Industrialization in the nineteenth Century
During the nineteenth century, industrialization played a huge role in the rebuilding of America. Chauncey DePew, Marshall M Kirkman, and William Graham Sumner had views on how the industrial organization should run. Some of those characteristics and skills are still relevant in the twentieth and twenty first century. This paper will discuss DePew’s Kirkman’s, and Sumner’s views and leadership skills.
Chauncey DePew was born in Peekskill, New York in 1834. In his years, he was a scholar at Yale University and was elected Secretary of the State for New York in 1863. Later, Andrew Jackson nominated him to become the nation’s first minister to Japan. However, DePew turned the job down and decided to work as an attorney with Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt for a career in railroads. While working with Commodore Vanderbilt, DePew noticed, certain personality traits that helped him achieve success in the growing nation. Vanderbilt started out running a steamboat across around the New York Harbor. Soon after, he expanded his Business to California during the gold rush. Commodore Vanderbilt soon noticed that boat travel would soon be obsolete and that the new way to travel was by railroad. He then took interest in the Hudson River Railroad. Vanderbilt wanted to know if he could rebuild this old railroad, and turn it into a profit. Depew saw Vanderbilt as a man who took advantage of opportunities before others. He was a man with courage, not afraid to take risks, a great problem solver, and was confident in the decisions he made. He had the gift of great foresight. Although Vanderbilt was not well educated, he was successful in everything he did. “He was endowed with wonderful foresight, grasp of difficult situations, ability to see opportunities before others, to solve serious problems and the courage of his convictions.” (My Memories of Eighty Years pg 232) Vanderbilt’s assessments are still relevant in the...