Ida Tarbell Biography

During the Gilded Age, the United States saw an increase in the power of big businesses, many of which monopolized their industries. This time period, although it appeared successful from the outside, was filled with governmental corruption. Manipulated by the robber barons of the Gilded Age, the United States government fell victim to their control. Contrary to this downfall, the nation celebrated much success in the numerous life-changing inventions attributed to this era. With the invention of the internal combustion engine, among others, there also came a major increase in the demand for oil. Entering the flourishing oil business in 1870, John D. Rockefeller created the Standard Oil Company, which later dominated the entire oil industry. Although he had years filled with success in the business, Rockefeller faced a disastrous court case that dissolved his company and years of his hard work. Despite this catastrophic event, Rockefeller found other ways to contribute his knowledge and hard-work by making innumerable philanthropic donations. After many years and countless efforts, John D. Rockefeller had one of the most outstanding and positive influences on the United States through his work in the oil industry and his philanthropic actions.

Harriet Tubman was born to a parents who were salves in Dorchester County, Mary Land. While her exact date of

Two of the most well-known and successful companies of the Industrial Revolution were the Standard Oil Company, and the Carnegie Steel Company. Both were exceedingly successful in virtually removing all competition in their respective fields of business and controlling almost all of the production capacity of their respective products in the United States. Their founders, John D. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Co., and Andrew Carnegie of the Carnegie Steel Co. conducted business practices that were different from one another in how they dealt with competition as seen in the undercutting or cheap type

As a result, his motivation was his desire to win the power to investigate the activities of corporations and publicize the results. To do this, Roosevelt the new Department of Commerce and Labor was established to assist this task through its investigatory arm. As a result of this vision that Roosevelt had, he ordered the Justice Department to invoke the Sherman Anti-Trust Act against a railroad monopoly called Northern Securities Company. This was one of the things that the Muckrakers discussed in its awareness of social issues. An investigation was done, and thanks to Roosevelt, the Supreme Court ruled that the Northern Securities Company be dissolved in 1904. Following the court decision, Roosevelt made it a point to bring about justice to all of the corruption and injustice that different industries had. The establishment of the Hepburn Act was yet another way in which Roosevelt sought to bring justice. This act gave the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to restore some regulatory authority to the government. Roosevelt also pressured Congress to enact the Pure Food and Drug Act, which "restricted the sale of dangerous or ineffective medicines." This had also become a major issue as the Muckrakers publicized this problem and it was brought to light. In 1906, Roosevelt pushed for passage of the Meat Inspection Act which helped eliminate many diseases once transmitted in impure

Ida Gray Nelson Rollins was born on March 4, 1867, in Clarksville, Tennessee. Ida was the daughter of Jennie Gray and a white male whose name is unknown. Ida became an orphan at an early age when her mother died. After the death of her mother, she was raised by her aunt Caroline Gray in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ida helped support her aunt by working as a seamstress and dressmaker, all while in high school. She also worked in the dental office of Jonathan and William Taft.

The Rockefellers feared the temptations of wealth, yet a visitor once described their estate as the kind of place God would have built if only he'd had the money. They amassed a fortune that outraged a Democratic nation, then gave it all away reshaping America. They were the closest thing the country had to a royal family, but the Rockefellers shunned the public eye. For decades, the Rockefeller name was despised in America, associated with John D. Rockefeller Sr.'s feared monopoly, Standard Oil. By the end of his life, Rockefeller had given away half of his fortune. But even his vast philanthropy could not erase the memory of his predatory

A "robber baron" was someone who employed any means necessary to enrich themselves at the expense of their competitors. Did John D. Rockefeller fall into that category or was he one of the "captains of industry", whose shrewd and innovative leadership brought order out of industrial chaos and generated great fortunes that enriched the public welfare through the workings of various philanthropic agencies that these leaders established? In the early 1860s Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, who came to epitomize both the success and excess of corporate capitalism. His company was based in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Cochran, a.k.a. Nellie Bly was the first known female reporter. Bly's life spanned Reconstruction, the Victorian and Progressive Eras, the Great War, and its aftermath (Kroeger, 1996). And, even though there remains no fully organized collection of her life's personal or

No wonder that only a handful of people can’t distinguish that this old man was a crock and deserves to rot in hell! With all this positive media attention, the public had been fed lies! In real life, this money hungry, greedy villain is the prime reason why the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed. Rockefeller’s dream was to monopolize the oiling industry, and he so successfully did. Because of his great empire (the Standard Oil Co.)

Reformer Ida B. Tarbell was a muckracker who wrote for McClure’s Magazine in the 1920s. As a muckracker, Tarbell would bring to light issues affected the American people. More specifically, in her “History of the Standard Oil Company”, Tarbell documented how Rockefeller ruthlessly squeezed out competitors with unfair business practices. With Tarbell’s writings, the middle class was able to respond with great moral exhortation. In addition Tarbell exposed the corruption of these companies such as Rockefeller’s oil company to a large audience of citizens and placed politicians under great duress to serve the interests of the people. For example, President Theodore Roosevelt fought to end the trusts and was known as a “trust buster” (Doc. A). Roosevelt was adamant about getting rid of the bad trusts and keeping the “good trusts”. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in an attempt to break up massive monopolies dominating the American economy. The Sherman Antitrust Act was unsuccessful because it did not include a method of enforcement; however that was not the last attempt to bring about an end to bad trusts. In 1914, President Wilson gained passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act. This act was more strict than that of the Sherman Antitrust Act barring companies from creating a monopoly on products (Doc. E). President Wilson was ultimately successful in the passage of

She became a leading community activist through a sequence of events. In 1884 Ida was riding a train in a first class car, when she was asked to move to the smoking car. When she refused, two conductors tried to physically move her. She instead got off the train and filed a discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit was initially won, but the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict. After the train incident, in 1889, Ida went to The Free Speech paper; this is where her most promising worked developed. In 1892, three of her friends were brutally killed during a lynching. This one particular event opened the eyes of Wells and prompted her to write some of her most controversial works yet. However this type of writing got the Free Speech office ransacked and destroyed. The other owner of the Free Speech barely escaped with his life, but he carried the message that if Ida were to show her face ever again in Tennessee she would be killed. Now with all this ammunition based on personal experience, even as an African American woman, she had gained credibility to be able to speak with

The Rockefellers feared the temptations of wealth, yet a visitor once described their estate as the kind of place God would have built if only he’d had the money. They amassed a fortune that outraged a Democratic nation, then gave it all away reshaping America. They were the closest thing the country had to a royal family, but the Rockefellers shunned the public eye. For decades, the Rockefeller name was despised in America, associated with John D. Rockefeller Sr.’s feared monopoly, Standard Oil. By the end of his life, Rockefeller had given away half of his fortune. But even his vast philanthropy could not erase the memory of his predatory business practices. Who was Rockefeller? Was he a ruthless businessman who only wanted to

Her work for this magazine caught the attention of Samuel Sidney McClure, the founder of McClure’s Magazine, who was looking for writers for his new monthly publication. Tarbell was hired as an editor in 1894 and quickly became McClure’s Magazine‘s most successful writer. She became very successful due to her series on Abraham Lincoln which nearly doubled the number of magazines sold. Later on, a whole new generation of investigative journalists called “muckrakers”, given the name by President Theodore Roosevelt, began a campaign to expose corruption in businesses. Theodore Roosevelt gave these opinionated journalists the pessimistic label ‘muckrakers’ in a speech in 1906. Despite this negative label, Tarbell campaigned with the other journalists.

Ida Tarbell was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania on November fifth, eighteen fifty seven. When Ida was three years old, oil was found in Titusville, a town nearby. Tarbell’s father, Frank Tarbell, then joined the oil business. He struggled with the choice of either put his oil business for sale to John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and his newly incorporated Standard Oil Company, or attempt to compete and face destruction.

Ida B. Wells is well known for her influence during the civil rights and women’s rights movements. She was born in 1862 in Holly Springs Mississippi. Her parents died of yellow fever when she was only sixteen years old. She was to be split up from her other six siblings, but she dropped out of school and managed to get a job as a teacher and was able to keep her family together. She soon realized the discrimination in pay that there was as she was taking home thirty dollars compared to someone else’s eighty dollars a month. Then in 1884, she was confronted by a railroad conductor, asking her to move to the overly crowded smoking car. She refused and was drug off the train. She hired an attorney and tried to sue the railroad. Her