Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
are sure to come. Labor's hours are to be shortened as we progress.
Eight hours will be the rule--eight for work, eight for sleep, and
eight for rest and recreation.
There have been many incidents in my business life proving that labor
troubles are not solely founded upon wages. I believe the best
preventive of quarrels to be recognition of, and sincere interest in,
the men, satisfying them that you really care for them and that you
rejoice in their success. This I can sincerely say--that I always
enjoyed my conferences with our workmen, which were not always in
regard to wages, and that the better I knew the men the more I liked
them. They have usually two virtues to the employer's one, and they
are certainly more generous to each other.
Labor is usually helpless against capital. The employer, perhaps,
decides to shut up the shops; he ceases to make profits for a short
time. There is no change in his habits, food, clothing, pleasures--no
agonizing fear of want. Contrast this with his workman whose lessening
means of subsistence torment him. He has few comforts, scarcely the
necessities for his wife and children in health, and for the sick
little ones no proper treatment. It is not capital we need to guard,
but helpless labor. If I returned to business to-morrow, fear of labor
troubles would not enter my mind, but tenderness for poor and
sometimes misguided though well-meaning laborers would fill my heart
and soften it; and thereby soften theirs.
Upon my return to Pittsburgh in 1892, after the Homestead trouble, I
went to the works and met many of the old men who had not been
concerned in the riot. They expressed the opinion that if I had been
at home the strike would never have happened. I told them that the
company had offered generous terms and beyond its offer I should not
have gone; that before their cable reached me in Scotland, the
Governor of the State had appeared on the scene with troops and wished
the law vindicated; that the question had then passed out of my
partners' hands. I added:
"You were badly advised. My partners' offer should have been accepted.
It was very generous. I don't know that I would have offered so much."
To this one of the rollers said to me:
"Oh, Mr. Carnegie, it wasn't a question of dollars. The boys would
have let you kick 'em, but they wouldn't let that other man stroke
their hair."
So much does sentiment count for in the practical affairs of life,
even with the laboring classes. This is not generally believed by
those who do not know them, but I am certain that disputes about wages
do not account for one half the disagreements between capital and
labor. There is lack of due appreciation and of kind treatment of
employees upon the part of the employers.
Suits had been entered against many of the strikers, but upon my
return these were promptly dismissed. All the old men who remained,
and had not been guilty of violence, were taken back. I had cabled
from Scotland urging that Mr. Schwab be sent back to Homestead. He had
been only recently promoted to the Edgar Thomson Works. He went back,
and "Charlie," as he was affectionately called, soon restored order,
peace, and harmony. Had he remained at the Homestead Works, in all
probability no serious trouble would have arisen. "Charlie" liked his
workmen and they liked him; but there still remained at Homestead an
unsatisfactory element in the men who had previously been discarded
from our various works for good reasons and had found employment at
the new works before we purchased them.
CHAPTER XIX
THE "GOSPEL OF WEALTH"
After my book, "The Gospel of Wealth,"[44] was published, it was
inevitable that I should live up to its teachings by ceasing to
struggle for more wealth. I resolved to stop accumulating and begin
the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.
Our profits had reached forty millions of dollars per year and the
prospect of increased earnings before us was amazing. Our successors,
the United States Steel Corporation, soon after the purchase, netted
sixty millions in one year. Had our company continued in business and
adhered to our plans of extension, we figured that seventy millions in
that year might have been earned.
[Footnote 44: _The Gospel of Wealth_ (Century Company, New York, 1900)
contains various magazine articles written between 1886 and 1899 and
published in the _Youth's Companion_, the _Century Magazine_, the
_North American Review_, the _Forum_, the _Contemporary Review_, the
_Fortnightly Review_, the _Nineteenth Century_, and the _Scottish
Leader_. Gladstone asked that the article in the _North American
Review_ be printed in England. It was published in the _Pall Mall
Budget_ and christened the "Gospel of Wealth." Gladstone, Cardinal
Manning, Rev. Hugh Price, and Rev. Dr. Hermann Adler answered it, and
Mr. Carnegie replied to them.]
Steel had ascended the throne and was driving away all inferior
material. It was clearly seen that there was a great future ahead; but
so far as I was concerned I knew the task of distribution before me
would tax me in my old age to the utmost. As usual, Shakespeare had
placed his talismanic touch upon the thought and framed the sentence--
"So distribution should undo excess,
And each man have enough."
At this juncture--that is March, 1901--Mr. Schwab told me Mr. Morgan
had said to him he should really like to know if I wished to retire
from business; if so he thought he could arrange it. He also said he
had consulted our partners and that they were disposed to sell, being
attracted by the terms Mr. Morgan had offered. I told Mr. Schwab that
if my partners were desirous to sell I would concur, and we finally
sold.
There had been so much deception by speculators buying old iron and
steel mills and foisting them upon innocent purchasers at inflated
values--hundred-dollar shares in some cases selling for a trifle--that
I declined to take anything for the common stock. Had I done so, it
would have given me just about one hundred millions more of five per
cent bonds, which Mr. Morgan said afterwards I could have obtained.
Such was the prosperity and such the money value of our steel
business. Events proved I should have been quite justified in asking
the additional sum named, for the common stock has paid five per cent
continuously since.[45] But I had enough, as has been proved, to keep
me busier than ever before, trying to distribute it.
[Footnote 45: The Carnegie Steel Company was bought by Mr. Morgan at
Mr. Carnegie's own price. There was some talk at the time of his
holding out for a higher price than he received, but testifying before
a committee of the House of Representatives in January, 1912, Mr.
Carnegie said: "I considered what was fair: and that is the option
Morgan got. Schwab went down and arranged it. I never saw Morgan on
the subject or any man connected with him. Never a word passed between
him and me. I gave my memorandum and Morgan saw it was eminently fair.
I have been told many times since by insiders that I should have asked
$100,000,000 more and could have got it easily. Once for all, I want
to put a stop to all this talk about Mr. Carnegie 'forcing high prices
for anything.'"]
My first distribution was to the men in the mills. The following
letters and papers will explain the gift:
_New York, N.Y., March 12, 1901_
I make this first use of surplus wealth, four millions of
first mortgage 5% Bonds, upon retiring from business, as an
acknowledgment of the deep debt which I owe to the
workmen who have contributed so greatly to my success. It is
designed to relieve those who may suffer from accidents, and
provide small pensions for those needing help in old age.
In addition I give one million dollars of such bonds, the
proceeds thereof to be used to maintain the libraries and
halls I have built for our workmen.
In return, the Homestead workmen presented the following address:
_Munhall, Pa., Feb'y 23, 1903_
MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE
New York, N.Y.
DEAR SIR:
We, the employees of the Homestead Steel Works, desire by
this means to express to you through our Committee our great
appreciation of your benevolence in establishing the "Andrew
Carnegie Relief Fund," the first annual report of its
operation having been placed before us during the past
month.
The interest which you have always shown in your workmen has
won for you an appreciation which cannot be expressed by
mere words. Of the many channels through which you have
sought to do good, we believe that the "Andrew Carnegie
Relief Fund" stands first. We have personal knowledge of
cares lightened and of hope and strength renewed in homes
where human prospects seemed dark and discouraging.
Respectfully yours
{ HARRY F. ROSE, _Roller_
{ JOHN BELL, JR., _Blacksmith_
Committee { J.A. HORTON, _Timekeeper_
{ WALTER A. GREIG, _Electric Foreman_
{ HARRY CUSACK, _Yardmaster_
The Lucy Furnace men presented me with a beautiful silver plate and
inscribed upon it the following address:
ANDREW CARNEGIE RELIEF FUND
LUCY FURNACES
_Whereas_, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in his munificent
philanthropy, has endowed the "Andrew Carnegie Relief Fund"
for the benefit of employees of the Carnegie Company,
Therefore be it
_Resolved_, that the employees of the Lucy Furnaces, in
special meeting assembled, do convey to Mr. Andrew Carnegie
their sincere thanks for and appreciation of his unexcelled
and bounteous endowment, and furthermore be it
_Resolved_, that it is their earnest wish and prayer that
his life may be long spared to enjoy the fruits of his
works.
{ JAMES SCOTT, _Chairman_
{ LOUIS A. HUTCHISON, _Secretary_
{ JAMES DALY
Committee { R.C. TAYLOR
{ JOHN V. WARD
{ FREDERICK VOELKER
{ JOHN M. VEIGH
I sailed soon for Europe, and as usual some of my partners did not
fail to accompany me to the steamer and bade me good-bye. But, oh! the
difference to me! Say what we would, do what we would, the solemn
change had come. This I could not fail to realize. The wrench was
indeed severe and there was pain in the good-bye which was also a
farewell.
Upon my return to New York some months later, I felt myself entirely
out of place, but was much cheered by seeing several of "the boys" on
the pier to welcome me--the same dear friends, but so different. I had
lost my partners, but not my friends. This was something; it was much.
Still a vacancy was left. I had now to take up my self-appointed task
of wisely disposing of surplus wealth. That would keep me deeply
interested.
One day my eyes happened to see a line in that most valuable paper,
the "Scottish American," in which I had found many gems. This was the
line:
"The gods send thread for a web begun."
It seemed almost as if it had been sent directly to me. This sank into
my heart, and I resolved to begin at once my first web. True enough,
the gods sent thread in the proper form. Dr. J.S. Billings, of the New
York Public Libraries, came as their agent, and of dollars, five and a
quarter millions went at one stroke for sixty-eight branch libraries,
promised for New York City. Twenty more libraries for Brooklyn
followed.
My father, as I have stated, had been one of the five pioneers in
Dunfermline who combined and gave access to their few books to their
less fortunate neighbors. I had followed in his footsteps by giving my