Have you a library in your town? What is it called? Should you like to
know why Andrew Carnegie decided to spend millions and millions of
dollars in building beautiful libraries in this country and Scotland?
I should like to tell you, for the story is very interesting.
Mr. Carnegie was born in far away Scotland in the year 1835. His
father was a poor man who earned his living by weaving linen by hand.
Soon machines were invented for the weaving of linen. As these
machines could weave more cheaply, those who had made a living by hand
weaving were thrown out of work. "Andie's" father was thus thrown out
of employment and, hardly knowing which way to turn, decided to come
to America.
Accordingly, when Andie was seven years of age, in company with his
parents and brother, he came to this land of promise. In a land so
large, it was not an easy matter for them to decide where to live.
Finally they decided to settle in Allegheny City, just across the
river from Pittsburg.
After the home was settled, one of the first questions to be solved
was, whether Andie should go to school or go to work. But what could a
boy so small do? He could be a bobbin boy in a big factory, he was
told. So as bobbin boy, we soon see him earning his first money. Can
you guess what his first wages were? From early morning until late at
night he worked and, for a whole week's work received but one dollar
and twenty cents.
So faithful and energetic was he, that he was soon promoted to
engine-boy at a salary of a dollar and eighty cents a week. While the
increase in salary pleased him, the work was not so pleasant, for he
had to work in a damp cellar away from fresh air and sunlight. Then,
too, he was alone most of the time.
It was while he was engine-boy that an event happened that caused him
later in life to build libraries. Suppose we invite Mr. Carnegie, in
his own language, to tell us about it.
"There were no fine libraries then, but in Allegheny City, where I
lived, there was a Colonel Anderson, who was well-to-do and of a
philanthropic turn. He announced, about the time I first began to
work, that he would be in his library at home, every Saturday, ready
to lend books to working boys and men. He had only about four hundred
volumes, but I doubt if ever so few books were put to better use. Only
one who has longed, as I did, for Saturday to come, that the spring of
knowledge might be opened anew to him, can imagine what Colonel
Anderson did for me and other boys of Allegheny City. Quite a number
of them have risen to eminence, and I think their rise can be traced
easily to this splendid opportunity."
No doubt it was the kindness of Colonel Anderson that prompted Mr.
Carnegie, later in life, to bestow his wealth for the founding of
libraries.
Since the work as engine-boy had never appealed to Andie, he was
delighted when another promotion was earned. This time he was made
messenger boy in a telegraph office in Pittsburg at a salary of two
dollars and fifty cents a week. In speaking of this period Mr.
Carnegie said: "If you want an idea as to heaven on earth, imagine
what it is to be taken from a dark cellar, where I fired the boiler
from morning until night, and dropped into an office, where light
shone from all sides, with books, papers, and pencils in profusion
around me, and oh, the tick of those mysterious brass instruments on
the desk, annihilating space and conveying intelligence to the world.
This was my first glimpse of paradise, and I walked on air."
Fortunately, the man in charge of the office, a Scotchman by the name
of James Reid, took a liking to the Scotch lad and began to help him
by teaching him telegraphy. Accordingly, during the leisure moments
when Andie had no messages to deliver he studied so diligently that in
a remarkably short time he became a skillful telegraph operator.
At this time his father died, leaving the support of the family to
Andie. To support them he must earn more money, and so he left his job
as messenger boy to become a telegraph operator on the Pennsylvania
railroad. While thus engaged as an operator he invented a system of
train dispatching that, each year, saved the company thousands of
dollars. This invention attracted the attention of the railroad
officials to young Carnegie, and he was made private secretary to
Colonel Scott, vice-president of the road, and a little later was made
superintendent of the Western division of the Pennsylvania railroad,
all before he was thirty years of age.
It was while he was superintendent of the railroad that Mr. Woodruff,
the inventor of the sleeping car, came to him with the invention. Mr.
Carnegie listened to a description of the proposed cars. He saw that
the idea was good and adopted it at once. Thus it was that on Mr.
Carnegie's division of the Pennsylvania railroad the first sleeping
cars in the United States were run.
Prior to this time all the railroad bridges had been made of wood; but
it occurred to Carnegie that bridges should be made of steel, rather
than wood. Accordingly, he organized the Keystone Bridge Company that
built the first steel bridge across the Ohio River. As the bridge
business grew, Mr. Carnegie decided that he could make more money by
making his own steel for the bridges. To do this he organized a
company and built the Union Iron Mills. So profitable were these mills
that in a short time he purchased the Edgar Thompson Steel Rail Mill
and the Homestead Steel Works. Gradually his business grew until in
1901, when he retired, his payroll exceeded eighteen million dollars a
year, and he received two hundred and fifty millions for his share of
the business.
But, I hear you ask, "How could he earn so much money? How did he get
the money to start these great enterprises?" From the first he was
economical and saved every penny possible; and fortunately for him his
investments were always profitable, as the following examples will
show.
When he was a telegraph operator, his friend, Mr. Scott, urged him to
buy ten shares in the Adams Express Company for six hundred dollars.
As Mr. Carnegie was able to get together but five hundred dollars, Mr.
Scott lent him the extra hundred, and the investment was made. Soon
these shares were yielding large dividends, which Mr. Carnegie
carefully saved.
Already I have told you how Mr. Woodruff, the inventor of the sleeping
car, came to Mr. Carnegie to get him to try out these cars. So
enthusiastic was Mr. Carnegie over the invention, that he organized
the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company, and borrowed money from every
possible source to finance the enterprise. Here, too, he met with a
degree of success that was far beyond his fondest expectations.
Suppose we invite Mr. Carnegie to tell us about his third investment.
He says: "In company with several others, I purchased the now famous
Story farm, on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, where a well had been bored
and natural-oil struck the year before. This proved a very profitable
investment. When I first visited this famous well, the oil was running
into the creek where a few flat-bottomed scows lay filled with it,
ready to be floated down the Allegheny River on an agreed upon day
each week, when the creek was flooded by means of a temporary dam.
This was the beginning of the natural-oil business. We purchased the
farm for forty thousand dollars, and so small was our faith in the
ability of the earth to yield, for any considerable time, the hundred
barrels per day which the property was then producing that we decided
to make a pond capable of holding one hundred thousand barrels of oil,
which we estimated would be worth, when the supply ceased, one million
dollars.
"Unfortunately for us, the pond leaked fearfully. Evaporation also
caused much loss, but we continued to run the oil in to make the loss
good day by day, until several hundred thousand barrels had gone in
this fashion. Our experience with the farm is worth reciting: its
value rose to five million dollars, and one year it paid in cash
dividends one million dollars." Surely this was a very profitable
investment.
But most of Mr. Carnegie's money was made in the steel business, and,
you ask how this was done.
Prior to 1868 the process of making iron into steel had been extremely
expensive. In that year Mr. Carnegie introduced a method for making
steel known as the Bessemer process. For years his mills had a
monopoly of the process; and, as it reduced the cost of making steel
by more than half, he made vast sums of money.
About all rich men two questions are always asked: How did they get
their money, and what did they do with it?
While Mr. Carnegie may be justly criticized for some of the methods
he adopted in getting his money, few can criticize the beautiful
spirit that he has shown in giving it away. So liberal has he been
that in a single year he gave away one hundred and twelve million
dollars. Some of his more notable gifts are $22,000,000 for the
Carnegie Institution in Washington, $24,000,000 for the Carnegie
Institution in Pittsburg, $15,000,000 for Teachers' Pensions,
$10,000,000 for Scotch Universities, and $70,000,000 for libraries.
In the northern part of Scotland is a large and beautiful mansion
known as Skibo Castle. This was Mr. Carnegie's country estate, and
here he and his wife and daughter lived in comparative quiet. In his
late years, as in boyhood days, he loved to tread on the free heather
of his beloved country. As the years multiplied, his sympathies
gradually enlarged and his vision broadened. Though some, as they grow
old, become sour and crabbed, Mr. Carnegie became increasingly
optimistic and youthful in spirit, until death claimed him.
* * * * *
"_He is never alone that hath a good book._"
[Illustration: DR. ANNA SHAW
Honorary President, Woman's National Suffrage Association]