Cons Of Industrial America Essay Example

society.

Carnegie debates that in order to produce the greatest benefit to society, surplus wealth should be distributed when overseen by the wealthy to be distributed. He also argues that the capital mined should not be used inefficiently as far as self-indulgences and material things.

Instead, Carnegie encourages the use of wealth to close the huge cap of the rich and poor. At the end, Carnegie explains that a man that does not put his wealth has not applied himself as he stated, "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced. "3 Samuel Compeers was an immigrant from London that was a cigar maker at the age of 10 along with his father.

Compeers had worked as a cigar maker along his father, until he was hired at a local shop.

4 In 1 875, Compeers was elected president of a local union that was for cigar makers only. Compeers worked his way up in positions in this union and when the FALL was created, he was elected president of the union. Under his leadership, the FALL became the largest and most influential labor federation in the world. In his "Letter on Labor in Industrial Society' he is writing to Crosscut, a federal judge that ordered an injunction on the American Railroad Union to restrain them from interfering with interstate commerce.

Crosscut accused the Unions to be a conspiracy, and became his reasoning for the injunction. In this letter Compeers criticizes Crosscut of the charge and continued to push for the need of large social unions. He argues that the working man should not have to sit back and suffer and should be allowed to

take action in an orderly fashion. He questions that if the country is prospering and the wealth created benefits the nation, how we explain families living in those conditions in such great numbers.

At the end, he explains that the labor union would unify more and achieve a better life for humanity.

In the Gospel of Wealth Carnegie explains that it is the duty of the man of wealth to provide for the poor. 'This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth; First to set an example of modest instantaneous living, hunting display, or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him..

. "6 However, I believe this idea complicates my idea because Carnegie believes the wealthy should have the choice to use the surplus of their revenue to help in the way that they would like.

This challenges my point because the wealthy is given the option to distribute wealth. At the same time, agree that the money that these big corporations make, should be distributed to the laborers through higher wages and benefits.

What ultimately complicated this idea is that the things hat the people need, would not necessarily be what the surplus wealth would provide for. In Letter Of Labor in Industrial Society Samuel Compeers explains that the Grand Jury did not consider the circumstances when charging the union with injunction. L have had the pleasure of reading your charge to the Grand Jury, and have only partially been able to discover how far you believe in labor Organizations. You would certainly have no objection officially or personally to workingmen organizing, and in

their meetings discuss perhaps "the origin of man," benignly smiling upon each other, and clearing that all existing things are right, going to their wretched homes to find some freedom in sleep from gnawing hunger. "7 think this is important to recognize because it shows the disregard that the government had for the poor.

This excerpt emphasizes the importance the government should have had to help the poor just as extensively as it goes to protect these large monopolies. Compeers blatantly challenges Crosscut morals when it comes to the boundaries the government exceeds for these corporations. "Because a certain class (for which you and a number of your colleagues on the bench me to be the special pleaders) have a monopoly in their lines of trade, I submit that this is no good reason for their claim to have a monopoly on true patriotism or respect for the lawful institutions of the country. 8 Here he explains that labor unions are not harmful and is a part of the rights of these people, and that the government is accommodating these monopolies, while suppressing these workers in the unions. This approves my argument that the government seen the people forming a union as a threat.

This also reveals how powerful these corporations were and the influence and control they had. In both of the documents Carnegie and Compeers agree that the conditions that these workers live in are unacceptable in the society at the time.