, this ingenuity of these entrepreneurs has been earning them the title “Captains of Industry” yet their ruthlessness in the building of their industries and wealth at the expense of their competitors has been earning some of these men the title of “Robber Barons”. I personally believe that these business men have negatively affected the people around them, making them titled as “Robber Barons”. I chose to talk about documents A, D, & E because they show /describe the “Robber Barons” the best. In document A it shows the picture named “Puck”. In this picture it shows the workers on the bottom, putting all this work into holding up this company up, or in the picture the ship and the owners or the business men do nothing but make all the money. This truly shows that the owners should be counted as “Robber Barons” mostly because they aren’t helping anyone but themselves by making other people to do their job, and not paying them even close to what he could pay them. In document D it demonstrates the picture “The Great Race for the Western Stakes 1870”. In this document these two men are competing to build off the railroad, but the difference is, Vanderbilt, the person on the left of this picture, with the two R.R’s is very successful and rich and just not giving anyone else the chance to have any success, while the one to the right just wants to try and expand his R.R company, but Vanderbilt, isn’t letting that happen. In document E this cartoon is titled “The Trust Giants Point of View”. This document shows Rockefeller looking down upon the Whitehouse, making a point that he’s bigger and better than everyone with his oil industry. All three document show these men showing that they are “Robber Barons” by how badly they treat society and how they look down on everyone else. I believe that this “Gilded Age” has been negatively affected by the actions of these business men mostly to the fact that they are taking advantage of something they should be privileged to have. These men have showed no remorse for people who are not as privileged or even people coming from poverty and the middle class, they will do anything to make as much money as they possibly can, making it unfair for anyone else.