Standard Oil Myser In Spindletop

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.

1. What did John D. Rockefeller believe was the key to stabilizing the oil industry? He believed that centralizing the administration, hard-working people that applied themselves and work together, and a monopoly – owning as much as they can – would stabilize the oil industry.

The company thrived immediately from the beginning so they started buying out their competitors. The company made very quick moves, so they eventually controlled most of the refineries in Cleveland. Then, they started to make deals with railroads to ship their oil and they started purchasing terminals and pipelines to handle the transportation of their oil. The Standard Oil Company started to buy their own plots of land for drilling and for lumber. By doing this, they started owning every part of the oil business. Standard then started buying out other competitors on the east and west coast. Through this, they established a monopoly, and controlled around 90% of the United States’ oil

The 1800s is characterized with the rise of industrial America. As technological advances were introduced to industry, unskilled labor also rose in accordance to the rise in factories. However, this rise also introduced several labor unions such as the Knights of Labor, which organized a series of protests and riots. The labor unions had good intentions, aiming to lower the average work hours for workers, as well as increase their wages. However, their methods which involved riots and protests, were altogether not effective, and ended up being detrimental to their cause. Between 1875 and 1900, labor unions surged and were temporarily successful; however, their methods would prove detrimental to their cause overtime, leading to their

Oil policies went deep into the personalities and early experiences of Rockefeller and his colleagues. They had heightened uncertainty and speculation about their activities by their secrecy in building the alliance and by their evasive and legal testimony on the witness stand. There tended to be aroused antagonism because the very

Rockefeller was obsessed with controlling the oil market and used many of undesirable tactics to flush his competitors out of the market. Rockefeller was also a master of the rebate game. He was one of the most dominant controllers of the railroads. He was so good at the rebate that at some times he skillfully commanded the railroad to pay rebates to his standard oil company on the traffic of other competitors. He was able to do this because his oil traffic was so high that he could make or break a section of a railroad a railroad company by simply not running his oil on their lines. Another one of Rockefellers earlier mentioned but not explained tactics was his horizontally integrated monopoly. Rockefeller used this horizontal monopoly to set prices and force his competitors to merge with him. (All with Doc. J) Document J shows that Rockefeller had his tentacles, or his influence and power around every piece of the oil industry. That, also, includes the politicians and their support.

During the time period 1875 to 1900, the labor unions failed miserably in their efforts to amend the working conditions their workers were under. During the 19th century, the Second Industrial Revolution and The Gilded Age were taking place. These were transmuting the way society was viewed and how people lived their everyday lives. During the labor movement, there were many different organizations and groups that advocated change. Two of those specific groups were the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor. The failure of those labor unions between 1875 and 1900 in the U.S. was mostly due to the union's actions, followed by problems within the unions, and people's response to the union.

In 1870 him and others began the Standard Oil Company, which swiftly took out others and became the biggest corporation in America. Rockefeller did everything to keep his business on top: running pipelines, buying transportation to control the whole cycle, and even buying land to stop others from piping, nothing was going to stop him from international takeover. (Bio 2014) In merely a decade, John Rockefeller had managed to create a near monopoly of the oil industry from coast to coast. This is when the government stepped in, and in 1890 created the Sherman

John D. Rockefeller was a man who worked his way to the top almost all on his own and eventually began giving away around half of his company once he became so wealthy. He once was a young man determined to become one of the wealthiest. Started out from the bottom of a company and worked so passionately at what he does to get to where he became rich. He wasn’t interested in oil right away, he sold products during the Civil War to make some cash at first but when he saw a man named Edwin Drake discover oil Rockefeller saw the future all right in front of him. Rockefeller reshaped the oil business with new techniques and ideas and made billions, taking over much smaller companies and adding them to his large empire that he has created for himself.

Standard Oil was the United States’ first monopoly, and it was a rollercoaster of a ride for the company. Standard Oil started from the ground up and grew into a massive enterprise, that would eventually make John D. Rockefeller the richest man in the world. This would come at a price, the demise of Standard Oil, but multiple companies are born out of the demise of Standard Oil that become some of the largest oil companies today. Standard Oil even caused the United States of America to create a federal act to try and control monopolies from eliminating competition in unethical ways, and from becoming so powerful that they can control not just their markets, but other markets too, and from having the ability to change the price on consumers

In a move that would transform the American economy, Rockefeller set out to replace a world of independent oilmen with a giant company controlled by him. In l870, begging bankers for more loans, he formed Standard Oil of Ohio. The next year, he quietly put what he called "our plan" -- his campaign to dominate the volatile oil industry - into devastating effect. Rockefeller knew that the refiner with the lowest transportation cost could bring rivals to their knees. He entered into a secret alliance with the railroads called the South Improvement Company. In exchange for large, regular shipments, Rockefeller and his allies secured transport rates far lower than those of their bewildered competitors. John D. Rockefeller said, "The day of combination is here to stay. Individualism is gone forever, never to return" (Hawke 128).

John Davison Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil Company in 1870 and ran it until he retired in 1897. Standard Oil gained almost complete control over the oil refining market in the United States by underselling its competitors. Rockefeller and his associates owned dozens of corporations operating in just one state.

The Standard Oil Trust of Ohio was and American oil producing, refining, and transporting company. It was founded in 1863 by John D. Rockefeller and lasted until 1911. During 1868, Rockefeller expanded the oil company to become the largest oil refining company in the world. In 1870, the company was renamed Standard Oil Company. After it was renamed, Rockefeller purchased most of the oil companies that were currently in business to make one large company.

It had become the biggest, richest, most feared business in the world, seemingly immune to the boom and bust of the business cycle that tortured every other business. In spite of the trust and its perceived immunity from all competition, by the 1880s Standard Oil had passed its peak of power over the oil market (McGuire and Wheeler). Rockefeller finally dcided to give up his dream of controlling all the world’s oil refining after his business very slowly started declining. Eventually, foreign competitors and new finds abroad took over his

ExxonMobil has evolved from a kerosene regional marketer to the largest player in publicly traded energy over the previous 125 years (“Our history,” 2014). In 1870, J. D. Rockefeller and his associates formed the Standard Oil Company and immediately became the largest refining company in the world with the chosen name relaying its standard of high, uniform quality (“Our history,” 2014). The U.S. Supreme Court broke up the Standard Oil Company into 34 unrelated companies in 1911 (“Our history,” 2014). A few of the companies that were established in the breakup by the court decision were the Jersey Standard, Vacuum Oil, and Socony Companies.