- An industrialist who made a fortune by forming a
corporation of steel production companies, all consolidated into
the Carnegie Steel Company. In addition, Carnegie had close business
ties with the railroads, enabling him to gain greater control over emerging
production centers. Carnegie Steel was later purchased by US Steel,
and Carnegie retired.
- Active in the American labor movement, one of the founders
of the American Railway Union and the Industrial Workers of the
World, and the leader of the socialist movement in America, Eugene
Debs was a prominent labor activist. He ran for president on the Socialist
ticket in 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1912, eventually receiving more
than one million votes. Debs was imprisoned for denouncing the
war effort during World War
. In prison, he continued his activism and received
over 920,000 votes as a presidential candidate for the Socialist
party in 1920. However, his health declined, and Debs died only
a few years after his release from prison.
- An American lawyer and industrialist, Gary was an important
person in the US Steel Corporation from its formation until 1927.
He expanded the corporation and founded the steel town of Gary,
Indiana. Because he believed in the open shop and did not recognize organized
labor, conditions for steel workers were deplorable, as was evident
in the 1919 strike. Eventually, as a result of negative public
opinion, Gary had to lower hours for the workers.
- A leader of the Western Federation of Miners, the
Socialist party, and the Industrial Workers of the World, "Big
Bill Haywood" began his involvement in the labor movement as a
miner. He was a militant leader, and advocated the principles of
industrial unionism and direct, mass action, as opposed to the conservative
cooperation tactics of the AFL. Haywood was convicted on the charge
of sedition during World War I, and he escaped to the Soviet Union
instead of serving his prison sentence.
- As a labor leader of the United Mine Workers, Mitchell
was instrumental to the success of the anthracite strike of 1902.
He also was vice-president of the American Federation of Labor,
and worked for various government commissions.
John Davidson Rockefeller,
- The son of the famous industrialist J.D.
Rockefeller, John Davidson Rockefeller, Jr. was involved in many
other business ventures which gained him enormous wealth. His father's
influence was pervasive, and John Rockefeller, Jr. was later active
in railroads and banks, and also held large amounts of stock in
the Colorado mines, which made him a prominent figure in the Colorado
Coal War of 1913.