Andrew Carnegie was a hero amongst a few people but it can be debatable towards others. Andrew Carnegie was born in November 1835, in the attic of a weaver’s cottage in Dunfermline, Scotland. While he was growing up, his family was poor, so his family decided to move to the United States, he started working at the age of twelve. As he got older he got promoted into different positions and because of this he was able to build up his own business and bought out his competition. Could Andrew Carnegie be considered a hero? A hero is a person that does something astonishing such as provide courage, integrity and intelligence. Andrew Carnegie was not considered a hero in three areas of his life: business, money and social.
The first area in
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Shinn’s point is to see the increase and decrease of production costs and selling prices. This evidence helps explain why Carnegie was not a hero because Shinn is only talking about the production price and the selling cost of steel rails. For example, in The Saturday Globe it illustrates how Carnegie had “Double Role”(The Saturday Globe, 1892). In making this comment, the Saturday Globe is trying to say that Carnegie was playing two roles because he could give away money and still made notices about wages being reduced. This demonstrates how he wasn’t a hero because he would reduce the wages of his employees to give that away. Money was one of the many reasons why Carnegie wasn’t a hero because of how he took away wages from his employees to give it away. Although money was important to him, he still felt that he needed to donate it to the public.
The third area in which Carnegie wasn’t a hero was social. Garland states, “Everywhere where grimy men with sallow and lean faces” (Garland, 1894). Garland is trying to prove the difference between two people’s payments. This doesn’t help answer the question of Carnegie being a hero because it’s talking about people’s pay. According to Carnegie, “Why should men leave great fortunes to their children”(Carnegie,1889). Carnegie is saying that rich man that leave money should be disgraced because they wouldn’t
Andrew Carnegie, a tightfisted employer among many, but a good-hearted philanthropist among many more; however, does this really explain if he was or was not a hero? Andrew Carnegie was a scottish immigrant born in November 1835 who grew up in a poor and hard life, whose family made the tough decision to the Americas in 1848, started working at age 12 to appease his family’s financial trouble. He worked harder and harder, deciphering dot-dot-dash messages by ear, setting train schedules and untangling train wrecks, and saving Union soldiers, and finally, as a result, rose to become one of America’s richest and most integral heroes. However, we should ask ourselves this: Was Andrew Carnegie truly a hero? Well, to answer that question we need to look at the definition of a hero. Hero, a word defined as a person who holds amazing courage, or a person who possesses strong integrity, or a person who boasts a vast amount of intelligence or wisdom. Going by this interpretation, we could state that Andrew Carnegie was a hero in the business area because of his strategic intelligence; in the social area because of his honest integrity; and in the economic area because of his courageous work and investments.
Many people at the time were living in poverty and there weren’t enough jobs that had sufficient pay to support a family. The steel industry was one that had the highest earning wages. The average daily wage at the time for iron and steel workers were $1.87, this is far above other industries that had a smaller amount of pay. Others can argue that because of the bad working conditions workers faced in the steel industries, Carnegie shouldn’t be considered a hero. But isn’t the goal of a business to create more jobs? Carnegie believed that it was proper to have completion between the rich and the poor because if there wasn’t, there would be no individuals capable enough to provide such jobs to further expand the essential needs of laborer and those of the economy (Doc 3). When Carnegie sold the Carnegie Steel company to J.P Morgan for $400 Million, the newly named company (U.S Steel) created numerous amounts of jobs employing 168,000 people.
I believe that Carnegie’s views are certainly ethical and that the wealthy must assist the poor if not tons of people can die like the many miners who lived tedious low-level existing lives. The miners had a very poor and unhealthy lifestyle they were covered in ash and dust all the time. The dangers of working in the mines were plenty they may be crushed to death at any giving time by the roof burned by exploding gas or simply blown to pieces by the premature blast. There were so many men and boys that ended up being crippled or dead.
Andrew Carnegie can be looked at as a double edged sword. One edge of the blade would show Carnegie as an ideal example of a poor immigrant fighting his way up to become an incredibly successful business man who would one day give nearly all his fortune away to help society improve itself. The reverse edge of the blade would show Carnegie as a ruthless business man who would slash his workers pay, drive other businesses under and used corruption to become leader of the capitalist world. These viewpoints of Carnegie have changed as years pass. Early accounts of Carnegie depict him as the ruthless conqueror of the steel industry while other later works tend to show both sides of Carnegie with great emphasis on the fact that he was a great
Andrew Carnegie is considered to be the richest person ever. Carnegie is known for his steel business that he developed on and became one of the last steel business by buying and taking out his competition. Carnegie is said to be a very generous man by donating to education and charities. The questionable thing about Carnegie is if he is a hero? Many people see him as helpful, and nice, but others see him two faced, selfish, and hypocritical.
Andrew Carnegie was an extremely wealthy man since his invention of steel was extremely revolutionary. But his earnings weren't always spent for the greater good. Carnegie used his fortune to get out of the conflict. The background essay states that “Carnegie received a draft notice from the Union army. Carnegie followed the practice of many wealthy Northern draftees and hired a Pittsburgh draft agent to find a replacement. For only $850 he paid his way out of doing service.” If Andrew Carnegie was a true hero he would be honored to fight for our
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.
A hero is defined as, “a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities,” (Dictionary.com) There is two different types of heroes, there is the type that has super powers and flies around fighting crime, and then there just regular people doing outrageous things that benefit tons of people and their surroundings. There is Superman, Batman, and Cat Women, and then there is regular old, William Penn. Today we know him as the man on the Quaker’s oat meal box, but he is not the one who made oatmeal. Who is William Penn some might ask? William Penn is the founder of the province of Pennsylvania. William Penn should be considered a hero because he saved a bunch of people from being treated
When people hear the word “Hero,” their minds instantly think of characters like spiderman and superman, people in flashy suits saving the damsel in distress. . . but do we really know the characteristics and true personality of a real hero? A true hero is someone who is admired or looked up to for the amount of courage they have or their incredible unseen achievements. In order for someone to become a hero, they need to have concern for others and they need to have the ability to inspire. Andrew Carnegie started off as a poor scottish immigrant, barely making ends meat, but his ambitious work ethic and discoveries (like the bessemer process) helped him rise from the depths of poverty, to owning one of the largest monopolies
To simply give money as “charity” to a man who has none, is to only feed into his follies as a man. Carnegie believes that in an every 1,000 dollars given to charity, 950 dollars of it goes to waste. The rich man who simply hands money away in small sums to others themselves only stalls the growth of character and ambition throughout the Nation.
Andrew Carnegie was not always a rich billionaire. In fact his early years were quite simple. According to document A, Carnegie lived in an attic of a modest home that was shared by another family, (Document A). Andrew Carnegie struggled, his families knew the struggles of not having enough income,and by the age of twelve Carnegie was required to employ in a job. According to an essay about Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie was “working six 12-hour days for $1.20 a week. A year later Andrew found a more challenging job delivering telegrams”, (Was Andrew a Hero ?). Andrew Carnegie had worked 12 hours just to earn his money ,as well as help his family which shows the character traits of perseverance and the sympathy that Carnegie acquired. The great steel master was really determined to make an effort on the world, and so Carnegie did. According to the same document about Carnegie’s early life, the document has stated that “He would adopt the Bessemer system and build a steel mill in America. So much for retirement!”, (Was Andrew a Hero ?). His risks and effort had helped him accomplish so much, He persevered and made himself successful,because he was willing to take the chance. This indeed proves how much of hero carnegie is, because heroes are willing to take costly risks.
In document D it shows that Carnegie was lowering wages by 20% while he was just building libraries with the money that could be going to the hardworking people. Andrew Carnegie did not care about the people working for him at all or else he would have recognized that they are poor and need all the money he can give them, instead of taking their money and using it on libraries. Also in document D it talks about how people working in his steel mill were killed, and was directly related to the violence within the steel mill. If Carnegie truly cared about these people he would try to calm the violence in his mill, and he could stop being violent towards them setting a better example. From not giving his workers their well earned money and setting an example of violence Andrew Carnegie shows that he does not care about others. This shows that he was not a hero because not caring about these people that worked for him showed through the death of innocent
For Carnegie, there was a need to balance between the individual and fairness in order for society to function correctly. That is to say that those who enjoy the possession of large sums of money shouldn’t just look out for themselves and their own needs or wants at the time to make decisions on how to use their fortune, but instead, should try to use such resources for the benefit of all individuals of society. However, with this Andrew Carnegie didn’t mean that wealth was there to be distributed equally among all men. Instead, he believed that wealthy individuals were superior to the rest of the people and therefore, should be the ones managing surplus earnings since they had the experience and knowledge required which made them more fitted to do the job. According to Carnegie’s idea under this system based on principles and responsibilities, if everyone was to do their part of the job society will continue to experience
Another idea of a hero was when Gandhi had stood up for his country; India. “Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, and build religious and ethnic amity” plus he had “spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India”. In other words Gandhi never gave up showing everyone how India should be independent. Gandhi had stood out his way by leading marches to declare independence. Gandhi had been admired for his bravery (when he was thrown in jail a few times), his confidence (he never showed any sign of weakness) and perseverance (he had never gave up).