The Men Who Built America Essay

Around this time (1889) big money was being made. There were a select few who made crazy fortunes on their own, in oil and steel, guys like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegies dream was to have his own steel company that would create the steel from the beginning to the end. When his dreams came true he made a fortune. He was very generous in the way of philanthropy,

Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men in America but his wealth didn’t come without hard work and dedication. Carnegie was born in “Dunfermline, Scotland on November 25, 1835” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle, the invention of the weaving machine unfortunately pushed Carnegie’s family in to poverty “In 1848, Carnegie’s family left Scotland and moved to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, where his father and eventually him worked in a cotton factory” (Tyle). After leaving the cotton factory “Carnegie became a messenger boy for the Pittsburgh telegraph office and eventually made his way up to telegraph operator” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle “Thomas A. Scott, the superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, made Carnegie his secretary at the age of eighteen.” Later, Carnegie took over Scott’s position of the railroad. Furthermore Carnegie “began to see that steel was going to replace iron and by 1873 he organized a steel rail company” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle he continued to build his company when he “cut prices, drove out competitors,

Without Carnegie, the steel industry, and the second industrial revolution in general, would never have progressed as much as it did. Carnegie did what was necessary to make the steel industry more productive and more efficient, for less money. He was a shrewd, ruthless, businessman who’s aggressiveness made the steel, railroad, and oil industries so economically successful. These characteristics, though not always looked upon as nice or sympathetic, were sometimes necessary. He had paid his time as a poor factory boy, and now it was his turn to live comfortably and aid others less fortunate to work towards the same success.

The Carnegie Steel Company was a successful factory, which employed many hundred of workers. Andrew Carnegie, who was the owner of the company, wanted a large successful business, which he had achieved already, but he was always looking for ways to save and make more money. By 1892, unions had been formed

It has been thoroughly debated whether Andrew Carnegie was a captain of his industry or a robber baron. He was a successful entrepreneur that created the Carnegie Steel Company in the late 1800s, a company that monopolized the production of steel. It has been ardently deliberated whether Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron who mistreated his workers and destroyed unions or that he was a captain of industry who paved the way for future steel companies. There are also many accomplished entrepreneurs in the world today that were much like Andrew Carnegie.

     Let us first look at Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a mogul in the steel industry. Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie built his fortune out of nothing, clawing his way to the top and making his fortune by seeing the expanding usage of steel and quickly jumping on the opportunity, becoming one of the first and biggest steel producers in America, and later the world[2]. With this massive corporation

In 1892, Frick realized there was no centralized management for the company and decided to combine everything to form the Carnegie Steel Company. It was worth $25 million and was the largest steel company in the world. Frick became greedy and wanted to increase profits, so he lowered employee wages. Workers began to strike, so Frick hired 300 strikebreakers to resolve the situation. There was a battle that lasted a day and 60 men were wounded.

Carnegie not only got his start as a young Irish immigrant working as a railroad telegraph operator, his first major corporation was the Keystone Telegraph Company, in which he acquired the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company. Carnegie thought of giving up on business after having moderate success, but on a trip to England in 1872, he met with Henry Bessemer and saw his plans for steel. (Carnegie

It illustrated the poor conditions of labour, which contributed to industrialization and a labour union, which took care of fighting for benefits and the working conditions of these child labourers. Andrew Carnegie’s article (as seen in document D) proposes the idea of the rich using their wealth to improve society, as he believed that the fact that a person was rich, showed that he was more fit than others. Carnegie acknowledged that the living conditions were poor and wanted to help change that. This introduced industrialization into the Gilded Age. In the late 19th Century, Carnegie led the enormous expansion of the American steel

Carnegie was very poor during his childhood, and this will cause him to try a variety of jobs that inevitably led to his steel empire. “Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. His father, William Carnegie, a prosperous handloom weaver at the time of Andrew’s birth, was unable to compete with the new technology of steam loomers and fell into poverty as Andrew grew older,” (UXL biographies). In 1848, Andrew and his family immigrated to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, and Andrew got a job at a

[B] a bookkeeper in the textile industry in his native Scotland. [C] a foreman in the meatpacking industry in Chicago. [D] a bartender at an Edinburgh pub. [E] a secretary for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. 11. What did Andrew Carnegie consider “the eighth wonder of the world”? [A] the United States Constitution [B] the manufacturing process of the steel business [C] the telegraph [D] the American railroad system [E] J.P. Morgan’s creation of United States Steel Corporation out of Carnegie Steel and Federal Steel 12. The United States Steel Company was [A] the steel company operated by the United States government when it nationalized the steel trust. [B] the first business capitalized at more than $1 billion. [C] Andrew Carnegie’s steel company. [D] created by J.P. Morgan to compete with Federal Steel. [E] the first company to issue stock to meet its huge capital needs.

He established many other steel plants, and in 1892, he merged all of his interests into the Carnegie Steel Company. This act from Carnegie is fitting with one of his most famous quotations, "Put all of your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket." This firm became one of the greatest industrial enterprises in America. Carnegie later sold it to J.P. Morgan's United States Steel Corporation in 1901 for $400 million, which would be a little over $4 billion today! After retiring, Carnegie's fortune was estimated to be as large as half a billion dollars. From that time on, with the philosophy that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their money, he devoted himself to philanthropy. Although ironic, this man of great fortune strongly believed in the merits of poverty for the development of character and work ethic, and determined that wealthy men should not leave their fortunes to their children, but should give it away, claiming "The man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced." The picture of community service, Carnegie is quoted as saying, "Pittsburgh entered the core of my heart when I was a boy, and cannot be torn out. I can never be one hair's breadth less loyal to her, or less anxious to help her in any way, than I have been since I could help anything. My treasure is still with you, and how best to serve Pittsburgh is the question which occurs to me almost every day of my life." Colonel James Anderson, who Carnegie

     After his near death experience and fall out with Carnegie Steel Company he continued his business interests in Pittsburgh, New York, and other cities. He formed the St. Clair Steel Company in 1900, with the largest coke works in the world in Clairton. He then played a major role in the formation of United States Steel Corporation, after Carnegie sold his interests in the Carnegie Steel Company in 1901. He then began investing in a large real estate in Downtown Pittsburgh that included the Frick Building,

Homestead Steel Works was one of Andrew Carnegie’s many steel mills in the States. Carnegie had discovered the