Was Andrew Carnegie a hero - Free Essay Example

Andrew Carnegie was a boy who grew up poor and became the biggest millionaire in the 1870 1900. Carnegie was born in November 1835, where he lived in a attic weavers cottage in scotland. Andrew began working at the age 12, He got a job at a local textile mill, he worked 12 hours a day for $1.20, Then a year later andrew found on a new job delivering telegrams. He was locally famous for being able to decode the dot-dot-dash message by the age sixteen,Andrew now was earning $4.00 a week. After that he was hired at the Pennsylvania Railroad and was getting paid $8.00 a week. When andrew was 24 he was making a over 1,500$ a year. Then he would go on to buy his way out of military service for $850. Was Andrew carnegie a hero? It all depends how you saw him.However, I personally believe that Andrew Carnegie was not a hero because of his business practice, labor relations and philanthropy efforts. Andrew was no hero due to his labor relations. Hamlin Garland a journalist interviewed his employees where we see many of his workers unhappy,In document D Hamlin Garland describes how the iron mills were dirty and he said it was like hell as he entered. When he interviews a man, the man says that they work for twelve hours and get paid two dollars and a quarter a day and the men that shovel in the rain get one dollar and forty cents, There are thirty five hundred men in the mills, The men says that they call it the deathtrap. Garland in the end states  ¨Twelve hours without sleep and running like hell everybody tired and loggy, and its a different story ¨ (Doc D).As seen in this document carnegie is not a hero because he had his workers on bad and poor working conditions.Another example is on document E Carnegie could have of doubled the wages since he made over 92,000$ daily but he decided not to and he also knew what it was to grow up poor like these families but he didnt r eally care that these workers worked in bad condition for so little money, therefore it doesnt make him a hero bacause Iron and steel workers worked alot and still get paid very low. Andrew Carnegie was not a hero because of his business practices.According to  ¨Cost of making carnegie steel ¨ (Doc.B) The production cost were lower and the selling price at the mill was higher. Carnegie was succesful on driving down the costs and making thing cheeper for the costumers and let them save steel. Right now it makes carnegie seems like he is a hero because he lowered the price for consumers so that they could buy the steel needed for railroads,buildigs and infrasturture but at the same time . For example,  ¨Carneigie on survival of the fittest ¨ (Doc.C) it says  ¨Not evil, but good, has come to the race from the accumulations of wealth by those who have the ability and energy to produce it. ¨This show me that he believes that people should work to the top or that some were meant for poverty. Andrew carnegie was not a hero because of his philanthropy efforts. Andre carnegie gave away most of his money towards education and libraries . On document F it shows a tables where it shows you to who he gives away and how much and why. Carnegie give out about 100,000,000 a year, most on education.On document G you see a political cartoon where carnegie on the left side cuts the workers wages, worker is mad and carnegie is mad too, and on the right side show he a charitable guy, giving away money to libraries and people are happy about it also carnegie.it basiclly represents that andre carnegie was two faced because people that work for him see him as a bad person but the people that recieve money from him see him as a good person or the good guy . Even though Carnegie gives most of his money away to libraries and education he still couldnt treat his worker right or double their wages. Was Andrew Carnegie really a hero? Think about it yeah some people thought just for giving his money away to education and libraries was nice of but I dont think he was a hero because though he was a millionaire he still dint double their wages and he made them work a lot of hours, also he had bad and poor working conditions, his thoughts that people should work to their way up, money doesnt make you a good person your actions does.