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Andrew Carnegie's Philanthropic Vision
 Like Rockefeller and several other of his peers, Carnegie was determined to use his private wealth imaginatively, constructively, and systematically to cure the fundamental problems of mankind, rather than simply to assuage symptoms. As he wrote in his "Gospel of Wealth,"
"Neither the individual nor the race is improved by almsgiving ...The rich man is thus almost restricted to following the examples of Peter Cooper, Enoch Pratt of Baltimore, Mr. Pratt of Brooklyn, Senator Stanford, and others, who know the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise -- free libraries, parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and mind; works of art, certain to give pleasure and improve the public taste; and public institutions of various kinds, which will improve the general condition of the people; in this manner returning their surplus wealth to the mass of their fellows in the forms best calculated to do them lasting good."1
However, quite possibly alone in his peer group, Carnegie was determined to use not some, but all of his "surplus" wealth (the private wealth not needed "to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him"2) in this manner not only because he felt that it was the manifest destiny of the ever-improving world that he do so, but also because he was convinced that it was his personal moral obligation as a:
"man of wealth: To set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community - the man of wealth thus becoming the trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."3
While many have questioned - and continue to question - Carnegie's belief that philanthropists and the trustees and staffs appointed to act in their stead do, in fact, have the "superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for ...[the members of the community] better than they would or could do for themselves,"4 numerous positive and permanent impacts of his belief benefit the world to this day; originating not only from the offices of Carnegie Corporation of New York and its grantees, but also from (or at) those of the over twenty other philanthropic and community-benefiting organizations Carnegie founded during his lifetime, which include:
• Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Carnegie Foundation
• Carnegie Hall
• Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
• Carnegie Hero Funds in Europe
• Carnegie Institute
• Carnegie Institution of Washington
• Carnegie Mellon University
• The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust
• The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
• The Carnegie Hero Fund Trust
• The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland
• The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust
1 Carnegie, "The Gospel of Wealth," (New York, Carnegie Corporation of New York, reprint of an 1869 essay), 15-16.
2 Carnegie, 13.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
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