CARNEGIE 



1189 



CARNEGIE 



ANDREW CARNEGIE 



and ability had made him a wealthy man. As 

 a messenger boy in a Pittsburgh telegraph 

 office he had learned telegraphy, and after 

 becoming an operator advanced rapidly to the 

 rank of division 

 superintendent 

 for the Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad. 

 Through friend- 

 ship with the in- 

 ventor he had en- 

 tered the organi- 

 zation of the 

 Woodruff Sleep- 

 ing Car Com- 

 pany, the most 

 successful fore- 

 runner of the 

 Pullman Company, and had made a mod- 

 erate fortune. By cautious investment in 

 Pennsylvania oil lands he increased his wealth 

 enormously. After the War of Secession he 

 entered the iron business, and soon became 

 one of the industrial leaders of America. 



In 1868 he introduced the Bessemer process 

 into the American steel industry. The great 

 steel works which he established at Homestead, 

 Pa., and elsewhere, grew rapidly, and in 1899 

 he consolidated all his interests in the Car- 

 negie Steel Company, at that time one of the 

 greatest industrial institutions ever estab- 

 lished. When in 1901 it was merged with the 

 United States Steel Corporation (the "steel 

 trust"), he retired from business with a for- 

 tune estimated at a half-billion dollars. Since 

 then he has devoted his time largely to phil- 

 anthropic and literary interests. 



In 1912 Mr. Carnegie announced that with 

 the gift of $125,000,000 to a corporation which 

 will carry out those of his philanthropic 

 schemes which he had not already endowed, 

 his personal fortune was reduced to $25,000,- 

 000, about one-twentieth of its former amount. 

 He expects to die a comparatively poor man. 



The scope of his public spirit has been 

 world-wide. Besides the five institutions which 

 receive special attention below, his gifts in- 

 clude $11,000,000 to the Carnegie Institute of 

 Technology, Pittsburgh; $10,000,000 to Scotch 

 universities, including Saint Andrews and Aber- 

 deen, for both of which he has been lord 

 rector; $5,000,000 as a benefit fund for em- 

 ployees of the Carnegie Steel Company; a 

 $2,500,000 trust for Dunfermline, his native 

 town; $2,000,000 to the Carnegie Church Peace 

 Union, which aims to enlist all churches on 



behalf of permanent peace; $1,750,000 for the 

 Peace Palace at The Hague; and $850,000 for 

 the grounds and buildings of the Pan-American 

 Union at Washington. 



As a writer he has expressed himself vigor- 

 ously in denunciation of war, and his works, 

 The Gospel of Wealth, The Empire of Busi- 

 ness and Problems of To-day, have had inter- 

 national reading. He was made a Comman- 

 der of the Legion of Honor of France in 1907, 

 and in 1911 received the peace medal of the 

 Fourth International Congress of American 

 States. 



Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

 This is probably the most practical of the 

 many organizations striving to banish war from 

 the world. It does not rival or supplant any 

 other institution, but endeavors to cooperate 

 with and aid all peace-promoting organizations 

 at home and abroad. In addition it is active 

 in educating nations to a greater friendship 

 with each other. The income from its fund of 

 ten million dollars, given by Mr. Carnegie in 

 1910, is administered by a board of trustees 

 of which Elihu Root was the first presi- 

 dent. It has three active divisions, those of 

 economics and history, of international law, 

 and of intercourse and education. The first 

 two are primarily for research, the last for 

 spreading the information which they gain and 

 for promoting international good will. It was 

 proposed to establish an Academy of Interna- 

 tional Law at The Hague, to which advanced 

 students from all nations would come. How- 

 ever, the outbreak of the War of the Nations 

 in 1914 caused this and some other schemes to 

 be suspended for a time. 



Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 

 Teaching. The annual proceeds of the fund of 

 $15,000,000 given to this organization by Mr. 

 Carnegie in 1905 'and 1908 are distributed in 

 pensions to teachers in the United States, 

 Canada and Newfoundland retiring from the 

 faculties of universities, colleges and technical 

 schools, and to their widows. By dealing only 

 with those schools which will bring their ad- 

 mission requirements and standards of teach- 

 ing up to a specified level, the administrators 

 of the fund have beneficially influenced the 

 quality of higher education. Some opposition 

 has been met from strictly denominational 

 schools, which are not included in the benefits 

 of the foundation, and from others which 

 object to certain requirements as to their 

 government. An educational research fund of 

 $1,250,000 was added by Mr. Carnegie in 1913. 



