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From what I know off hand about Andrew Carnegie is that he was the
richest man in the world. I know that he has built many libraries and
they are still around today. Andrew Carnegie was a very smart man I
think because he said many smart things this is a Quote I found that
Andrew Carnegie said, “Only in popular education can man erect the
structure of an enduring civilization.”
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25,
1835. The son of a weaver, he came with his family to the United States
in 1848 and settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. At age thirteen,
Carnegie went to work as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill. He then moved
rapidly through a succession of jobs with Western Union and the
Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1865, he resigned to establish his own
business enterprises and eventually organized the Carnegie Steel
Company, which launched the steel industry in Pittsburgh. At age
sixty-five, he sold the company to J. P. Morgan for $400 million and
devoted the rest of his life to his philanthropic activities and
writing, including his autobiography.
Many persons of wealth have contributed to charity, but Carnegie was
perhaps the first to state publicly that the rich have a moral
obligation to give away their fortunes. In 1889 he wrote The Gospel of
Wealth, in which he asserted that all personal wealth beyond that
required to supply the needs of one's family should be regarded as a
trust fund to be administered for the benefit of the community.
Carnegie set about disposing of his fortune through innumerable
personal gifts and through the establishment of various trusts. In his
thirties, Carnegie had already begun to give away some of his
fast-accumulating funds. His first large gifts were made to his native
town. Later he created seven philanthropic and educational
organizations in the United States, including Carnegie Corporation of
New York, and several more in Europe. One of Carnegie's lifelong
interests was the establishment of free public libraries to make
available to everyone a means of self-education. There were only a few
public libraries in the world when, in 1881, Carnegie began to promote
his idea. He and the Corporation subsequently spent over $56 million to
build 2,509 libraries throughout the English-speaking world.
After termination of this program in 1917, the Corporation continued
for about forty years an interest in the improvement of library
services. Other major programs in the Corporation's early history
included adult education and education in the fine arts.
During his lifetime, Carnegie gave away over $350 million. He died in Lenox, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1919.
Andrew Carnegie was an average built man that had a white beard and
a black tux always on. I think that Mr. Carnegie was a very smart man
because of all the money that he had. I think that he did a lot for the
People of America. Not only was he famous then he is famous now he has
made over 2,000 libraries throughout the English-speaking world and
they are all still in operation today.
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