Ida Tarbell 's Influence On American History

He talks about how the Standard Oil company offered the same quality of oil for lower prices than he could do. Other situations like this was the Credit Mobilier scandal were railroad companies got paid a lot of money but built little railways with the money keeping the rest.

John D. Rockefeller should be considered a Robber Baron. Rockefeller may be associated with a Robber baron because he used illegal tactics to create a strong oil company. The most uncertain things of all his success was how he got it. John was getting discounts from other railroad companies which made them suspicious of him. Which as you could see would be a disadvantage to other oil companies that were in competition with them. Rockefeller's competition found this practice and others he did to be funny which is why he was considered a robber baron by many people. Rockefeller owned basically the entire oil industry at the same time when he bought out the other oil businesses. Rockefeller workers barely made income, he always shortened their pay which made them stop working for him. The workers felt that if they were working hard they should get paid what they deserved. So even with him being one of the richest man alive who donated money to different business such as schools, churches and etc he used different unfair advantages to accomplish his success.

In document four it shows giant money bags as men, clearly the monopolists. These men are sitting in a room of senators. The image also shows a door that states “ Peoples’ Entrance”, which seems to be closed. This image shows the how monopolists had too much power. Instead of all people having a say, it was only the monopolists. This problem was resolved by allowing people to select their senators, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years” (Document 7). Another problem with monopolies was how they treated their workers. Document three shows a decrease in child labor from 1890 to 1920. Child labor was cheap, this was ideal to any monopolist. Many monopolists, such as Rockefeller, were ruthless and supplied no safety for their workers, and paid them very little. This problem was addressed with the work by Ida Tarbell, The History of Standard Oil. The powerful monopolists were limited in power by

During the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, the railroads themselves created a large market for the steel and iron industries.4 The steel and oil industries were booming and corruption was rampant. Andrew Carnegie had cornered the market in the steel industry and John D. Rockefeller had cornered the oil market. Rockefeller bought up his competition after essentially putting them out of business by flooding the market with refined oil bringing down prices and profits. He was determined to pay no one a profit because he wanted it all for himself. He created a plan called vertical integration which consolidated his businesses into one by creating The Standard Oil Trust.5 These two men became known as barons and got rich beyond belief. In 1890, the Government enacted the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to prevent large firms from controlling one single industry and finally put a stop to these monopolies and trusts, 6 but it was not rigorously enforced until the 1900’s. This act was designed to restore competition and

Rockefeller was an American business tycoon. His early life made an impact on him with his father’s odd habits and parenting. His father was a traveling salesman who regularly cheated on his wife; even cheating on her when he was home. His father regularly “ cheated” his children by lying to them. He made the excuse that it would make them strong. John did not let this affect him. He got a job at an early age and used this experience and knowledge to become a business partner. By the end of the year the company had made half a million dollars. He used this money to open an oil refinery. He and a few others created the Standard Oil Company, in 1870. Within two years they had owned a majority of the oil refineries in Cleveland. They, in nearly a decade, had a monopoly on the US oil refinery

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

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.)

Rockefeller was a great Captain Of Industry; he reshaped and converted the oil industry and became a philanthropist. Rockefeller grew up in an above average home with his Mother and Father. “After being graduated from High School in 1855, the family sent him to a Cleveland Business School.” (The New Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller) Rockefeller’s parent’s support as a young man was a great contribution to his success. Many people argue that Rockefeller didn’t deserve his great accomplishments, but just as many other successful people; he too worked very hard for his achievements. “Young John Rockefeller entered the workforce on the bottom rung of the ladder as a clerk in a Cleveland shipping firm” (The New Tycoons; John D. Rockefeller). Rockefeller went from being a clerk in a small firm to building up one of the greatest and largest industries in the U.S. As products such as automobiles were becoming more popular, the demand for oil grew. John D. Rockefeller was also known for being a Philanthropist, Rockefeller wrote one of his partners, “let the good work go on. We must ever remember we are refining oil for the poor man and he must have it cheap and good” (Folsom, John D. Rockefeller and the Oil Industry) Rockefeller knew that there was a need for oil, he gave the best oil he could at the lowest price, his customers were his main priority and they were in his best interest. Not only did Rockefeller support fellow Americans while he was alive, he also did after

Many saw robber barons as deceitful, but this is actually not the case. Within The Myth of Robber Barons,

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

She was born in a log cabin in Erie County, Pennsylvania on November 5th, 1857. When she was 3 years old when her family moved to Titusville where her father used his skills to build wooden oil storage tanks. She saw firsthand on what big companies did to littler companies, just like what happened to her father’s company and other small businessmen. In 1880 she graduated from Allegheny College where she studied biology. After graduation she became a teacher in Poland, Ohio, however after two short years she realized that teaching was too much and she enjoyed writing more. Ida then pursued a journalism career, which is when she met Theodore L. Flood the editor of The Chautauquan and offered a job. She quickly accepted. After four

The word “fraud” was magnified in the business world around the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002. No one had seen anything like it. Enron, one of the country’s largest energy companies, went bankrupt and took down with it Arthur Andersen, one of the five largest audit and accounting firms in the world. Enron was followed by other accounting scandals such as WorldCom, Tyco, Freddie Mac, and HealthSouth, yet Enron will always be remembered as one of the worst corporate accounting scandals of all time. Enron’s collapse was brought upon by the greed of its corporate hierarchy and how it preyed upon its faithful stockholders and employees who invested so much of their time and money into the company. Enron seemed to portray that the goal of corporate America was to drive up stock prices and get to the peak of the financial mountain by any means necessary. The “Conspiracy of Fools” is a tale of power, crony capitalism, and company greed that lead Enron down the dark road of corporate America.

For two years, Tarbell looked through public records, state and federal reports, and court cases to figure out what Rockefeller’s tactics were when building the Standard Oil Company. Tarbell used this information to write a popular 19-part series called “The History of the Standard Oil Company” that was published between November 1902 and October 1904. Even though she did not like what Rockefeller did, she still managed to mention that

I would say Taryn seemed like your typical run of the mill college sophomore, but I would be lying. From the very moment she walks into a room, Taryn has this presence about her. Even though she may not answer every question the teacher poses, her presence is felt as a quiet strength throughout the class. I hoped to (and did) interview Taryn because I wanted to know what made up this confidence, this persona that showed such a strength without even saying so much of a word. I was not surprised at the strength that I found in her, shown by her responsibility, but I was surprised to find that she still had a fun side in her love for adrenaline and that she had a good sense of humor not often found in many others. She may be many things, but, above all, Taryn Welch is one All-American girl.

"With reference to the levels and spheres of corporate power discussed in [chapter 3], how did the power of Standard Oil change society? Was this power exercised in keeping with the social contract of Rockefeller's era?"