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.

Alongside this good work there is a lot of forgotten evidence to suggest that this philanthropist knowingly hired gunmen to end strikes by attacking strike leaders.

Andrew Carnegie had been born and grew up in Dunfermline in Scotland into a weaver family. However the family had been blacklisted by local employers because of their political views and leadership in the local Chartist movement. Chartists were looking to remove political power and influence from the rich and give the working class the vote and ability to stand for election.

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.

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.

Andrew Carnegie took a job working as a telegraph operator before being promoted to personal secretary to his boss and stayed with him when he took a senior position in national government. The skill and knowledge he acquired along with very good investments enabled Carnegie to invest in a steel works which under his leadership grew until he sold it for 400 million of which he personally earned 350 million dollars.

Carnegie cut wages and pushed workers for longer hours along with investing in new technology to enable him to win enough contracts to buy up less efficient steel works. He continually ran into conflict after conflict with the new unions.

Andrew Carnegie appointed Frick, a man with a clear reputation for hard fighting with unions, as general manager of his steel works and hired Pinkerton’s Detective Agency to assist fight union problems during strikes. Pinkerton’s were at that time known as a violent group of men each armed with Winchester rifles to defend their employers interests but were also known for attacking strikers and on one occasion bombed the area headquarters of a Chicago union.

Although Carnegie was back in Scotland at the time of the Homestead steel works strikes we have published a number of cables from Andrew Carnegie to Frick as his General Manager supporting and encouraging him to do whatever was necessary to win the fight. On this occasion 10 men died in a day long gun battle and when the union finally caved in Carnegie cut wages even lower, increased the number of hours and blacklisted 500 union men who would never work again.

Andrew Carnegie obviously learnt a lot about how to punish troublemakers in factories from when his own family were blacklisted in the same way. You can read the fuller details on http://ScottishJerk.com/09/andrew-carnegie-murderer/ and then take part in our poll by giving your opinion on this Jekyll and Hyde figure.