Carnegie

kar'ne-gi, Andrew, a Scottish-American manufacturer and philanthropist. He was born at Dunfermline, Scotland, November 25, 1837. His father, a weaver in a small way, was driven out of business by steam competition in 1848 and emigrated to Alleghany City, Pennsylvania. Young Andrew entered business as a bobbin boy at twenty cents a day. Soon afterward he became a telegraph messenger boy and then a telegraph operator. His superior skill brought him to the notice of Colonel Scott, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railway, who made him superintendent of a railway division. Mr. Carnegie laid the foundation of his fortune by borrowing money and investing it wisely in a sleeping car system. Money made in this way he again invested in oil lands, which yielded him a handsome profit.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Colonel Scott, his old chief, became assistant secretary of war. He placed Carnegie in charge of the eastern division of military railroads and telegraph lines, a position which it is needless to say the latter filled with ability and integrity. When it became evident that wooden bridges for highways and railroads were to be replaced very generally by iron ones, Carnegie embarked in the business of building iron bridge work. From the first he saw the desirability of owning and controlling iron mines and coal mines, as well as machine shops. One step led to another naturally. By 1899 the Carnegie Steel Company controlled the iron and steel industry of Pennsylvania. In 1901 he retired from active business, exchanging his iron interests for $500,000,000 worth of United States Steel Corporation securities.

"Mr. Carnegie's withdrawal from active business was signalized by a tremendous `stock-watering' operation. As a result, all people who use any form of iron-plate, tin or steel, have ever since been obliged to pay unduly high prices in order that the Steel Corporation may keep up dividends on this extra stock. At the same time, it is fair to say that Mr. Carnegie never followed the example of many accumulators of great wealth in defying the law and corrupting legislatures and judges."

After a busy, and, we may say, strenuous life, Carnegie found himself at liberty to carry out his own personal inclinations. He built himself a magnificent home, known as Skibo Castle, in Scotland. His winter residence is in New York. Mr. Carnegie keeps open house at Skibo Castle. Many noted men visit him. Tobacco is one of his antipathies.

Carnegie enjoys an enormous income and enjoys as well the pleasure of giving it away. Among his benefactions are the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburg, a technological institution of high standing, to which he has already given $10,000,000 and promised $15,000,000. The Carnegie Institution at Washington, D. C., has received $10,000,000. Mr. Carnegie gave $600,000 to the Booker T. Washington industrial institution for colored people at Tuskegee, Alabama. Among European gifts was one of $10,000,000 to the universities of Scotland. In 1905 it was said that his benefactions had passed the $100,000,000 mark.

Carnegie libraries are now well known. He has adopted the plan of presenting communities with a sum sufficient to erect a library building, on condition that the site be furnished and a standing tax for the maintenance of the library assured. In 1905 there were 1,352 Carnegie Free Public Libraries established throughout the English-speaking world. From Canada to Tasmania, the gifts had reached a total of about $40,000,000. Among the larger gifts of this sort are $1,000,000 each for libraries at St. Louis, Homestead, Braddock, and Duquesne; libraries in Detroit and San Francisco have received $750,000 each. So many $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, and $50,000 Carnegie libraries have been erected in various parts of the United States that it is difficult to state their number. New York City received $3,000,000 for fifty branch libraries.

See Steel