Carnegie’s life and death

MOST people will have heard the old yarn about the tourist asking for directions in New York. The question of “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” got the very basic answer “Practice Man Practice”. Carnegie Hall, one of the great iconic performance venues, was named after the Scottish-born industrialist who financed it.

While crossing the Atlantic on his honeymoon, Carnegie met a musician named Damrosch, who explained his vision of a music hall in New York and Carnegie agreed to finance the project. The venture proved successful but some years after his death, his widow sold the hall to a developer, Robert E Simon.

He continued the tradition of the venue and for a while even made a profit. However, accumulated losses forced him to offer the venue for sale in 1956. No purchaser was found and he was preparing to demolish it when New York City purchased the hall for $5 million. It continues to operate successfully to this day.

Carnegie had a very straightforward philosophy in life: to spend the first third of his life getting as much education as he could, the second third making as much money as he could and the final third giving it all away to good causes.

Apart from Carnegie Hall, he is remembered worldwide for setting up Carnegie Libraries. In all, 2,509 Carnegie Libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including more than 650 in Britain and Ireland.

His life could be described as what every emigrant dreams of. He was born in a one-roomed cottage, which two families shared and they emigrated to America when he was 13. He worked 12 hours a day in a cotton mill, then became a telegram delivery boy, before getting a job as a telegraph operator with a railway company. His work brought him to the notice of the company owner, who befriended him.

Maybe he benefitted from helping the owner with some insider trading or saved enough to buy some shares but which or whether, he built up stock in railways and that was the basis for his future wealth. He accumulated enough to be able to invest in an oil company after the Civil War and in one year alone, this yielded $1 million in dividends. He always kept in contact with those people he first met in the railway company and for the rest of his business career made careful use of his friendships.

He then moved into iron and steel and was an innovator in the industry. He adopted new furnace methods and new organisational procedures. He soon owned one of the largest steel producers in the world, at which stage he decided to retire. He sold out his company to the newly formed United States Steel Corporation. The sale made almost $500m – worth around $15 billion in today’s terms – making Carnegie the second-richest man in America behind oil baron JD Rockefeller.

He then set off on what he had called the final third of his life and set about giving it all away. He financed numerous causes, including universities, peace foundations, science foundations and museums. By the time of his death, he had given away more than $400m.

His death occurred on August 11, 1919 – 94 years ago this week.