As the economy grew in the United States, many businessmen took their advantage to create their own empire. Andrew Carnegie was the king of the steel industry. Along with Carnegie, there was John D. Rockefeller who controlled the oil company. However, they didn’t start rich. It took a long time before they got to where they were with their power and money. Andrew and John started with small companies and expanded their empire by buying every company that had a relation to theirs. Soon all the oil and the steel were in their control.
Seeing this as an outrage, Senator John Sherman passed a bill in the 1890. This bill was called The Sherman Antitrust act, being named after him who originally composed it. The Sherman Antitrust act was to was to boycott ways to eliminate competition between monopolies. Sherman believed it was a offense to monopolize or even attempt to, even with foreign nations. Despite it’s purpose, this document was poorly written and vague in many ways that many companies found loopholes. However, the act served as a wake up call to the national government to improve the economy for the public, not for one person.
