ANDREW CARNEGIE

Andrew Carnegie



Andrew Carnegie

Introduction

Andrew Carnegie, the son of a handloom weaver, was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on 25th November, 1835. The family had a long radical tradition and his father, William Carnegie, was an active Chartist. His material grandfather, Thomas Morrison, had worked with William Cobbett during his campaign for social reform. The economic depression of 1848 convinced the Carnegie family to emigrate to the United States where they joined a Scottish colony at Allegheny near Pittsburgh. Andrew began work at 12 in a local cotton factory but continued his education by attending night school.

Discussion

At 14 Carnegie became a messenger boy in the local Pittsburgh Telegraph Office. His abilities were noticed by Thomas A. Scott, the superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He made Carnegie his secretary. During the Civil War Scott was appointed assistant secretary of war and Carnegie went to Washington to work as his right-hand man. Carnegie's work included organizing the military telegraph system. After the war Carnegie succeeded Scott as superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Carnegie shrewdly invested in several promising ventures including the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company and several small iron mills and factories. The most important of these was Keystone Bridge, a company which he owned a one-fifth share.

Carnegie made regular visits to Britain where he observed the rapid developments in the iron industry. He was especially impressed by the converter invented by Henry Bessemer. Carnegie realised that steel would now replace iron for the manufacture of heavy goods. In 1870 Carnegie erected his first blast furnace where he used the ideas being developed by Bessemer in England. Others followed and by 1874 he opened his steel furnace at Braddock. He took several partners, including Henry Frick, but he always insisted in retaining the majority holding in his various ventures.

Carnegie took a keen interest in social and political issues and wrote a series of books including Round the World (1881), An American Four-in-Hand in Britain (1883) and Triumphant Democracy (1886), where he compared the egalitarianism of America with the class-based inequalities of Britain and other European countries. He praised America's educational system arguing that: "Of all its boasts, of all its triumphs, this is at once its proudest and its best."

In June, 1889, the North American Review published an article by Carnegie on what he called the "Gospel of Wealth". In the article Carnegie argued that it was the duty of rich men and women to use their wealth to benefit the welfare of the community. He wrote that a "man who dies rich dies disgraced". In 1889 Carnegie decided to allow Henry Frick to become chairman of the Carnegie Companywhile he moved to New York to deal with the growing importance of research and development. Carnegie also spent six months of the year in Scotland with his family.

When Frick took control the firm consisted of various mills and furnaces in the Pittsburgh area. Frick was concerned that there was no centralized management ...