Matthew Josephson Quotes
Robber Barons
Matthew Josephson, 1899-1978, Historian and Writer, Title of Book
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Much if the American industrial revolution was assisted by government subsidies of one kind or another. Railroads, telegraph, armaments, foundries are just a few.
There is a very interesting parallel with the views and statements of FDR at the same time.
The President had decided to aggressively push for railroad regulation to end the rate rebate abuses that were used to support the monopolies like Standard Oil. In vintage Roosevelt tactics, he gave his first major speech on the subject in the setting and forum that would be most opposed to it. The Union League Club of Philadelphia in included the wealthiest men in the area where were most opposed to any Federal Regulation of anything. All the major railroad executives and stock owners and traders were also members. The President wanted to persuade the opponents to change their positions, and sometimes he did. He also was driven by his concept of sports and athletics so that the “opposition” should have “fair notice” for the contest ahead.
There were few if any consumer protection laws in those days and many wealthy aristocrats made their money by taking advantage of the poor. They were the landowners, bankers, financiers and often the industrialists. Shaw was a sarcastic social critic and this is a typical line he gave his upper class characters. Today, we have more controls on business and finance, and many wealthy business people have gotten that way by providing great value to the consumers and being honest. However, we still have large numbers of wealthy members of society who do make their money from the poor and middle class by unethical and often illegal means. In the aftermath of the Meltdown of 2008. hundreds of thousands of the homes of the working poor and middle class were foreclosed by the major banks forging the legal documentation for the foreclusures. Millions of consumer contracts are issued that even a PhD cannot understand the terms of without special legal and financial training. There is even a legal definition of a salesperson lying to make a sale which is so commonplace that our law excuses it and calls it "puffing". However, there has been over time, improvement over Shaw's era.
Carlyle originated this well-known phrase.
This futuristic work attempted to project American life in the year 2000—then 112 years in the future. It is remarkable how many elements he successfully predicted.
Matthew Josephson was an American journalist and author of works on nineteenth-century French literature and American political and business history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Josephson popularized the term "robber baron".
