Andrew Carnegie

Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American who lived from 1835 until August 11, 1919. In the late 19th century, he oversaw the growth of the American steel industry and rose to become one of the wealthiest people in American history. He donated about $350 million (or about $5.5 billion in 2021) to foundations, charities, and educational institutions during the course of his final 18 years. In Dunfermline, Scotland, Andrew Carnegie was born to Margaret Morrison Carnegie and William Carnegie. He received his education at the Free School, which benefactor Adam Rolland of Gask donated to the community.
George Lauder, Sr., a prominent Scottish politician, was Andrew Carnegie's maternal uncle and had a big impact on him growing up. In 1848, the Carnegie family relocated to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in search of a better life. On his uncle's advice, Carnegie started working as a messenger boy in 1849, earning $2.50 per week (about to $81 in 2022 dollars) as a telegraph messenger boy. His father went back to work at the cotton mill, making him the only provider for the family once more. John Hay, a Scottish bobbin manufacturer, noticed Carnegie and offered him a job for $63 per week ($63 with inflation in 2022).
Colonel James Anderson, who welcomed working lads into his 400-volume personal library every Saturday night, encouraged Carnegie's love of reading. In terms of both his economic and intellectual and cultural growth, Carnegie was a steadfast borrower and a "self-made man." He worked as a secretary and telegraph operator for Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1853, when he was around 18 years old. During these years, Carnegie gained a lot of managerial and cost-controlling knowledge. Carnegie was able to invest $500 thanks to Scott in the Adams Express, which had a contract with the Pennsylvania to transport its messengers.
In exchange for keeping the shares that Theodore Tuttle Woodruff had provided to Scott and John Edgar Thomson as compensation, Carnegie also made an investment in Theodore Tuttle Woodruff's sleeping car business. Andrew Carnegie was named superintendent of the Union Government's eastern telegraph lines and military railways in 1861. He contributed to the opening of Washington, DC's rail lines. the insurgents had hacked. After receiving a scar from releasing a tangled telegraph line, Carnegie subsequently made light of the incident by calling himself "the first casualty of the war."
He also contributed to the building of the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri, which crossed the Mississippi River and opened a new market for steel in 1874. He made a point of name his first steel factory after J when he constructed it. Edmund Thomson The pursuit of wealth is one of the greatest forms of idolatry, according to Andrew Carnegie, who expressed his wish to live a life free of the demands of money and business in 1892. Worshiping money is the lowest kind of idolatry.
His use of the Bessemer process to mass produce steel was one of his greatest achievements. First, he vertically integrated all of his raw material sources. Carnegie acquired the competing Homestead Steel Works in 1883, which comprised a sizable factory that was supplied by nearby coal and iron resources. His second source of income, which brought him millions of dollars a year, was lobbying Congress for advantageous tariffs. By 1889, American steel production had surpassed that of the UK, and Carnegie owned a sizable portion of it.
The United States Steel Corporation, the first company in the world with a market valuation of more than $1 billion, was established by John Pierpont Morgan in 1901. Carnegie received his portion of this in the form of 50-year gold bonds, totaling $225.64 million (or $7.35 billion in 2021). The buyout was the biggest such takeover in American history to date and was conducted in secrecy by Charles M. Schwab. The goal of Carnegie was to stimulate intimate ties amongst English-speaking peoples. He donated £8,000 in 1879 to build the Dunfermline Carnegie Library in Scotland.
Carnegie's most avant-garde piece, Triumphant Democracy, was written in 1886. He made an argument for why he believed the American republican system of governance was preferable to the British monarchy. After the Spanish-American War, he opposed the annexation of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Cuba. In an effort to offset what he perceived as American imperialism, Carnegie offered $20 million in 1898 in an effort to secure independence for the Philippines. In 1900, Carnegie backed William Jennings Bryan in his campaign against William McKinley.
In a desk drawer titled "Gratitude and Sweet Words," Carnegie's letters of gratitude were saved. He gave the campaign for spelling change $25,000 a year. He donated $50000 to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1885 to build a public library. In Dunfermline, the first Carnegie Library was inaugurated in 1883. His strategy was to provide money to the construction and furnishing of the library, but only if the local government did the same.
Andrew Carnegie donated $2 million to start the Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT) in Pittsburgh in 1900 and the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1902. CIT, which merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become Carnegie Mellon University, is now known as Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie began supporting George Ellery Hale in 1911 as he attempted to erect the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson. He donated $10 million to create the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland in Scotland in 1901. Enhancing and expanding possibilities for scientific research at Scottish universities was the Trust's main objective. Additionally, he acquired the private land that became Pittencrieff Park and made it accessible to the general public.
Later, between 1913 and 1914, a statue of Carnegie was erected in the park as a tribute to his development of the park. Under Booker T. Washington, Carnegie contributed significantly to the Tuskegee Institute for African-American Education. He established the Carnegie Hero Fund for the USA and Canada in 1904. In 1903, Carnegie gave $1,500,000 to build the Peace Palace in The Hague. He gave $150,000 to build the Pan-American Palace, which will house the International Bureau of American Republics, in Washington.
On August 11, 1919, at his Shadow Brook house in Lenox, Massachusetts, Carnegie passed away from bronchial pneumonia. He had previously donated $350,695,653 of his money, which is equivalent to $5.49 billion in US currency in 2021[76]. His final $30,000,000 was distributed to foundations, charities, and pensioners after his passing. In New York's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, he was laid to rest. At the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, a short distance from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the Johnstown Dam was constructed in 1881.
The dam had a height of 22 meters and a length of 931 meters. The dam often leaked between 1881, when the club first opened, until 1889, during which time it was fixed, primarily with mud and straw. The dam gave way on May 31, 1889, as a result of repairs, a height decrease, exceptionally high snowmelt, and severe spring rains. The Johnstown Flood flooded the valley with twenty million tons of water. The Homestead Strike, which lasted 143 days in 1892, was a violent labor conflict.
The primary factory of Carnegie Steel in Homestead, Pennsylvania, served as the focal point of the dispute. It developed as a result of a labor dispute between the Carnegie Steel Company and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA). Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie's partner and associate, was given the responsibility of mediating the conflict.
In 1897, Carnegie wed Louise Whitfield, a woman who was 21 years his younger. The couple gave birth to a girl, whom they named Margaret after Carnegie's mother. The Scottish castle Skibo Castle was acquired by Carnegie, who split his time between there and his New York residence at 2 East 91st Street and Fifth Avenue. Carnegie had given $350,695,654 to various charities when he passed away on August 11, 1919. There is "no idol more debasing than the worship of money," according to Carnegie, who also stated that accumulating fortune is one of the worst types of idolatry.
He said in a message that he will retire at age 35 to pursue humanitarian giving in order to prevent lowering himself. He didn't start giving back really until he was 46 years old, when he gave his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland, a library. The protection of laissez-faire economics was Andrew Carnegie's political and economic priority in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. According to Spencerian evolution, people incapable of supporting themselves should be permitted to die. Carnegie said that by driving up expenses, unions prevented prices from naturally declining.
On the surface, Andrew Carnegie seems to be a devoted Herbert Spencer supporter and laissez-faire capitalist. However, there are some significant differences between Andrew Carnegie's capitalism and Spencer's ideas of capitalism as an evolutionary process. It seems that Carnegie purposely misinterpreted some of Spencer's main points or misread some of them. Public education was alluded to as "Old plans" by Herbert Spencer in his 1854 article "Manners and Fashion." He continued by saying that public schools and universities only teach kids ineffective, worthless information while excluding valuable information.
All acts of altruism that help the impoverished and disadvantaged, according to Spencer, are careless and ineffective. Andrew Carnegie first had doubts about Calvinism and religion in general, but he gradually came to terms with it. He thought that since they receive more parental attention and are taught stronger work ethics, the disadvantaged have an advantage over the rich. The creator of the Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, expressed his belief in "an Infinite and Eternal Energy" in communication with Carnegie that is documented.
Industrialist Andrew Carnegie also founded the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His credo, "All is okay since all becomes better," was a useful justification for both his prosperous economic career and his perspective on world affairs. Carnegie was able to completely commit to the goal of world peace after selling his steel business in 1901. To keep them expanding, he donated a large portion of his money to numerous peacekeeping organizations. According to Carnegie, peace in international relations is maintained by the work and will of the people. Carnegie anticipated the unification of the United States and the British Empire. On the path to the ultimate objective of ending war, the founding of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1910 was hailed as a major turning point. He donated $10 million in 1910 to advance world peace. After Andrew Carnegie supported the expedition that uncovered the dinosaur's bones in Utah's Morrison Formation (Jurassic), the dinosaur Diplodocus carnegiei (Hatcher) was named in his honor. At the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Carnegie Hall of Dinosaurs, the assembled original fossil skeleton is on display. Carnegie's charitable contributions totaled $350,000,000 since he donated the majority of the principle as well as his annual income, which was over $12,500,000. His two greatest donations were $60,00,000 to public library facilities and $125,000 to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress houses Carnegie's personal papers. The Andrew Carnegie Collection of digital archives on Carnegie's life is jointly managed by Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. There is hardly much personal material about Carnegie in these collections, which mostly focus on his charity.