Industrial Barons (of the 1870s–1920s)

“The public be damned,” a quote attributed to—albeit denied by—railroad magnate William Henry Vanderbilt in 1882, epitomizes the atmosphere of the United States during its industrial growth from the 1870s through the 1920s. The masses had seen evidence to support such sentiments about industrialists, who often believed the less the public knew about their dealings the better. Thus grew a restless distrust of the “robber barons,” whose power and wealth were gained and secured for generations during this era, often through the exploitation of labor and natural resources.

The change from an agrarian society to an industrialized one had been inevitable. As Scott M. Cutlip noted in Public Relations History (1995), in just 25 years—1875 to 1900—the nation's population doubled, immigration and urban living swelled, mass production processes began, natural resources continued to be discovered and developed, railroads and telegraph wires crossed the country, and the mass media of newspapers and magazines proliferated. These profound changes set the stage for the rise of corporate public relations, which according to Cutlip and others, was a term first used by the Association of American Railroads in an 1897 company listing. However, by this time, the railroads' use of public relations tactics was nothing new.

On the contrary, said Cutlip, it was this industry that helped pioneer the profession. Vanderbilt's and others' railroads had long used articles, murals, pamphlets, and other means to convince Americans to take the rails westward. Such settlements would in turn expand the railroads' business territory. However, to do so, transportation by rail had to be proved safe to a doubtful public and investors had to be secured. Public relations tactics helped to do just that. By 1860, railroads were no longer seen as experimental, and by the 1870s railroads were still enticing people to head farther west. Cutlip detailed how the Burlington Railroad fashioned a campaign that included the use of news releases, philanthropy and community relations, third-person testimonials, letters, and pamphlets to accomplish its business objectives.

In its early years, the railroad industry also understood the power of public opinion and, thus, the power of the press. Cutlip reported that the industry provided free passes to reporters and established a trade journal and Bureau of Information, which served to educate the “press, legislators and the public, as to the true relations of the railway interest to the public welfare” (1995, p. 143). The industry used opinion leaders, long before the twostep flow theory was posited, to help win public [Page 414]favor for such issues as route selection, freight and passenger business, and investors. Railroads also made use of speeches, letters of endorsement, and staff-written articles for popular periodicals.

However, railroad industrialists of this era also faced public relations challenges. Indeed, it was the perception of us versus them—exemplified by the publicity surrounding examples of the arrogance and greed that were pursued instead of the ideals of humanity and public good—that fostered recognition by giants of industry that the public could not be ignored. For example, the fallout from Vanderbilt's alleged “public be damned” quote regarding express railroad operations' existence due to competition, not to public need, included pressure being exerted (by a group called the National Grange) that resulted in the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The act, meant to stem industrial age excesses, resulted, said Cutlip, in the implementation of public relations programs by utilities and common carriers, for they were among the first industries to experience public wrath.

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