1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. This is 4 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:20,440 Speaker 1: part two of our episode on Ida tar Bell versus 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. If you somehow came 6 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:29,280 Speaker 1: to this episode without already hearing part one, I do 7 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: strongly recommend listening to Part one first lays a lot 8 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:35,879 Speaker 1: of groundwork for this There are some things in it, 9 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:39,480 Speaker 1: specifically that we will refer back to in this one. Uh. 10 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: Last time, we talked about Ida tar Bell's upbringing in 11 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: northwest Pennsylvania during the Pennsylvania Oil Rush and how her 12 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,920 Speaker 1: family and her community clashed with Standard Oil during that time. 13 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:55,360 Speaker 1: Then we talked about her education and the years that 14 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: she lived in France, and today we will get to 15 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: her work for McClure magazine and the most important journalistic 16 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:05,760 Speaker 1: work of her life, which was the history of the 17 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 1: Standard Oil Company. When Ida Tarbell returned to the United 18 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:13,800 Speaker 1: States from France in eight the country was still reeling 19 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:18,479 Speaker 1: from yet another financial crisis, this time the Panic of EIGHTEE, 20 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:22,119 Speaker 1: in which the failure of large employers sparked a stock 21 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: market crash in Pennsylvania. The Tarbell family was struggling, and 22 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,759 Speaker 1: one of Franklin Tarbell's business partners had taken his own life. 23 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,320 Speaker 1: After spending some time reuniting with them in Titusville, Ida 24 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:38,120 Speaker 1: moved to New York to work for Samuel Sidney McClure 25 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: at McClure's magazine. Although Tarbell's most well known and most 26 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:46,480 Speaker 1: influential work at McClure's was the history of the Standard 27 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: Oil Company, when she started working for the magazine, it 28 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,800 Speaker 1: wasn't really focused on that kind of investigative reporting that 29 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: it would later become famous for. Tarbell's first big project 30 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: at McClure's was a biography Napoleon Bonaparte. This assignment came 31 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: about because wealthy collector Gardner Green Hubbard had agreed to 32 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:11,360 Speaker 1: allow S. S. McClure to print previously unpublished portraits of 33 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: Napoleon that he owned, but only if there was accurate, 34 00:02:16,639 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 1: balanced texts to go along with them. This was a 35 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 1: tricky proposition because the relationship between the US and France 36 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: during the Napoleonic era had been complicated, and people tended 37 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: to have a variety of very strong opinions about the 38 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: man At first, McClure had assigned the article to a 39 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:38,320 Speaker 1: British writer who turned in a draft it was heavily 40 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 1: anti Napoleon. When McClure assigned it to Tarbell, she was 41 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:46,519 Speaker 1: both excited and anxious. This was an opportunity to build 42 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: on her previous research on Madame Roland, but at the 43 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: same time, she had just left Paris, where she would 44 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:55,920 Speaker 1: have had access to primary sources that just were not 45 00:02:56,040 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: available in the US. Tarbell took the assignment, though travel 46 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,240 Speaker 1: linked to Washington, d C. To conduct research. There. She 47 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:07,359 Speaker 1: boarded with Hubbard since he was wealthy, Her lodgings there 48 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: were extremely comfortable. She also started making government and business 49 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:15,960 Speaker 1: connections in addition to doing her research work. She approached 50 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,640 Speaker 1: Napoleon much as she had Madame ral Dan, allowing the 51 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: research to lead her wherever it might, even if that 52 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: wasn't where she expected or hoped. The final result was 53 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,960 Speaker 1: an eight part biography that was enormously successful for the 54 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:34,280 Speaker 1: magazine that was credited with increasing circulation from twenty four 55 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 1: thousand to a hundred thousand subscribers. The collected articles were 56 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: then published as a book that went into multiple printings. 57 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: Her next assignment was a biography of Abraham Lincoln. At 58 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: this point, Lincoln's assassination was about thirty years in the past, 59 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:53,200 Speaker 1: and there was a general sense that there kind of 60 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: wasn't much left to say about him. Turbell also wasn't 61 00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: sure she really wanted this assignment, because she was afraid 62 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: that if she shifted away from French history, she might 63 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: never get back to it. In the end, she went 64 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,800 Speaker 1: to Illinois, interviewing relatives and people who had known Lincoln, 65 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:13,120 Speaker 1: including some who had never been interviewed before. She combed 66 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,479 Speaker 1: through primary sources, printing some of those sources as part 67 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:20,720 Speaker 1: of her series. Like her series on Napoleon, the Abraham 68 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: Lincoln series was generally well received, but she did face 69 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: some criticism that she had glossed over or minimized Lincoln's 70 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:33,279 Speaker 1: various faults and missteps. The series was incredibly popular, though, 71 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:36,720 Speaker 1: and it was credited with boosting the magazine's circulation again, 72 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: this time by another two hundred thousand readers. As with 73 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 1: her Napoleon series, in nineteen hundred, this was printed as 74 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: a book. It was titled The Life of Abraham Lincoln, 75 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: drawn from original sources and containing many speeches, letters, and telegrams. 76 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:59,720 Speaker 1: Hitherto unpublished and illustrated, with many reproductions from original paintings, photographs, 77 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,159 Speaker 1: at cetera. By this point, the US had entered the 78 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: period of social activism and reform that has become known 79 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: as the Progressive Era. This has come up on the 80 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:13,040 Speaker 1: show in a number of previous episodes, but basically, Progressive 81 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:17,680 Speaker 1: era reformers hoped to counteract the negative impacts of industrialization 82 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:23,360 Speaker 1: and urbanization using social programs, laws, activism, and other efforts 83 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:26,600 Speaker 1: to just try to make the country a cleaner, safer, healthier, 84 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: and generally better place. While Progressive era reformers campaign for 85 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:34,679 Speaker 1: things like voting rights for women and education for children, 86 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: not all of their efforts are viewed in a positive 87 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: light today. The Progressive Era also included things like prohibition, 88 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: which of course failed spectacularly, and the eugenics movement. One 89 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: of the Progressive era's traits was a focus on exposing 90 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:55,280 Speaker 1: and dealing with exploitation and corruption, and to that end, 91 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 1: around nine s s. McClure started focusing McClure's magazine more 92 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,440 Speaker 1: on social issues, unless on the kinds of profiles and 93 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: biographies that Tarbell had been writing. While those had been 94 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,680 Speaker 1: very popular with readers. They just didn't really expose or 95 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,000 Speaker 1: offer insight into the issues of the day, at least 96 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 1: not in a very direct, straightforward way. And to be clear, 97 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:24,040 Speaker 1: this was not just about the moral efforts of progressive 98 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 1: era reformers. It was also about selling magazines. McClure understood 99 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 1: that a well written narrative that exposed the immoral and 100 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:36,200 Speaker 1: unethical deeds of the rich and powerful could make for 101 00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:41,279 Speaker 1: an incredibly compelling story. So McClure's magazine turned to a 102 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,280 Speaker 1: type of reporting that would become known as muck raking. 103 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 1: This term comes from a nineteen o six speech by 104 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:50,760 Speaker 1: President Theodore Roosevelt, so to be clear, that term was 105 00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:54,719 Speaker 1: coined after the publication of Tarbell's work on standard oil, 106 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:57,920 Speaker 1: which we haven't really gotten to yet. But Roosevelt would 107 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: go on to say, quote in Bunyan's pill Rims Progress, 108 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:03,560 Speaker 1: you may recall the description of the man with the 109 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:06,799 Speaker 1: muck rake, the man who could look no way but downward, 110 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:09,960 Speaker 1: with the muck rake in his hands, who was offered 111 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: a celestial crown for his muck rake, but who would 112 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,160 Speaker 1: neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, 113 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor. 114 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,720 Speaker 1: The term muckraker became a disparaging term that was applied 115 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:29,560 Speaker 1: broadly to journalists who were focused on exposing corruption and wrongdoing, 116 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: but Roosevelt's speech was actually a little more nuanced than that. 117 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: In it, he praised journalists who were educating the public 118 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: or who were exposing actual misdeeds, while criticizing the ones 119 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:46,880 Speaker 1: that were, in his opinion, sewing discord and division or 120 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: sensationalizing their subject matter. In the same speech, he also said, 121 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: quote the men with the muckrake are often indispensable to 122 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,600 Speaker 1: the well being of society, but only if they know 123 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: when to stop up raking the muck. Later on, Roosevelt 124 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:06,000 Speaker 1: said that he had really been more focused on publications 125 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:10,080 Speaker 1: of people like William Randolph Hurst, which had a reputation 126 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:14,240 Speaker 1: for being a lot more sensationalized. The staff at McClure's 127 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: embarked on some smaller investigations as they considered where they 128 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:22,880 Speaker 1: should focus for something bigger. They were looking specifically at trusts. 129 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: In the nineteenth and twentieth century, people used the word 130 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:30,200 Speaker 1: trust in a general way to describe big, interconnected businesses 131 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:33,680 Speaker 1: whose practices put other businesses who were not part of 132 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 1: the trust at a disadvantage, especially if those business practices 133 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 1: seemed unethical or unfair. But from a legal sense, it 134 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: meant that the businesses were united under the same board 135 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 1: of trustees, with those trustees managing and profiting from all 136 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 1: the affiliated businesses. McClure's wanted to investigate a trust that 137 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:59,600 Speaker 1: would yield a really compelling and readable story, and they 138 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: can uttered and discarded several ideas. One was a coalition 139 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:08,160 Speaker 1: of meat packing businesses in and around Chicago that had 140 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,520 Speaker 1: become known as the Beef Trust. But a key figure 141 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: in the Beef Trust was Philip Armor, who had died 142 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: in January of nineteen o one. McClure thought the story 143 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:21,480 Speaker 1: would not be as interesting or impactful if one of 144 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:25,480 Speaker 1: the key players was dead. One of Tarbell's colleagues that 145 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:29,520 Speaker 1: McClure's also wrote a shorter investigation into JP Morgan and 146 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:32,920 Speaker 1: the steel industry that ran in McClure's In November of 147 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,160 Speaker 1: nineteen o one, the team finally decided on Standard Oil. 148 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:41,040 Speaker 1: The Standard Oil Trust had been established on January second 149 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 1: two with nine trustees that included John D. Rockefeller and 150 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:50,679 Speaker 1: his brother William, along with Henry Flagler. These nine trustees 151 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: elected all the directors and officers of the roughly forty 152 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,720 Speaker 1: businesses that were part of the trust, essentially controlling the 153 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:04,439 Speaker 1: entire enterprise, and enterprise had a near monopoly on producing, refining, marketing, 154 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: and transporting oil. This trust had already faced a lot 155 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,120 Speaker 1: of criticism, including being forced to break up and re 156 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:16,400 Speaker 1: establish itself in New Jersey after facing legal action in Ohio. 157 00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:22,319 Speaker 1: In at this point, Ida Tarbell's family was really struggling. 158 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:26,640 Speaker 1: The Pennsylvania oil industry was being eclipsed by oil fields 159 00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: and other states, including Texas and California. The invention of 160 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:35,400 Speaker 1: the electric light had reduced the demand for oil. At 161 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: this point, they didn't know it. This was a temporary 162 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,199 Speaker 1: drop in demand, but it made it a lot harder 163 00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:43,679 Speaker 1: to turn a profit. That made it even harder for 164 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:48,840 Speaker 1: independent oil businesses to compete with Standard Oil's monopoly. Franklin 165 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:52,160 Speaker 1: Tarbell had mortgaged the family home, and a lot of 166 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:54,800 Speaker 1: other people in their community were in the same position. 167 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:58,319 Speaker 1: Tarbell's co workers knew about all of this, and they 168 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 1: saw her family history with the story as an asset, 169 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 1: making Tarbell uniquely suited to investigate and write about Standard Oil. 170 00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:09,160 Speaker 1: She agreed to take on the story, working out the 171 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:13,040 Speaker 1: details with McClure in Europe while he vacationed there. Their 172 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: plan was for about one total pages totally about twenty 173 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:20,000 Speaker 1: five thousand words, to be published across multiple issues of 174 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:24,680 Speaker 1: the magazine. She ended up with a nineteen part series. 175 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: When it was published as a book, it took two volumes, 176 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:33,160 Speaker 1: each of them more than four hundred pages long. We're 177 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: going to talk about this a little bit more after 178 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:47,319 Speaker 1: we first paused for a little sponsor break. When Ida 179 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:51,520 Speaker 1: Tarbell started researching the Standard Oil Company in nineteen o one, 180 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:54,600 Speaker 1: it was a story that, as we have laid out, 181 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,640 Speaker 1: had a personal importance to her and to her family, 182 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:01,360 Speaker 1: going back to her early childhood. She also had a 183 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,560 Speaker 1: working knowledge of various aspects of the oil business thanks 184 00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: to things she had learned from her father. But her 185 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:11,000 Speaker 1: father did not want her to do this story. He 186 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:14,560 Speaker 1: thought that John D. Rockefeller would destroy her and would 187 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: destroy McClure's magazine, just like Standard Oil had destroyed the 188 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:22,920 Speaker 1: lives and businesses of so many people. The Tarbell's personally knew. 189 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:27,000 Speaker 1: Rockefeller himself was now in his sixties and he had 190 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:30,559 Speaker 1: largely retired from day to day business operations, but he 191 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:34,679 Speaker 1: was still the company's biggest stockholder and was one of 192 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,520 Speaker 1: the richest and most powerful people in the United States. 193 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: Turmel's research involved going through decades of court records. We 194 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:45,360 Speaker 1: noted back in Part one that critics had questioned whether 195 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:49,000 Speaker 1: Standard Oil's business practices were legal almost from the very beginning, 196 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:52,640 Speaker 1: as Rockefeller's business partner, Henry M. Flagg Laire worked at 197 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:55,800 Speaker 1: a deal with Lake Shoreline in which the railroad reduced 198 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:59,600 Speaker 1: its shipping prices in exchange for Flagler promising the ship 199 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,840 Speaker 1: at least sixty car loads of oil products per day. 200 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:08,199 Speaker 1: Since that time, various states had passed antitrust legislation. The 201 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:11,640 Speaker 1: Interstate Commerce Commission had been established in eighteen eighty seven 202 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:15,440 Speaker 1: to regulate the railroad industry after years of complaints about 203 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:20,479 Speaker 1: railroad rates, including railroads charging higher rates for smaller businesses. 204 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:26,560 Speaker 1: So various state legislatures had investigated Standard Oil. The company 205 00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:30,760 Speaker 1: had appeared before congressional committees in eighteen seventy two and 206 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six. There was also that legal action in 207 00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:37,679 Speaker 1: Ohio that had led Standard Oil to break up and 208 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:40,439 Speaker 1: moved to New Jersey and put itself back together again. 209 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,719 Speaker 1: Standard Oil had also been involved in investigations into the 210 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,880 Speaker 1: railroads that was associated with and their business practices. And 211 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 1: then outside of the courts, there were things like articles 212 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:57,280 Speaker 1: of incorporation and internal documents and pamphlets and previous news reporting. 213 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 1: There was just a wealth of material to go through 214 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:05,360 Speaker 1: on top of all of that. On July two nine, 215 00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 1: President Benjamin Harrison had signed the Sherman Antitrust Act or quote, 216 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:14,280 Speaker 1: an Act to protect Trade and commerce against unlawful restraints 217 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:19,400 Speaker 1: and monopolies into law. Trusts were deeply unpopular at this point, 218 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:23,520 Speaker 1: and the law passed through Congress almost unanimously. The only 219 00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:27,160 Speaker 1: person who voted against it was Senator Rufus Blodgett, who 220 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:33,520 Speaker 1: was a railroad executive. The Sherman Antitrust Act outlawed trusts, monopolies, 221 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:37,920 Speaker 1: and other business activities that restricted interstate trade or trade 222 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:41,440 Speaker 1: with foreign powers. Parts of this law were vague, though, 223 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: and the punishments that it outlined really weren't a big 224 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:48,160 Speaker 1: deterrent for people who had already become really wealthy through 225 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,920 Speaker 1: this kind of activities, such as the Rockefellers. If you 226 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:55,160 Speaker 1: had millions of dollars of five thousand dollar fine was 227 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: just not something that would make you change your business practices. 228 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: In the Supreme Court had also found that American Sugar 229 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:09,160 Speaker 1: Refining Company had not violated the Sherman Antitrust Act even 230 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:12,440 Speaker 1: though it controlled nearly all of the sugar refining in 231 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:15,680 Speaker 1: the United States. So that decision made this law harder 232 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 1: to enforce. Even though the federal government wasn't really enforcing 233 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,440 Speaker 1: the Sherman Antitrust Act on paper, it made a lot 234 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 1: of standard oils activities that we've already described illegal. And 235 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,560 Speaker 1: then when Theodore Roosevelt became president in nineteen o one, 236 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:34,960 Speaker 1: after the assassination of William McKinley, he did make it 237 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:39,240 Speaker 1: a priority. He thought trusts were restricting business and eroding 238 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 1: public trust. And that was just about the time that 239 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:47,680 Speaker 1: Ida Tarbell started researching standard oil for McClure's Tarbell and 240 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:51,200 Speaker 1: her research assistant, John Said all poured over years and 241 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:55,480 Speaker 1: years of legal documents, court filings, and other primary source 242 00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:00,360 Speaker 1: documentation of standard oils activities along the way, and during 243 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:03,600 Speaker 1: the writing and editing process, they and S. S. McClure 244 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:07,720 Speaker 1: refined a process that would include practices that are standard 245 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:11,720 Speaker 1: in the field of investigative journalism today. Things like doing 246 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:15,560 Speaker 1: in depth research through primary source documents, and protecting the 247 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:20,160 Speaker 1: identities of people who acted as sources, and allowing subjects 248 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:25,400 Speaker 1: of reported pieces to correct and accuracies, but otherwise not 249 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: to change or influence the writing in any way. And 250 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: even though this story was so deeply personal to Tarbel, 251 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: something that had made her frustrated and angry and upset 252 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:38,520 Speaker 1: at various points in her life, she also tried to 253 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:41,960 Speaker 1: put her personal feelings aside and instead to follow the 254 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 1: story wherever the facts took her. In her words, quote, 255 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,280 Speaker 1: I've tried to lead neither to one side nor the 256 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:51,800 Speaker 1: other in my Standard Oil articles, but merely to tell 257 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:56,160 Speaker 1: the truth corroborated by court documents and pamphlets issued at 258 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: various times. After extensive research and leg work, Tarbell sought 259 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:06,680 Speaker 1: out interviews with people at Standard Oil. Henry H. Rogers 260 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: had once been an independent oil producer who had lived 261 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:12,560 Speaker 1: not far from the Tarbell's, but he'd gone on to 262 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:16,119 Speaker 1: work with John D. Rockefeller for twenty five years. He 263 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: had become Standard Oil's highest ranked executive, and after hearing 264 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:25,560 Speaker 1: about Tarbell's investigation, he had contacted his friend Samuel Clemens, 265 00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 1: also known as Mark Twain, to suggest that he would 266 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:31,960 Speaker 1: like the chance for the writer to get their facts straight. 267 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,560 Speaker 1: So Clemmens got in touch with McClure's art director, who 268 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,879 Speaker 1: he knew, and after some back and forth, he ultimately 269 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:42,240 Speaker 1: relayed a message back to Rogers that Tarbell had agreed 270 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:46,600 Speaker 1: to speak with him. Rogers was generally really candid with her. 271 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,000 Speaker 1: He said some things to her that seemed kind of surprising, 272 00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:52,720 Speaker 1: but he was also furious when he learned that she 273 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:56,160 Speaker 1: had gotten her hands on some internal documents that outlined 274 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,880 Speaker 1: how Standard Oil had colluded with the railroads to intend 275 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:04,639 Speaker 1: lely drive competitors out of business. In the end, Ida M. 276 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:07,960 Speaker 1: Tarbell wrote a series that outlined the general history of 277 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:12,359 Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania oil industry, the creation of Southern Improvement Company, 278 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:16,399 Speaker 1: other efforts to fix railroad rates in Standard Oil's favor 279 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: and control the oil output from Pennsylvania, the establishment of 280 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:24,560 Speaker 1: the Trust, and various decisions along the way that undermined 281 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:27,399 Speaker 1: the principles of free trade to give the Trust an 282 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: unfair business advantage. There were details that people knew already 283 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:35,679 Speaker 1: but had not necessarily connected the dots on, as well 284 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,119 Speaker 1: as places where she filled in the gaps or found 285 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:42,360 Speaker 1: documentation that had not been unearthed before. She laid out 286 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:50,359 Speaker 1: a pattern of intimidation, predatory, competition, bribery, corporate espionage, secret dealings, payoffs, 287 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:56,320 Speaker 1: and collusion, and it connected to oil production, refining, railroads, pipelines, 288 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,040 Speaker 1: and marketing. Tarbell and said, all We're still doing research 289 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:03,639 Speaker 1: as this series was being published, and they kept on 290 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:08,840 Speaker 1: earthing new information, including that Rockefeller's father was still alive, 291 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:12,440 Speaker 1: which came to light in nineteen o three when Tarbell 292 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:16,720 Speaker 1: printed her biographical profile of Rockefeller after her main reporting 293 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:21,200 Speaker 1: was complete. She disclosed his father's masquerading as a deaf 294 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 1: mute peddler and allegations that he was a horse thief. 295 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:29,639 Speaker 1: After Tarbell finished that nineteen part series, as Tracy just mentioned, 296 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:33,399 Speaker 1: she wrote a two part biographical profile of Rockefeller and 297 00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:36,400 Speaker 1: that ran in July and August of nineteen o five. 298 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:41,080 Speaker 1: And while she covered his devout religious beliefs, his church attendance, 299 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:44,360 Speaker 1: and his philanthropy, and noted that he had a brilliant 300 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:48,359 Speaker 1: business sense and ability to strategize, her critical tone was 301 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:50,760 Speaker 1: not as restrained as it had been for the rest 302 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:53,679 Speaker 1: of the report. In the second part, she calls him 303 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:58,480 Speaker 1: a quote money maniacs secretly patiently eternally plotting how he 304 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:02,080 Speaker 1: may add to his wealth. There is also a lengthy 305 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,800 Speaker 1: and unflattering description of his appearance, including the loss of 306 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: all his hair from alopecia, describing him as looking like 307 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: a living mummy. As another example, in this biographical profile, 308 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:19,120 Speaker 1: Tarbell ruminates on weather charities are right to accept Rockefeller's money, 309 00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:22,040 Speaker 1: considering how he got it and whether they're doing so 310 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:27,159 Speaker 1: is hypocritical, before rhetorically asking does all this pay? And 311 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,680 Speaker 1: she continues quote, there is no sharking the answer. It 312 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:34,600 Speaker 1: does not pay. Our national life is on every side 313 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:39,280 Speaker 1: distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner. For the kind of influence he 314 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:44,320 Speaker 1: exercises from him, we have received no impulse to public duty, 315 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: only lessons in evading it for private greed. No stimulus 316 00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: to noble ideals, only a lesson in the further deification 317 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:58,240 Speaker 1: of gold. No example of enlarged and noble living, only 318 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:01,920 Speaker 1: one of concealment and of a Jian. No impulse to 319 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:06,399 Speaker 1: free thinking, only a lesson in obscuring vital ethical issues 320 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:10,080 Speaker 1: by dressing them in the garbs of piety and generosity. 321 00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:14,560 Speaker 1: In a article on the muckrakers that was published in 322 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: Media History, monographs. Tim B. Klein calls this profile un 323 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:25,720 Speaker 1: characteristically mean. Rockefeller offered almost no public commentary on any 324 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: of this or on Tarbell, although he was known to 325 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:32,880 Speaker 1: call her miss tar Beryl went among his friends. Ida 326 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:36,399 Speaker 1: Tarbell's History of Standard Oil was an incredibly popular and 327 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:40,640 Speaker 1: widely read piece of writing. One of S. S. McClure's 328 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:43,720 Speaker 1: practices at his magazine had also been to make his 329 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: writers known as writers. He published their bylines, which wasn't 330 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,199 Speaker 1: something that came into practice until the late nineteenth century, 331 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:55,560 Speaker 1: and he also marketed them individually as much as he 332 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:59,159 Speaker 1: marketed the magazine as a whole. So, along with her 333 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:01,760 Speaker 1: earlier works that we've talked about, the history of the 334 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:05,280 Speaker 1: Standard Oil Company made Ida tar Bell famous as well. 335 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,399 Speaker 1: But at the same time there were people who were 336 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:11,760 Speaker 1: critical of her approach to the story, sticking only to 337 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,440 Speaker 1: what she could substantiate with facts. Apart from that two 338 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:19,920 Speaker 1: part profile of Rockefeller himself, she mostly used straightforward and 339 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:23,960 Speaker 1: moderate language. She didn't pull punches, though early on she 340 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:27,639 Speaker 1: described the approach of discriminatory freight pricing in Pennsylvania this 341 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:30,879 Speaker 1: way quote an evil in their business which they were 342 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:34,440 Speaker 1: only beginning to grasp fully. In eighteen seventy one was 343 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:39,240 Speaker 1: the unholy system of freight discrimination which the railroads were practicing. 344 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 1: So she could be pretty direct about things that she 345 00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:47,119 Speaker 1: could back up, but she also offered praise where she 346 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,119 Speaker 1: thought it was due. She called the Standard Oil trust 347 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:54,560 Speaker 1: quote the most perfectly developed trust in existence. Or here 348 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,040 Speaker 1: is how she described John D. Rockefeller in the wake 349 00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 1: of the oil war of eighteen seventy two. Quote. If 350 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:04,159 Speaker 1: Mr Rockefeller had been an ordinary man, the outburst of 351 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,240 Speaker 1: popular contempt and suspicion which suddenly poured on his head 352 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:11,280 Speaker 1: would have thwarted and crushed him. But he was no 353 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:14,639 Speaker 1: ordinary man. He had the powerful imagination to see what 354 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:17,120 Speaker 1: might be done with the oil business if it could 355 00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:20,800 Speaker 1: be centered in his hands, the intelligence to analyze the 356 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:24,160 Speaker 1: problem into its elements and to find the key to control. 357 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 1: He had the essential element of all great achievement, a 358 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:31,879 Speaker 1: steadfastness to a purpose once conceived, which nothing can crush. 359 00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:35,920 Speaker 1: Henry D. Lloyd, who had written a piece about Standard 360 00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,919 Speaker 1: Oil that was way more scathing about a decade before, 361 00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:43,800 Speaker 1: claimed that Tarbell had been duped, and Samuel Clemens joked 362 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:48,399 Speaker 1: that Rockefeller must have bought her off. The story of 363 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:52,360 Speaker 1: Tarbell's work on this became its own sensation. On November, 364 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:55,840 Speaker 1: just a couple of months after the last part of 365 00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,119 Speaker 1: the series was published, The Lion and the Mouse opened 366 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:04,160 Speaker 1: on Broadway. This fictionalized, romanticized story about a young woman 367 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,280 Speaker 1: going up against a huge company had a love story 368 00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 1: and a happy ending, but it was clearly rooted in 369 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,640 Speaker 1: Tarbell's investigation of Standard Oil. That play ran for six 370 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,200 Speaker 1: d eighty six consecutive appearances on Broadway, making it the 371 00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:22,920 Speaker 1: longest continuously running show on Broadway at the time, followed 372 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 1: by a touring production, a novelization, and in a feature film. 373 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:33,119 Speaker 1: On November nine, six, prompted in part by material that 374 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 1: Ida Tarbell had unearthed in her reporting and the fewer 375 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:40,480 Speaker 1: that had followed, the federal government charged the Standard Oil 376 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:43,639 Speaker 1: Company of New Jersey and its affiliates with violating the 377 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:48,200 Speaker 1: Sherman Antitrust Act. Although Standard Oil argued that all of 378 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:52,000 Speaker 1: its associated businesses were not a monopoly because they competed 379 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,800 Speaker 1: with each other, it was found to be in violation 380 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: of the Act. And we will talk more about the 381 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,680 Speaker 1: later career of Ida Tarbell at Can we pause for 382 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:13,200 Speaker 1: a sponsor break? In addition to the federal charges being 383 00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: filed against Standard Oil. In nineteen oh six, Id Tarbell 384 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:21,360 Speaker 1: left McClure's. Tarbell and several others at the magazine had 385 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:25,399 Speaker 1: become frustrated with S. S. McClure's shifting priorities and politics, 386 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: among other things. He wanted to move away from muckraking 387 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,880 Speaker 1: and into literature, so the people who left McClures moved 388 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:37,159 Speaker 1: on to the American magazine. Tarbell kept investigating issues that 389 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,760 Speaker 1: were related to business in the US, starting with tariffs. 390 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,480 Speaker 1: She published The Tariff in Our Times in nineteen eleven, 391 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,960 Speaker 1: which chronicled fifty years of a practice that she described 392 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,760 Speaker 1: as a quote defeat of the popular will. As Tarbell 393 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,960 Speaker 1: was researching tariffs, Standard Oil was facing legal action. On 394 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 1: November twentie, nineteen o nine, a federal Circuit court unanimously 395 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,160 Speaker 1: ruled that Standard Oil had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act 396 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,400 Speaker 1: and ordered that the company be dissolved. Standard Oil appealed, 397 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,280 Speaker 1: and in nineteen eleven, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld 398 00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,920 Speaker 1: the verdict. The Supreme Court's ruling established the idea of 399 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,440 Speaker 1: the quote rule of reason, meaning that the federal government 400 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,720 Speaker 1: could only break up trusts that created an unfair restriction 401 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: of trade, not all trusts across the board. Justice John 402 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: Marshall Harlan concurred with the ruling in general, but dissented 403 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,320 Speaker 1: with the establishment of this standard, arguing that it created 404 00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:35,440 Speaker 1: a restriction that had not been part of the law 405 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:39,120 Speaker 1: as it was passed. As a consequence of the Supreme 406 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 1: Court decisions upholding that earlier ruling, Standard Oil was broken 407 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,200 Speaker 1: up into thirty four separate companies. Some of these still 408 00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:51,000 Speaker 1: exist today, although with various names. A lot of them 409 00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:55,639 Speaker 1: that were separate merged in the intervening years various changes 410 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:59,879 Speaker 1: in branding. Ones that still exist today include chevron X 411 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,840 Speaker 1: on Mobile and BP. And if you're thinking, wait, doesn't 412 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:08,960 Speaker 1: BP stand for British Petroleum, Yes, it does. BP acquired 413 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: a majority stake in Standard Oil successor Standard Oil of 414 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:17,960 Speaker 1: Ohio in the nineties seventies. None of Standard Oil's executives 415 00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:21,280 Speaker 1: really faced any sort of justice for the business practices 416 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,399 Speaker 1: that had led to Standard Oil being forcibly broken up 417 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,600 Speaker 1: by the federal government, and that breakup made John D. 418 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:33,560 Speaker 1: Rockefeller and various other stockholders and trustees incredibly rich, much 419 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,800 Speaker 1: richer than they had been before the breakup. The ruling 420 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:40,440 Speaker 1: allowed Standard Oil stockholders to receive shares from each of 421 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:44,480 Speaker 1: the newly created businesses, so even though these were ostensibly 422 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,840 Speaker 1: separate companies, the stock was still held by the same 423 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: people as before. The breakup of Standard Oil also happened 424 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,960 Speaker 1: just before Henry Ford started using an assembly line for 425 00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: car manufacturer, and that made cars far more available, which then, 426 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:07,280 Speaker 1: of course, drove up the demand for oil enormously. Together, 427 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:11,840 Speaker 1: this probably made Rockefeller the first billionaire in the United States. 428 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:14,920 Speaker 1: As a side note, when he was a child living 429 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:17,680 Speaker 1: in poverty, he had told a friend that one day 430 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,320 Speaker 1: he would be worth a hundred thousand dollars. He barely 431 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:26,600 Speaker 1: made it. In nineteen fourteen, the Federal Trade Commission was 432 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:29,680 Speaker 1: established and other laws were passed in the US to 433 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,680 Speaker 1: try to protect free trade. In nineteen sixteen, President Woodrow 434 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,240 Speaker 1: Wilson offered Tarbell a position on the Federal Tariff Commission. 435 00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 1: He had said of her quote, she has written more 436 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,640 Speaker 1: good sense, good plain common sense about the tariff than 437 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,600 Speaker 1: any man I know of. But by that point she 438 00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,280 Speaker 1: had moved on from tariffs since she wasn't really interested, 439 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:52,840 Speaker 1: so she turned the offer down. Some of Tarbell's later 440 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 1: work shows that she wasn't particularly anti capitalist or against 441 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,920 Speaker 1: big business. She was just against business passes that seemed 442 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:05,440 Speaker 1: unfair and exploitive. She wrote favorably about the idea of 443 00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:09,320 Speaker 1: scientific management, also known as tailorism, which was meant to 444 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 1: analyze people's workflows and make them as efficient as possible. 445 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,560 Speaker 1: Labor activists had really criticized this practice, describing it as 446 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,680 Speaker 1: reducing workers to automatons who were expected to crank out 447 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,840 Speaker 1: cheaper goods at a lower quality and to do it faster, 448 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,120 Speaker 1: rather than being treated as human beings with the capability 449 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:33,240 Speaker 1: for their own analysis and thought. Tarbell also wrote profiles 450 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:38,000 Speaker 1: of United States Steel Corporation CEO Albert H. Gary and O. N. D. 451 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,120 Speaker 1: Young of GE that were far more positive than her 452 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 1: work on Rockefeller. She said the difference in their tone 453 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,120 Speaker 1: and scope was because she hadn't found their businesses to 454 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,680 Speaker 1: be home to the kind of corruption that she had 455 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,160 Speaker 1: seen at Standard Oil. In spite of her commitment to 456 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,280 Speaker 1: never marry or become a mother and breaking a path 457 00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:58,880 Speaker 1: that was not open to most women when she lived, 458 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,400 Speaker 1: Tarbell didn't really support the women's suffrage movement or the 459 00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: women's rights movement. Some of this was evident in the 460 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: Peace about Women Inventors that we read from in part one. 461 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:12,600 Speaker 1: She felt that in a lot of ways, suffrages talked 462 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,320 Speaker 1: about women in a way that made them into victims 463 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:19,160 Speaker 1: and undermined their abilities. She also thought that the movement 464 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:24,040 Speaker 1: and many other movements were ultimately coercive, whether they involved 465 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 1: protests or changes to the law. As she said in 466 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:29,760 Speaker 1: a letter to J. S. Phillips quote, part of what 467 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 1: seems to me the most dangerous fallacy of our times, 468 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:37,160 Speaker 1: and that is that we could be saved morally, economically, 469 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:42,720 Speaker 1: socially by laws and systems. Tarbell also thought women were 470 00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:46,000 Speaker 1: best suited to being wives and mothers. Later on in 471 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 1: her life, she said she had regretted not having children. 472 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,520 Speaker 1: Her later works involving these themes include The Business of 473 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,480 Speaker 1: Being a Woman in nineteen twelve and The Ways of 474 00:30:55,600 --> 00:31:00,600 Speaker 1: Women in nineteen fifteen. Tarbell stopped writing for America Magazine 475 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,080 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifteen, although she continued to do freelance work. 476 00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:07,720 Speaker 1: This included going to France to report on the Paris 477 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,000 Speaker 1: Peace Conference at the end of World War One in 478 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,720 Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen. In nineteen twenty two, The New York Times 479 00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:16,360 Speaker 1: included her on its list of the twelve Greatest Living 480 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:20,680 Speaker 1: American Women. In nineteen twenty six, Tarbell traveled to Italy 481 00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,560 Speaker 1: to interview fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who had risen to 482 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:27,680 Speaker 1: power four years before. That was an assignment she took 483 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,280 Speaker 1: because it was lucrative enough she didn't think she could 484 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: afford to turn it down. Tarbell criticized Mussolini's totalitarianism while 485 00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:39,240 Speaker 1: also praising reforms he had brought to Italy. Many of 486 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,080 Speaker 1: Mussolini's most infamous deeds and his alliance with Adolf Hitler 487 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,320 Speaker 1: had not happened yet when Tarbell did this work, but 488 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,520 Speaker 1: even with that in mind, this drew criticism from people 489 00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: who thought she was way too soft on him. Tarbell's 490 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:57,360 Speaker 1: last works included The Nationalizing of Business eighteen seventy eight 491 00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: to ninety eight, which came out in nineteen thirty six, 492 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,920 Speaker 1: and her autobiography All in the Day's Work, which came 493 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,640 Speaker 1: out in nineteen thirty nine. In that autobiography, she said 494 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:11,000 Speaker 1: of Standard Oil quote, they had never played fair and 495 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:15,040 Speaker 1: that ruined their greatness for me. John D. Rockefeller died 496 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: of a heart attack on May nine, thirty seven. His 497 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:22,280 Speaker 1: estimated net worth at that time was nine hundred million 498 00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:26,280 Speaker 1: dollars at various points during his life. His actions in 499 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,200 Speaker 1: the oil industry and written work by people like Ida 500 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:33,280 Speaker 1: Tarbell had made him deeply reviled, but by the time 501 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,600 Speaker 1: of his death his image had been at least partly rehabilitated, 502 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: thanks in large part to the public relations work of 503 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: Ivy lad Betterly, which may be a subject for another podcast. 504 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,240 Speaker 1: Ida's Harbell died a little less than seven years later, 505 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 1: on January six, nineteen forty four, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She 506 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,200 Speaker 1: had developed Parkinson's in the later years of her life, 507 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:58,240 Speaker 1: and her cause of death was pneumonia. Obituaries of John D. 508 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:02,160 Speaker 1: Rockefeller had frequently mentioned Ida M. Tarbell, and then he 509 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:07,240 Speaker 1: was frequently mentioned in hers. Her history of the Standard 510 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,480 Speaker 1: Oil Company continues to be held up as a foundational 511 00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:15,400 Speaker 1: work in the early years of investigative journalism. Rockefeller biographer 512 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 1: Alan Nevins called it quote the best piece of business 513 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:22,520 Speaker 1: history that America had yet produced. I just have a 514 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:29,280 Speaker 1: lot of feelings. Do you have a lot of listener mail? 515 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 1: I do have a lot of listener mail. Uh. This 516 00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,280 Speaker 1: listener mail is from Andy and Andy Rope to say Hello, 517 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:37,320 Speaker 1: Tracey and Holly, I'm a longtime listener of your show, 518 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:41,240 Speaker 1: and I'm incredibly thankful for the hours of unique insights, entertainment, 519 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,000 Speaker 1: and companionship you've given me over the years. I live 520 00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:46,640 Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. With my husband and our two dogs, 521 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:50,280 Speaker 1: and your podcast has helped me emotionally navigate the various 522 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,720 Speaker 1: ups and downs in the last few years. We even 523 00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: saw your live show about and Royal in I'm writing today, however, 524 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,640 Speaker 1: about the sunken city of thoughnest herak Leon, which you 525 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:05,400 Speaker 1: covered in the most recent episode of Unearthed. In fall, 526 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,719 Speaker 1: my family went to an exhibit about the city at 527 00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,400 Speaker 1: the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I had intended to 528 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:13,600 Speaker 1: write you both last year, but life got in the way. 529 00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:18,520 Speaker 1: The exhibition was gorgeous, informative, and almost pilgrimage like. The 530 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:23,600 Speaker 1: curators paid particular attention to ancient Egyptian religious practices, including 531 00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:27,680 Speaker 1: a candlelit shrine to Osyrus. The exhibit focused on how 532 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,520 Speaker 1: even by the fourth century BC, Greeks, Romans, and other 533 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:36,600 Speaker 1: ancient peoples were already interpreting and reinterpreting Egyptian religious beliefs 534 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:40,400 Speaker 1: to meet their spiritual, social, and political needs. That reminded 535 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:43,800 Speaker 1: me that past podcast subjects like Madam Helena Blovatsky and 536 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:47,080 Speaker 1: Alistair Crowley were part of a long tradition of people 537 00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:51,960 Speaker 1: who found spiritual solace and ancient Egyptian religion, albeit largely 538 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,960 Speaker 1: void of its original context and meaning. One October, it 539 00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: might be fun to do an episode on Egyptian religion 540 00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,959 Speaker 1: in its fornic text and then explore how other people 541 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:06,320 Speaker 1: have adapted it. Roman worship of Isis, medieval hermetics, early 542 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:12,600 Speaker 1: modern resicructionism, nineteenth century Egyptian revival, synagogue architecture, etcetera. I 543 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,840 Speaker 1: also wanted to share our favorite part of the Thoughtest 544 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:20,400 Speaker 1: heracleon exhibits. During the pandemic. My husband and I had 545 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:24,680 Speaker 1: grown pretty elaborate lockdown beards, so we were tickled when 546 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:29,360 Speaker 1: we encountered so many heavily bearded gods at the exhibit. 547 00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:32,239 Speaker 1: While it is well known that the Greeks considered the 548 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:36,279 Speaker 1: Egyptians animal headed deities to be absurd, the curators made 549 00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:40,440 Speaker 1: it clear that the Egyptians viewed the unkempt, scruffy Greek 550 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:44,440 Speaker 1: gods to be just as silly. Anyway, we decided to 551 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 1: lean into the beards for a Halloween costumes last year, 552 00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,359 Speaker 1: and I think they looked pretty fantastic. Below our our 553 00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:53,959 Speaker 1: takes on the syncretic deities Sarapist, my husband and Zeus 554 00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: am on me. Andy ends by thanking us for all 555 00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:01,279 Speaker 1: our hard work. Thank you Andy for these pictures. They 556 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:07,759 Speaker 1: are fabulous. I love it. Those are indeed some amazing 557 00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:14,879 Speaker 1: beards and some amazing interpretations of these deities. So thank 558 00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:17,080 Speaker 1: you so much for sending this email. This email in 559 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 1: these pictures, I did not know anything about that exhibit. 560 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:24,000 Speaker 1: I spent a little time poking around the website to 561 00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:26,440 Speaker 1: get a sense of what it was all about. It 562 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,640 Speaker 1: seems amazing. If you would like to write to us 563 00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:32,839 Speaker 1: about this or any other podcasts were at history Podcasts 564 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,480 Speaker 1: at i heart radio dot com, and we're also all 565 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,080 Speaker 1: over social media at miss in History, which is where 566 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:42,239 Speaker 1: you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And you 567 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:44,959 Speaker 1: can subscribe to our show on the I heart Radio 568 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:53,120 Speaker 1: app or wherever you want to get your podcasts. Stuff 569 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:55,080 Speaker 1: you missed in History Class is a production of I 570 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,640 Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit 571 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,959 Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, podcasts, or wherever you listen 572 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,960 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. H