Preview

How Did Andrew Carnegie's Contributions To Create A Better World

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1485 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Andrew Carnegie's Contributions To Create A Better World
Andrew knew that in order to create a better world there would have to be an extent of world peace. He was growing older and he wanted to make a final mark on the community before he passed away. In fact, Carnegie’s final contributions were toward the funding of peace movements. World War I was commencing at this time, and although he was unsuccessful, he did a great deal to prevent it from taking place. Previously in his life, he had given away 350 million dollars in donations, which left him with approximately thirty million. He donated a portion of this extra money to support the Peace Palace. The Peace Palace was an organization that aimed at bettering relations worldwide and came up with proposals to promote world peace (“Andrew Carnegie: …show more content…
Andrew saw that urbanization and population growth were occurring. These changes and growths were generating a larger income gap between the upper and lower classes (Carnegie). Due to the fact that he grew up with the tough working conditions, he aimed to give back as much as he could. Additionally, he made sure the money he was giving back was not to be wasted. He stated in his article, “The Gospel of Wealth,” “Of every thousand dollars spent in so called charity to-day, it is probable that $950 is unwisely spent…” (Carnegie). This quote exemplifies how he was altruistic toward society, but he wanted to make sure it all went to the right causes. Furthermore, to assist others, Andrew tried to make his outputs as affordable as possible (Carnegie). By the means of vertical consolidation, he was able to lower the prices in the steel and railroad industries (“The New Tycoons”). Vertical consolidation is the process where an individual buys other businesses that sell the same items as his or her own company. 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.” (Carnegie). This quote and his actions demonstrate that the wealthy should not boast about what they have, but instead give some of what they have to those who are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    By far the most profitable businessman during his age, Andrew Carnegie left his mark on industry, and profoundly impacted the expansion of business enterprise in America. Essentially, Carnegie rose from poverty to become one of the most influential, industrial tycoon’s in history by single-handedly building the American steel industry. During his time, Carnegie was known as being a prolific writer, but is most remembered for the entrepreneurial, and philanthropic career he created himself. By initiating numerous opportunities, consistently working hard, and being a fast learner, Carnegie was able to successfully build an empire of wealth not only for himself, but to greatly benefit America’s leading business industry we recognize today.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better 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
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the 1800’s in the United States, the steel business was revolutionized by an American business icon, Andrew Carnegie. After growing up in a poor family, he used his self-taught knowledge to build wealth using investments to build a foundation of wealth. After coming from a humble background, Carnegie established himself as one of the wealthiest businessmen of his time period, and one of the most generous philanthropists of history.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. How did Carnegie justify the accumulation of wealth? Carnegie believed that people were born with certain attributes that would lead them to be successful in their lifetime. He also mentioned the idea that we as human beings should accept the conditions that are placed in front of us and work around them to achieve the impossible.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory 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
  • Good Essays

    Carnegie, Hero?

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest United States businessmen of the nineteenth century, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist. After many years of thoughtful planning and hard work, Carnegie Steel Company was a dominant force in the steel industry....…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This quote shows the author’s point that Andrew Carnegie was a wise man used his experiences to better benefit his companies.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Carnegie lists three ways how extra money (that is left behind) should be handled in America. First, Carnegie points out passing down wealth through heredity. He finds the act of leaving a fortune to the children is meaningless and not worthwhile. Carnegie does not agree with a wealthy man leaving his children helpless, but…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Andrew Carnigie

    • 715 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Andrew Carnegie is a perfect example of someone who worked for everything he had. He built his fame, fortune, and respectable reputation, from the ground up. He did so by his very successful steel business that literally blew other competitors out of the industry. However, many will argue that Carnegie was a “Robber Barron” because of his smart risky actions that include buying out everything that was needed for the industry which lead to a monopoly in the steel industry. Andrew Carnegie worked from being a migrant immigrant to a very successful man. This shows pure dedication to one’s occupation. Andrew Carnegie was a captain of industry because he believed that no man should die a rich man and followed the philosophy of philanthropy. With this belief, he plowed his wealth back into society by building public libraries, donating to collages, forming the Carnegie Endowment for International peace, and much more. Carnegie was the richest man alive at one point and gave 90 percent of his wealth away. There is not a single argument that can credibly prove Andrew Carnegie as a Robber Barron.…

    • 715 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American who lived during the 19th century. Carnegie was an industrialist who played a pivotal role in the expansion of the American steel industry. Although he sometimes used methods that hurt the people to make profit , Carnegie contributed to America's growth as a nation economically because he connected different parts of America by building bridges and railroads and he helped cities to grow by building modern structures such as skyscrapers. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in the attic of a small house on November 25th, 1835.1 He was named after his grandfather, Andrew Carnegie, who was a popular man in the district, being the head of the lively ones of his day and the chief of their club, “Patiemuir College.”2 He grew up having little formal education, but his family held books and learning at a high level of importance.3 In 1848, when he was 13 years old, Carnegie and his family moved to the United States and made a home in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He worked in a factory and later worked his way through the telegraphing business. Carnegie’s ability to get his foot in the door of the railroad business enabled him to learn the tricks of the trade and also about business altogether. 4 With the experiences he acquired, he was well on his way to becoming one of the most successful business men in America of his time. Carnegie’s life was one full of many events, ups and downs, gains and losses, but it certainly can be said that it was a life well lived. 1Andrew Carnegie, Louise W. Carnegie, and John C. Van Dyke, Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), 2. 2 Ibid.…

    • 2374 Words
    • 68 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    For example, it was Carnegie’s belief that the wealthy should give back to society, and so he did. He stated in an essay, “Wealth,” that the responsibility of the wealthy man is to distribute his wealth for the benefit of the community. He strove to improve society by providing facilities such as “...parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and minds; works of art... and public institutions of various kinds, which will improve the general condition of the people,” (Pearson).Among these public institutions were schools and libraries; in fact, Carnegie’s funds helped found over 2800 libraries (). Carnegie felt that the true “Gospel of Wealth” was defined as “administering it [wealth] for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself.” That said, Andrew Carnegie was an altruistic man and used his riches not for “display or extravagance,” but rather to give back to society in the form of public facilities for people to cultivate better conditions for…

    • 1433 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
  • Better Essays

    A self-made millionaire that started from rock bottom, Andrew Carnegie altered and helped to construct how America is today. He was able to achieve this through his ownership of the Carnegie Steel Company, and his generosity that is described within his book, The Gospel Of Wealth, that discussed his views on how the wealthy had an obligation to give back to society. Carnegie’s philanthropy work was able to highlight his love for education by giving money for establishments of Libraries and foundations.…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As much a businessman as he is an innovator, Andrew Carnegie could just about accomplish anything he set his mind to. He had a canny way about him. His unwavering disposition, broad smile and way of words just seemed to get more effective as time went on. He grew up in Scotland in a very humble household and felt the pressure of poverty from an early age. To say that Andrew Carnegie helped shape America as to what it is now, is truly an understatement. He had the vision for the future and a why from the past. Andrew’s family, close friends, business partners and anyone who came into contact with him would know him as being bright, assertive and extremely generous.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays