CARNEGIE DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 190, 12 August 1919, Page 5

CARNEGIE DEAD.

END COMES SUDDENLY. FROM BRONCHIAL PNEUMONIA (By CaWe.—Trosa Association.—Coprrigit.) (Received 9.40 a.m.) . LONDON, August 11. Andrew Carno.gie, the great steelmaster and philanthropist, died at Lenox, Massachusetts, from bronchial pneumonia to-day. lie was only ill for three days, and the end came Buddonly, his daughter, who wafl recently married, being unable to arrive at her father's home before he had passed away. — (A. and N.Z. Cable.) The death of Andrew CarnegUt, the "Laird of Skibo," removes one of the greatest figures in the hietory of industiy ami organisation, the man who, perhaps, more than any other human being, hiiK been the subject of vilification for his business methods, and of praise for his benevolence and philanthropy. Andrew Carnegie was born in Dumferniline. Scotland, in 1H35, and at the age of 13 years left with his parents for America, settling in Pittsburg. He went to work as a weaver's assistant in a cotton factory at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and later become telegraph operator in the Pittsburg office of the Ohio Telegraph Company. Here he learnt telegraphy, and becoming an operator entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, advancing by promotions till he became superintendent of thn Pittsburg division. Then ho joined Mr. Woodruff, inventor of the Bleeping car, in the formation of a company, to make the cars, and in this he made the nucleus of his fortune. The company developed into the Pullman Pal or n Car Co., and Carnegie wafl now a wealthy man. Careful investments in oil lands increased his means, and he rapidly obtained large interests in many business concerns.

During the Civil War, Carnegie Hervpd as HUporintendcnt of the military railways and Government telegraph lines in the East, doing very useful service all through. After the war he became a great ironmaster, founding the I'nion mills of Pittsburg for the manufacture of steel rails. He was the first to introduce into America the IJe.ssenier Btcel process, and this gave him so great an advantage over hie rivals that he was Boon able to establish almost a monopoly in Pittsburg fitcel mills.

In 1873 he acquired the Edgnr Thompson, and in 1883 the Homestead shell works, and soon after all the concerns in whicli ho was interested were amalgamatrd under tho title, of the Carnegie Steel Co., Ltd., with a paid-up rapital of live millions sterling, hi 1892 the Krick Coke Co. was amalgamated with it, and the company's capital raised to £12,000.000. to be siill further increased to £25,000.000 in 1000. while in 1901 the whole of the Carnegie enterprise was tuken over by the American Steel Trust, organised by his lieutenants, of whom he had gathered a band of the ablest and wealthiest steel men in America.

Andrew Carnegie was world-famous as a philanthropist. lie is estimated to have given away thirty to forty millions of his money to education, charity, scientific research, and the cause of peace. In his "Gospel of Wealth" he said that

" the man who hoards his wealth instead it as a fund for the service of his should die unwept, tinhonoured and unsung." Yet a biographer v few years ago said it was estimated that he hud made no serious breach in his millions. "Once, it is said, he did seem to he shifting his golden mountain; Imt then <anic> an appreciation in his Steel Trust securities, and again lie was foiled. It is a pitiful thing to ho struggling all one's days to a little poorer, and to struggle unavailingly. Fifteen hundred libraries and six thousand church orjjans, was his record then, not to mention institutes und peace palaces, and hero funds.

''This habit of mind and point of view belong to an earlier generation," cays the same writer. '"He in not afraid of those commonplaces which are the great truths of life, and hie talk and writing are garnished with well-worn maximsVirtue must bring reward, vice punishment, work wages, sloth misery, and agninst tobacco he carries on increasing warfare, and It was only after long hesitation that he so far yielded to the necessities of honpitalitv a< to provide a smoking-room for hisf riends at Skibo Castle. His politics are of the same pattern as his moral*. lie is an individualist of Cue most uncompromising kind. Like the self-made man generally, he sees in hie own triumph convincing proof that a career like hifl is open to everyone who deserves it. Virtue is itc* own reward. Look at mc. 'Xo young man ever lived who has not had a chance.' is a favourite saving of his. This frame of mind naturally make-s him intolerant of Socialism. 'But, on the other hand, ho sec* that the State mtitit break down the tyranny of the plutocracy, and through taxation effect ii juster distribution of wealth by graduated income tax and death duties. All .wealth, he holds. ;s due to the opera tion of society, and is therefore justly subject to its laws according to its ability to pay."