What debate question can I ask to a person that think Andrew Carnegie is captain of industry (a good man)?

Question

I am to debate in class. I think Andrew Carnegie is a robber baron, and the other person thinks he is a captain of industry-thus a good man. What questions can I ask him.
I can't come up with good, and solid questions for this debate
Thank you.

Answer 1

Well, a robber baron is an unscrupulous captain of industry. ;-)

Ask your opponent if Carnegie backed the decision of of his associate and partner Henry Clay Frick to beat up strikers and to hire scabs during the Homestead Strike.

"Andrew Carnegie : 1892: Homestead Strike" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie#Controversies

"Homestead Strike" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike

Also ask him if a similar steel and railroad monopoly would have been allowed now. Why did President Harry S. Truman attempt to take over the US Steel's steel mills in 1952? Why did President John F. Kennedy pressured the steel industry into reversing price increases in 1962? The federal government prevented U. S. Steel from acquiring National Steel in 1984 and political pressure from the United States Congress forced it to abandon plans to import British Steel slabs.

"U.S. Steel" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Steel_Corporation#History

"Some historians consider that the vast accumulation of wealth and power among the men known as robber barons constituted a substantial mis-allocation of resources across society. The harsh reality of the existence of robber barons in the United States inspired the 19th century economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen to write The Theory of the Leisure Class. In this work, Veblen argues that the modern businessman, including the international banker, is not different from a barbarian because he uses brute force, cunning and competitive skills to make money from others, and then lives off the spoils of conquests rather than producing things himself. Modern scholars, such as the Professor of Economics Robert Heilbroner, describe robber barons in a similar way. In his book The Worldly Philosophers Heilbroner claims that robber barons used deception, violence, kidnappings and extraordinary dishonesty to gain economic power and industrial supremacy."

"Robber baron (industrialist)" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_%28industrialist%29#Impact_on_Society

Answer 2

Carnegie was a member of the South Forks Hunting & Fishing Club 14 miles up stream from Johnstown , PA.
On Memorial Day, 1889, the dam at the Club's lake burst, largely because the club, made up of "Captains of Industry" like Carnegie, had disabled its safety systemss. This dam break caused the Johnstown Flood which wiped several towns off the face of the earth, destroyed Johnstown & killed 2200 people. While people from around the country contributed millions of dollars to Johnstown's survivors, Carnegie & the other members of the club never paid one penny for negligence or damages.

The question that you pose is:
Would you say that a Carnegie was a responsible man, concerned about the lives of the less fortunate?
Then how could he, along w/ other 'Captains of Industry" , ignore his responsibility for the deaths of over 2000 innocent people as a result from an improperly maintained dam on
the property of the South Fork Hunting & Fishing Club, of which he was a member? The rupture of this dam in 1889 destroyed Johnstown PA. How could a 'responsible man' not face up to his portion of the responsibility for this disaster?

Answer 3

Why was Andrew Carnegie so insistent on using local government money for all his schemes (eg public libraries)

Did he use government contacts built up during the Civil War to help sell his steel?

Why did he spend so much time trying to influence the politics of a (by then) foreign country, the UK?

Answer 4

Ask about Carnegie's responsibility for the violence of the Homestead strike.