The title comes from Frick's reply to Carnegie's attempt at reconciliation as the latter, gravely ill, knew his end was approaching. Frick, whose own end would shortly follow Carnegie's, had no such premonition at the time and his reply characterized the bitter hatred and envy towards Carnegie that consumed so much of his life after their acrimonious split. Standiford's book succeeds not only telling the story of these two giants' relationship, but in capturing the mood of the times. Naturally, a great deal of the book centers on the forced, lock out strike at the Carnegie Steel's Homestead plant close to Pittsburgh. The author himself comes from a working class background, his family working long hours of drudgery in the mines and factories of the area, and naturally carries some bias towards the union point of view. But he also was inspired towards a life of knowledge and study in a Carnegie library as a young man and is able to balance his view. Carnegie was a complex man, a Horatio Alger story who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. He was almost completely self-educated. He also was not lacking in sympathy/empathy towards …show more content…
On the union side there was the fact of harsh conditions in the industry and the right to unionize and bargain as a unit. Usually this all one hears with the unions good, robber barons bad mindset so many seem to bring to the topic. But the company had some arguments as well. The pay scale in force at Homestead was higher than in the rest of the industry. It was also the only unionized plant and likely would have led to Carnegie Steel being unionized while their competitors were not. It's also true that harsh as the work was, and especially seems to us today, at the time a job at Homestead was considered a good job. Even after the company eventually prevailed, wages at Homestead were at and in many cases above the average in the
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
Even though these men attempted to build a stable foundation for America to grow on, their negative aspects dramatically outweighed the positive. Even though Andrew Carnegie donated his fortunes to charity, he only acquired the money through unjustifiable actions. As these industrialists continued to monopolize companies through illegal actions, plutocracy- government controlled by the wealthy, took control of the Constitution. Sequentially, they used their power to prevent controls by state legislatures. These circumstances effect the way one
Andrew Carnegie, the “King of Steel”, the benevolent employer, the giant of industry, was among the greatest influences of the second industrial revolution. It is sometimes questioned whether Carnegie was the ruthless, sneaky steel tyrant some made him out to be, or the generous, benevolent education benefactor he appeared to be. I believe him to be a combination of both, but more so the great giant of industry.
Andrew Carnegie and his philanthropy made him a hero because he helped more people than harm in the long run, by this I mean he helped other countries. He also sets a great example to everyone that helping others or someone is not something you need to wait to do when you are no longer living. If someone needed help and even a stable person had the choice to help but until they are no longer alive has little meaning. Perhaps it would be too late when the person isn’t around anymore. Its about what someone can do to help when they are around, it is about what a person can do in the time of need even if it is not much but a little of anything can go a long way. In (Doc C) there is a list of amounts of money that Carnegie has donated to various places which in total he has donated well over $271m but aside from that his corporation is giving out about $100m a year, most of it to education (Doc C)
Andrew Carnegie did not display heroic qualities because he was a dishonest man who had no concern for others seeing as he done his competitors dirty and treated his workers terribly. “Carnegie sent out a circular (notice)
... were left unprotected and abandoned by the unions. How is it that the unions can demand labors lose months of wages, be subject to labor blacklisting and ultimately sacrifice their lives without any protections for the strikers and still claim success? They can’t. If anything, the Pinkertons who dispersed the crowd did more to help the worker, by reopening the Homestead, than the union had done. Thus, the unions were an utter failure in furthering the position of the laborer, as the laborer was better off before hand. Before unions the laborer had their life, as many died in failed strikes, and their dignity, as society at least held an intrinsic value in their lives. However, unions succeeded in decimating any chance of advancement by tarnishing the reputations of all laborers, leading to a direct decline in the socio-economic position of the blue-collar worker.
The unions resorted to many forms of tactics such as boycotts, picketing, and the less prominent “closed shop”. The most prevalent of these methods, however, was the formation of riots. During the late 19th century riots included: the Haymarket Square Riots (1886), the Homestead Lockout, and the Pullman Car Company strike. The Haymarket Square Riots of 1886 took place at the McCormick plant in Chicago, Illinois in response to the worker’s need for an eight hour workday. The first two days were innate, but the third day was where the the situation actually instigated the cause. The owner of the plant, McCormick, attempted to bring strikebreakers (scabs), and a battle had begun between the scabs and the strikers. The riot, wistfully, ended the lives of four men when the police began to attempt to impede and halter the situation. These four deaths initiated a chain reaction resulting in the calling for the revenge of the four men by German radical Johann Most. Despite Johann’s reaction, 200 more Chicago policemen ordered the remaining strikers to leave the area. In the crowd, in the moment, a homemade bomb was hurled leading in the death of one policeman; acting as a predecessor of events, this event lead to a shooting between the policemen and the strikers concluding with the death of four workers and seven more policemen; entirely approximately one hundred people were injured. The Haymarket Riots caused public opinion to turn against labor. The Homestead Lockout took place in Homestead, Pennsylvania at Andrew Carnegie’s steel plant and was instigated by Henry Clay Frick’s wage cut. In this riot workers walked out of the company and then Frick ordered company doors to be locked and trapped the workers inside. Employees rebelled and caused about 200 Pinkerton detectives to come up the river to protect company property and created a battle.
His book, The Gospel of Wealth, preaches that “the millionaire who properly recognizes his own position is merely a "trustee"; he holds his surplus wealth for the benefit of his fellows” ("Andrew Carnegie," Dictionary). Carnegie himself abided by these words, contributing to society in the ways that he believed would most benefit American citizens. At its peak, Carnegie’s net worth was $475 million, which is equivalent to about $310 billion in today’s dollars. However, around the time of his death, Carnegie had only $30 million left to his name, after he put his money towards building trusts, charities, schools, and primarily libraries (Zorn). This philanthropy diverged from the actions of any millionaires of the time. Though some, such as John D. Rockefeller, also took part in philanthropic work, none held such intense concern or addressed societal problems as directly as Carnegie. Instead of simply donating large sums of money to schools or foundations, established his famous trusts and foundations, such as the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, that to this day benefit students by earning them scholarships and increasing the quality of their education. He also specifically fought to improve African American education, funding
He went to London in 1872, saw the new Bessemer method of producing steel, and returned to the United States to build a million-dollar steel plant. Foreign competition was kept out by a high tariff conveniently set by Congress, and by 1880 Carnegie was producing 10,000 tons of steel a month, making $1 1/2 million a year in profit. By 1900 he was making $40 million a year, and that year, at a dinner party, he agreed to sell his steel company to J. P. Morgan. He scribbled the price on a note: $492,000,000.”
He does so by belittling non-capitalistic societies such as Native American societies and former United States industrialists, and deeming their ideologies antiquated. Since at this time period, Native Americans were considered to be an inferior race, it was appropriate for Carnegie to use them as an example of what they Americans should not become. He tells of how Native Americans are today where they were then, and how just now Native Americans are under economic systems in which the rich and poor share similar lifestyles. Extrapolating further, he tells of his observations upon visiting an Indian village. “The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us to-day measures the change which had come with civilization” He describes how the cottages of the Native American leaders were in no better location nor ornamented any differently than those of the poor in the Indian
Speaking of where that money, in document #10 we see a small cartoon post from The Saturday Globe, Utica, New York, July 9, 1892. At the bottom it conveys, “Forty Millionaire Carnegie in his Great Double Role” With this message, it displays Carnegie both giving away a Library to Pittsburgh and money to Scotland, and cutting wages from workers. This drawing signifies what he does with the money rather than paying his workers with that money. Looking at wages in document #7 helps to see how much a worker are paid in a chart, even though iron and steel workers look like they have decent wages(daily hrs. 10.67, daily wages 1.81), it was to many unfair wages. Compare this to Carnegie’s daily “wage” was ninety two grand! Confirming wages are unfair.
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
If no contract was reached, Carnegie Steel would cease to recognize the union. Carnegie formally approved Frick's tactics on May 4. Then Frick offered a slightly better wage scale and advised the Superintendent to tell the workers, "We do not care whether a man belongs to a union or not, nor do we wish to interfere. He may belong to as many unions or organizations as he chooses, but we think our employees at Homestead Steel Works would fare much better working under the system in vogue at Edgar Thomson and Duquesne."
At the Homestead Steel Works outside Pittsburgh, which had been purchased by Carnegie in 1883, the chairman blamed the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers for low production, and with the expiry of the collective bargaining agreement approaching, he saw an opportunity to reduce the union’s power. Carnegie, who was an open supporter of unions, nevertheless agreed with Frick in the case of Homestead, because he considered AA to be a corrupt organization that did not properly represent the workers. In fact, only about 800 of the 3,800 employees at Homestead were members of AA (Krass 277).
Andrew Carnegie did not seem to care for others because while his workers were losing money, Carnegie was donating money to other countries, and even different organizations. Most of Andrew Carnegie's actions showed greed and pride. Carnegie might have been a hero by giving away most of his money. He still died rich, as he said before “He who dies, rich dies disgraced” Don't be fooled by what others tell you, t ould always be sugarcoated. Not everything we see or hear is true. Carnegie treated most people wrongfully. While he was playing all fun and games, donating to others. Carnegie might have been a hero in the eyes of others, but not everyone sees him the same wa. Don't be