Were the titans of the Golden Age «robber barons» or «industrial entrepreneurs»? Point-Counterpoint and the Debating Industrial Progress: Andrew Carnegie vs. Henry George Lesson to highlight the influence of businessmen like Carnegie on industry and philanthropy in the Golden Age. While working for the railway, he invested in various businesses, including steel and oil companies, and made his first fortune in his early 30s. It entered the steel trade in the early 1870s and became a dominant force in the industry over the next two decades. In 1901, he sold the Carnegie Steel Company for $480 million to banker John Pierpont Morgan. Carnegie then turned to philanthropy and eventually donated more than $350 million. In 1901, banker John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) bought Carnegie Steel for about $480 million, making Andrew Carnegie one of the richest men in the world. That same year, Morgan Carnegie Steel merged with a group of other steel companies to form U.S. Steel, the world`s first billion-dollar company.
On one of his trips to raise capital by selling bonds to European investors, Carnegie noticed that demand for steel was growing and could exceed that of iron. He changed strategy and began concentrating on steel stocks in 1873. Carnegie and its partners focused on building new plants with modern innovations that would outperform the competition. At the time, Carnegie created two basic business rules to guide him: Carnegie`s investments and partnerships gave him a majority stake in several different companies. He owned sleeping cars that were used on the railway, part of Keystone, several ironworks that supplied Keystone, an oil company, and a steel rolling mill. Carnegie believed that iron was the basis of the connection of his businesses, and he consolidated his ownership through vertical integration. Ambitious and hardworking, he held several jobs, including messenger in a telegraph office and secretary and telegraph operator for the superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1859, Carnegie succeeded his boss as superintendent of the railroad department. In this role, he made profitable investments in various businesses, including coal, steel and oil companies and a manufacturer of railway sleeping cars. «This is how the problem of rich and poor can be solved. The laws of accumulation will remain free, the laws of distribution free. Individualism will continue, but the millionaire will only be an administrator of the poor, charged for a time with much of the growing wealth of the community, but managing it for the community much better than he could or could have done for himself.
The best minds will therefore have reached a stage in the development of the race where it is clear that there is no way to dispose of the excess wealth that can be attributed to thoughtful and serious people into whose hands it flows, except by using it year after year for the common good. That day is already dawning. People can die without suffering the pity of their fellows, who are still shareholders in large economic enterprises, from which their capital cannot or has not been withdrawn and which is left to death mainly for public use; But the day is not far off when the man who dies leaves behind millions of available wealth, which he could manage freely during his lifetime, will die «without tear, without honor and without ignorance», whatever the purpose for which he leaves behind the slag that he cannot take with him. Among these, the public verdict will be: the man who dies so rich dies in disgrace. After Carnegie sold his steel business, the little titan, who was 5`3″ tall, retired from the business and devoted himself full-time to philanthropy. In 1889 he had written an essay entitled «The Gospel of Wealth,» in which he declared that the rich «have a moral obligation to distribute [their money] in a manner which promotes the well-being and happiness of the common man.» Carnegie also said, «The man who dies so rich dies in disgrace.» Carnegie`s mother, who had a great influence on his life, lived with him until her death in 1886. The following year, the 51-year-old industrial baron married Louise Whitfield (1857-1946), who was two decades younger than him and was the daughter of a New York merchant. The couple had one child, Margaret (1897-1990). The Carnegies lived in a mansion in Manhattan and spent their summers in Scotland, where they owned Skibo Castle, which spanned about 28,000 acres. One of the most powerful bankers of his time, J.P. (John Pierpont) Morgan (1837-1913), financed the railroads and helped organize U.S.
Steel, General Electric and other large corporations. Born in Connecticut, he followed his wealthy father into banking in the late 1850s. Carnegie managed to replace his image of persistent thieving barons with that of a modern Santa Claus – an image reinforced by his white beard and sparkling eyes. His considerable expertise in business and investment may be forgotten over time, but thanks to his philanthropy, his name will not be.