Carnegie Mellon University - Thistle Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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111- progress of the l'nited States during th last century has liecn marvehnis. So marked indeed that it has won the admiration and respect as well as the interest of all other nations. To what do we owe this remarkable development ? Partly to our unlimited resources and partly to the men who have had the fores ght to see the possibilities of these natural resources and the genius. j crscvcrancc and determination, by using these resources, to create new industries and revolutionize old ones. Our national growth has been very marked, but our progress along industrial and economic lines, especially in the last twenty-five or thirty years, has been even more so. The improvement in the manufacture of iron and steel has undoubtedly contributed more toward advancement in the manufacturing world than the improvement in any other industry. The steel industry, as we know it to-day. was first developed in ami around the city of Pittsburgh. Now its influence is felt throughout the entire, manufacturing world. It is not with the industry itself that we arc concerned at present, however, but with the man who has done more than any other to devclope, as a distinct industdy. the manufacture of steel in the l'nited States. It would Ik-ini|M ssihle to dissociate the name of ndrew Carnegie from the steel industry. in order to understand more clearly the secret of Mr. Carnegie's success, we must look briefly at his early life and surroundings. He was born in Dunfermline. Scotland, on November 25. 1835. Dunfermline, situated in the south central ] art of Scotland, has lnren the scene of many stirring events in Scottish history. But probably the most sacrctl memory Mr. Carnegie connects with it. is that it is the final resting place of Rol crt Bruce, chief among the heroes of his beloved Scotland. Owing to political conditions then existing in Scotland Mr. Carnegie early acquire I a dislike for the aristocracy and for all hereditary privileges. Fruits of these early impressions may be seen in his book. “Triumphant Democracy. published many years later. Mr. Carnegie himself attributes a large proportion of his success to the fact that he had a good mother. From her more than from any one else he received encouragement in his early life, and her influence was pre-cmi- 15