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CARNEGIE, ANDREW (1837– )
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See also:CARNEGIE, See also:ANDREW (1837– ) , See also:American "See also:captain of See also:industry " and benefactor, was See also:born in humble circumstances in See also:Dunfermline, See also:Scotland, on the 25th of See also:November 1837. In 1848 his See also:father, who had been a Chartist, emigrated to See also:America, settling in See also:Allegheny See also:City, See also:Pennsylvania. The raw Scots ladstarted See also:work at an See also:early See also:age as a bobbin-boy in a See also:cotton factory, and a few years later was engaged as a See also:telegraph clerk and operator. His capacity was perceived by Mr T. A. See also:Scott of the Pennsylvania railway, who employed him as a secretary; and in 1859, when Scott became See also:vice-See also:president of the See also:company. he made Carnegie See also:superintendent of the western See also:division of the See also:line. In this See also:post he was responsible for several improvements in the service; and when the See also:Civil See also:War opened he accompanied Scott, then assistant secretary of war, to the front. The first See also:sources of the enormous See also:wealth he subsequently attained were his introduction of sleeping-cars for See also:railways, and his See also:purchase (1864) of See also:Storey See also:Farm on Oil See also:Creek, where a large profit was secured from the oil-See also:wells. But this was only a preliminary to the success attending his development of the See also:iron and See also:steel See also:industries at See also:Pittsburg. Foreseeing the extent to which the demand would grow in America for iron and steel, he started the See also:Keystone See also:Bridge See also:works, built the See also:Edgar See also:Thomson steel-See also:rail See also: From this See also:time forward public See also:attention was turned from the shrewd business capacity which had enabled him to accumulate such a See also:fortune to the public-spirited way in which he devoted himself to utilizing it on philanthropic See also:objects. His views on social subjects, and the responsibilities which See also:great wealth involved, were already known in a See also:book entitled Triumphant See also:Democracy, published in 1886, and in his See also:Gospel of Wealth (1900). He acquired Skibo See also:Castle, in See also:Sutherlandshire, Scotland, and made his See also:home partly there and partly in New See also:York; and he devoted his See also:life to the work of providing the capital for purposes of public See also:interest, and social and educational See also:advancement. Among these the See also:provision of public See also:libraries in the United States and United See also:Kingdom (and similarly in other See also:English-speaking countries) was especially prominent, and " Carnegie libraries " gradually sprang up on all sides, his method being to build and equip, but only on See also:condition that the See also:local authority provided site and See also:maintenance, and thus to secure local interest and responsibility. By the end of 1908 he had distributed over £Io,000,000 for See also:founding libraries alone. He gave £2,000,000 in 1901 to start the Carnegie See also:Institute at Pittsburg, and the same amount (1902) to found the Carnegie Institution at See also:Washington, and in both of these, and other, cases he added later to the See also:original endowment. In Scotland he gave £2,000,000 in 19ot to establish a trust for providing funds for assisting See also:education at the Scottish See also:universities, a benefaction which resulted in his being elected See also:lord See also:rector of St See also:Andrews University. He was a large benefactor of the See also:Tuskegee Institute under Booker Washington for See also:negro education. He also established large See also:pension funds—in not for his former employes at Homestead, and in 1905 for American See also:college professors. His benefactions in the shape of buildings and endowments for education and See also:research are too numerous for detailed enumeration, and are noted in this work under the headings of the various localities. But mention must also be made of his founding of Carnegie See also:Hero Fund commissions, in America (1904) and in the United Kingdom (1908), for the recognition of deeds of heroism; his contribution of £500,000 in 1903 for the erection of a See also:Temple of See also:Peace at The See also:Hague, and of £150,000 for a See also:Pan-American See also:Palace in Washington as a home for the See also:International See also:Bureau of American republics. In all his ideas he was dominated by an intense belief in the future and See also:influence of the English-speaking See also:people, in their democratic See also:government and See also:alliance for the purpose of peace and the abolition of war, and in the progress of education on unsectarian lines. He was a powerful supporter of the See also:movement for spelling reform, as a means of promoting
the spread of the English See also:language. Mr Carnegie married in 1887 and had one daughter. Among other publications by him were An American Four-in-See also:hand in See also:Britain (1883), See also:Round the See also:World (1884), The See also:Empire of Business (1902), a Life of See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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