Previously on The Men Who Built America Fighting back from the bloodshed of the Civil War America has grown into one of the most powerful countries on the planet Fueled by a group of visionaries who are building a better future Vanderbilt stopped at nothing to connect the nation via railroads. If they want a war, I'll give them a war. Rockefeller used his trademark ruthlessness to light homes from coast to coast. But what about the Pittsburgh refineries?
Shut them down. Cities are expanding to the sky, built on the strength. of Andrew Carnegie's steel. It's impossible.
Nothing's impossible. And under J.P. Morgan's control, electricity is starting to power the country. Long live the electric light. We're in the early days of a new industry.
In just 35 short years, the nation has changed faster than anyone could imagine. But the incredible advancements come with a price. All those in favor of striking, raise your hand. An undercurrent of anger.
is growing. Fire! And many...
Mr. Frick! ...are looking to take back control of the country. But America's most powerful titans believe they answer to no one.
I've heard enough. This is what's going to happen. The Morgan Bank.
And with a presidential election on the horizon, their next move will shock the world. After inheriting and expanding his father's banking empire, J.P. Morgan is now among the most powerful men in the nation. His influence over the country is matched by only two other men.
Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller have been rivals for decades. And that competition has driven both men to incredible heights. At the peak of their power, J.P.
Morgan, John Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie are worth the modern equivalent of over $1 trillion combined. More than the entire net worth of the 40 richest people alive today. The wealth then was like royalty.
It was just a different thing. They literally controlled the country. When you're talking about a guy like Rockefeller, it was literally 1% of the economy. It's stunning to think about that. It is almost incomprehensible.
But while Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan continue to get richer, others are struggling to get by. The gap between the rich and the poor is as big as it's ever been. Over 90% of Americans survive on less than $100 per month, while the average worker earns barely a dollar a day, well below the poverty line.
Working conditions in factories across the country are almost unbearable. In a single year, one out of every 11 steel workers will die while on the job. As the country approaches the 1896 presidential election, America's poor are desperate and without hope. One man sees the opportunity to harness their anger and in the process propel himself to the White House. William Jennings Bryan.
Bryan runs on a ticket promising equality for all. vowing to be a voice for the poor. And to take the fight to the country's elite.
The great combinations of capital have encroached upon the rights of the masses. No man can earn a million dollars honestly. He made himself the spokesman for the common man.
He was the great commoner. There's no doubt that he tapped into something that was vital to most Americans that were not well off. Republicans endeavor to overthrow and discredit all who honestly administer the law and to allow every wrongdoer to operate unchecked as long as he has enough money. The monopolies, the trust became a target of Democrats. So that antitrust became a rallying cry of everybody who was, well, not seen as in the hip pocket of the corporation.
themselves Brian's emergence is the biggest threat the Titans have ever faced he promises to dismantle their companies and to not rest until they're behind bars This is William Jennings Bryan at a recent Democrat rally. He's a prohibitionist and a devout Presbyterian. According to him, Darwin's theory of evolution is a pack of lies. He's an enemy of the gold standard and an enemy of big business. It is certain that he will win the Democratic nomination.
What do you think? The Republican Party has a good candidate. No.
We have to buy our own president. They took advantage of the strengths. When you have, you know, what relatively speaking is an unlimited amount of money, you can pay people to do almost anything for you.
Desperate to protect the empires they've spent their lifetimes building, the Titans throw their full support behind the candidacy of Ohio Governor William McKinley. William McKinley's campaign manager was an industrialist. realists himself.
And he went essentially hat in hand around Wall Street, gunning them, saying, if McKinley doesn't win, that crazy man Brian will be president. And if Brian is president, don't you realize what that is going to do to the credibility of the United States around the world? The titans wield more power than any group of men in American history, and they're about to use it. Much appreciated.
This is McKinley's speech that he'll be giving at the Republican convention. Make sure he sees it in time. Understood.
Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie each give over $200,000 to McKinley. The equivalent of 20 million dollars today. The campaign is by far the most expensive in American history.
And McKinley outspends Bryan by a factor of 5 to 1. But they don't just fund their candidate. The group wields tremendous influence, and they aren't shy about using it. Suggesting headlines and orchestrating PR campaigns aimed at getting McKinley elected. It was easier to buy the publicity that you wanted in those days than it is now.
The news media was a smaller market. and it was easier to feed information to your favorite correspondents then than it probably is now. Bryan fights back. He undertakes the country's first whistle-stop press tour, crisscrossing the nation and speaking directly to the people. The tour becomes the model for the way presidential campaigns are conducted to this day.
Brian gives over 500 speeches to huge crowds across the country. I will put rings in the noses of these hogs. Publicly attacking the nation's richest and most powerful men and vowing to usher in a whole new era.
As Brian's campaign gains traction, the nation... ...leading industrialists turn to fear tactics. Many big employers, many big industrialists said, if Brian wins the election, business is going to be so bad, we're simply closing shop.
So if Brian wins on election Tuesday, don't bother showing up for work on the next day, because there won't be jobs. Well, if you're a worker and this is something that confronts you, you're going to think very seriously, even if you had been intending to vote for Brian. Which way does, maybe your heart leans toward Brian, but where does your pocketbook point?
On election day, the lines are drawn. It's Wall Street versus Main Street, rich versus poor. One of the things of an evolving society is the wealth distribution.
And it's clear that what we argue about today, that's the core of every politics, is is it better with wealth in the hands of a few versus distributing among the many, whether from a moral or an economic point of view. Ninety percent of eligible voters go to the polls, roughly double recent turnouts. In the 1890s, voting was a public act. And on one side, there was the Republican ballot box, and the other side was the Democratic ballot box. And so your foreman, or an agent of your foreman, could see who you voted for.
So there was a certain coercion that was employed by the Republicans upon those urban workers. They might well have decided what they decided on their own, but this simply made it easier for them to decide that. The American Pronunciation Guide Presents When the polls close, the nation's future hangs in the balance.
For 20 long hours, Carnegie, Morgan, and Rockefeller agonize over the results. Not knowing whether the modern country they helped build will still be the same when all the ballots are counted. America is at a crossroads. A small group of men have created the modern country, building unimagined empires in oil, steel and electricity. But now, those empires are being threatened.
People across the country are demanding change. Outraged over what they see as corrupt business practices and unbearable conditions for workers, the 1896 U.S. presidential election is the battleground to determine the future of the nation. And the titans have done everything they can to make sure the election goes their way.
As America goes to the polls, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and John Rockefeller are forced to wait. Ultimately, this decision lies in the hands of the American people. The country is divided.
Democrat William Jennings Bryan carries the rural South and Midwest, while Ohio Governor William McKinley takes the big-money Northeast. As the results are tallied, the nation holds its breath, until finally, a president is chosen. Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan have dodged a bullet. The country remains in their control.
With McKinley in office, they're free to conduct business in the way they've become accustomed. After McKinley's election, a number of the issues that had bothered the big businessman conveniently went away. He was a man who was, in his philosophy, in his approach to politics, very much in sympathy with them.
McKinley rolls back regulations, and profits once again skyrocket. It's back to business as usual. And Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan are set to become even more powerful than ever before. They've defeated their common enemy, and with that ultimate goal achieved, their uneasy alliance begins to fray.
Rockefeller is the first to break ranks. Because Rockefeller, because Carnegie were so wealthy, because they had so much money, they had more money than they could profitably reinvest in their own companies, they were looking for things to invest in. John Rockefeller learns of a massive deposit of iron ore in northern Minnesota, the primary material used in the production of steel. Rockefeller knows little about the steel business. What he does know is that Andrew Carnegie is the biggest steel producer in the world.
And that this is his chance to beat his longtime rival at his own game. If you're in a well-run company... Competing against other well-run companies?
You're coming up with ideas to jump them. You gotta be thinking, they might do this, I'm gonna do this. It's not a big complicated thing.
Rockefeller is a fool. How so? Should we be worried?
No. You can buy iron ore anywhere. And the ore from the Misabi mines is like dust, it clogs the blast furnaces.
A steel producer in his right mind would buy it. Carnegie is wrong. Steel manufacturers quickly figure out how to use the iron ore, and Rockefeller immediately begins supplying it to Carnegie's competitors at rock-bottom prices. There are many people who either work for Carnegie, knew how to make steel, could figure out, well, if I could raise a little bit of money, maybe I could start my own steel company and price it just a little bit lower than Carnegie.
And guess what? Customers will come to me to buy their steel. As the competition heats up, Carnegie's customers begin to flee. The impact is devastating.
In just months, Carnegie's profits begin to crater. Sensing weakness, Rockefeller devises a daring scheme. He's going to build a steel plant, one to rival anything Andrew Carnegie has ever built. But Carnegie knows he can't let that happen. Carnegie is determined that nobody is going to take his place.
He's going to build new plants. He's going to destroy. If Rockefeller goes into steel, he'll destroy them.
Carnegie calls a meeting, hoping to intimidate Rockefeller into staying out of the steel business. But Rockefeller didn't become the richest man in American history. By cowering in fear.
Mr. Rockefeller. Mr. Carnegie. You don't want to negotiate with me. I am a great negotiator.
I know I intimidate people. I understand that. I get it. And I understand why. And I don't want to intimidate anybody unless they try to hurt me.
Then I hurt them back. Their rivalry has lasted for decades. But now, for the first time ever, Carnegie and Rockefeller are locking horns directly.
The negotiations last for months, and neither man is willing to give in. Negotiating is a real art. It's an art. And a great negotiator is like a great surgeon, and they're very, very rare.
You don't see it often. Rockefeller has already made a fortune in oil. His investment in steel is just a small part of his portfolio. You have to be willing to walk away. You have to be willing to walk away.
And people who won't walk away from a deal, in my experience, end up making bad deals. Carnegie knows he has little choice. In order to stay on top, He needs to do whatever it takes to keep Rockefeller out of steel. I will buy the entire output of your mines. In return, you will renounce your decision to construct a steel mill.
Agreed. Both knew that at some point they would have to reach a deal in which neither got everything he wanted, but neither got destroyed in the process. Rockefeller and Carnegie, in the end, were smart enough to know that they were both too big to get into a battle.
The agreement is one of the most satisfying of Rockefeller's career. He's forced his biggest rival to hand over a fortune. In exchange for an iron ore mine, he never had much interest in owning.
Rockefeller may have gotten the better of Carnegie, but their deal has drawn the attention of another rival, who envisions something even bigger. America has expanded more in the last three decades than any country on earth. Covering the breadth of the continent, its prosperity is built on oil, steel, and electricity.
John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie. And JP Morgan amassed mind-boggling fortunes and became targets. But after teaming up to put their man in the White House, they're now free to do whatever they want. Every great business leader I've ever met, in addition to being very smart, very driven, they have this, why not me?
Screw it, I deserve it, let's go. And if you don't have that, you can't achieve greatness. J.P.
Morgan has risen to power by consolidating broken industries and eliminating competition. And after Carnegie's deal with Rockefeller... He sees the potential to apply his model to the steel business. Morgan had much more power than he had wealth. And he understood that he could have more influence over the economy than Rockefeller, than Carnegie, than just about anybody else.
And he used this to pursue his vision of the American economy. Morgan's years of deal-making have left him with a controlling interest in companies ranging from manufacturing, to mining, to railroads. One industry brings all those others together. Steel.
J.P. Morgan believes that some individual has to bring sense and has to bring order to American capitalism. Morgan wants to end the cutthroat competition in steel. And the only way to do that is to bring together the competitors into one new company.
If Morgan can consolidate steel, he could potentially create the largest corporate empire in the world. But to do that, J.P. Morgan will need to pull off his biggest and most daring move yet. A complete takeover of Andrew Carnegie's empire. Morgan's timing is impeccable.
Carnegie. After years of bruising battles, He's questioning his future. Carnegie knew that as long as he wanted to, he could continue to reign supreme in steel. He didn't know that he wanted to keep fighting for the rest of his life.
Morgan knows he can't go after Carnegie directly. He needs another way in. So he sets up a meeting with Carnegie's right-hand man, Charles Schwab.
How long have you worked for Carnegie? Over 15 years. I guess he'd hate it if you left. No one is indispensable. You've doubled profits at Carnegie Steel every year for the past five years.
Times have been good. Carnegie's a very easy boss. What if you were your own boss? Of what?
I am going to buy Carnegie Steel. And you are going to be president of the world's largest company. With all due respect, Mr. Morgan, Carnegie would kill your idea at birth.
Carnegie would never sell. Everyone has their price. You just have to find out what it is. Did you know, Charles, that the game of golf was invented in Scotland? I did not.
So do they treat you like a king when you return home to Scotland? I suppose they do. And then you came to America and became a king.
Of industry. You created your own destiny. Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.
Exactly. Quote from Shakespeare? No.
William Jennings Bryan said it. And we three kings of industry have robbed him of his destiny. Yeah, for the greater good. To create more wealth. Only if that wealth is used for the benefit of mankind.
You know, if you were to sell Carnegie Steel, you could spend the rest of your life benefiting mankind. Alas, there is not one person in the world with enough money to buy Carnegie Steel. Save J.P. Morgan. Supposing Morgan did want to buy, what would be your price? Carnegie wasn't going to do any price haggling with Morgan.
Carnegie writes down $480 million on a piece of paper. It's the equivalent of $400 billion today, more than Gates and Buffett together. Carnegie has dared J.P.
Morgan to buy him out for an outrageous price. A sum that is higher than the entire budget of the U.S. federal government. I have a price.
America is on the move. After decades of unprecedented growth, the country has emerged as one of the leading industrial powers in the world. J.P. Morgan has consolidated businesses for years, and now he's set his sights on Andrew Carnegie's steel empire, hoping to take it over and create a complete monopoly in steel.
But Carnegie has spent a lifetime building his company, rising from nothing to become one of the most powerful men in America, convincing him to sell... will take an astronomical amount of money. I have a price. Have Carnegie come and meet me. Tell him the answer is yes.
I believe that that is the earliest in the day that I've ever drunk champagne. Congratulations, Carnegie. You're now the richest man in the world. Would you have said yes, Morgan, if I had asked for a hundred million more?
Goodbye, Carnegie. For 30 years, Andrew Carnegie has battled John D. Rockefeller for the title of America's richest man. And now...
He's finally surpassed him. The deal gives Carnegie a personal net worth of over $310 billion in today's money. The largest private fortune the modern world has ever seen.
Initially, there is this enormous letdown. He can't quite believe now that he has no connection with Pittsburgh or his mills, that there is no Carnegie Steel anymore. And I think it's hard for him to get used to that.
If somebody accepts the ask too quickly, then you think there was more room there. But I never like to look back. I'm a very forward-thinking person and a very positive-thinking person.
And the transactions that I did or did not do, I very rarely have any remorse over a situation. I like to move on. J.P. Morgan calls his new company U.S.
Steel. It's instantly the biggest corporation in the world. The first company in history to be worth more than $1 billion. And it will dominate the steel business for almost 100 years, virtually unchallenged. But the creation of U.S.
Steel is only possible in this new era of unchecked monopolies. An era Morgan helped create when he and his rivals put their president in the White House. They may have helped buy the president, but they can't avoid politics forever.
Their power over the nation's biggest industries soon catches the attention of an emerging politician. Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was the kind of figure that had to dominate, had to, in a sense, own the room.
Roosevelt is from a wealthy New York family and could have become a businessman like Carnegie or Rockefeller. But he took a different path. Forgoing a career in business for one in politics.
But the young Roosevelt had an image problem. His fancy clothes and... Upper-class demeanor left him open to ridicule.
He took great pains to remake his image. Posing in a New York City photography studio, dressed as a Badlands hunter, with a $500 engraved silver hunting knife from Tiffany's. The images help Roosevelt transform himself from a wealthy New York aristocrat into a man of the people.
And as Roosevelt enlists in the army, The image he manufactured becomes real. Theodore Roosevelt became a hero during the Spanish-American War. And the Republican boss of New York State said to Theodore Roosevelt, you're my boy, got him the Republican nomination, and by virtue of his heroism, became New York governor. Roosevelt quickly demonstrated independency. Roosevelt could not be manipulated at all.
As governor of New York, Roosevelt passes laws clamping down on big business. His biggest targets are the nation's most powerful monopolies. And the men behind them.
But Rockefeller and Morgan know they can't buy Roosevelt. So they set out to make him as weak as possible. One way to figure out how to keep Roosevelt from becoming a major figure at the national level is to make him vice president, because the vice president doesn't really have much to do.
Heading into a new election year, it's a rematch of 1896, McKinley versus William Jennings Bryan, through a series of backroom deals. Some of the nation's richest and most powerful men convince McKinley to put Roosevelt on the ticket. The vice presidency in those days was a place where people went to disappear. They became vice president and were never heard from again.
It's almost like a modern witness protection program. McKinley is re-elected by a comfortable margin, and Roosevelt is sworn in as vice president. With their man still in the White House, and their nemesis in a powerless position, Rockefeller and Morgan think they have protected their empires.
But their clever ploy may backfire. 20th century dawns and America holds a prominent place on the world stage for the first time. The country is now a land of opportunity as millions flood in from around the globe.
Drawn by stories of men who have risen from meager beginnings to build empires. Men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Great entrepreneurs that really have had a significant impact in the world take a long-term view.
They really think about it in terms of decades, not years or months. They really believe that in the long run, they're going to have a tremendous impact. President William McKinley is re-elected to a second term, and aspiring trust-buster Theodore Roosevelt is installed as vice president.
A clever play. To silence his influence, with McKinley in office for another four years, John Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan have the freedom to expand their empires to unprecedented heights.
In September of 1901, President McKinley travels to Buffalo to give a speech heralding America's prosperity. But that prosperity hasn't reached everyone. Many are still struggling to survive, and they're fed up with McKinley's close relationship with big business.
Leon Chagos is a former factory worker. who recently lost his job at a company J.P. Morgan took over during the creation of U.S. Steel. As Chau Go struggled, he took refuge in the growing anarchist movement.
He becomes convinced that the government is helping the rich exploit the poor. And he's determined to put an end to it. Eight days after the shooting, William McKinley succumbs to his injuries, becoming the third American president to be killed in office.
For America's most powerful men, it's the worst case scenario. An assassin's bullet has robbed them of their president, a man they spent millions to get elected. And with his death...
Their worst enemy comes to power. Teddy Roosevelt is about to become the leader of the free world. Mr. Roosevelt, very good to meet you, sir.
The plan of having Roosevelt buried, in effect, in the vice presidency completely backfired. Because who could have predicted what would happen and what would happen so quickly after the election of 1900? Theodore Roosevelt, raise your right hand. Do you, Theodore Roosevelt, solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States?
And to the best of your ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. And thus I swear. Now, let's get started.
Roosevelt insisted that the big capitalists recognize that they were mere capitalists and that the elected officials of the country were the ones that the people had chosen. Nobody elected J.P. Morgan to anything. Nobody elected John D. Rockefeller to anything. But the people had, well, indirectly elected Theodore Roosevelt president.
He was going to make the most of it. Roosevelt quickly launches a campaign against the nation's largest trusts. And his first target is a railroad conglomerate owned by J.P. Morgan.
Morgan demanded to see the president, so he stormed down from New York to Washington, went into the White House, and he said, I don't understand. He said... we've got a problem, send your man to my man and they'll fix it up.
And Roosevelt said, this is exactly the problem with Morgan. He acts as though I'm just a rival boss or something. And Morgan, who thought that he could manipulate Roosevelt, discovered that Roosevelt could not be manipulated at all.
Roosevelt refuses to back down from Morgan. He sues his company in federal court. The first government antitrust case filed against a major corporation.
Roosevelt goes on to win, and Morgan's railroad monopoly is broken up. It's a stunning setback for J.P. Morgan, one he'll agonize over for years.
And it's a sign of things to come for his fellow Titans. Roosevelt is elected to a second term, and over the course of his administration, he files suit against dozens of trusts. It's a time of great change for the nation.
J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie suddenly find themselves as members of an old guard. Aging titans forced to defend their fading empires.
But as other monopolies fall, one target refuses to go down. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil has managed to hold off a breakup over multiple administrations. But Rockefeller won't be able to hide forever.