- NARRATOR: America has emerged onto the world stage
rebuilt over the past five decades
by John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan.
They've reigned uncontested for years.
Only now the government is cracking down
on big business in a big way.
- (Blues Saraceno playing "Save My Soul")
♪ When I got to Memphis ♪
♪ I put my old baby down ♪
♪ He said I can't take you to Heaven ♪
♪ I can't save your soul ♪
♪ I can't promise forever ♪
♪ Whoo ♪
♪ With my heart in your hands ♪
♪ I can't feel, fell my soul ♪
- NARRATOR: The case will be the biggest challenge
of Rockefeller's life.
A fight that will determine the future of the country.
As Rockefeller is forced to defend the company
he built from nothing
into one of the most powerful
corporation's on earth.
- Buy now. Buy everything.
Buy the whole company.
- (people murmuring)
- It's Rockefeller.
- The United States versus Standard Oil.
This hearing is now in session.
Please state your name.
- John Rockefeller.
- Mr. Rockefeller, can you tell the court
how in just one year, in 1872,
you acquired all the refineries in Cleveland?
- I don't remember.
- (gasps) - (people murmuring)
- It was 36 years ago.
- You used intimidation to wipe out the competition,
did you not?
I mean, so ruthlessly that it became known
as the Cleveland massacre.
- I don't remember any massacre.
- (people murmuring)
- Are you aware of payments made by Standard
Oil to a Senator, $15,000 to block a bill
hostile to Standard Oil?
- I don't remember.
- We have a list of bribes made by Standard Oil
to politicians between 1903...
- I stepped down as Chief Executive
of Standard Oil in 1902.
I can't answer for any incidents that occurred
after that date.
- You are still President of Standard Oil,
are you not?
- It's an honorary title.
Much like that of President of the United States.
- (laughter)
- Can I remind you Mr. Rockefeller of the seriousness
of the charges brought against you.
- NARRATOR: As John Rockefeller fights to keep
his monopoly intact a new generation of businessmen
is facing a new set of challenges as they struggle
to get their companies off the ground.
- I have set out to build the best motor car
for popular use.
The Ford motor car is durable and light,
weighing only 1,000lbs.
It has a four cylinder engine and is capable
of speeds up to 45 miles an hour.
It is priced at $900 compared to $1 500
for the average licensed car.
Which makes it the first car
affordable for the common man.
- NARRATOR: Young entrepreneur Henry Ford
has created a new kind of car.
But in order to sell it he needs to get permission
from the association of licensed automobile
manufacturers, also known as ALAM.
ALAM owns the patent on the automobile giving them
complete control over who can manufacture and sell cars.
They are, in a sense, a giant car monopoly
and Ford's future now rests in their hands.
- ALAM: Thank you Mr. Ford.
We'll be in touch.
- Thank you, gentleman.
- NARRATOR: Ford is hopeful he'll be approved
by ALAM, allowing him to start his own business
and to pursue his dream for the future
of the car industry.
- When Ford entered the automobile business
people didn't drive their own cars, they had drivers.
And so cars were seen as this luxury item.
Ford's insight was that cars could be an every day item.
They could be very utilitarian so that it was
within the reach of ordinary people.
- NARRATOR: Ford has spent years developing his car
for the common man.
He builds his first model at the age of 33 and calls
it the quadricyle.
But the vehicle is expensive to produce
and prone to breaking down.
Ford's second attempt-- Model A--is much more suited
to the needs of modern America.
But he can't begin selling it without permission from ALAM.
- ALAM was successful in blackmailing
other automobile companies saying,
"you have to be licensed by us or we will sue you.
And we own this patent."
- NARRATOR: After months of deliberation the ALAM
board reaches its decision.
Henry Ford's application is rejected.
It's a crushing blow.
The auto cartel has stopped him in his tracks.
But Henry Ford is determined to show the world
that to succeed in America all you need
is integrity and ingenuity.
The next generation of businessmen is on the rise.
Henry Ford is battling a powerful cartel
for the right to make a car he believes in.
The Association of Licensed Automobiles
manufacturers owns the patent on the automobile
and budding car makers like Henry Ford need
its permission to sell cars.
After being rejected by ALAM, Ford is left with few options
but he isn't about to give up on his dreams.
- Ford thought that the whole thing was ridiculous.
That there could not be a patent on the idea of the automobile.
That the automobile was not the property
of one single individual.
- NARRATOR: Ford is determined to get around
ALAM'S stranglehold on the auto industry.
But he's just one man going up against a virtual monopoly.
If he's going to be a success, without ALAM,
he's going to need to make a name for himself.
- It's a very simple thing on the make or break
decision: it's the gut and that's what separates
the great leaders and the great successes.
And if you can't listen to it and you don't have it,
you're never gonna get it 'cause it's never gonna come
from someplace else.
- NARRATOR: Henry Ford challenges the owner
of the biggest car company in the country to a race.
Alexander Winton is also known as the fastest
driver in America and a prominent member ofALAM.
Beating Winton with a car of his own design has the potential
to give Ford the boost he needs to start
his own company.
There's just one problem,
Henry Ford had never raced a care before.
- It's a David and Goliath scene.
Winton's famous, world record holder,
has this fancy race car.
Ford, the local boy made good.
- NARRATOR: Henry Ford's upset win over the fastest man
in America makes him instantly famous.
- Ford's a hero and this is really the first big time,
I think, that he becomes a celebrity.
The Ford name gets out there and he milks it
for everything that it's worth,
and it was a very crucial part of Ford
getting investors for the Ford Motor Company.
- NARRATOR: Ford raises $28,000--or $700,000 today.
Enough money to build his first factory in Highland Park,
Michigan and before long he's producing 1 5 cars a day,
priced low enough for almost any American.
- When it finally does break through,
it is sort of gratifying because you--you're
starting to see the reality of what you always believe.
That--that the vision you had that someday the world
would be different is starting to move in that direction.
- NARRATOR: Henry Ford's early success puts him on the map.
But ALAM takes notice and hits him with a lawsuit
claiming he's breaching their patent on the automobile.
- You see all these huge conglomerations
suing people over patents.
The big guys are taking advantage of the little guys,
trying to find whatever angle they could
and using their might.
And those with the best tricksters win.
- NARRATOR: While Henry Ford prepares to bring
his fight for the little guy to a Detroit court,
the trial to bring down Standard Oil
is starting to get ugly.
- Mr. Rockefeller, we have evidence that you placed
several refineries out of business.
- Not to my knowledge.
- Do you accept that Standard Oil has enjoyed
profitability higher than most industries?
- Our profitability is no higher than that of US Steel.
I haven't heard of anyone attempting
to break up U.S. Steel.
- NARRATOR: While Rockefeller is fighting
to save his company,
J.P. Morgan has been able to keep his steel monopoly
of the government's hit list.
He's used his power and influence to broker
a number of deals for the nation applying the might
of U.S. Steel to strengthen the country's infrastructure.
But Morgan's biggest deal is just getting started
in Central America.
For years, attempts have been made to build a canal
linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Such a canal would cut East to West travel time
in half saving ships over 8,000 miles per trip.
But no one's had the power to make it happen, until now.
J.P. Morgan acts as the middle man for the government
and raises $40 million dollars - OR $7 billion today--
to get the project started.
The Panama Canal is the most ambitious
construction project the United States has ever undertaken.
Over 75,000 workers labor in brutal heat,
fighting off deadly diseases,
digging a canal 51 miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
- To assemble the manpower, the material,
and the finances; to cut a swath through the middle
of Panama and join the Atlantic Ocean with the
Pacific Ocean--only an industrially sophisticated
nation could do that.
- NARRATOR: The Panama Canal embodies everything
that makes America the most powerful country on the planet.
Built on steel, powered by electricity
and running on gasoline.
And it's all made possible due to the financial might
of one of the country's most powerful men.
But the age of the monopoly is still on trial
and the unchallenged power the Titans have used
to amass their empires is not going to last forever.
Decades of unprecedented growth have transformed
America into an industrial super power.
The change has been driven by some of the largest
companies the world has ever seen:
U.S. Steel,
Standard Oil and General Electric.
But it also comes with a cost.
Workers are outraged over dangerous conditions
at factories across the country.
- Nobody will break us! Nobody!
- NARRATOR: And the gap between the rich and the poor
is bigger than it's ever been.
Many are convinced that America's largest companies
are holding the country back.
The age of monopoly is under threat.
- I hate monopolists.
I fought monopolists all my life.
I always wanted an even playing field,
but I had to fight for an even playing field for myself.
- NARRATOR: Over a 40 year career John Rockefeller
used innovation and ingenuity to create
a corporate empire unlike any the world has ever seen.
But he was also notoriously ruthless
and many believe he went too far.
For John D. Rockefeller,
judgment day is here in what's become
the trial of the century: The People versus Standard Oil.
- The picture painted of Standard Oil
is a depressing one.
No trust in the history ofAmerica has been
so destructive in its pursuit of profit.
Time and time again we have heard how Standard Oil
has used secret kickbacks from the
railroads, been routinely engaged in predatory
pricing, used intimidation and exclusive sales
territories to put refineries out of business.
For over thirty years, Standard Oil has been
on a mission to crush its competition and establish
itself as a monopoly to hoist up the price of kerosene.
Mr. Rockefeller, before the court renders its decision,
do you have anything you wish to say?
- When I came into the oil industry, there was chaos.
I brought order.
I took a second rate, inefficient market
and built an industry.
It was done the way it was because that's the way
it had to be done.
No one complained when I brought light into every home.
No one complained when I provided thousands ofjobs,
or millions of dollars from exports.
Oil is what this country runs on.
You call it monopoly, I call it enterprise.
- (people murmuring)
- Now, you tell me, why am I here?
- (gavel bangs) - (people murmuring)
- NARRATOR: As the court adjourns to deliberate
Rockefeller can only await his company's fate.
Hundreds of miles away a new kind of businessman,
Henry Ford, also waits.
A panel of federal judges will decide whether Ford
can continue to freely manufacture
and sell his model A car.
The association of licensed automobile
manufacturers is suing Ford for a royalty on
every car he sells.
Ford knows those royalties would drive up the cost
of his car putting it out of the reach
for the average consumer.
For most early car makers, the lawsuit would be
a devastating setback, but for Ford it's something
different--an opportunity.
- People react to failure in one of two ways.
Either they get scared and give up.
Or they take that failure that--as a learning
experience and they kind of use that experience
to redouble their efforts.
- Ford is convinced the era of unchecked
monopolies is over.
So as his lawsuit winds its way through court
he openly defies the order from ALAM and continues
building and selling his cars.
He believes there's a better way to conduct
business in America and he's determined
to make it a reality.
- Henry Ford was able to position himself
as an anti-monopolist, really in a certain way,
as a kind of antithesis of the Rockefellers
and the Carnegies.
He is a kind of heroic individual entrepreneur,
who believed in competition,
who believed in developing a product
and bringing it to the people.
- NARRATOR: Ford begins paying his workers
a livable wage, $5 per day,
more than double the rate of most U.S. factories.
But Ford isn't just paying his workers better,
he's also getting more out of them.
He innovates a new system for producing cars.
Rather than hand crafting each car one at a time,
his are assembled by a line of workers,
piece by piece.
It's called the assembly line
and it completely changes manufacturing forever.
- Ford didn't invent mass production.
But he perfected mass production.
He understood that a complicated product
like an automobile could be simplified and could be
made less expensive if the same thing was produced
again and again and again.
- NARRATOR: Using the assembly line,
Ford workers can build cars up to 8 times faster
than any other automobile factory in the world.
What once took 12 hours to assemble,
now takes an hour and a half.
The innovation allows Ford to standardize
the 8-hour workday,
5 days per week.
But for Ford to continue to innovate,
he'll need to win his lawsuit.
His fate, like John Rockefeller's,
now rests in the hands of a federal court.
Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller
are two American icons,
from different generations,
on opposing sides of battle for the country's future.
As the verdicts come in, American business
will never be the same.
America is becoming the most powerful nation on earth.
Transformed from a post-civil war wasteland
into a budding superpower
by a group of visionaries
who battled the impossible to build unimaginable
empires that have brought the country into the 20th century.
- With all the great entrepreneurs,
it was a mix of believing in an idea,
but they also recognized that they had to do
some things to take that idea and make it real.
- NARRATOR: After decades of doing whatever it took
to crush the competition,
John D. Rockefeller is fighting to save the company he built
from nothing into one of the largest
and most dominating corporations on the planet.
- Big business is a dangerous thing
in the eyes of many because of the power it wields.
- JUDGE: The U.S. government Versus Standard Oil.
- NARRATOR: The biggest anti-trust trial
of all time is about to reach a verdict.
444 witnesses have taken the stand,
12,000 pages of testimony have been recorded,
but in the end it all comes down
to the testimony of one man.
ROCKEFELLER: You call it monopoly,
I call it enterprise.
- NARRATOR: John Rockefeller has done
all he can to keep his monopoly intact,
but the fate of Standard Oil is out of his control.
JUDGE: In the case of the United States against
the Standard Oil Company, this hearing
has reached a decision.
This court determines against the Standard Oil Trust
on account of its unreasonable business practices,
which are in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
The Standard Oil Trust
must be broken up within six months.
- (gavel bangs) - (people murmuring)
- (people talking)
- REPORTER: Is this the end of Standard Oil?
- NARRATOR: John Rockefeller's Standard Oil
is completely dismantled,
broken up into 34 smaller companies.
The age of the monopoly is over.
The takedown of Standard Oil bodes well
for the rising guard of a new generation of businessman--
most of all Henry Ford.
Ford awaits the future of his company.
After the powerful auto Cartel, ALAM,
charged him with breaching their patent
on the automobile and tried to shut him down.
It's a potentially life-changing moment
not just for Ford, but for the future
of every industry in the country.
In a surprise decision, the court rules
in favor of Henry Ford.
ALAM has no legal claim to the design of the car.
Henry Ford is free to innovate without repercussion.
- Well, guys, that was it.
Let's go sell some cars.
- NARRATOR: Ford's dream is made a reality.
The car belongs to everyone.
- Ford's success put him forward in American life
as a new kind of businessman but,
in crucial ways, unlike Rockefeller or Carnegie
he wasn't trying to gain a monopoly.
He was trying to bring a product to the people.
The American population ate this up and they made
Henry Ford a kind of folk hero.
- NARRATOR: Ford seizes the momentum
and his factories go into overdrive.
His assembly lines starts producing a revolutionary
new car at a record rate.
It's called the Model T and it costs only $825.
For the first time, a car the common man can afford.
- Henry Ford created what became the most important
industry in the American economy.
He had no idea of the enormous impact it would
have on almost every sector ofAmerican life.
He literally changed America, the way we live,
the way we do things, and the way we go about our business.
Ford's reputation won't always be so positive,
but his revolution inspires an entire generation
of visionaries who will transform
the fabric ofAmerican life.
Childhood friends William Harley and Arthur Davidson
attach an engine to a bicycle and begin selling
motorcycles to the masses.
Milton Hershey applies Henry Ford's assembly line
model to the mass production of chocolate.
Chicago merchant, William Wrigley
takes his chewing gum national
and in Hollywood,
Polish immigrant, Max Factor,
begins distributing cosmetics for movie stars
to drug stores across the country inventing
a completely new consumer product--make-up.
This new breed of businessman is doing
things a different way.
They're creating products for the masses,
while paying their employees a livable wage.
With safe working conditions
and a standard 40-hour work week.
The era of Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan looks
like it may have come to an end.
But America's three most powerful men
are just as relevant as ever before.
Standard Oil gasoline stations
appear across the country fueling Henry Ford's cars,
cars that are built using Carnegie's steel
in factories powered by J.P. Morgan's electricity.
The new breed of businessman may be doing
things different from their predecessors
but their innovations wouldn't be possible without
the groundwork laid by men like Cornelius Vanderbilt,
Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan
and John D. Rockefeller.
The result is broad prosperity shared
throughout the country and perhaps America's greatest
innovation yet, a thriving and prosperous middle class.
- The Industrial Revolution created
the development of the middle class.
It created wealth that we never
would've imagined possible before.
- NARRATOR: John Rockefeller
may have lost his court case,
but the smaller companies created from Standard Oil
will go on to become
corporate giants with names like Exxon,
Mobil and Chevron
and John Rockefeller
is a shareholder in each new company.
- It's ironic, isn't it?
I mean, it's a great moment in American history
and it established the principle
that monopolistic practices should not be for the future
and that sounds really good.
Except now they were all separate
and my great grandfather had large amounts of stock
in every one of them.
He made more money than he ever made in his life.
The effect on John D. Rockefeller
was absolutely blissful from his point of view.
- NARRATOR: Even in defeat,
John Rockefeller becomes the richest man in the history
of the world with a net worth of almost
$660 billion dollars in today's money.
With the stranglehold of the monopolies over,
Americans now realize that anything is possible
as long as they work together.
The nation is more powerful than ever
and that power will soon be needed.
On a brisk spring morning, two years after
the breakup of standard oil, John Rockefeller joins
his old rival Andrew Carnegie to mourn the loss
of one of their own.
Less than a month from his 76TH birthday,
J.P. Morgan dies in his sleep.
Morgan leaves such a mark on American finance
that the New York Stock Exchange shuts down,
an honor normally reserved for the passing of a president.
- J.P. Morgan certainly was the foremost name in banking
in terms of creating modern finance...
and you can't have a modern economy without a modern,
effective functioning banking system.
He was as influential as any of the Titans of that day.
- NARRATOR: While the old rivals once saw each other
as cutthroat competitors
now, in their twilight years, the fathers of American business
have found a mutual respect.
For Rockefeller and Carnegie,
Morgan's passing is a reminder--
time is running short
and the realization triggers a new contest.
No longer is their competition about who makes more money,
now the question is who can give more away.
- Andrew Carnegie was the first of the big
capitalists of this era to be bitten by
the philanthropy bug.
He decided that he was going to use his wealth
to good purpose and he said that a man who dies rich
dies disgraced.
- Andrew Carnegie was not a very popular man
among his millionaire friends because he demanded
that the millionaire has to give away all of his money.
- There's nothing wrong with making a lot of money.
Making money is fun. I enjoy that very much.
But I enjoy giving away money, even more so.
- Carnegie gives away more than $350 million dollars
- $67 billion, today.
Most goes to education and his favorite cause--libraries.
As more than 2,500 "Carnegie libraries"
are built in 49 states and around the world.
But even in this contest Carnegie will be bested
by his old rival.
John Rockefeller will outlive Carnegie by 13 years.
That time--and his greater worth--allows him
to give away more money than Carnegie Is ever able to.
Throughout his life Rockefeller has donated millions--
to his church and numerous universities.
At the age of 73, he creates the Rockefeller
foundation with a personal endowment of $100 million
dollars--the equivalent of 38 billion today.
That money will go on to advance public health
around the world for decades.
- My great-grandfather, he went full bore into philanthropy.
Whether that was a duty under a sort of a Baptist stricture,
or whether it just came pouring out of him,
I'm just not sure.
But it doesn't make any difference, he did it.
- NARRATOR: John Rockefeller will live to be
97 years old and gives away more $530 million dollars
in his lifetime.
Gifts that, today, would total over 100 billion.
- I look at Carnegie, I look at what Rockefeller did
and I revere these people--for the second half
of their lives-- and they certainly are,
they're inspirations to people who have managed
to be able to accumulate some wealth and want to be able
to say, you know what, I now want to help others.
- NARRATOR: As the nation heads deeper into
the 20TH century, millions ofAmericans,
for the first time ever, are able to take part
in the American dream,
employed in well-paid and safe jobs.
Manufacturing products they themselves can now afford.
The country is united with a robust economy
that benefits not just the rich, but everyone.
It's the beginning of one of the longest periods
of prosperity America will ever see.
- It wasn't by accident that the 20th century became,
you know, the American century.
America made the greatest strides in terms
of harnessing these new technologies.
We simply could out produce any other nation
in this world by the time the 20th century rolled around.
And that clearly put us in a position
to drive the global agenda.
It was on the back of the Industrial Revolution.
- NARRATOR: But as World War I breaks out in Europe,
the world looks for help.
It looks to America.
Just 50 years removed from the ashes of the Civil War,
America has become a global super power.
By April of 1917, the country enters the war
sending troops, supplies and weapons.
Resources that will help bring peace to the world.
But those resources would have never been possible
without the contributions of a small group
of visionary men.
Men who sparked a revolution
that forever changed America.
- America was transformed
by the vision,
the incredible hard work and determination,
and the willingness to take big risks
that these men display.
There is also no question that these men
could not have done what they did anywhere else but America,
because this place allows more people to dream
than any other place in the world.
All that matters is how big do you want to dream
and how hard do you want to work?
- NARRATOR: From a broken country into the most powerful
nation on Earth, they didn't discover
this modern America, they built it.