In comparison between robber barons and captains of industry, most of these people are considered captains of industry. This is because most of the given people all affected the country and the business world positively for reasons that are stated as well as others. Although a couple people are obviously Robber Barons, for example Cornelius Vanderbilt, most of the rest are obviously captains of industry, donating money, making money and becoming a key reason for how the business industry became as fair as it is now. All of these people have in some way either contributed to the increase of productivity, providing more jobs, or expanding the market in a very crucial way.
A very important reason why these eight guys would be considered captains of there industries is because the captain of our industries today are also doing things that are going to help this country that kinda relate what they were doing back then. Back then they were doing many thing to help out there country for example Henry Frick began buying coal mines, and he eventually controlled 80 percent of the coal output of Pennsylvania. Also, another example of this would be James hill and how he started his own business called the St. Paul, Minnesota & Manitoba Railway Company, and expanded until his production of agricultural and other products carried to the rest of the country. He helped out the country a lot, and really stepped it up a notch and showed the country what technology is about. Not only was he making billions of dollars but he was also giving away about 58% of all of his money to charity every year to people who need the money a lot more that he does. To me I think that the captain of industries today and the ones from back then really relate to each other a lot, in doing good things for the country.
Another reason that these men were considered captains of industry instead of robber barons has to do with the amount of money they gave