Andrew Carnegie

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Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was born in Dumferline, Scotland, in November of 1935. His parents were Will and Margaret Carnegie. He also had a brother, Tom. The main income for the geographic location where he grew up was weaving linen. The people who engaged in this type of employment considered this an art since it had relatively unchanged since medieval times. Andrew's father was one of those craftsmen. Since there had been so little change in this type of work, they were really caught off guard when machine production came around. For some, this industrialization was good. The Carnegies were lead to believe that this was the way they should be headed. At first the returns were good for them, but prices and demand fell, and they were left without anything. The whole looming industry was virtually gone; and with that, it was clear that there would be no trade for Andrew to learn. They had received letters from time to time about the possibility of work in America. After the looms fell through for them, they realized that they didn't have much of a choice of what to do. So, they borrowed the money for the voyage from Scotland to New York in the hopes of having a fresh start. Losing everything they had didn't sit well with Andrew or his mother. The family left in shame and determined to make it in their new environment.

Upon arriving they immediately set out for work. Will found door-to-door work with a loom, Margaret with shoe binding, and Andrew found work as a bobbin boy in a local textile mill. Andrew was a hard worker and had the ability to adapt to any type of work. He was offered a job as a messenger boy for a telegraph company and he jumped at the opportunity to get out of the terrible conditions of the mill. Andrew seemed to be in the right place at the right time for his advances. He was also willing to do anything to succeed. He was working long hours and still had the drive to attend classes. With the messenger job, Carnegie not only was able to "network" with most everyone, but he kind of knew how to manipulate or pursued people; he learned how to say what people wanted to hear. Carnegie was making steps toward becoming successful in whatever he did.

From the factory to office boy, messenger, part and full time telegrapher, Carnegie seemed to be destined for greatness. Because of Andrew's abilities and understanding of the teleg...

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...ice and the fact that Carnegie and Frick wanted to eliminate the union. Many lives were lost in this battle which started when Frick ordered the Pinkertons to come down river on barges and attempt to be smuggled in to the plant and re-open the plant with non-union workers. The plan didn't work. After the strike there were some years (1893-1894) that were considered depression years. Carnegie pushed through these tough time and managed to push costs down even more and come out with an amazing $4,000,000 net profit; the next closest competitor had a $1,000,000 loss for the same time period. Andrew was quite amazing in his ability to make money. His company posted record profits in the next few years topping out at $40M in 1900. After a meeting with Charles Schwab in Jan. of 1901, Carnegie decided to sell out. He sold his company to J.P.Morgan for $480,000,000. The sale of this company was combined with another company to become United States Steel. Much of his fortune was given away in the years that followed. This gave him inner peace. He gave libraries, church organs, and founded institutes and established schools. He passed away on August 11, 1919; and he had given it all away.

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