Running head: The Men Who Built America 1

The Men Who Built America:

Reflection Paper

Shayne M. Latzel

University of Wisconsin- La Crosse

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Journal One: A New War Begins

The Men Who Built America is an intense documentary that illustrates the trials

and troubles the leaders of the Industrial Revolution endured to become some of the

most successful and revered men in American history. Through their struggles, they

created some of the most revolutionary management and production ideas which aided

in shaping many great aspects of this country today.

In this first episode, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jim Fisk, and Jay Gould are

introduced. Vanderbilt began his career as a simple steam boat entrepreneur, but later

became the head of a “railroad empire”, as The New Netherland Institute would later

refer to it. Vanderbilt was a pioneer of his time. He was extremely successful in his

steam boat and shipping endeavors, but he noticed there were more opportunities in the

railroad business. For that reason, he sold his entire shipping empire and invested in

railroads. Vanderbilt recognized that the east and west needed to be united if America

wanted to gain respect from other countries in the world.

I think Cornelius Vanderbilt was an extremely brilliant person. He used his

knowledge of the shipping industry to become wildly successful in the railroad industry. I

think many business ventures fail because people are hesitant to enter into a different

market. Businesses can view different markets or industries in a negative light because

due to unfamiliarity or the inability to see the opportunity that the new market or industry

may hold. Vanderbilt pushed aside these thoughts because he was able to recognize

the opportunity with railroads. He knew railroads were the future.

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I think another key attribute of an entrepreneur is knowing what your competition

is doing or thinking. You need to understand how to see the bigger picture. This is

another reason Vanderbilt was so ruthless. The knowledge he possessed of other

people’s businesses venture as well as his own was far more than his competitors

combined. Vanderbilt had his foot in the door in everything, and that was how he could

manipulate his way to the top.

One of the moments that really stood out to me was when Vanderbilt did not

allow any trains to cross the Hudson River Bridge. The reason this occurred was due to

Vanderbilt’s unhappiness with the contract that was negotiated with the owners of New

York Central. Vanderbilt understood the importance of the bridge and he was aware of

his power and leverage over New York Central. Vanderbilt was ruthless in his tactics to

control all the major railways in the United States. Many people would label him as cold,

mean, and brutal. All the above may be true, but I think his mentality is what sets him

apart from other businessmen of his time.

Journal Two: Oil Strike

The second episode began to focus on another great entrepreneur of that time,

John D. Rockefeller. While Cornelius Vanderbilt was molding his railway empire,

Rockefeller was discovering the power of the oil industry. Rockefeller started his

business career as a bookkeeper. It was here where he began to understand the

rationale behind transportation costs. Rockefeller used this knowledge to show that

railroads could transport his oil for him less expensively, but they would actually be

more profitable. After using the railways to transport his oil, many disputes started to

arise from both the railways and other oil refineries. Rockefeller responded by
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completely cutting out the railroads and building a pipeline from the oil fields directly to

his refinery in Ohio.

Rockefeller saw that not only could he cut the railroads out for good, but he

would be able to cut costs in the long run because he would not have to be paying

shipping costs to the railroad companies. Building this pipeline was not an easy task

and it required a very large investment, but Rockefeller knew that this was the answer to

his problem. Mark Cuban, a very successful modern day entrepreneur and owner of the

Dallas Mavericks said that, “Wherever there is change, wherever there is uncertainty,

there’s opportunity.” (Allen, 2012) As I mentioned in my first journal, entrepreneurs see

the opportunity in everything. The change from railroads shipping Rockefeller’s oil to the

pipeline transporting the oil was a very large uncertainty, but that its where Rockefeller

saw the opportunity. He understood that this was a huge risk, but if it worked, it would

make him one of the most successful men in America.

Like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller saw the opportunity that oil could bring him.

Rockefeller was also a very driven man. He did not like to take no for an answer, and

when things would not go his way, Rockefeller did not just quit and give up. He thought

of alternative ways to get the job done. Innovation, creativity, and improvement are the

best ways to describe his tactics. I am beginning to see a trend in the personalities and

attitudes of these historic men.

Journal Three: Rivalry is Born

The third episode of the series begins to really show the dirty details of the great

entrepreneurs lives. More specifically, this episode illustrated the triumphs and troubles

that Andrew Carnegie went through to compete with J.D. Rockefeller. I found it inspiring
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the amount of hard work and innovation that Carnegie went through to compete with

Rockefeller as the richest man in the country.

To briefly recap the episode, it started out with giving a history of Andrew

Carnegie and his life leading up to Carnegie Steel. Carnegie was a Scottish boy that

moved to Pennsylvania in his early teen years. It was there when he met Thomas Scott,

as he worked for Scott as a personal assistant. Thomas Scott was an executive for the

Pennsylvania Railroad. Scott took Carnegie under his wing because he saw a great

amount of potential in Carnegie. By age 24, Carnegie was a manager of the company

and Scott’s right hand man. Like the other great entrepreneurs, Scott saw that westward

expansion was where the opportunities where being held.

Scott’s plan with this opportunity was to bridge the gap between the east and

west, literally. Scott appointed Carnegie to run and lead the project of building the St.

Louis bridge, a bridge to cross the Mississippi. This was to be the biggest rail bridge of

that time, and many people did not think it could be done because iron could not

support the weight to cross that great of a distance. Carnegie knew that he would have

to innovate something extraordinary. Carnegie meet with many scientist and discovered

a way to mass produce steel, a compound that is much stronger than iron. It was this

innovation that catapulted Carnegie’s empire.

After building the St. Louis Bridge, Carnegie knew that the demand for railroad

steel was declining and the demand for structural steel was beginning to increase

rapidly. Alan Greenspan, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve said that, “America

grew up vertically on steel.” (Allen, 2012) Andrew Carnegie was able to predict and

understand this is the direction he needed to go to keep his business lucrative.

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It is these types of insights that lead to an entrepreneur’s success. They are able

to see a growing trend before other people can see them. They can predict a future

outcome or create a method so that outcome is the only possible way it will work out.

Journal Four: Blood is Spilled

As Carnegie’s steel empire began to take hold, Carnegie realized that he needed

to keep cutting costs to compete with Rockefeller as the richest man in the country. So

Carnegie hired Henry Frick to cut costs and restructure Carnegie Steel. Henry Frick was

the largest coal supplier in the Midwest, and he was known for being extremely ruthless

in his business practices. Although Carnegie was not a ruthless man, he was a very

intelligent business man and he wanted that “merciless edge” (Allen, 2012). Carnegie

knew that Frick would be the man to do just that. Carnegie gave Frick full reign over the

business and he was free to make or enact any plan that he thought was necessary to

cut costs. As I watched this episode, I saw some of the true horrors that the workers

had to endure.

I am beginning to understand that even though these entrepreneurs were making

these great innovations in industry, they were not doing it by themselves. The working

conditions that they had to endure were awful and extremely dangerous. One of Frick’s

reform was to make the men work 12 hour days for six days of the week. I used to work

in asbestos abatement so I can understand working hard manual labor hours in hot

environments, but I cannot even fathom what some of those men had to go through.

There have been times were we would have to work 10 hour days for 14 days straight

and and the end of those two weeks we got a 4-day vacation. That alone was tough but

we got an hour for lunch and we could get out of the heat.
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They did not have that luxury back then, they had to endure much worse and at

the time the could not even voice their opposition. If they had a problem with something

they were just fired. So many of the workers did not say anything at all and just kept

working because they needed the money. In some cases, the men were working so

hard and so long they literally worked themselves to death. Most of these occurrences

were because someone messed up or was to slow to react because they were so sleep

deprived. This episode helped me understand the man power that was used to build

these empires.

As I watch the development of these businesses I can see that not all these men

are perfect. As an example, Carnegie was not a mean or ruthless man, but he

understood that there needed to be change to in his company to compete with Standard

Oil. So Carnegie appointed someone whose strengths were being ruthless and

competitive. Many of the narrators in the episode talked about how a great

businessman understands what their weaknesses are, and works with others whose

strengths are exactly those weaknesses. I have seen this same idea in my workplace.

My two managers are very different people, but where one struggles the other succeeds

and it has worked out really well for them.

Journal Five: A New Rival Emerges

This fifth episode was the most eventful one I have watched so far. They

introduced J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla. All three of these gentlemen

were crucial to American history. In comparison to entrepreneurs like Rockefeller and

Carnegie, J.P. Morgan was not ruthless to begin with. He started as an investor that

would buy dying companies, rebuild them, then sell them. Morgan knew that there was
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a way to make more money like Rockefeller and Carnegie. So Morgan decided he

wanted to build a business from ground up and make his millions that way.

Morgan began his search for the next best invention in the U.S., and he came

upon Thomas Edison who was working on the light bulb and electricity. It was there J.P.

Morgan saw the potential of electricity. Many people were skeptical that electricity could

be a booming business. J.P. Morgan’s father, Junius Morgan, was disappointed that his

son was paying any attention to this invention. He believed electricity only belonged in

the circus. J.P. Morgan thought otherwise, and he continued his quest to bring electricity

to the entire public. Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett and Packard said that

“There’s no success without risk taking.” (Allen, 2012) This is illustrated with J.P.

Morgan’s pursuit to bring electricity to every home in America.

As with any business venture, there are always competitors that are looking to do

the same thing. When Morgan started to work with Edison, he did not think that there

would be any other competition. He was sadly mistaken when news of Nikola Tesla,

Edison’s assistant, was working on a different form of electricity. This different form was

call alternating current, or AC. AC was highly debated at that time because they thought

it was unpredictable and the science was not clearly defined. This started a continuous

battle between Tesla and Edison.

After looking back at this episode I can see that there are many risks when

starting a business, or entering a new market. One of the risks that do not always seem

to be looked at is the risk of losing your family support. One of the biggest obstacles that

I think an entrepreneur faces is the potential lack of support from their family. J.P.

Morgan’s father did not approve of anything that his son was doing. If I was an
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entrepreneur at that time, I think it would be really hard for me to keep moving forward if

I did not have the support of my family. I am beginning to see that many of these

inventors and entrepreneurs put their family and social life aside because they believed

that they served a bigger cause, and they wanted to improve the lives of the American

people.

Journal Six: Owning it All

The six episode began to develop rivalry and competition between J.P. Morgan

and Thomas Edison versus George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. The battle

between alternating current and direct current was just the tip of the ice berg with this

rivalry. The real war was about who would become the leader in the electricity industry.

One of the factors, if not the most important factor, was to see who would acquire the

contract for the Niagara Falls Power Plant.

This was such a large electricity project that a propaganda war started between

Edison and Tesla. Edison tried to tarnish the reputation of Tesla and his alternating

current by creating the first electric chair, used to kill members on death row because

hanging was beginning to be to medieval for society. Edison used alternating current in

his design of the electric chair with the hopes of the alternating current technology to be

associated with Nikola Tesla. The chair was a complete failure and it ended up

essentially frying the man to death instead of electrocuting him. The alternating current

never came back to Tesla, but Edison was now associated with the electric chair and a

failed execution.

The lengths that some people go to, to tarnish a reputation is astounding to me.

Edison was willing to invent a device to kill people in the hopes of destroying someone’s
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reputation. This episode has shown me what can happen when people begin to get

selfish and greedy. Money and power and corrupt some of the worlds smartest people.

Edison truly thought that the electric chair was a good way to try and further his product

and company. Its shocking to me how much greed and power can cloud a person’s

judgment in the pursuit to be the best. The next big trial was the lighting if the Chicago

World Fair. Westinghouse drastically under bid the project so that he and Tesla could

acquire the contract and he also believed that Tesla could light it for cheaper using his

alternating current technology. In doing this Tesla also gave all the rights to his patents

to Westinghouse sacrificing any financial gain to release his technology of the

alternating current.

As I watching this episode I began to see the Tesla was very much an underdog

and is extremely underrated within American history. Tesla gave up his rights to the

patents because he did not care about the money or the fame, Tesla cared about the

American people and how his technology could benefit society. As I thought about my

previous education on the history if the United States, I do not remember Nikola Tesla

being brought up at all. Most the spotlight was always on Thomas Edison and his work

with the light bulb. In fact, it was not until the new Tesla cars were coming that I actually

heard of the name Tesla. I have become very intrigued with Nikola Tesla and have

started to learn more about him because he is very important within American and even

the world history.

As a result of the World Fair, Westinghouse and Tesla won the contract for the

Niagara Falls Power Plant and with that they built the first major hydro-electric power

plant. (http://www.teslasociety.com/exhibition.htm) Even though Westinghouse and

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Tesla won the contract and built the power plant, J.P. Morgan was not through with

them. Morgan was going to take Westinghouse to trial. Westinghouse would have won

the trial but he would have been financial drained, and he just could not do that. After

Morgan took over Westinghouse Electric he proceeded with a hostile takeover to gained

controlling interest from Edison. Morgan then renames the company General Electric

and values the company at $50 million, which translates to $1 billion in todays dollars.

J.P. Morgan has showed me that even though you may have lost everything you

were working towards, that does not mean you stop pursuing your dreams. He lost the

contract for the Niagara Falls Power Plant, and that was the biggest contract to his

company on the map. Instead of quitting, he decided he would use his knowledge to

merely take the company my force. I do not think that I would be able to do that

because I feel that my morals are higher than Morgan’s, but it really just comes down to

business. He did not have any personal problems with Westinghouse and Tesla. He

wanted to become one of the richest men in the country, and with General Electric he

did just that.

Journal Seven: Taking the White House

This seventh episode began to show the inevitable downfall of the monopolies. It

all started during the 1896 presidential election. William Jennings Bryan was one of the

democratic candidates that was an advocate for anti-trust laws and anti-trust

prosecution. Bryan was one of the biggest threats to the monopolies, so the Titans

(Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan) decided that they needed to essentially buy the

new president. William McKinley was a republican running at that time, and the Titans

gave him with over $200,000, which equates to almost $20 million today, to fund his
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election campaign. McKinley outspent Bryan five to one and as a result, won the

election.

With the worries of trust busting behind them, the Titans began to invest in other

companies because they had so much money that was the only thing they could do.

While these investments are going on, J.P. Morgan is planning on expanding his

empire. Morgan wants to consolidate all the steel manufacturing into one place. To do

this though, means that he would need to do a complete take over of Andrew

Carnegie’s empire. Morgan sets up a meeting with Carnegie’s right-hand-man and tells

him to ask Carnegie what his selling price would be. Carnegie ends up selling his entire

empire for $480 million which then brings his net worth to over $310 billion in today’s

money. With that fortune, Carnegie becomes one of the richest men in history.

J.P Morgan calls his new company U.S. Steel. This monopoly was only possible

because there were no anti trust laws to be enforced, but that was all going to change.

Theodore Roosevelt was beginning to step in the political spotlight, and he had strong

views on anti-trust. Morgan and Rockefeller knew that if Roosevelt was elected to office,

that would be the end of their monopolies. Roosevelt was elected to be vice president,

but after William McKinley

Journal Eight: The New Machine

The last episode was a perfect conclusion to the Titan’s legacy. Rockefeller

came back from running from the law to stand trial in the United States vs. Standard Oil

case. The verdict of the trial was that the Standard Oil Trust must be broken up within 6

months. Although this was a sad day for Rockefeller, he was still making a lot of money

because he now held stock in 34 smaller companies. The last episode did not go into
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great detail about what the Titans did after the trust breaking, but instead showed us the

start of a new generation of business with Henry Ford.

Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company, with the goal of producing the first

car affordable to the common man. Ford faced many obstacles in his pursuit of this

goal, with one of the biggest obstacles being the Association of Licensed Automobile

Manufactures, ALAM. ALAM was basically a large automobile monopoly because they

held the patents to the automobile and automobile manufacturing. This did not stop

Ford from making cars and beginning to perfect the production of the car. One of the

turning points for Henry Ford, was his race with Alexander Winton. Winton was a very

well known known automobile racer, and he was also a member of ALAM. Ford won the

race and instantly became a hero and a celebrity to the common man. With this new

found fame, Ford raised money to establish his first automobile manufacturing plant in

Highland Park, Michigan.

ALAM was not happy with Ford’s new plant, so they filed a lawsuit for breaching

their patents. In a surprise decision, the court ruled in favor of Ford. This meant that the

automobile belonged to the people. Ford was a strong anti-monopolist, he believed in

competition with products so that the people could have their options. He was one of the

first people to pay his workers a living wage and have them work a 40-hour work week.

Ford’s biggest contributing to the manufacturing industry was his innovation of the

assembly line. He revolutionized production with the assembly line and perfected mass

production.

Henry Ford introduced a new generation of capitalism to the United States. He

encouraged competition and was a leader in innovation. There are many traits that he
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shared with the older generation of entrepreneurs. He did not cower at a challenge, did

not let any obstacles get in his way, he took risks, and was constantly working to better

the lives of the American people. The biggest difference that I saw between Ford and

the Titans was that Henry Ford truly cared about his workers and their well being. He

made sure that they were given a livable wage and proper work hours. He understood

that his production line would be the most efficient if his workers enjoyed what they

were doing, and what they were working towards.

Analysis

After watching The Men Who Built America I can begin to understand why these

men are so important to the history and development of the Unites States. These men

were pioneers of industry and gave everything they had to building America’s

infrastructure. This documentary was able to show where America’s infrastructure

originated from and what some of the difficulties were to get there.

Looking back on my journals I can see a common them with these

entrepreneurs, their drive and their passion. There drive for perfection, or their drive for

more is like nothing I have ever seen. If you ask random people on the streets what

hobbies or interest were, you might get answers like, sports, reading, spending time

with family, art, etc. If you ask J.D. Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie what their hobbies

or interests were, it would be to make money. That is what sets them apart from any

other entrepreneur in history, their passion to make money is what woke them up in the

morning.

If I were to compare these historic entrepreneurs to famous businessmen of

today, it would be very difficult because there are several factors that must be
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considered. Simply accounting for their net worth, Bill Gates or Warren Buffet would be

among the top contenders. Another great entrepreneurial pioneer of our generation

would be Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg started the social media obsession with

Facebook and that sparked a wide array of other social media outlets. An additional

pioneer of the technology industry is Steve Jobs. Jobs created Apple by initially building

computers out of his parent’s garage. As of 2013, “Apple’s market

capitalization reached 450 billion U.S. dollars” (Statista, 2016). Apple has become the

leader in the smartphone industry and much like Ford Motor Company was with the

automobile, Apple has been a leader in bringing the smartphone to the common man.

As the documentary has shown us, nothing came easy for the entrepreneurs.

There was a lot of hard work and dedication that went it to creating and growing their

empires. One of the biggest lessons that I took away from this documentary is to never

let someone else dictate your future. If there is something that you want or something

that you dream of becoming, the only person that should get in the way of that is

yourself. These great entrepreneurs let their imagination guide them to because they

saw the potential that their ideas held.

The Men Who Built America is an inspirational and motivational documentary. It

captivates one of the most important time periods in American history. Without the drive

and determination of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, J.P Morgan, and John D.

Rockefeller, America would not be the country that we are today. Those men were able

to overcome huge obstacles to create some of the largest monopolies in history.

Without these men and their hard work America would not be the country it is today. I
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hold a lot of respect for the work ethic and drive that these men had. I can only dream of

leaving an impact as large as they did for the American people.

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Works Cited

Allen, D. (Producer). (2012). The Men Who Built America (Television Series). United

States of America: Stephen David Entertainment

Apple - Statistics & Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2016, from

http://www.statista.com/topics/847/apple/

Cornelius Vanderbilt. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2016, from

http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-

heritage/dutch_americans/cornelius-vanderbilt/