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nydus/The History of the Great American FortunesPublic

This work examines the origins of large American fortunes by analyzing the social and industrial systems that facilitate their accumulation. The author seeks to move beyond both celebratory narratives and sensationalist critiques to provide a factual, systemic interpretation of how these vast concentrations of wealth are formed.

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER X

"A MODEL OF BUSINESS INTEGRITY."

In fact, it was a point descanted upon with extraordinary emphasis during Field's lifetime and following his demise that, (to use the stock phrase which with wearying ceaselessness went the rounds of the press), he was "a business man of the best type." From this exceptional commentary it can be seen what was the current and rooted opinion of the character of business men in general. Field's rigorous exploitation of his tens of thousands of workers in his stores, in his Pullman factories, and elsewhere, was not a hermetically sealed secret; but this exploitation, no matter to what extremes to which it was carried, was an ordinary routine of prevailing business methods.5

Of the virtual enslavement of the worker; of the robbing him of what he produced; of the drastic laws enforced against him; of the debasement of men, women and children—of all of these facts the organs of public expression, the politicians and the clergy, with few exceptions,

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