The United Fruit Company is More Than a Corporation originates from Frederick Upham Adam’s 1914 book, Conquest of the Tropics: The Story of the Creative Enterprises Conducted by the United Fruit Company, Romance of Big Business. Frederick Upham Adams was a 19th and early 20th century writer, editor and inventor (of the electric light post) who had significant involvement in American politics. He strongly believed in majority rule and was strongly anti-trust and monopoly. United Fruit Co, the corporation in question, was a fruit produce company that primarily traded in bananas which was founded in 1899 and existed until it was eventually succeeded by Chiquita Brands International. The company was known for its heavy influence on Central American countries, notably Honduras and Guatemala, which gained the nickname “Banana Republics”. In those countries they had near or complete monopolies on banana production and other industry, including rail and sea transport, and disturbingly strong influence on the government and development of the countries. They also known for their extremely harsh treatment of workers and locals in general.
So what prompts Frederick Upham Adams, with his anti-monopoly and anti-trust ideology, to so strongly support a company that is the epitome of what he despised? It appears that it has a lot to do with the timing of this writing, and a potential lack of available information. This was published 15 years after the founding of the company, and easily could’ve taken Adams a few years to write. This is very early in the company’s existence. From an outside perspective, all Adams could see was the rapid industrialization, sanitization, and development of countries which the company was functioning in and the harsh worker treatment. On the first point, these all seem positive to a wealthy, pro-industry man, certainly to a point where the detriments could’ve gone unseen or ignored. He especially praises the rapid expansion of farmable land, the ridding of disease, and the construction of railways. In terms of worker treatment, he only touches on their improved health, ignoring their generally harsh treatment. There is no indication of whether he opposed harsh working conditions. Because they were working in less or unindustrialized countries, the changes they were causing seem monumental, “lift[ing] it out of the class of mere money making and profit hunting corporations,” as he words it in the passage. Simply put, he wrote this before United Fruit company grew into a company that he would have opposed.
Citations
Adams, Frederick Upham. “Conquest of the Tropics: The Story of the Creative Enterprises Conducted by the United Fruit Company, Romance of Big Business.” In American Empire at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: A Brief History With Documents, edited by Kristin L. Hoganson, 151-154. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2017.
Aflalo, Frederick G. “At the Bidding of the United Fruit Company, Sunshine and Sport in Florida and the West Indies. London: T.W. Laurie, 1907. From The New York Public Library Digital Collections. Public Domain.