Was Andrew Carnegie a Murderer?

Andrew Carnegie the philantropist and Scottish American gave away millions of dollars each year (and still does through his charitable trusts) promoting education and world peace.

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.

Born and brought up in Dunfermline Scotland Andrew Carnegie‘s father and uncle were being constantly attacked for their radical political attitudes and actions. As leaders in the Chartist movement they were fighting for the right of the working class to vote and stand for election in the belief that this would bring about a fairer future for the world. At this time only the richer people were allowed to do these things. Only property owners were able to have their name on the electoral register to vote so only they would be able to represent the people and of course were able to maintain power and influence.

The only way to give this power to the workers was by removing it from the rich who also in that area included the factory owners. Consequently the family were all blacklisted from gaining employment locally.

When Andrew Carnegie was only 13 years old the family decided to sell up everything they had left basically their furniture and borrowed money from other Chartist supporters and emigrated to the USA ending up in Pittsburgh.

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.

Andrew Carnegie at this time went back to Scotland for half a year at a time so he was present during the Homestead Steel Works dispute but we have come across cables sent between him and Frick the General Manager where he clearly supported “doing whatever was necessary to win the fight”. 10 men died on this occasion during a long gun battle but it led to the union collapse and a return to work. Andrew Carnegie immediately cut the wages again introduced a longer working week and ensured 500 men who were involved in the strike leadership would never again work in the steel mill.

Blacklisted from employment after being branded a troublemaker by rich factory owners rings bells with how Carnegies own family was punished so he obviously learnt some lessons, didn’t he? You can read the full story on http://scottishjerk.com/09/andrew-carnegie-murderer/ and vote in our poll at the same time.