The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-11-09

Do. 3sez5Le c4NDREW CARNEGIE'S
:. :" !. .. .. !. !. !. !.
EfarW AezlI recent communication
INA EPGi in the Echo de Paris
E9%k AaA2N advocating the forma-
~ All ton of triple ALI
M AL ance between the
United States. Eng
e22aAlszsa@ land and France has
not only attracted
much attention. but has demonstrated
once more that the great steel maker is
no trivial dabbler in matters of inter
national poIity. 1t has also established
another fact-that there is little hkeli-
hood that the name of this premier
captain Of industry win disappear
from public view as long as its owner is
able to WELD the pen.
The man who bears the name, more
over. has no cause of complaint that it
has received scant publicity. It is
doubtful whether any other, not even
excepting those of the most famous
rulers, statesmen and fighting men of
recent times, has been SO conspicuously
brought 10 the front and kept there 50
continuously. If there is a suspicion
extant that Mr.. Carnegie has not been
displeased with the efforts of English
speaking journalists to do him justice.
it does not in any way detract from his
real greatness or belittIe the marvellous
fabric which his Scottish sagacity has
reared in the land of his adoption.
Andrew Carnegie born in poverty in
Dunfermline in 1887. was eleven years
of age when the family came to Ameri-
ca, and it was so necessary for him to
become self supporting at once that he
was glad to be a bobbin boy in a Pitts
burg factory at a salary of 20 cents
day Fifty-two years later, at the age
Of sfxty-three, when he retired from
further active money getting. he had
accumulated $166,250, 900. He had gath
cred this almost incredible sum at the
rate Of over 100000 year. but it was
a good many years before the million
dollar income began
According to a published statement Of
Henry @. Frick, whose close association
with Mr.. Carnegie in his various steel
enterprises gave him an excellent op-
portunitY for observation, the little
Scotch-American's income when the
great steel trust was formed was more
than S2A00O,OO0 a year. If that esti-
mate of his income were correct, it
means that his total wealth, based on
the customary 5 per cent basis, aggre-
gated more than $500, 900. There is
no reason to believe. in spite of Mr..
Camegie's expressed disapproval of the
man who dies rich, that he is worth
less than that at the present time.
While he was getting together this
vast amount of treasure Mr.. Carnegie
was one OF the most active Individual
forces in the development of several in
dustries which were just beginning
when he stepped upon the stage. He did
not remain long in the cotton mill. but
left it to become a messenger boy in
the Ohio Telegraph company at Pitts
burg He was one of the first telegraph
operators to learn to read messages by
sound, and he became SO expert at this
new art that he was soon able to obtain
good wages. He went into the employ
OF the Pennsylvania Railroad company
and showed so much ability that he was
promoted to the SUPPLEMENTARY of the
Pittsburg division.
This new position gave him an op-
pOrtunity to take a survey Of the field.
He became acquainted with several
men who were about to launch various
inventive and industrial projects,
among them Woodruff, the originator
of the sleeping car. He put his savings
into the company organized to build
sleeping cars and in that way gained
the nucleus of his fortune. The oil ex-
element followed with all its feverish