VLAU \o -(;UnWIIicalledsuchmen "captainsofindustry." T h eir critics
called them"robbe rbarons"-or wo rst'!
And rewC arne gie waso neofth ebest knownofth ese
men.C arnegi ewasbornin Scotlan d in 1835.but
immigrated toArnc rica atthe agt'ofthirteen.H e
bega n his lifetherework ingfor0 1K'd ollar twen ty
centsJweek in a Pittsb urgh cott on mill. Fro mthere
h e m o vedtoajob inatelegraphoffice,then to one
011 the Penns ylvan ia Railroad .ll y the ti meh e w as
thirty healreadyhadallincomeofoverforty
th ou san dd o llars a yt'arfro mfar- sightedin vestm ents.
C arn egi econcentratedhis i nves tments in the iron
andsteelbusiness.By till'It>60s he controlled
companies m akin g b ridges,rails.andlocom o tives
forth e railroads.In th e IS70sIll' b uilt the b iggest
sn-cl m illin Americao n th e MOllo ngahdaRiv er in
Pen nsylv ani a.I I c alsobought coal and iro n o re
m ines,a tiecrofsteamships to carryoreacros sthe
GreatLakesfro mM esab i to apo n heownedo n Lake
Erie, and a railro ad toconne ctthepontohi...steel
work sin Penn sylvania.
Nothin glikeCarnegie'swealthand industrialpowt'r
hadever beforebeen seen inAmerica.By! l)l MI,a...
ownero fhalfrhc sharesin the giantC arnegie Steel
Corpo ratio n,his an nua l incom ewasestimatedto be
o ver rwcnr v- rh -ccmillion dollar...- this wasabout
tw enty th ou sand rimesm o rt'th antheinco meofrhc
averageAme ricano f the d ay ,T heg reat wealt hofm enlike Carnegiecar nepartlv
fro m their successinswallowinguprivalfir m so r
d ri ving themo utofb usiucs s.Huvincssmcnlike
Carnegie andJ o hn0 .Rockefeller ,the "king"o f the
g ro wingo il industry.realized thattheycould g reatly
increasetheirpro fitsbydoingthis.Theycould
redu ce the costsofrunning theircompan ies.and
with no competitorsto challengethe irpositionthey
co u ld raisethep rices ofrhcirproductstowhatever
leveltheywished.EliWhitneyandtheAmerican
system
Eli Whitne y, them anwhoin vent ed the cotton
g in, never made muchmOlleyfro mit.Toolllany
people copiedh isorig ina l machin ewithoutpaying
hi many th ing.Inabo utIMLJ(J Whim eybegan to make guns .Until
th is ti me thesehadalwaysbeen made by...killed
g un m akers. Each g U ll W:lS individually mad e.
entirely b yone m anand a partfrom o ne gun
wouldno t necessarily ti t another. Whitneychanged
th is. At a facto ry he o pened in Ncwha vcn,
Connecticut.he began tolise machinestomake
guns.H is machinesmadeindivid ua l partsforguns
in separateo per ati o nsandill large numb ers.Most
import an tof:III, th eymade part sthatw ere e xactl y
alike, so that allypart woul d fit any gu n.T his
mad eit possible fo rg uns to be putto getherin
stages. \virhdifferent workerseach carr yin gour
o neparticulartask.
Whitney 's\\' ay of working m eantthatg uns co u ld
nowbe mad eby m en w ithoutenoug hsk ill to
make a com ple te gun, I Ic had workedo m th e
mainideasofa\\';IYofmanufacturin g thatwould
laterbecome kno wn as th e "American syste m. "
Laterstillth isAmerican system becam e k no wnas
" massprod uctio n. ",l\1assp ro d uct ion wasa\Try
impo rtant discovery. Withoutit the standar d o f
livingofeodav'sU n i tedStares. an d thato f the
entire ind us trializedworld,wouldnotb e possible.