Political cartoon? - Carnegie?

Question

http://ww2.nps.k12.va.us/education/sctemp/083518c84d2fc831edc0fa1790572c4a/Industrialists.pdf

Take a look at the cartoon of Carnegie based upon his work, The Gospel of Wealth.
I'm having a hard time finding out what is 'cartoony' about it - can't find the satire in it. It just seems to represent his philantropy but I know cartoons go deeper than that.

Thanks!

P.S. would appreciate it as well if someone could find a better picture of the King Monopoly cartoon, as its labels play a major role in the answering of the questions but I'm not really able to read them.

Answer 1

This is about Carnegie's' Scottishness, and he had it. Note that he is wearing Highland costume. A thing that he took up in later life. It was in this case, an ethnic joke.

Some say that his philanthropy was an outgrowth of his repression of his workers and brutality in the crushing of strikes against his employees. a good condensed bio here on the web should reveal "the gospel of wealth" and the turn to public generosity in his later years

Answer 2

To understand why there is a "cartoon" or "caracature" of Carnegie you have to understand Carnegie's life; first and foremost he was a hedonist who preyed upon the weakest and least able to defend themselves in order to amass his fortune; then as he became super wealthy at a time when there was no income tax and there were only the wealthy and those in poverty, he wanted to have history record him in a better light; Being from Scotland he also wanted to be known in Europe as a "benevolent" personage. This was hardly possible because of the dishonest, callous, despicable way he treated the people who gave their lives in order to built Carnegie's fortune. So, he began a public relations campaign to "amend" his image in the eyes of the world. Largely, it worked to some extent. However, like the most evil man in America's Industrial Past (PUllman) Carnegie will never be free of the fact that he stepped on and destroyed thousands in order to become wealthy. His way to redemption was in endowing Libraries in order that the underprivileged could have books to read. What he failed to do was endow schools for the desperately poor, and provide a means for them to attend those schools, study, have paper and pencil, and a pair of shoes and clean change of clothes.

And, let's face it. What good did it do him. When he died. He was dead! Just like everyone else he met along the way.