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
fuelled 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.
EDISON: Long live the electric light.
(laughter)
(applause)
MORGAN: 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!
(gun fires)
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.
(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 ♪
After inheriting and expanding his father's
banking empire J.P. Morgan
is now among the most powerful man 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 dollars 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,
who 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% ofAmericans survive on less than $100
dollars 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.
(applause)
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 wrong doer to operate unchecked
as long as he has enough money.
The monopolies, the trusts became a target
of Democrats, so that anti-trust became
a rallying cry of everybody who was--well not seen
as in the hip pocket of the corporations themselves.
I will tear down these trusts.
Do you hear me, Carnegie?
Do you hear me, Rockefeller?
(applause)
Bryan'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.
CARNEGIE: 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 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 himself and he went,
essentially hat in head, around Wall Street
"dunning them".
Saying, "if McKinley doesn't win,
that crazy man Bryant will be President and if Bryan
is President, don't you realize what that is going
to do to the credibility of the United States
around the world?"
The Titans weld 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 outspent Bryan
by a factor of five to one.
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
that end up 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 than it probably is now.
Bryan fights back.
He undertakes the country's
first whistle-stop press tour.
Cross-crossing the nation and talking directly
to the people.
The tour becomes the model for the way Presidential
Bryan 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 Bryan's campaign gains traction,
the nation's leading industrialists turn
to fear tactics.
Many big employers-- many big industrialists
said, "if Bryan wins this election,
business is going to be so bad we're simply closing shop.
So, if Bryan 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 Bryan, which way does...
maybe your heart leans towards Bryant,
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 that--
is the wealth distribution and it's clear that we
argue about today has a corner in every politics.
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.
90% 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 on 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.
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
to 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 US 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 Bryant carries the rural
South and Mid-West.
While Ohio Governor, William McKinley,
takes the big money North East.
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.
MAURY KLEIN: After McKinley's election
a number of the issues that had bothered
the big businessmen conveniently went away.
He was a man who was in his philosophy,
in his approach to politics very much
in sympathy with them.
McKinley rules back regulation
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 probably 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 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 long time rival at his own game.
If you were a well-run company competing against
other well-run companies you're coming up
with ideas to jump them.
You're thinking they might do this,
I'm going to 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 Mesabi Mountains is like dust.
It clogs the blast furnaces.
No steel producer in his right mind would buy it.
(dynamite explosion)
But 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 him.
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.
CARNEGIE: Mr. Rockefeller.
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 the--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.
CARLY FIORINA: 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.
CARNEGIE: I will buy the entire output of your mines.
In return, you will renounce your decision
to construct a steel mill.
ROCKEFELLER: Agreed.
They 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 J.P. 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 do to that, J.P. Morgan
will need to pull off his biggest
and most daring move yet-- a complete takeover
ofAndrew Carnegie's empire.
Morgan's timing is impeccable.
Carnegie, after years of bruising battles,
is 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 your worked for Carnegie?
Over 1 5 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 5 years.
Times have been good.
Carnegie is 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.
CARNEGIE: 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's 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 gonna do any price haggling with Morgan.
Carnegie writes done four hundred and eighty million
on a piece of paper.
It's the equivalent of four hundred billion today.
More than Gates and Buffet 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 business for years
and now he's set his sights on Andrew Carnegie's steel empire.
Hoping to take it over and create a 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's yes.
CARNEGIE: I believe that's 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 $100 million more?
Goodbye, Carnegie.
For 30 years Andrew Carnegie
has battled John D. Rockefeller for the title
ofAmerica's richest man
and now he's finally surpassed him.
The deal gives Carnegie a personal net worth
of $310 billion dollars in today's money.
The largest private fortune the modern world
has ever seen.
Initially there is this enormous let down.
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 dollars 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 to 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.
Foregoing 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.
HW BRANDS: 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
an independent streak.
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,
were never heard from again.
It was 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.
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 Czolgosz 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 Czolgosz struggled, he took refuge
in the growing anarchist movement.
He became convinced that the Government is helping
the rich exploit the poor
and he's determined to put an end to it.
(gun fires)
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've predicted
what would happen?
And what would happen so quickly
after the election of the 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.
ROOSEVELT: And thus, I swear!
Now. Let's get started.
Started. Yes.
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 and 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,
if we 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 anti-trust 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
had managed to hold off
a break up over multiple administrations.
But Rockefeller won't be able to hide forever.
Standard Oil got the reputation
as the most hated company in America.
It became literally the symbol for big business evils.
It was an example of big businesses getting
way too much power and nothing, or no one,
available to restrain them.
The Government files Suit against
Standard Oil--in what promises to be the biggest
anti-trust case of all time--
and the Government is hoping their lead witness
will be John D. Rockefeller himself.
The feds issue a subpoena and Rockefeller goes on the run.
From California, to Maine, to Key West...
The most powerful man in America
has become a fugitive from justice.
He went all over the country to escape
being served subpoenas.
You know, he was constantly running from the law.
Rockefeller avoids the subpoenas for months.
But life intervenes.
His son, John Jr., and his wife welcome
the first Rockefeller grandson into the world.
Still on the run from the subpoena,
Rockefeller is unable to travel to see his grandchild
and the absence is unbearable.
DEVIL BILL: I'm only here for one day.
Once I'm gone I am gone and I may not be back.
NARRATOR: Rockefeller knows
what it's like to be abandoned...
DEVIL BILL: Never trust anybody son.
Not even me.
And he's not going to let this case
tear his family apart.
He turns himself in agreeing to testify in court
in defense of Standard Oil and in defense
of an entire way of business he helped create.