By the 1890s, Carnegie had publicly distanced himself from the everyday running of his company. He presented himself as the businessman philosopher who had changed his responsibility from producing wealth to disbursing it for the benefit of society. He claimed that he, too, was a workingman; he granted the legitimacy of unions and attacked strikebreaking. Or at least this is what he said. His actions were somewhat different. He systematically undermined unions, increasingly pushed for reduced wages, and ultimately demanded ironclad contracts that would prohibit his employees from unionizing.
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