James J Hill and E H Harriman Compare and Contrast - Term Paper Example

James J. Hill and E. H. Harriman Compare and Contrast Biographies maybe written using different styles but facts will always remain the same. Facts cannot be changed unless new discoveries are made contrary to those facts. The twentieth century was a great period in time for many Americans. This was the period in which great businessmen and industrialists came up into being and had their names drop from every lip whenever their industry of choice came into discussion. John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, James J. Hill and E. H. Harriman were more often than not, spoken under the same breath. While J. P. Morgan stood for the banking industry, the oil industry could not be spoken about without mentioning John D. Rockefeller, iron and steel industries were synonymous with Andrew Carnegie’s name, and lastly, as we all know, Harriman was the man who stood for the railroads (Klein 1). In The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman, the author of the biography, Maury Klein, offers us the first in-depth story about Harriman. The biography covers his influential times in the industry. It spans more than seventy-five years (Klein). E. H. Harriman’s life has been understudied, for the most part, but he was truly influential in the growth of American economy. While Harriman was successful in bringing ‘dead’ companies back to life, James J. Hill was just as successful in the rail transportation business. Their lives changed America. As the story goes, we are put in the loop on how Harriman used to be a banker in Wall Street up to his 50th birthday (Klein, 65). After that, he got into the railroad business in the year 1897. That is the time he took control of the then Union Pacific Rail Road. The company was emerging from a period of bankruptcy. Harriman is credited with the success of modernizing each and every aspect of the company’s operations. Even at that point in time, Harriman was not done, he went on to acquire larger stakes in other railroads. Some of these railroads include the Baltimore and Ohio, the Southern Pacific, and while on the verge of these takeovers, he could not avoid colliding with such business foes as J. P. Morgan, James J. Hill, and Theodore Roosevelt. The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman provides us with new insights into the controversies and the myths that surround the career of one of American’s greatest businessmen. Moreover, the book goes on to reassert the position held by this great mind as a true business titan of the turn-of-the-century. James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest is a biography of a legendary capitalist, James Hill, to whom great changes were credited in the Northwest. The author of the book, Michael P. Malone, is a gifted historian. He is also a respected writer. This is well, evident, in the manner in which he has carefully penned the remarkable life and times of one James J. Hill. In focus, Michael Malone’s biography on James J. Hill is selective. Additionally, it is interpretive in the method it has used. Nonetheless, all these angles at this biography are just like all the other books on the same topic series. However, Michael Malone avoids the pitfalls of other biographies that came before this one. The other biographies often present hagiographic pictures or business histories that are very slim in content. This is not the case with this biography penned by Michael Malone. James Hill is put fully into the context of the times he lived and did business, and put his mark on American business history. Worthy of note, is the fact that the author, Michael Malone has put emphasis on the effect James Hill’s actions had on America; more specifically, the regions in which he lived and did business. As a result of all these techniques and styles in writing, we are left with a book; a biography that is both illuminating and equally engaging. Just as other stories about western enterprises, the story of the domination of James Hill on northern-tier rail transportation business is as complex as it is intriguing. This book presents James Hill as the true man for the rail road business (Malone 1). Malone portrays Hill as a man who was intense, obsessed, and a person who put a lot of attention in the details and goings on of the rail road business empire he ran. According to the author, or as the author portrays him, this kind of obsession to the dealings of the business is what draws James Hill apart from his rivals and fellow businessmen of the time. However, the image we hold of James Hill as the true industrialist and business magnate who built his empire from the ground up, without the assistance from the government of the time is destroyed through this revisionist treatment. The author takes it upon himself to provide more details on the subject of the book. We are introduced to new facts such as: James Hill benefitted from government land grants of the times he was starting to erect his network of railroads. That was in Minnesota as the author notes. Additionally, he also took time to play the government into giving him financial aid which was both directly, as well as indirectly. In the author’s perceptive explanation, we see James Hill as a clear beneficiary of investment and action from the government of the United States of America (Malone, 65). This view taken by Michael Malone is very much different from the one taken by Maury Klin on the other subject of discussion; E. H. Harriman. Harriman is portrayed as a true hero in business and industrialization in America without negativities attached to the story. While Malone portrays James Hill as a beneficiary of the government, E. H. Harriman is depicted as a man who turned near-bankrupt transcontinental railroad companies into profitable ventures that have been critical parts and parcel to the transportation business in the United States of America. E. H. Harriman is shown as the man with the Midas touch when it comes to transportation infrastructure and business. While Malone takes time to delve into the life of James Hill and his interpersonal relationships far from the financial and the corporate machinations of the man, Harriman’s life is used to explain the way American business has evolved over time. Hill was a great man, as the book tells us. He was quick to identify and make loyal friends. Apart from that, the book brings out how his ruthless machinations often brought him and his cohorts great success. Just like the other stories that talk of western enterprise, the story of how Hill came to dominate the northern-tier of the rail transportation business is not as simple as it would seem. The image we are familiar with of Hill as a rail road man is brought out clearly and confirmed by the way Malone treats Hill. It is Hill’s character as a man who was intense and sometimes paid obsessive attention to his business and the details to run it is what set Hill apart from his colleagues and rail road business counterparts. However, in as much as Hill was a successful rail road tycoon, he did not make it free of the grants from the government. . not only did he benefit from the grants, especially at the start of building his business in Minnesota, he also got financial aid from the government. He is a beneficiary of government action and investment. This is a far cry from our earlier depiction of the kind of man we thought Hill was; a man who is self made and who built his empire with no outside help but his bare hands. At the start of the story, Hill starts with clearly depicting Hill’s family origins, the ambitions he had as a young man, and how he migrated to St. Paul Mississippi from Canada. Malone also describes Hill’s first forays in transportation and freighting commerce. Hill was born in Guelph, Ontario, in the year 1838. He then moved to Minnesota frontier later in the year 1856. This is where he quickly rose to partnership in various substantial concerns. He had already invested in many businesses by the year 1870, however, he had started off by with a risky rail road business that proved to require savvy negotiations between him and his rival groups, as well as huge amounts of capital. He could count on the friendship and partnership of Norman Kittson, George Stephen, John Kennedy, as well as Donald Smith. Together with them, he pursued the dream he had of building the regional rail road which later turned out to make them all rich men. This was the 1879 business venture which was the Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Manitoba Railway business venture – it became the core of several other corporate powerhouses that came after it like the Northern Securities Company of 1901, the Great Northern railway of 1889, and the Burlington Northern of 1970. Malone describes to us how Hill came to build his fortunes through working all the sides of the streets as he possibly could as well as striving to be victorious in all contests he got himself into; without regard to the methods he had to use. For instance, the building of the Manitoba rail line of the year 1879 involved Hill manipulating an officer of the court and included very many dealings that are quite questionable. Hill has to get a right-of-way to build his new rail road. As Malone characterizes the case in point, it really “tainted the creation of the soon to be rail road business empire, and surely left a stain, like the biblical mark of Cain, on all the lives as well as the reputations of all those who were responsible for its birth” (p. 63). Aside from the dark side of Hill, Malone shows the readers of Malone’s positive side in the way he emphasizes how Hill aggressively and thoroughly planned the expansion of his business: he started with Canada from 1881-1883, then all over the northern tier states and territories of the western US from 1886-1893. He then went on to build other businesses like in Iron Mining and the Great Lakes Transportation. Malone adds to his explanation of James Hill’s success. He says that James Hill, a rail road genius, was able to achieve success due to a great deal because of “his near manic preoccupation with his rail road business” (p. 103) which prompted him to be able to master all the necessary details that he used to keep raiders and speculators away. Hill also believed “mutual interdependence” was important in relationships that existed between regions and railroads. At the end of it all, Malone depicts Hill as a man who was sometimes a ruthless pragmatist especially in the manner in which he fixed his attention to the best things for his rail road business and not what was best for the commonwealth – however, these interests often collided. For instance, in politics James “preferred the free trade of the Jefferesonian Democratic Party…to the protectionist Republicans, however he often placed his political support where he thought he would gain much good not caring much about political preference” (p. 92). Later when he had plans to expand the Manitoba towards the west onto the Indian lands and he faltered, James “directly solicited the President”. Harriman’s life echoes the goals of control and modernization in his biography. While both books are about the contributions of two great men to the business industry in America, as earlier stated, Harriman’s story forms a basis on which we are introduced to the evolution of not only the transportation business but the whole business environment in America in the twentieth century. The book is more than just a history on railroads or history on finance. It is not only based on facts about a person’s life and existence. It successfully delves into the evolution of American business in the periods spanning the Progressive as well as the gilded era. As Klein states, the contributions made by Harriman, have always been defined by myths propagated by the people around him. The evolution of American business is furthered by the fact that in the beginning, Harriman was portrayed as an old styled billionaire but later he grew to become a modern moneymaker. He became a Progressive who was just as enlightened as the then President Roosevelt. However, their relationship changed with time as the President waged an all out attack on him. Harriman is a transitional individual both in his relationships with people and in business. This is what American business has been over the years. This view on the life of a person has not been seen in the story of James Hill. Works Cited Klein, Maury. The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman. Chapell Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Malone, Michael P. James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press , 1997. Read More