People Who Built America: Carnegie
People Who Built America: Carnegie
By Noah Remnick
Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest men who ever lived, known around the world for his successes in the steel, oil, and railroad industries, and admired for the generosity of his philanthropy. But Carnegie’s path to wealth and fame began not in a mansion, nor a castle. It began in a small, two‐room house in Scotland that his family shared with another family. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1835. His family was poor and not very educated, but enjoyed a love of books and literature. His father was a skilled handloom weaver, but advances in the mechanical loom started pushing out small hand weavers. With Scotland facing increasing poverty, the Carnegie family moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, when Andrew was 13 years old. Andrew was an industrious young man, and he got a job in Pittsburgh as a bobbin boy, responsible for changing the spools of thread in the machines in a cotton factory. The hours were exhausting: he worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. His father worked in a cotton mill too and would earn extra money weaving linens. His mother worked making shoes. Andrew saw from the youngest age the value of hard work, and he pushed himself to work ever harder. In 1850, he doubled his salary, earning $2.50 as a messenger boy at the Ohio Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh. Andrew paid attention to everything in the offices, even memorizing the different sounds of the telegraph clicks and clacks until he could translate signals by ear, without needing to write each down. Within a short time, he was promoted to telegraph operator. His bosses admired his strong work ethic and were impressed by his love of reading. When Carnegie was 18 years old, Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company hired him as a private secretary and telegraph operator. Scott became a mentor to Carnegie, schooling him in the management and operations of a railroad company and encouraging his promotion in the firm. Scott also taught Carnegie about investing his money and gave him opportunities to make more money by investing in businesses that had contracts with the railroad company. These investments would change Carnegie’s life and, in many ways, the face of America. One of Carnegie’s earliest business deals came when he helped to finance the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company with its idea for creating sleeping cars for train travel. This company became the first to introduce successful sleeping cars on American railroads, expanding the distances people could travel by train across the country. Carnegie’s investment paid off, and he continued to expand his business ventures. When he was only 30 years old, in 1865, he left the railroad company to focus his attention on his growing empire. Over time, his main focus became the steel industry, and his strategy revolutionized steel production and fueled the growth of the American economy. 1
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People Who Built America: Carnegie
Carnegie’s innovative idea was to build technologically advanced steel plants around the country and to control all the steps in the process to keep his eye on quality and costs. He owned the raw materials, and he owned the ships and railroads to move the goods. He also owned the mines to supply the coal for fueling the smelting plants. By 1889, the Carnegie Steel Company led the world in steel production. That year, Carnegie wrote a most unusual manifesto, “Wealth.” It was not a business guide, or a manual to his successful financial methods. Instead, in the essay Carnegie encouraged wealthy people to live modestly and to use their riches to help the less fortunate to provide happiness to others. Indeed, Carnegie lived by his own words and in his lifetime gave away more than $350 million – or almost 90 percent of his fortune. Today, that amount would be worth more than $4.8 billion dollars. Carnegie was a generous man, but his business philosophies also caused controversy. He believed that the government should not interfere in business and commerce. This philosophy was known as laissez‐faire economics, from the French term for letting things take their own course. This created some problems for Carnegie when he tried to increase profits by cutting labor costs. This action angered some of his workers and the labor unions that represented them. In 1892, workers at Carnegie’s main steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, went on strike, demanding higher wages. The strike lasted 143 days and ended in a bloody confrontation between union workers and strikebreakers the company brought in to work the plant. Although Carnegie was out of town during the conflict, and left the negotiations to his partner, the incident hurt Carnegie’s image among rank‐and‐file workers. By 1901, Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men in the world. By then he was married and had one young daughter, Margaret. That year he sold his steel company to J.P. Morgan, a New York banker and dealmaker, for $480 million. Free of the demands of running his company, Carnegie devoted himself full‐time to his different philanthropic projects. In his lifetime, he celebrated his love of reading by donating to the New York Public Library. He supported teaching foundations and schools, establishing the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now known as Carnegie Mellon University) in the city of Pittsburgh, where he had worked as a teenager. He also remembered his beloved hometown in Scotland, building public swimming pools and a library for the people of Dunfermline. Andrew Carnegie died on August 11, 1919, of bronchial pneumonia. He was 83 years old, and the world he left behind had changed dramatically from the small Scottish town where he was born. And Carnegie, as both a businessman and a philanthropist, had a huge hand in those changes. Today his name adorns the walls of numerous cultural and educational institutions. His creed of sharing wealth for the benefit of all is still a model and ideal for charitable giving.
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Questions: People Who Built America: Carnegie
Name:
Date: _______________________
1. Where was Andrew Carnegie born?
A
B
C
D
Pennsylvania
Ohio
New York
Scotland
2. What sequence of events does the text describe?
A
B
C
D
the
the
the
the
sequence
sequence
sequence
sequence
of
of
of
of
events
events
events
events
in
in
in
in
the
the
the
the
history of Pennsylvania
history of Scotland
life of Andrew Carnegie
life of Thomas A. Scott
3. As a young man, Andrew Carnegie was hardworking. What evidence in the text
supports this statement?
A Andrew Carnegie loved to read ever since he was a boy.
B Andrew Carnegie worked 12 hours a day, six days a week as a bobbin boy.
C Andrew Carnegie earned $2.50 as a messenger boy at the Ohio Telegraph
Company.
D Both Andrew Carnegie and his father worked in a cotton mill.
4. Read these sentences from the text.
“One of Carnegie’s earliest business deals came when he helped to finance the Woodruff
Sleeping Car Company with its idea for creating sleeping cars for train travel. This
company became the first to introduce successful sleeping cars on American railroads,
expanding the distances people could travel by train across the country.”
Why might introducing sleeping cars have increased the distance people traveled by train?
A because sleeping cars increased the amount of time people could spend on a
train, allowing for longer and farther train trips
B because sleeping cars increased the number of women who rode trains, which
led to families taking vacations to places far away
C because sleeping cars increased the number of children who rode trains, which
led to parents sending their kids to boarding schools in other states
D because sleeping cars increased the speed of trains, which allowed them to
cover greater distances in the same amount of time
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Questions: People Who Built America: Carnegie
5. What is the main idea of this text?
A Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland to a family that was poor and poorly
educated.
B When he was a young man, Andrew Carnegie worked in a cotton factory, where
he was responsible for changing the spools of thread in the machines.
C Andrew Carnegie was a hardworking individual who became a successful
businessman and philanthropist.
D Andrew Carnegie donated money to the New York Public Library and
established the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
6. Read these sentences from the text.
“Free of the demands of running his company, Carnegie devoted himself full-time to his
different philanthropic projects. In his lifetime, he celebrated his love of reading by
donating to the New York Public Library. He supported teaching foundations and schools,
establishing the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now known as Carnegie Mellon
University) in the city of Pittsburgh, where he had worked as a teenager. He also
remembered his beloved hometown in Scotland, building public swimming pools and a
library for the people of Dunfermline.”
Based on these sentences, what does the phrase "philanthropic projects" mean?
A
B
C
D
actions
actions
actions
actions
or
or
or
or
undertakings
undertakings
undertakings
undertakings
that
that
that
that
involve
involve
involve
involve
giving away money to help people
lots of physical activity
working with universities
asking people for money
7. Read these sentences from the text.
“When Carnegie was 18 years old, Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company hired him as a private secretary and telegraph operator. Scott became a
mentor to Carnegie, schooling him in the management and operations of a railroad
company and encouraging his promotion in the firm. Scott also taught Carnegie about
investing his money and gave him opportunities to make more money by investing in
businesses that had contracts with the railroad company.”
How could the last sentence be rewritten without changing its meaning?
2
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Questions: People Who Built America: Carnegie
A Instead, Scott taught Carnegie about investing his money and gave him
opportunities to make more money by investing in businesses that had
contracts with the railroad company.
B In addition, Scott taught Carnegie about investing his money and gave him
opportunities to make more money by investing in businesses that had
contracts with the railroad company.
C As an illustration, Scott taught Carnegie about investing his money and gave
him opportunities to make more money by investing in businesses that had
contracts with the railroad company.
D Later on, Scott taught Carnegie about investing his money and gave him
opportunities to make more money by investing in businesses that had
contracts with the railroad company.
8. When Carnegie’s “main focus became the steel industry,” his strategy revolutioned
steel production. What else did his strategy do?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
9. Identify three examples of Carnegie's philanthropy.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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Questions: People Who Built America: Carnegie
10. The title of this text is “Men Who Built America: Carnegie.” Explain how Andrew
Carnegie helped build America. Support your answer with evidence from the text.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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