Preview

How Did Andrew Carnegie Impact Society

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
976 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Andrew Carnegie Impact Society
Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, rose from a job cleaning bobbins in a textile factory to become one of the richest men in America. While Carnegie was a teenager, his skill as a telegraph operator caught the attention of Tom Scott. Scott hired Carnegie and lent him money for his first foray into Wall Street investment. In 1872, Andrew Carnegie built the world’s largest, most up-to-date steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania. At the time, steelmakers produced about 70 tons a week and in 20 years it produced 10,000 tons a week. Carnegie pioneered a system of business organization called vertical integration in which all aspects of the business were under his control. He organized the transportation, mining, and production of steel, but the productivity …show more content…
They were different when it came to business tactics, but they were still successful. Carnegie looked at the big picture and wanted to revolve his business around the needs of people and his surrounding, which created a good relationship between him and the public. He realized that the iron railroads were destroyed, broken, and unusable and something had to change, ironically his brilliant idea is still used today on railroads. Unlike Rockefeller, Carnegie turned his back on speculation and worked to build something enduring. Ultimately, Carnegie was humble and respectful to his workers and fellow associates, but there were some instances where that wasn’t the case. He deliberately pitted his managers against one another, firing the loses and rewarding the winners with a share in the company. Another bothersome thing Carnegie did to his workers was he had them work 12 hour days 6 days a week. A worker quoted, “After working twelve hours, how can a man go to the library?” He is saying that they are overworked and that they work so much they don’t even have time something simple such as going to the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration in his steel business to reduce competition and make an amazing profit. The operation he used to control every step of the process was mining the ore, mining the coal, shipping to foundry and actually making the steel from the ore, etc. Andrew thought about the process and the development of vertical integration. He used his ideas to his own improvement and he maintained the steel mills but also maintained areas like railways and even coal fields. He arranged for his money to be paid to another one of his businesses. He kept the money in the family, to prevent other companies from putting the “screws” to him and cutting availability and raising his prices. For example, railroads and shipping businesses would be strong competitors but for others because they would all have his business. This facilitated Andrew to vend to other consumers.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    2000 Dbq Analysis

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Carnegie did believe in survival of the fittest and that the rich was more competent and educated than the poor, middle class but, he also believed in aiding the less fortunate in a non-direct way by “ ...bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer,...”(Doc 4). In controlling multiple industries he provided the less fortunate with jobs and work experience, bettering them in a non-direct way. John D. Rockefeller on the other hand believed in boosting himself using horizontal integration, monopolizing the smaller businesses, expanding his industry further and further. Rockefeller once had monopolized almost 90% of the oil and oil refining businesses. He lowered his prices to attract a customer base slowly eliminating all of his competitors by either buying them out or forcing them out of business, to then jack up his prices once he owned most of the industry. Because of his monopoly in the oil industry he and the railroad tycoon Vanderbilt were in league together giving “discriminating rates” to outside , small business competitors (Doc 7). In 1890 the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Andrew Carnegie believed in applying survival of the fittest to business, while J.P. Morgan established a community of interest among the larger corporations. (M.A.P.A.H.) Although their beliefs were different, the end goal was the same, to essentially battle over the monopoly of steel. In 1890, Carnegie dominated the steel industry, this troubled Morgan, so he bought Carnegie out for $480 million. (M.A.P.A.H.) Morgan gathered together United States Steel, which was an amalgamation of 180 independent businesses. This business, US Steel, was capitalized at $1 billion dollars! Morgan demolished Carnegie’s steel company by owning or regulating 65 iron ore mines [ 1906, Lake Superior ], over 700 steel and iron works, 1,100 miles of railroad…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Benjamin franklin was one of the Founding Fathers that im-pacted the United States with fabrication of many important documents that changed society.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1860 Dbq Analysis

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In document 7 it states that “In 1882 the Carnegie Steel Company...inaugurated a policy whose object was to control all factors which contributed to the production of steel, from the ore and coal in the ground to the steel billet and the steel rail.” Andrew Carnegie’s company basically owned iron mines, steel mills, railroads, and shipping lines. Rockefeller used his profits to buy other oil companies and ended rivalry in the oil industry by forming the Standard Oil Trust. J.P. Morgan created a banking monopoly, Swift and Armour possessed meat packing, and Vanderbilt created a railroad…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He created a stronger type of steel that was not only the most effective, but the most efficient as well. Andrew Carnegie also had a strategy of his own. He believed that the only way to become a great businessman was to control monopolies and control the step of the process in materials. Carnegie definitely had a different side to him. He was a cruel businessman to his workers and a very kind philanthropist. He would poorly pay his workers, as well as leave them poorly housed. Carnegie was really never close to his workers and the wages that they had were very low compared to other steel industries. Nevertheless, he believed that "the man who dies rich, dies disgraced and a rich man should use his money for the benefit of others" (Youngs 33.) In Carnegies older years, he devoted himself entirely to his philanthropist's beliefs' after he sold his business. Carnegie built libraries around the world, but focused especially on the United States. He opened up galleries, museums, music halls, and technical schools. He also encouraged research and higher learning to others. Carnegie also established a donation to permanently seek an end to war. His donations totaled about 350 million…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Explain? Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist he started the wealthiest steel business in the 19th century . Carnegie made a new form of steel that would be more affordable to consumers by taking huge chunks of iron and turning it into steel which was more flexible than brittle iron, finding it more durable to use. So that meant more people would want to use it because the cost of it being so cheap and it being so durable making it able to last longer.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    This enables the lowering of prices on her or his own product due to the absence of competition. Carnegie bought out rail and mining companies in order to reduce the costs of his products so they could become more affordable for the average consumer to purchase (“The New Tycoons”). Andrew empathized, from prior experience, for the working class citizens who were incapable to buy steel made products. He recognized that he needed to do his part to help them out (Carnegie). He states “This...is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance.”…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Benjamin Franklin was one of America's the greatest scientist and inventor, and he changed his country forever. Born in Boston in the year 1706 in January 17th, Ben was born the fifteenth child out of seventeen in his family. He was taken out of Boston Latin School at age ten to work, since his father lacked in workers in his candle making. When Franklin was twelve, he was taken as an apprentice at a printing shop under his older brother, Josiah, since he disliked candle making. His education in printing advanced in Philadelphia at a lodging home, and also worked for the Governor William Kieth.…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    McCandless & Company: Andrew Carnegie’s British-American steel company and the nucleus of his steel empire.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout his lifetime, Benjamin Franklin accomplished several things, he was a postmaster, politician, firefighter, musician, an expert swimmer, and above all an extraordinary inventor and innovator. His inventions were fascinating, and have helped create the society we live in today. Because of him, we now enjoy simple things like fireplaces, electricity, and bifocals. Franklin’s first invention was invented in 1742 and was known as the Franklin Stove, much similar to what we call a fireplace today.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Andrew CARNEGIE

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Carnegie doesn’t only have his good side; he’s done many things people weren’t happy with. While Carnegie provided thousands with jobs, he cheated people from there money. Carnegie was a greedy man with his money. He paid them low wages, had them working in dangerous conditions without any safety equipment. He didn’t provide them with any kind of breaks, workers and they worked up to 12 hours, six to seven days a week.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Andrew Carnegie moved from Scotland to America, when he was thirteen, with his parents. The Carnegies lived in Pittsburg, which Carnegie described as very unpleasant. Carnegie is on record saying the smoke in the air from the nearby industrial buildings was unbearable. This was the beginning of one of the conflicts Carnegie faced throughout his whole life. Carnegie is disgusted with how the industrialized society affects the world he lives in, but he builds a legacy from the same means that he has such hatred for.…

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. His family moved to the states when he was in his teens. He had many jobs working on the railroad, starting at the bottom by working for people, but soon made his way into a steel tycoon. Carnegie owned the Carnegie Steel Corporation, which it was known as the largest of its kind in the world. Just like Andrew did, he believes that children should not start out with a bunch of money. They should have to learn and work their way up to become as great as him. He thinks this because it is what he did. It teaches children lessons about their lives and it will help them understand the world later on in life. Andrew wanted to become a wealthy businessman and that is just what he did. While becoming this tycoon, who did he help? And who did he leave behind? Carnegie did believe in helping people that need it, but was very cautious when it came to giving. That is because he believed that people should only receive help if they can help themselves as…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    While Carnegie was working for the railroad he started to make investment. He left the railroad in1865 to go and focus on his other business interest. By the next decade, most of Carnegie’s time was dedicated to the steel industry. This start-to-finish strategy helped Carnegie become the dominant force in the industry and an exceedingly wealthy…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays