In 1859, Andrew Carnegie was able to rise up in the railroad business and became superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division of Pennsylvania Railroad. By attaining such a position, this milestone marked the beginning to his life in the business world.
Andrew Carnegie is an epitome of a rags to riches story in America. Andrew Carnegie had emigrated from Scotland as a child, and he and his family settled in Pennsylvania. Because he had only a few years of formal education, Andrew Carnegie’s first job was a lowly one - a bobbin boy at a cotton factory. Ambition drove him to hold a many different jobs, including a messenger and operator at the Ohio Telegraph Company, and also as a secretary and a telegraph operator at the Pennsylvania Railroad
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During the Civil War and Reconstruction era, Carnegie the rapid industrialization of America, as well as the large need for iron products. Therefore, in the early 1870s, Carnegie founded his first steel mill in Pennsylvania. Because of his techniques in mass marketing, Carnegie’s first company was a success - he went on to purchase more steel mills in the area, and had founded an industrial empire. Using new technology, Carnegie improved the efficiency of his mills. For example, he installed an open hearth furnace system, which allowed him to create larger and stronger steel beams. In addition, Carnegie used new technologies such as cranes and hoists to speed up the steelmaking process and production. In his constant efforts to minimize costs and boost production, he was able to make an annual profit of $40 million. By 1892, Carnegie consolidated his holdings in the steel industry to from the Carnegie Steel Company. However, the same year, plant employees went on strike and shut his Homestead mill down. When workers began to riot, the state militia intervened, and the company was able to regain control of the plant, yet Carnegie’s reputation was …show more content…
In it, he stated that the rich have “a moral obligation to distribute [their wealth] in ways that promote the welfare and happiness of the common man.”, and that “the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced”. Being one of the most influential industrial and social leaders of the time, it is likely that Carnegie wanted to inspire rich men like him serve as stewards for society. Another one of Carnegie’s mentionable philanthropic works includes his fight for the independence of the Philippines. After the US captured the Philippines from Spain, the US paid Spain $20 million to purchase the islands, to which Carnegie matches the offer with $20 million for their independence. Along with many other Americans, Carnegie believed that the actions of the US were imperialistic, and that the Philippines should become an independent nation. In addition, Carnegie creates many charitable institutions over the years to support the lower classes, such as the Carnegie Institute of Technology, the Carnegie Teachers’ Pension Fund, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, or the Carnegie Corporation (which aided colleges and universities). Many of these organizations still exist today. Not to mention, Carnegie funded the creation of more than 2,500 public libraries, donated 7,600 organs to churches. In total,
Andrew Carnegie, the monopolist of the steel industry, was one of the worst of the Robber Barons. Like the others, he was full of contradictions and tried to bring peace to the world, but only caused conflicts and took away the jobs of many factory workers. Carnegie Steel, his company, was a main supplier of steel to the railroad industry. Working together, Carnegie and Vanderbilt had created an industrial machine so powerful, that nothing stood in its path. This is much similar to how Microsoft has monopolized the computer software
Despite the negative encounters of Andrew Carnegie’s Steel Company, the exploration and exchange of Carnegie Steel is that the steel was cheap. This had a positive impact on the United States because steel fed national growth, steel meant more jobs, national prestige, and a higher quality of life for
Andrew Carnegie was a man who was born poor, but wanted to change many lives for those who were like him. Since he was able to walk, he started to work he was a bobbin boy in Pittsburg. Carnegie would work 12 hours a day to
Andrew Carnegie in September 1875 production cost was pretty high but his selling price was way higher, in January 1877 he lowered his production cost by a lot and the selling price went down as well but it was still fairly higher than what he was making the steel for,and in November 1977 Carnegie was able to lower his production costs even more as well as his selling price which was a bit more than what he spent making the steel. (Doc D). The main idea of this chart is to show that over the period of September to November Carnegie was able to drop his prices and costs significantly but that doesn't make him heroic. That just means he found new methods, material, or cut the cost of labor, this is just Carnegie being a good businessman. Steel production in the United States was very small compared the Great Britain in 1870, ten years later in 1880 the US’s production launched and was just right under Great Britain, another ten years later in 1890 the US finally passed GB in production but but by very much, ten years after that in 1900 Andrew Carnegie’s mills was making one-third of all the steel in the US making the steel production to skyrocket still in the lead at #1 with Germany and Luxembourg no where near and then in 3rd was Great Britain a little bit close to GL (Doc E). This chart is just to show the production of steel in the United States comparing with other countries over the span of 1870-1900 and to see how Carnegie’s mills effected the US production. This chart does not show Carnegie as a hero just how well his factory productions was going. Overall Andrew Carnegie was very good at being a businessman because he had a lot of financial success with lowering his production costs but that's not very heroic of him, it’s really only doing him good because he's saving
Andrew Carnegie, was a strong-minded man who believed in equal distribution and different forms to manage wealth. One of the methods he suggested was to tax revenues to help out the public. He believed in successors enriching society by paying taxes and death taxes. Carnegie’s view did not surprise me because it was the only form people could not unequally distribute their wealth amongst the public, and the mediocre American economy. Therefore, taxations would lead to many more advances in the American economy and for public purposes.
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835. His father, Will, was a weaver and a follower of Chartism, a popular movement of the British working class that called for the masses to vote and to run for Parliament in order to help improve conditions for workers. The exposure to such political beliefs and his family's poverty made a lasting impression on young Andrew and played a significant role in his life after his family immigrated to the United States in 1848. Andrew Carnegie amassed wealth in the steel industry after immigrating from Scotland as a boy. He came from a poor family and had little formal education.
...ve up the fortunes they have built themselves. It is an admirable idea to give your money to help promote a thriving community. Carnegie states that he is against charity and believes that those in need should be taught how to improve their own lives. To fund these institutes and corporations a form of charity must be given. Wealthy citizens give their excess money to a few to disperse of in a way they see fit to help the race. Most Americans are not willing to give up such a large sum of money as noble and respectable of an idea as it is. I think that Carnegie’s plan, in theory, would work and would be best for the race. I do not think it is practical because most would rather spoil their own family with inheritance than give it away to help people unknown to them. Carnegie’s idea of fair is equal opportunities for everyone to help themselves and the race.
To understand Carnegie before he became a wealthy man, he grew up poor working for $1.20 a week (Document LV). At the age of 50 years, he took a risk by investing in a package delivery company. His gamble paid off and he gained money to start his company, Carnegie’s Steel Company. Eventually, his company grew and caused
The biography begins when the impoverished Carnegie family leaves their home in Scotland having been replaced by machines in the Industrial Revolution. People started sailing to America because their “old home no longer promised anything at all” (Livesay 14). They end up earning twice as much as they did in Scotland with their son Tom in school, the parents Margaret and Will shoe-binding, and Andrew working as a bobbin boy. Money earned without work was an opening to corruption in the eyes of a Republican nation and it was also assumed that hereditary wealth had caused the decline of Europe (Lena). Carnegie soon rises from poor bobbin boy to railroad superintendent, all the way to manager at the Pennsylvania Railroad. "I have made millions since, Carnegie later claimed, but none of these gave me so much happiness as my first week's earnings. I was now a helper of the family, a bread winner” (16). The background exposition on his family became crucial to understanding Carnegie’s drive to succeed. Livesay also fluently demonstrates the various professional relationships Carnegie develops throughout his life and how they affect his career. When his first investment pays a profit of $10, Carnegie discovers a whole new world of earning money from the capital. In 1865, he establishes his own business enterprises and...
Carnegie joined Thomas Scott during the civil war and developed a military graphing system. After this he advanced from telegraphy going through railroading and bridge building until he found himself in steelmaking, where he would make his profit. Due to his practical and ambitious ways, Carnegie wanted to dominate the steel industry, leading him to be tyrannical and a dishonest. Carnegie’s talent lied within promoting and selling steel rather than the technical part of steelmaking. Much like Rockefeller, Carnegie was also philanthropic because he gave much of his money away to build libraries, hospitals, parks, etc.
There have been many wealthy men Throughout American history, many have been the topic of many heated debates among them, Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie at one time was the richest man in the world, who immediately after gaining that title began giving his money away. The impact and size of Carnegie’s philanthropic efforts are undeniable, but why he gave so much has been a topic of debate for nearly a century now. Carnegie’s rags to riches story is the epitome of the American dream and has been an inspiration to many entrepreneurs around the world.
steel pipe tubing, Carnegie threatened to ruin him by invading his business if Morgan did not buy Carnegie out. E...
Industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick could not have come from more different backgrounds. Carnegie was born in the Scottish town of Dunfermline to a very poor family in 1835. When he was 12 years old, his father, a weaver, decided to move the family to the United States in search of better prospects, arriving at what was then the municipality of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh’s North Side. By that time, Pittsburgh was already known as a major center for the production of steel and other metals. In 1853, at the age of 18, Carnegie was hired as a telegraph operator for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and became a protégé of Thomas A. Scott, who would soon rise
Carnegie did not believe in spending his money on frivolous things, instead he gave most of his fortune back to special projects that helped the public, such as libraries, schools and recreation. Carnegie believes that industries have helped both the rich and the poor. He supports Social Darwinism. The talented and smart businessmen rose to the top. He acknowledges the large gap between the rich and the poor and offers a solution. In Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie, he states, “the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves” (25). He believes the rich should not spend money foolishly or pass it down to their sons, but they should put it back into society. They should provide supervised opportunities for the poor to improve themselves. The rich man should know “the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise- free libraries, parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and mind” (Carnegie p. 28). Also, Carnegie does not agree they should turn to Communism to redistribute wealth. Individuals should have the right to their earnings. Corporations should be allowed to act as it please with little to no government
Carnegie's first job was a telegraph messenger boy, and later upgraded to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a telegraph operator. His persevering work allowed him to quickly advance through the company, and he became the superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division. He continued making investments and made good profits throughout the civil war, and finally left Pennsylvania Railroad and started his own iron companies, eventually Keystone Bridge Works and Union Ironworks.