Carnegie Read online

  While at the telegraph office Carnegie discovered an interest in the works of Shakespeare, by way of the old Pittsburgh Theatre on Fifth Avenue, then under the managership of Mr Foster. In exchange for a free telegraph delivery service for the theatre the telegraph messengers received complimentary tickets. The tragedian Edwin ‘Gust’ Adams put on a series of Shakespearean plays – and Andrew Carnegie was hooked. Macbeth, in particular, revived memories of his Dunfermline childhood, for King Duncan’s son Malcolm was the Malcolm III of Dunfermline Tower around which Carnegie had played.

  During these early American years Dunfermline was not far from Andrew Carnegie’s thoughts. In a letter of 22 June 1851 he wrote to his cousin Dod about his posting as telegraph employee and remarked that one day he would return to his birthplace, ‘for I can easily manage to save as much money if I behave well.’12 He kept up a regular correspondence with Dod and his uncle George Lauder, telling them about the family, his father’s linen weaving and his discoveries in American history and geography, and waxing lyrical on the construction of the American constitution which he considered a perfect model for aspiring nations. Although Carnegie was idiosyncratic in the subjects he chose to write about, the letters show a developing political and social consciousness. In a letter of 30 May 1852 to his uncle George Lauder he wrote:

  I am sure it is far better for me that I came here. If I had been in Dunfermline working at the loom it’s very likely I would have been a poor weaver all my days, but here, I can surely do something better than that – if I don’t it will be my own fault, for any one can get along in this country. I intend going to night school this fall to learn something more and after that I will try to teach myself some other branches.13

  He showed an interest in the presidential election of 1852, in which President Millard Fillmore was not nominated by his Whig party to fill the role again. He wrote to his uncle:

  You would laugh to see how low [the politicians] have to bow to their sovereigns [sic] the People. The 2 most prominent candidates I am sorry to say are warriors one [Maj] Gen [Winfield] Scott Comm-in-Chief USA. He is a Whig; the Whigs here go for Protection against foreign labor, are in favour of a National Bank & are conservative. The Democrats go for Free Trade and no Chartered Bank. I take great interest in politics here and think when I am a man I would like to dabble a little in them. I would be a democrat or rather a free-soil-Democrat, free soilers got that name from their hatred of Slavery and slave labor. Slavery I hope will soon be abolished in this Country . . . There is much excitement here upon the subject of Temperance. The State of Maine passed a law prohibiting the manufacture or sale except for medical purposes of all intoxicating liquors; several states have passed similar laws and of course the Rum sellers are trying all they can to protect their rights to sell what they please. That is a step in advance of [Britain] at any rate.14

  The election was won by New Hampshire lawyer Franklin Pierce, who dismayed Carnegie by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act.

  In Pittsburgh Carnegie was reunited with the Swedenborgians who had founded a society there. Aunt Anne Aitken was a keen Swedenborgian and Andrew Carnegie found an interest in music participation through the oratorios attached to their hymn book. His developing interest caused him to join the Swedenborgian choir under Mr Koethen, although Carnegie admitted that he was ‘denied much of a voice’, but his enthusiasm for the music forgave any ‘discords’.15 He also browsed in the Swedenborgian library and wrote for their tract Dewdrop. Significantly for his future pacifism, he wrote an article denouncing the Crimean War, which had broken out in 1854 with its first engagement at the Battle of Alma on 20 September.16

  Andrew Carnegie had served as a telegraph messenger for some twelve months when office manager Colonel John P. Glass recruited him to ‘watch’ the downstairs office in his absence. These duties became more frequent as Glass pursued other interests, and Carnegie quickly learned various other aspects of the telegraphic business. In the process he encountered some hostility from the other telegraphic boys, which reminded him of being taunted as ‘Martin’s pet’ during his childhood. One of his future character traits became apparent at this time, too – a meddlesome approach to the work and affairs of others. Another bone of contention with his office peers was that they considered Carnegie to be mean; he never socialised with his fellow workers, preferring to save every penny. However, gradually the Carnegies amassed enough dollars to repay the £20 Ailie Ferguson Henderson had advanced for their 1848 passage; the debt once idemnified, ‘that was a day we celebrated’.17

  Then came a moment of panic. One pay day Colonel Glass failed to pay Andrew Carnegie’s wages. Was he to get the sack? Relief came when Glass revealed that Carnegie was to receive a pay rise for his satisfactory extra office work, his salary rising from $11.25 to $13.50 per month. Carnegie was triumphant: ‘No subsequent success, or recognition of any kind, ever thrilled me as this did.’18 On his return home he handed his mother the $11.25 she was expecting and he gave no indication that he had had a rise. He wanted to savour the moment. With his brother he fantasised, as they retired to bed that night, that one day they would go into business together as ‘Carnegie Brothers’. Next morning he told his proud mother of the rise, enjoying his moment of theatricality.

  In 1852 Andrew Carnegie began to learn the art of telegraphy, its operation and language. Before the telegraph operators came into the office each morning the messenger boys had to clean the floors. Carnegie’s innate sense of opportunism caused him to try sending and receiving messages on the unattended machines. On one occasion he ventured to take down a message without permission; tentatively he told David Brooks what he had done and instead of receiving the expected reprimand he was complimented on his actions but warned to be careful. His cheek paid off and he was allowed to relieve the regular telegraph operators from time to time. The system of receiving messages was complicated; they came through on a roll of paper tape, printed with the dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet (later called Morse Code) invented in 1832 by Samuel Morse, and then they had to be translated by the operator. Carnegie heard that operators elsewhere were taking messages by listening to the transmission of the Morse Code letters instead of reading them off the tape. Despite being mocked by his fellows, Carnegie learned to receive messages this way, which proved much quicker. Soon he was given a trial as a relief operator at Greensburg, some 30 miles from Pittsburgh. At Greensburg Andrew Carnegie observed the foundation work being carried out for the Pennsylvania Railroad, little realising that this venture would be his next great opportunity.

  Having carried out his duties at Greensburg to his employers’ satisfaction, Andrew Carnegie was promoted to assistant operator on David Brooks’s recommendation to the General Superintendent of the line, the Fife-born James D. Reid. Reid commented: ‘I liked the boy’s looks, and it was very easy to see that though he was little he was full of spirit.’19 Carnegie’s pay was increased to $25 a month and he considered himself ‘performing a man’s part’.20

  Carnegie’s skills were soon to be further exploited. At that time international news entered America via the Cape Race receiving station, south of St John’s in Newfoundland, and from this the press built up their foreign news columns. The local papers employed one man to translate these wired despatches, and the Pittsburgh agent now offered Carnegie a dollar a day to prepare multiple copies of the despatches for the papers. This way Carnegie added $30 a month to the household budget, enabling the family to purchase the house Margaret Carnegie desired.21 This was the house recently vacated by the Hogan relatives who had moved to East Liverpool, Ohio. The purchase price was $550. The Carnegies were now property owners – a situation that would never have been possible for them in Dunfermline.

  As Andrew Carnegie prospered and became the financial bedrock for the family, his father continued to struggle; he was hardly better off than he had been in Dunfermline. He peddled his webs where he could but had little financial return. He became noticeably more despondent. On
one occasion, when Carnegie was working on despatches at the Steubenville office, after a flood on the Ohio River had destroyed lines with Wheeling, he met his father on his way to Wheeling and Cincinnati to sell tablecloths. William Carnegie was to travel by riverboat and Andrew was shaken by the fact that his father could not afford a cabin and was to spend the night on deck. He attempted to comfort his father by saying, ‘Well, father, it will not be long before mother and you shall ride in your own carriage.’ Much touched, the usually undemonstrative William Carnegie replied: ‘Andra, I am proud of you.’22

  The pubescent Andrew Carnegie seems to have had little interest in girls. Certainly his autobiography of 1920 and his other anecdotal writings offer no clues to any romantic leaning or girls’ names. Yet biographer Joseph Frazier Wall recounts a curious tale from the 1850s. Quoting a letter from Carl Engel to Robert M. Lester dated 24 April 1935 (and now in the Carnegie Corporation of New York files), he recounts how Andrew Carnegie was paid 25 cents, from time to time, by the Athertons to take their daughter Miss Lou Atherton to evening parties and escort her home again.23 Was Carnegie obsessed with staying one step ahead of poverty, suppressing any developing sexuality and giving all things a price tag? Possibly, but the dominance of his mother in his thoughts may also have put a dampener on any developing romance.

  Andrew Carnegie said that two societies in particular were a ‘decided influence’ over his early life in America. The first was Pittsburgh’s premier club, the Webster Literary Society, where regular discussions took place on literature past and present, and the second was the Debating Society set up by the ‘Original Six’; members met at Henry Phipp’s workroom after the journeymen shoemakers had finished work for the day. In these two societies, Carnegie said, he learned the art of public speaking, for which he propounded two rules: ‘Make yourself perfectly at home before your audience, and simply talk to them, not at them. Do not try to be somebody else, be yourself and talk, never “orate” until you can’t help it.’24

  The ‘Six’ clubbed together to buy copies of the New York Weekly Tribune, the Whig-turned-Republican newspaper founded by Horace Greeley in 1841. A letter to the Tribune from Carnegie on the slavery issue ‘enhanced his local standing’ in Pittsburgh.25 In debate and in print Andrew Carnegie still spouted the Dunfermline radicalism of his birthplace, but his ‘early political allegiance’ began to shift and his outlook was decidedly more American; something else was changing too, as his rich Dunfermline brogue was tempered by Americanisms.26 Public speaking and success at work helped Carnegie’s growing confidence. Secure in the fact that his family was earning the $300 per annum he once calculated that they needed for a comfortable life, Andrew Carnegie was psychologically ready for the next twist fate had in store for him.

  FIVE

  THE WHITE-HAIRED SCOTCH DEVIL

  The rising man must do something exceptional, and beyond the range of his special department. HE MUST ATTRACT ATTENTION.

  Speech at Curry Commercial College, 23 June 1885

  Andrew Carnegie was ready for a change. He had had enough of office life. Sudden judgements and resolutions like this were to be a hallmark of Andrew Carnegie’s advancement and prosperity. This time the change came through a man called Thomas A. Scott. In the early 1850s the railroads around Pittsburgh were still developing but there was a direct link between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and the O’Reilly Telegraph Co. anticipated increased business on the east coast with the new links.

  Thomas A. Scott was one of the most notable pioneers of mid-nineteenth-century America. Like financier and steamship owner Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), Scott is hailed as a prime developer of public transport in America. He had worked his way up from farm boy at Blair County, Pennsylvania, to astute businessman. In many ways he shared certain character traits with Andrew Carnegie – both became resolute leaders, workaholics and commercial visionaries – and already Scott was a key figure in Pennsylvania railroad circles. He realised that the movement of trains would be greatly enhanced if the railroad had its own telegraph system. As usual, Scott was keen to embrace modern ideas that would expand his network.

  Towards this end Scott needed a telegraph operator to run his new independent wire; as this job would only be part-time, Scott was also looking for a clerk-cum-personal secretary. A regular visitor to the O’Reilly Co., he knew of Carnegie’s reputation as a telegraph office operator. Could Carnegie be tempted to move? People shook their heads. They did not know what was going on in Carnegie’s head. John P. Glass offered Carnegie a salary of $400 a year if he would stay, but Carnegie was taking the long view. To him railways were the coming thing and thus offered greater prospects. A direct employment offer was made to him by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. which he immediately accepted, taking up his new employment on 1 February 1853 at a salary of $35 per month.

  All this news was put in a letter to his uncle George Lauder dated 14 March 1853: ‘I am liking [the job],’ he wrote, ‘far better than the old one. Instead of having to stay every night till 10 or 11 o’clock I am done every night at six . . . .’ Carnegie went on to say that his father was trying to sell some $70 worth of cloth and that his mother was buying new things for the house but that things ‘are double the price they are in Scotland’. He was still keeping up a keen interest in what was happening in Britain, and asked for his uncle’s comments on the new Tory coalition administration led by Prime Minister George Hamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen (1784–1860), and puzzled over the expansion of the French Navy of Napoleon III’s Second Empire; and he looked forward to the day when the United Kingdom and United States would unite ‘against Despotism’.1

  Carnegie entered a new world of brakemen and firemen, ex-riverboat workers and railroad operatives, and found the ‘coarse men’ he met a cultural shock that he was not ready for.2 In those days the railway employed ex-mariners, disillusioned gold hunters, illiterate new immigrants and a general hotchpotch of undisciplined humanity alongside the more diligent workers like Carnegie. For the rest of his life he would abhor foul language, sexual innuendo, chewing and smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, all of which he now encountered in abundance. Yet around him there were some ‘respectable citizens’, and to his delight his friends David McCargo and Robert Pitcairn also found work with the Pennsylvania Railroad Co.

  Although his formal education had been patchy, Carnegie was now absorbing a new style of enlightenment which would provide an important basis for the future. Each facet of his employment introduced him to current business practices and to the activities of all the companies on the railroad’s books. Carnegie shared an office with Scott and became so indispensable that up and down the Pennsylvania’s lines he was known as ‘Scott’s Andy’. This gave him inordinate pleasure, particularly when one day he was so addressed by the President of the Pennsylvania Railway, J. Edgar Thomson.

  New lines were being laid through the mountains, and the village of Altoona developed as an important construction and maintenance depot. Here Andrew Carnegie nearly met his nemesis. One day he had collected the monthly payrolls and cheques from Altoona and was travelling back to Pittsburgh. As he preferred to ride in the engine cab, he had a rough journey and after a particularly hard jolt he reached into his coat where he had placed the payrolls to find that they had gone. Panic-stricken he asked for the train to be stopped. As it slowly reversed back up the line Carnegie spotted where the package had fallen. Greatly relieved, he retrieved it and climbed back on the train. He had one further problem: both the driver and the fireman had witnessed his carelessness. Would they report him? Luckily they did not, and Carnegie’s career was saved.3

  Now aged 18, Andrew Carnegie had already laid the foundations of his lifelong character traits. His employers and colleagues noticed his quickness of decision, his assertiveness and absolute confidence in himself, and his willingness to accept responsibility, and the audacity, self-reliance, ruthlessness and opportunism he displayed in carrying out his duties. Anecdotes abound about all these
Carnegie traits. His opportunistic nature came to the fore again on another occasion. Just as he had taken liberties in David Brook’s telegraph office, he was to do the same in Thomas A. Scott’s. One day he arrived at the office to find that a serious accident had taken place on the Eastern Division line. This was not unusual: the log for 1853 had clocked up around 150 such accidents.4 Freight and passenger trains were disrupted and Scott himself could not be found to give orders for unsnarling the rail traffic. Carnegie had issued countless orders in Scott’s name and with his authority, and now he did so again but this time without authority. The trains were ordered to proceed.

  Carnegie had taken an enormous risk. When he found out what had happened, Scott neither praised nor censured Carnegie for his actions but later that day he spoke about it to one of his colleagues:

  ‘Do you know what that little white-haired Scotch devil of mine did today?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’m damned if he didn’t run every train on the division in my name without the slightest authority.’

  ‘And did he do it all right?’

  ‘Oh, yes, all right.’5

  His luck often made Carnegie smug, but after this incident he mused: ‘The great aim of every boy should be to do something beyond the sphere of his duties – something which attracts the attention of those over him.’6 Carnegie’s risk-taking again paid off: Scott obtained permission from Mr Lombaert, General Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railway, for Carnegie to be in charge of the Eastern Division during his absence. Told that permission was granted, Carnegie declared it ‘the coveted opportunity of my life’.7