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  Duquesne Steel Plant, Carnegie Steel Co., Duquesne, Pa.[1]

MAN OF STEEL: ANDREW CARNEGIE 

By Patrick Eaton                                                                                                                                                                               

Mr. Andrew Carnegie, a titan of American Business during the Post Bellum and into the early twentieth century, led the United States industrial expansion and specifically, of the American steel industry.

Carnegie, in his book, The Gospel of Wealth, presents the idea that captains of industry were indeed, special men; capable of organizing, of producing, of emerging humanity to effectively create and manufacture not only products but social change.

“We accept and welcome, therefore, as to conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment; the concentration of business, industrial, and commercial, in the hands of a few; and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential to the future progress of the race.”[2]

Carnegie often stated that man’s life was in thirds. One third spent getting educated, one third spent

  

       Portrait of Mr Andrew Carnegie.[3]

accumulating wealth, and the final third, giving back one’s riches. And Carnegie, like several other incredibly wealthy men of his generation, gave back. He gave back in the hundreds of millions. (Billions in today’s dollars!).

A philanthropist of epic stature whose contributions continue today, Carnegie was an autodidact from Scotland. He emigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of twelve. He worked in telegraph offices and read business reports. He would invest money saved. Slowly. Surely. And most skillfully.

            Stock Certificate. Andrew Carnegie. [4]

“Carnegie's emergence as a powerful actor within the field of power, replete with social capital, owed much to his philanthropy.”[5] His giving granted him access to the highest levels of political power, nationally and internationally. He was admired for industry and more.

The legacy of Carnegie today is embodied most profoundly in his philanthropy. The Carnegie Libraries, Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Institution for Science, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, Carnegie Trust, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Carnegie-Mellon University were all founded by Mr Carnegie during the last third of his life.

Carnegie didn’t accumulate wealth without struggle. Nor did he live without criticism. Other notable figures of whom he associated, worked and competed with, were scrutinized for their massive wealth. Figures such as J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Henry Ford, all experienced harsh criticism for their enormous wealth and monopoly on critical aspects of US industries. Railroads, steel, automobiles, oil, and heavy industrial manufacturing were dominated by these men.

‘Reformers’ claimed that all of them were concerned only with the accumulation of wealth and did so regardless of the social conditions of the working class. Henry George, Edward Bellamy, and Henry Demarest Lloyd all wrote and advocated against either capitalism, the wealthy class, or the ‘robber barons’ as the super wealthy would be called. Lloyd wrote that “the big businesses were doing what was right for them and working only to better themselves rather than the society as a whole.”[6]

Given the legacy of Andrew Carnegie today, as his organizations, libraries, university, and foundations continue to assist many and influence society the arguments of Lloyd and his ‘reformist’ colleagues serve more to remind the industrial giants of today of their responsibility to society and that Andrew Carnegie and his philanthropy serve as a model of care, conduct, and concern to be emulated.

 

 

[7]

 

 

 

 

 


 


 

 

 

 


[1] Detroit Publishing Co., Copyright Claimant, and Publisher Detroit Publishing Co. Duquesne Steel Plant, Carnegie Steel Co., Duquesne, Pa. Between 1900 and 1910, Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2016815083/.

[2] Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth, New York: The Century Company, 1901. Internet Archive, Robarts, University of Toronto, MSN. 4.

[3] Andrew Carnegie, United States, between 1865 and 1880, Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2017657457/.

[4] Stock Certificate, Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Stock Certificate, facsimile,

[5] Charles Harvey, Mairi Maclean, Jillian Gordon & Eleanor Shaw (2011) “Andrew Carnegie and The Foundations of Contemporary Entrepreneurial Philanthropy”, Business History, 53:3, 425-450, DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2011.565516, https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2011.565516

[6] Scirri, Kaitlin. 2019. Andrew Carnegie: Industrialist and Philanthropist, (New York, NY: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC. Accessed November 17, 2021). ProQuest Ebook Central.

[7] Ibid, 7.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carnegie, Andrew, The Gospel of Wealth, New York: The Century Company, 1901. Internet Archive, Robarts, University of Toronto, MSN. https://archive.org/details/gospelofwealthot00carnuoft/page/ii/mode/2up

 

Carnegie, Andrew, United States, between 1865 and 1880, Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2017657457/.

 

Charles Harvey, Mairi Maclean, Jillian Gordon & Eleanor Shaw (2011) “Andrew Carnegie and The Foundations of Contemporary Entrepreneurial Philanthropy”, Business History, 53:3, 425-450, DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2011.565516, https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2011.565516

 

Detroit Publishing Co., Copyright Claimant, and Publisher Detroit Publishing Co. Duquesne Steel Plant, Carnegie Steel Co., Duquesne, Pa. Between 1900 and 1910, Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2016815083/.

 

Scirri, Kaitlin. 2019. Andrew Carnegie: Industrialist and Philanthropist. New York, NY: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC. Accessed November 16, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

 

Carnegie Corporation of New York, Stock Certificate, facsimile, https://www.carnegie.org/interactives/foundersstory/assets/andrewcarnegie/StockCertificate.pdf

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