Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

The thing that gets to me more than anything is learning about corrupt people that came into money from being corrupt. It is the main reason I have ever been interested in politics. I like to analyze people in politics to see if they are really true to their word or never fulfill their promises like most do. I want to talk about the richest business man in history. I read of him in my 7th grade history book and that moment realized he was brilliant. I wish I could someday even compare to a fraction of who he was. He was the exact opposite of corrupt and is probably one of the most stand up guys in history. I did not know as many things about him until recently. I learned of him in 7th grade when we were learning of the building of America. Andrew Carnegie was a monster contributor to the steel industry. I will explain Andrew Carnegie’s upbringing from background, achievements, philanthropy, to his death.

Background

        First, Carnegie was an emigrant from Dunfermline, Scotland born on November 25th 1835. His father’s career in home based weaving fell apart, their family sold their belongings and made their way for America. Carnegie was 13 years old when he landed in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. It started right here when he worked from dawn to dark for 1.20 cents per week. A year later he became a messenger for a telegraph company. This was the first skill he learned which later got him a job as a railroad superintendent. From this job, he had made his way to 35 dollars a week and was inspired to keep climbing. One of his greatest attributes was he was a dedicated reader. He believed anyone could self-educate themselves with books and some motivation. Colonel James Anderson opened his library to local working boys which was a once in a lifetime opportunity during those times.

Achievements

        Next, This is the beginning of Carnegie’s career in business and investments. He had a whole 217 dollars saved up and spent it on investing in a sleeping car company. He also got a mortgage on his house of 500 dollars and invested in 10 shares in the Adams Express Company. He took his bosses job at the railroad company and started making 1500 a year. The sleeping car company took off and started paying him 5000 a year through dividends. He also received dividends from the 10 shares he bought. He worked for the railroad company until he was 30. He started investing in multiple different interests and from here created the largest steel manufacturing company in the world. With his company the Keystone Bridge company he built the Eads bridge in St. Louis which is about 30 minutes from my home town. Something happened in 1892 known as the Homestead strike where the managers tried to lower the workers’ pay. Carnegie was away at the time but he was still held accountable by many and I think gave him a bad rep. In 1901 he sold his steel company for 480 million dollars according to carnegie.org. That amounts to about 309 billion dollars in modern day money. The next richest person is Bill gates at 163 Billion, nearly double.

Philanthropy

        Next, After selling his company and becoming the richest person in history, he dedicated his life to giving back all the money he made back to society, at age 65. Earlier I told you how invested he was in reading. Well he donated 5 million to New York to create library’s. Biography.com tells how he created the Carnegie Institute of technology and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was responsible for over 2800 Libraries being built. He paid for thousands of church organs around the nation. He also built many other schools, colleges, non-profit organizations, and associations in his home country of Scotland. He started the Carnegie corporation with 135 million dollars for scientific philanthropy.