Home town to host festival honouring 'the father of philanthropy'

Published on Monday 30 June 2008 22:19

HE WAS Scotland's most famous philanthropist, who used his millions to fund libraries, education, science and the arts.

Now a new festival inspired by the life and legacy of Andrew Carnegie is to be launched in his home town.

Dozens of events are to be held throughout Dunfermline, in Fife, this summer in what is planned to become an annual fixture celebrating the "father of philanthropy".

Literature, music, politics, film, science and innovation will all be celebrated during the festival, created by the Carnegie UK Trust and the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust.

Unique Events, the company behind the creation of Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations and the Burns festival in Ayrshire, has been drafted in to work on elements of the programme.

Carnegie, who was born in Dunfermline in 1835, moved to Pennsylvania, in the United States, with his family in 1848, and rose from working in a cotton mill to become the world's richest man after building up a massive steel business.

Convinced he had a duty to help others, Carnegie dedicated his fortune to funding libraries, schools, universities, scientific research trusts and foundations in the US and Scotland.

The Carnegie Festival has joining forces with the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics and the Edinburgh International Science Festival in its first programme, which will run from 21 August – 7 September. Organisers have also said they are keen to join forces with other town and cities around the country in future years.

Murray Grigor, the co-writer of Sir Sean Connery's long-awaited autobiography, will be among the festival's main guests, while natural history filmmaker Doug Allan will be providing an insight into his work on the acclaimed series Planet Earth.

The festival also boasts its own mini film festival, which will feature a charity premiere of Taken – Liam Neeson's new movie – proceeds from which will go to the Variety Club and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. There will also be a special showcase for Napier University's own "screen academy".

Other highlights of the first Carnegie Festival will include a "Question Time-style debate" on the special relationship between the UK and the US. The event will feature George Reid, a former presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, and Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Charlie Whelan. There will also be an "in-conservation" event with a surprise celebrity and a conference on the biggest global issues facing young people.

Some of the most popular children's attractions from Edinburgh's Science Festival will be heading across the Forth, while an open-air finale is planned for one of Dunfermline's main parks.

Morag Pavich, head of communications at the Carnegie UK Trust, said: "There are three main strands to the festival this year – politics, film, and innovation and enterprise – with a supporting lecture series.

"It's very much planned to be an annual event.

"Carnegie is much better known in the US for his philanthropy and that's something we're hopeful the creation of the festival will address."

The cottage where Carnegie was born has been open to the public since 1908 and is now run as a museum.

In 1909, on a visit to Dunfermline, Carnegie wrote in the visitors book: "The humble home of honest poverty. Best heritage when one has a heroine for a mother."

Scot who crossed the Atlantic and took railroad route from rags to riches

ANDREW Carnegie, the son of a Fife weaver, went on to become a steel tycoon in the United States and then one of the world's most celebrated philanthropists.

His life story is one of the most famous rags-to-riches tales in the history of the US.

Born in Dunfermline on 25 November, 1835, Carnegie moved to Pennsylvania with his family in 1848 and began working in factories as a teenager.

He moved rapidly through a succession of jobs. Hard work and a wise investment in a sleeping car company during the 1850s led to early success in the railroad business.

During the Civil War he invested in oil, worked in transportation for the US war department and became interested in iron and steel businesses.

After the war he concentrated on steel, and by 1888 he owned control of the Homestead Steel Works and other manufacturing plants, which he eventually consolidated as the Carnegie Steel Company. In 1901 Carnegie Steel merged with the US Steel Corporation and Carnegie sold out to JP Morgan for $480 million, making him the richest man in the world.

In 1889 Carnegie had written an essay which outlined his beliefs that it was the duty of the wealthy to help society.

After retiring, he devoted his life to writing and philanthropy, setting up various trusts and educational organisations in the US and Scotland, and paying for the creation of more than 2,500 public libraries. However, Carnegie's reputation has always been tarnished by his ruthless approach to industrial relations.

With his long-time partner, Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie competed fiercely in business and he had a deep-seated hatred of organised labour and trades unions.

There are many accounts of Carnegie as a "brutal" employer and a "Machiavellian" who exploited his workforce, and then gave away his money to salve his troubled conscience.

CARNEGIE IN QUOTES

"There is little success where there is little laughter"

"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents"

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it"

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do"

"No man can become rich without himself enriching others"

"He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave"

"The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket"

"Do your duty and a little more, and the future will take care of itself"

IN NUMBERS

1835

The year Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Fife.

1.20

Carnegie's first weekly wage, in dollars, at a cotton mill, when he was aged 13.

1865

The year Carnegie launched his own business interests and began a bonanza.

480m

The amount in dollars that Carnegie sold his steel company for.

350m

The amount in dollars given away by Andrew Carnegie.

2,509

The number of libraries throughout the English-speaking world that Carnegie built.