Carnegie

U. S. History 2020

Paper #3 Carnegie

The article entitled Wealth, published in 1889 in the North American Review may be Andrew Carnegie’s finest work. Knowing how successful Carnegie was, it’s hard to imagine a man of his stature with such progressive ideas towards wealth. Carnegie believed you shouldn’t feel guilty about accumulating wealth. He justified mass wealth accumulation as “highly beneficial" and even essential for progress to occur in our civilization. Carnegie himself stated “many of the luxuries and advantages of modern life have been created by business builders who wish to accumulate wealth.” He can’t feel guilty about success when every man begins life with the same means; he said it’s easier for a self-made man to understand that idealism. Carnegie was very firm in his stance that a man is measured on his own accomplishments and not those of his family. He stated “I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar. The thoughtful man must admit to himself that it is not the welfare of the children - but family pride, which inspires these legacies."

When a man enjoys such enormous success and has the ideas to benefit all of society with his charity, he must wisely choose his beneficiaries, and Carnegie did just that. He distributed over $350 million to various causes in the U.S. and England. His charitable activities are still evident in such institutions as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Monuments to Carnegie's largess and philanthropic skill include more than 200 libraries in the U.S., as well as concert halls, museums and other public use buildings. I myself enjoyed a Carnegie library in my