Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie started out at age 13 making $1.20 as a bobbin boy. Later in life he learns the value of investing and decides to invest in railroad-related industries (iron, bridges, and rails), and then he began to gain good amounts of money. While Carnegie paid his employees the low wages typical of the time, he later gave away most of his money to fund many libraries, schools, and universities in America, the United Kingdom and other countries. Steel was where he made his fortune. In the 1870s, he founded the Carnegie Steel Company, which made him one of the “Captains of Industry”. By the 1890s, the company was the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world. Carnegie sold it to J.P. Morgan in 1901, who created US Steel. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale charity, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, and education and scientific research. With our socratic seminar that we had Thursday, he was one of the people who I would consider on of the "Heros" and not one of the "Robber Barons", becuase of like what I said "Its not that if you're rich you should be considered a "Robber Baron" its how you use your wealth and how greedy you really are." I think that with all of his givings and helping of schools and libraries he clearly justified himself instead of useing the excuses that the Robber Barons used.