Was Andrew Carnegie a Murderer?
Scottish American Andrew Carnegie is highly respected as one of the world’s greatest philanthropists having given millions to help the working class masses though setting up of college trust funds and public libraries to enable them to gain an education.
However many people believe he was also a person who planned the murder of strikers in his factories in order to bring about his own riches.
Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland into an active political family fighting for the vote to be given to the working class who would be able to use their new power to stand for election and make the world a far fairer environment.
However the only way to gain political power was to take it away from the rich and they were the people who controlled the factories upon which the Carnegie family were dependant for employment and their survival. Their reputation as “trouble-makers” (certainly in the eyes of factory owners they were) meant they were blacklisted everywhere.
Andrew Carnegie was caught up in the struggles and found himself moving to Pittsburgh USA still aged only 13. All their possessions were sold and using extra money borrowed from friends and neighbours they managed to get a ship across the Atlantic to start a new life.
However this was an opportunity for Carnegie to prove himself moving from his job as bobbin boy in a weaving factory he became a telegraph operator and attracted the eye of his employer who promoted him and took him to the big city as personal secretary. Possibly through insider trading knowledge and smart investing skills Andrew Carnegie amassed a small fortune to enable him to acquire his first steel works. When he later sold his steel interests he personally pocketed over 350 million dollars.
However his drive and ambition for new technology meant he was often in conflict with unions as he cut wages and introduced longer works to drive up profitability and win contracts eventually buying up most of his competitors.
Andrew Carnegie appointed Frick as business manager of his steel works was also known as a hard nosed business man when it came to fighting unions and they often brought in Pinkerton’s Detective Agency to defend their position. Pinkerton’s over the years had become the people to turn to when you wanted gunmen to fight strikes and had acquired a reputation for being violent in the way they handled themselves. The agency had even bombed a union HQ in Chicago and had been involved in a number of killings of strike leaders.
The Homestead Steel Works strike is known for its particularly hard fight with 10 men dying during a long gun battle. Although Andrew Carnegie was back in Scotland for the six months of the dispute it is clear from cables between the two of them that Carnegie knew exactly what Frick was doing and fully supported him in doing whatever was necessary to win the fight. As soon as the union caved in he went ahead and cut the wages even further as well as enforcing longer working week. 500 men were blacklisted never to work again.
Remember how his own family was blacklisted from employment as a punishment for political activity against rich factory owners well you can read the full story of Andrew Carnegie and his part in these killings on our website http://ScottishJerk.com/09/andrew-carnegie-murderer/ and vote on our poll at the same time.