The Johnstown flood
At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
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- Actually, it not. If you want the full account, you can read David McCullough's book about the Johnstown Flood
Frick was essentially Carnegie's right-hand man, having been appointed to run Carnegie's businesses after he withdrew from their day to day operations to enjoy his wealth. The club was explicitly set up as a retreat for executives from Carnegie businesses or those with ties to them (it was informally known as "The Bosses Club"). Carnegie not being a charter member is immaterial, as it's simply an artifact of his slight remove from the day-to-day operations. He was certainly caught up in the suit that, were liability laws the same as they were today, Carnegie's business' would have been dragged down with him.
- > And it’s not even like the laws have changed about it since then
Let me know if it's still legal to have your workers work with highly dangerous machinery for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (for wages that would be comparable to federal minimum wage today ~ although it's hard to find a good inflation calculator that tracks back to the 1880s).
I'm sure that's totally comparable to the plight that Google/FB/Amzn employees have to put up with.
Obviously I admire what he did with the Gospel of Wealth & his philanthropy, but that doesn't excuse his horrible treatment of workers.
Honestly, it's just so astonishing that you can even argue in support of Henry Frick.
You should read up about the Johnstown FLood and the failure of the South Fork Dam.
I feel like the HN crowd just skims the wikipedia bio and uses that to craft a hilariously terrible argument.
