Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-16
ANDREW CARNECIES
:. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
4 Book Likely to Take Its
Place Among the Classics
of Its Kind

One of the most fascinating autobi-
ographies Of recent years is that of An
drew Carnegie. 1t was written at odd
moments during long period In order
to put on record matters in which Mr..
Carnegie thought his friends might be
/ interested. The manuscript has been
edited by Prof. John G. van Dyke.
OF Rutgers, who has added explanatory
notes to many passages.
The book discloses to the general pub =
I lie the kind of man Mr.. Carnegie was.
a matter hitherto known only by those
! who were intimately acquainted with
him during his life. He has been called
selfish and sometimes brutal money
grubhcr with an overweening vanity.
Yet the facts set forth In the book re-
veal him as somewhat Of sentimental :
ist and always a man desirous Of doing
something to improve the world. When
he was thirty three years old with an
! income of $50, 900 year he wrote n
memorandum in which he set down his
determination to retire from active bust :
| ness at the age of thirty five; spend
some time ut Oxford University in get :
ting an education and then buy mag =
azine or newspaper in London. which
he would devote to advocating the bet :
| tcrment of the cyworld. Events made IL
| impossible to carry out this purpose.
| His interests from his early youth were
J intellectual as well as commercial.
While he was telegraph messenger in
Pittsburgh he got access to the library
OF generous man who wished to help
| working boys, and the books he read
were Bancroft's History Of the United
States, Macaulay's Essays and His
tory Of England, and he says he found
great delight in Lambs Essays. This
is not the kind of reading usually Sc
lected by fifteen year old boys. a year
or two later he began to read Shakes
peare. When he was a man grown and
was making tour around the world he
read Confucius in China. and in India
he read the Buddhistic books and 10
roaster. He founded libraries. he says
in order to give other boys the oppor
tunities to get the education which was
denied him in his youth.
He tells how he became superin
| tendent of the Pittsburgh division of the
Pennsylvania Railroad at the age Of
twenty four: how he entered the bust
ness of making iron and of how in later
years Jay Gould offered to buy con
trolling interest in the Pennsylvania
Railroad and make him its president
lie tells also of the Homestead strik,
and the mistakes made by his. partners
and he expresses his confidence that i
he had been in the country the strik'
would not have occurred. He refute'
the charge made at the time that he hit
| himself in Scotland to escape the trou
bic and says that he wanted to COM
back. but that his partners most siren.
uously objected.
One of the most striking passages
appeared in chapter devoted to
discussion of the problems of labor. II
says: my experience is that you cal
always rely upon the great body o
workingmen to do what is right, pro
vided they have not taken up position
and promised their leaders to stand b.
them. But their loyalty to their lead
ers, even when mistaken, is somethin
to make us proud of them. Anythin
can be done with men who have thi
feeling Of loyalty within them. The
need only to be treated fairly"
He gives several instances in whic
fair treatment prevented trouble in hi
steel mills, and other instances in whic
an appeal to the men to respect tbei
contracts was successful.
The book is likely to take its plac
among the autObiographics that will live
because it is the disclosure of the min
of remarkable man who achieve
great things in commerce and the,
achieved still greater things in philan
throphy.
! CARNEGIE: Illustrated. Boston: Hougt
ton Mifflin Co. 50.