#73 Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick: The Bitter Partnership That Changed America

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets. They're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high. So I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today. And I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. One thing is clear. Carnegie and Frick represent the American ethos of limitless possibility. Both men were born to poverty and both became wealthy and powerful beyond imagining. The impact of their steelmaking enterprise on the economy at the end of the 19th century was as profound as the impact of the American Revolution had been on this country's politics and philosophy a century before. And the rupture of their once-perfect partnership illuminates the contradictions embodied in those two hallowed pillars of our thinking, capitalism and the Protestant ethic. Carnegie and Frick were not the first to wrestle with those contradictions, and they were most assertedly not the last. But the making and unraveling of their relationship became an often trouble exploration of America's promise to us all, a reminder that monumental achievement comes at monumental cost. Their story offers a vivid illustration of a young nation's steadfast belief in progress and in man's ability to affect his own destiny. As the ancients observed, such thinking may be fine for the gods, but when mortals attempt to operate on the same plane, even mortals of heroic proportions, tragedy ensues.
Okay, so that was an excerpt from the book that I read this week and the one I'm going to be talking to you about today, which is Meet You in Hell, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the bitter partnership that transformed America. So there's two things I want to do before I jump into the book. The first is that quote, that excerpt had the words in there, two hallowed pillars of our thinking, capitalism and the Protestant ethic. I had to look up what Protestant ethic meant. I'm used to seeing in like the religious, like a description of like in the religious context. So I'm just going to read from the dictionary what it says. It says, the view that a person's duty is to achieve success through hard work and thrift. Such success being a sign that one is saved. And then the second thing I want to bring to your attention before I jump into the book is, the very beginning of the book, the author makes a really interesting point. I think that's part of the reason I enjoyed reading this book so much. But he says, I am not sure that there is a single salient fact concerning any of these subjects that has escaped the attention of some previous writer somewhere, meaning the lives of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. He says, and yet my purpose is not to unearth and re-bury the same old bones of history. Instead, I've turned my focus upon the thread of a relationship and have restricted my attention, for the most part, to matters pertaining thereto. So what he's saying there is that there's plenty of biographies of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. He actually lists a bunch in the back of the book.
And that since he doesn't want to just come and copy what other people have done, he's going to focus on the relationship between the two and then what set, like what series of events actually pulled them apart. And so to that end, I would say about a third to half the book has to do with this event that happened in the late 1890s. And it's called like the Battle for Homestead in some cases, but it's the battle between striking steelworkers and Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the rest of the management that winds up being like basically a miniature war. So I'm going to skip over a lot of that today. I'm going to touch on some of the highlights there. But the author does a fantastic job of telling that story. And so I brought that up. I bring that up now. I guess I should get to my point, right? I bring that up now because I think this idea of focusing in and going deeper on one part of a person's life is actually a really interesting idea. And it made for a very fascinating read. So first, I want to tell you like the reason one of the reasons I brought my attention to the book is the title. It's like Meet You in Hell. That's interesting. So I want to tell you where the title comes from before going into setting the stage for like what life was like at this time period and then going into Andrew Carnegie's early life. So at the towards the end of his life, Carnegie, this is about 20 years after they have a huge falling out. Andrew Frick is probably in his late 60s. He's going to die in a few years. Carnegie dies like a few months before Frick does. And he sends a Carnegie sends a note. They hadn't spoken in two decades. And he sends a note that he wants to bury like all the past troubles. And he wants to have a meeting so they can discuss the time they're trying to discuss whether they're having a large influence or two of the richest people in the world at time. And they're having an influence on whether or not America is going to join the League of Nations. But they they wind up on opposite sides. Carnegie being more for it and Frick being against it. So Carnegie wants to meet with Frick. He wants to put everything in the past. And so he sends somebody over to Frick's house with a letter saying, Hey, let's let's bury the hatchet. Let's actually talk and let's meet. And I just want to read to you Frick's response. He says, Yes, you can tell Carnegie I'll meet him. Frick said, Tell him I'll see him in hell where we are both going.