Andrew Carnegie (1837-1919), was a United States industrialist and philanthropist, who was the world's richest man during his time. After making a great fortune in the iron and steel industry, he distributed most of it in gifts and endowments for the good of mankind. Carnegie gave about $350,000,000 to build libraries, advance education and science, promote world peace, and to support other cultural and welfare work.
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. After his father, a weaver, lost his job, the family migrated in 1848 to Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh). Young Carnegie, then a boy of 11, worked first in a cotton mill at $1.20 a week. When he was 14 he became a telegraph messenger boy. Two years later having taught himself to send and receive messages, he was made a telegraph operator at $4.00 a week.
In 1853 Carnegie became a telegraph operator and secretary to Thomas A. Scott, superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. During the next 12 years Carnegie advanced steadily until he succeeded Scott as superintendent of the Pittsburgh division. When Scott was named the assistant secretary of war, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he took Carnegie to Washington with him to help direct military railways and telegraphs for the Union.
Carnegie returned to Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Railroad before the end of the war. Already he had begun the investments that were to be the basis of his immense fortune. In the 1850's he had bought stock in the first company to make sleeping cars. Before the Civil War was over, Carnegie was reaping dividends from an oil land investment in Pennsylvania.
Realizing that iron and steel would play an ever greater part in the American economy, Carnegie resigned from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1865 to give all his energy to this new industry. He had already helped to found the Keystone Bridge Company, and had organized the Superior Rail Mill and Blast Furnaces (1863-64) . Now he established the Union Iron Mills.
On a visit to Great Britain Carnegie noticed that the British were using steel rather than iron for rails. He introduced the Bessemer process into his mills in 1868, and was thus able to compete with British steel manufactures- then the worlds leaders. In 1873 he established the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Mills, and within 16 years United States production overtook the British output. In 1899 he merged all his holdings into one organization, the Carnegie Steel Company. By 1900 it was producing a fourth of the country's steel.
Wishing to retire, Carnegie in 1901 sold his company to the newly formed United States Steel Corporation, headed by J. Pierpont Morgan and Elbert Henry Gary. For his share Carnegie received $250,000,000 in 5 per cent 50-year gold bonds.
Now Carnegie could give more time to his major interests - reading, writing, friends, travel, and spending his money for public purposes. In 1889 he had written in an essay, "The Gospel of Wealth," that a rich man was merely a "trustee" of his fortune - that it was his duty to distribute it for "for the improvement of mankind."
The rest of his life Carnegie spent in putting his conviction into practice. His first act, in 1901, was to give the employees of the Carnegie Company $5,000,000 in the form of a pension and benefit fund. He gave a library to his native town, Dumfermline. He followed this by giving a public library and hall to Allegheny City, his first home in the United States. Later he gave many millions of dollars for libraries. He built Peace Palace at The Hague in the Netherlands, the Pan-American Union building in Washington, D. C., and Carnegie Hall in New York. He contributed to Scottish universities and set up a trust for the town of Dunfermline. (Carnegie and his wife spent many summers at "Skibo Castle" on their estate in Scotland.) His largest gifts were to the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Carnegie's writings include Triumphant Democracy (1886), in which he urged Great Britain to become a republic; The Empire of Business (1902); and Problems of Today (1909). He also wrote a number of travel books and many magazine articles. His autobiography was published in 1920.
Realizing that iron and steel would play an ever greater part in the American economy, Carnegie resigned from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1865 to give all his energy to this new industry. He had already helped to found the Keystone Bridge Company, and had organized the Superior Rail Mill and Blast Furnaces (1863-64) . Now he established the Union Iron Mills.
On a visit to Great Britain Carnegie noticed that the British were using steel rather than iron for rails. He introduced the Bessemer process into his mills in 1868, and was thus able to compete with British steel manufactures- then the worlds leaders. In 1873 he established the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Mills, and within 16 years United States production overtook the British output. In 1899 he merged all his holdings into one organization, the Carnegie Steel Company. By 1900 it was producing a fourth of the country's steel.
Wishing to retire, Carnegie in 1901 sold his company to the newly formed United States Steel Corporation, headed by J. Pierpont Morgan and Elbert Henry Gary. For his share Carnegie received $250,000,000 in 5 per cent 50-year gold bonds.
Now Carnegie could give more time to his major interests - reading, writing, friends, travel, and spending his money for public purposes. In 1889 he had written in an essay, "The Gospel of Wealth," that a rich man was merely a "trustee" of his fortune - that it was his duty to distribute it for "for the improvement of mankind."
The rest of his life Carnegie spent in putting his conviction into practice. His first act, in 1901, was to give the employees of the Carnegie Company $5,000,000 in the form of a pension and benefit fund. He gave a library to his native town, Dumfermline. He followed this by giving a public library and hall to Allegheny City, his first home in the United States. Later he gave many millions of dollars for libraries. He built Peace Palace at The Hague in the Netherlands, the Pan-American Union building in Washington, D. C., and Carnegie Hall in New York. He contributed to Scottish universities and set up a trust for the town of Dunfermline. (Carnegie and his wife spent many summers at "Skibo Castle" on their estate in Scotland.) His largest gifts were to the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Carnegie's writings include Triumphant Democracy (1886), in which he urged Great Britain to become a republic; The Empire of Business (1902); and Problems of Today (1909). He also wrote a number of travel books and many magazine articles. His autobiography was published in 1920.
No comments:
Post a Comment