John D Rockefeller: a Positive Influence on American Industry?

He was a brilliant business man that followed ethical ways. He became more known due to his accomplish of the Hughes H-4 Hercules. The government, during World War II, had funded a project for him to make a gigantic plane that could carry tanks to fight. He finished it but after the war had ended. He was later charged with lawsuits because of it, but he was found innocent since he had actually finished building it like he was told to. The Hughes H-4 Hercules is the biggest plane built to this day which has brought him a legacy, fame, and even fortune. Howard Hughes was a well-known and smart entrepreneur that had made it big, but Preston Tucker was not as fortunate. Howard Hughes is reminded in history often, and he is still well-known for many accomplishments, but on the other hand, Preston Tucker is not a part of history. They both had great ideas, but Howard Hughes was the better entrepreneur and more ethical than Preston Tucker and that is why he was more successful and why he had become a millionaire. In my opinion, they both were great entrepreneur, but Howard Hughes had made it big with his ideas unlike Preston Tucker who went down with his dream of the Tucker

From the years 1870-1937 John D. Rockefeller was a Captain of Industry and truly was an example of the idyllic American dream. He by his success as a Captain of Industry also set a precedent from then on about the way that other Captains of Industries made their wealth and ran their companies as well. Furthermore, John D. Rockefeller was a Captain of Industry because he built the Standard Oil Company and was a very generous philanthropist. John D. Rockefeller did generate lots of revenue and create many jobs in the United States but it also can be said that he took advantage of the less fortunate by paying them less and buying out competing businesses.

John D. Rockefeller, born on July 8, 1839, has had a huge impact on the course of American history, his reputation spans from being a ruthless businessperson to a thoughtful philanthropist (Tarbell 41). He came from a family with not much and lived the American dream, rising to success through his own wit and cunning, riding on the backs of none. His legacy is huge, amassing the greatest private wealth of any American in history. Rockefeller’s influence on our country has been both a positive and a negative one, he donated huge sums of money to various public institutions and revolutionized the petroleum industry. Along with all the positives to the country, Rockefeller also had many negative affects as well, including, by gaining his

Captains of industry were defined as the business leaders whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributed positively to the country or society in some way. Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were considered to be captains of industry because with their profits from either their steel company or standard oil company, they give back to the society instead of themselves. They believed in the idea that people give in to you, in which you must give out as well. They established many charitable foundations that allowed them to become well known philanthropist and made them distinguishable from the rubber barons.

John D. Rockefeller should be considered a Robber Baron. Rockefeller may be associated with a Robber baron because he used illegal tactics to create a strong oil company. The most uncertain things of all his success was how he got it. John was getting discounts from other railroad companies which made them suspicious of him. Which as you could see would be a disadvantage to other oil companies that were in competition with them. Rockefeller's competition found this practice and others he did to be funny which is why he was considered a robber baron by many people. Rockefeller owned basically the entire oil industry at the same time when he bought out the other oil businesses. Rockefeller workers barely made income, he always shortened their pay which made them stop working for him. The workers felt that if they were working hard they should get paid what they deserved. So even with him being one of the richest man alive who donated money to different business such as schools, churches and etc he used different unfair advantages to accomplish his success.

Like any other “Robber Baron” during the late 1800’s, J.P. Morgan was no different. He controlled finance and industrial consolidation and was well-known for being a banker. Credited for being one of the few to shape the U.S., Morgan did have a lust of power and greed, but that doesn’t stop him from being America’s leading businessman. His impact goes as far as the present with the many companies he created.

Any business, large or small, takes someone with a dream and a passion, exactly what Joseph Shaughnessy had. Starting out after his graduation from college, and ten yesars of employment, him and his friend Lorry Bannes were already making great strides, holding executive positions, but they wanted more. They took their desire and created their own business, setting up their future and achieving their goals. Did they make the right decisions along the way? Did they have the right balance? And how did Joe use the business to promote his beliefs?

He holds little as important as this day. The reason that I say that he is smart about how he went about becoming the oil tycoon is because he essentially gave it his all. His first oil refinery that was built was built to very impeccable standards unlike others of that time. Many people thought that the oil craze was something that will rise and fall real quick. Even though John D. was faced with this possibility he still was very careful about where he built his plant and about how the waste from it was disposed. He also had good working relationships with his employees and his partners. He also was able to talk an owner of a railroad company into allowing him to ship his oil for almost a dollar cheaper per barrel than the others. And then he sought to buy out all the other companies by either offering them cash or offering them stock in the company. Eventually all these little oil companies sold out to him and he founded Standard Oil Company (John D and his partners).

George Eastman and John D. Rockefeller were both captains of industry due to being philanthropists and innovators. George Eastman was an innovator by reinventing how people can take pictures. Before Eastman recreated the camera it was expensive, timely, and very bulky. Only rich people could afford camera equimpment and it was hard to bring anywhere because of how heavy it was. After Eastman’s new camera came out almost everyone could afford one, it was lighter, and much faster. More companies started to get into the camera business and more people became interested in photography. John Rockefeller was an innovator because he made oil a more usable resource. For example oil could now be used for cars and other machines instead of coal, because of this whales stopped getting hunted for whale oil.

In conclusion John. D rockefeller was not a overthrowing, ruthless business owner. He was sympathetic, intellectual, charitable and very clever. Without him universities, cities and especially New York would not be the same today. He helped form the oil production in america and made jobs and opportunities for american citizens and he was the most known philanthropist in HISTORY. John. D Rockefeller came from a middle-class, much like us, and built a kingdom on his back. Rockefeller is no Robber Baron. He is a Captain, a Captain of Industry. And his title should be changed as

John D. Rockefeller is a captain of industry in my opinion he did a lot for his country, first man to get a monopoly, was nothing became the most powerful man in the country worked hard and clean to get to his position.

A "robber baron" was someone who employed any means necessary to enrich themselves at the expense of their competitors. Did John D. Rockefeller fall into that category or was he one of the "captains of industry", whose shrewd and innovative leadership brought order out of industrial chaos and generated great fortunes that enriched the public welfare through the workings of various philanthropic agencies that these leaders established? In the early 1860s Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, who came to epitomize both the success and excess of corporate capitalism. His company was based in northwestern Pennsylvania.

John Piermont Morgan was most known as a financier, art collector and a philanthropist. He is probably the second most known robber baron besides Rockefeller. However, Morgan was worth an estimated 80 million dollars, or 1.2 billion dollars today, dwarfed by Rockefeller's $313 billion; but, "JP Morgan's power did not lie in the millions he had, it lay in the billions he controlled".

There was another huge oil boom after December. His associates digged another complete well near Rusk County. This well produced much more oil than the others. Since this has much more than any other, he had opened a billion-barrel oil field to make more money to pay of his debt that he had. As he kept on drilling for oil, later on he was a millionaire with all of those money he made off.

One of the most influential men in shaping America, one of the most brilliant men to walk this Earth, one of the most resilient and cut-throat entrepreneurs of time is John D. Rockefeller. There are a few things that make this man have a few of these qualities. The biggest and most important reasons is he is one of the very few men who literally made America and its reality what it is today. There are lots of men who made big moves to push America in this direction, but Rockefeller’s actions were so big that it made him the richest man in America. Well what did Rockefeller do that was so iconic? He discovered oil. Not only did he discover the biggest oil source in the world, the Standard Oil Company, but he also used his wealth to fund other philanthropic causes.