And now the last couple Alex Taylor Crime Stories, starting with America’s most powerful:
The Big Men
That’s John Jacob Astor‘s portrait up there. You’ll read about him and other derided magnates shortly. Will it feel as jealousy when a wildly successful person comes to greater power and influence? Haves vs. the Have-Nots? I never once took that position, preferring to view many of them as persecuted and immensely burdened with cradling the livelihoods of thousands. Their responsibilities are, in fact, enormous. Problem is, further exposure to the power elite (to use the C. Wright Mills label) yields inevitable narratives of corruption, greed, power trips, and personal drama with little regard for their workers. Okay, some of these people, certainly not all.
Sounds like an Industrial Age fairy tale until you see it for yourself. We took a trip a few years ago to Central and South America. The banana plantations were striking in this sense — that of the robber barons. Huge swaths of carefully-cultivated product, farmed with the best, most modern techniques and machinery, all operated by impoverished hordes who live (exist) in bordering shanties. Oceangoing cargo liners dock, are filled to the decks, and off they go to the First World — to your local grocery store — pennies for a pound. I think of those people every time I see cheap bananas. The socialists would say it’s capitalism run amok, and their detractors would certainly cite mere opportunity and free economics. More on this below.
Originally published in the Gainesville Times, February 7, 1989. Transcript follows article.
TRANSCRIPT:
So you’re sitting there fuming over the prospects of a huge congressional pay raise. Or perhaps you are even more disturbed over the proposal to have taxpayers bail out the inept savings and loan institutions. Add in the sorry plight of insurance companies and the politicians who are professionally and politically involved with insurance, and you can easily develop a hard case of indigestion.
If it’s any consolation, don’t feel alone, because your parents and their parents before, had to deal with the sorry marriage between politicians and big business. As a matter of historical fact, some of the most wealthy and prominent families in American history began with corruption and greed. In the early days of America, when life was cheap and politicians could be bought like candy, a few men fought their way to the top, crushing all opposition in the process. They were so powerful that one even began a war in another country just to ruin some former business associates.
These men were admired, hated, even burned in effigy, yet managed to succeed. But in the process, they left a trail of ruined men and a legacy of ruthless enterprise.
You know them as some of the most prominent families on both sides of the Atlantic . . but history remembers them as the “Robber Barons.”
The Barons were men like John Jacob Astor, who began his fortune by trading whiskey to Indians, then stealing their pelts. Astor operated several stills, making whiskey for 10 cents a gallon, then selling it to the Indians for 50 cents a gallon. But he gained most of his wealth through land deals in and around New York City. Mortgage foreclosures ranked high on his list of deals, and several families lost everything to his ruthlessness.
Astor bought one mortgage from a whiskey distiller, then ordered the man from his farm. When relatives complained, Astor bought them off for $1,000. Today, this farm is called Broadway, from 42nd Street in New York City.
Other barons, like Cornelius Vanderbilt, were even more ruthless. Known as “Commodore,” he once started a war in Nicaragua just to “get even” with business associates assumed were going to gain control of property he owned. In a letter to the men, Charles Morgan and C.K. Garrison, Vanderbilt wrote, “Gentlemen, you have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you, for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you.”
He did.
Then there was John D. Rockefeller, who, at age 38, controlled 95 percent of the oil pipelines and refineries in the United States. Behind him was a trail of ruined men unequaled in this country. His Standard Oil Co. became the largest of its kind, yet Rockefeller amassed more. He began another company called “South Improvement,” through which he controlled three railroads—Erie, Pennsylvania and The New York Central. This company forced numerous other oil companies to fold because of prohibitive freight charges. Congress once called this plan by Rockefeller “one of the most gigantic and dangerous conspiracies ever conceived.”
Well, if you are sitting there really angry over the 50 percent raise for Congress, remember your child’s teacher. Perhaps the most important member of our society, they are now having to plead for a 3 percent raise . . only 47 percent less than Congress.
I suppose we do have Robber Barons around today, but just don’t look close enough.
Alex Taylor’s column on crime appears Tuesdays in The Times.
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My Take?
Regarding the capitalist vs. socialist debate, I see it as a personal responsibility of the wealthy powerful to improve and enrich the lives of their underlings, not so much a government’s. Problem is, too many biz emperors don’t see it that way, forcing politicians and their disgruntled, fomented constituents into regulatory action. Oops! That riotous conversation’s a tad large for this column. I’ll not risk the TLDR and leave it there.
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