- Chronicles is made possible by a grant from the Erie Community Foundation, a community assets grant provided by the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority support from Springhill Senior Living, and the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

This is WQLN.

- Last week on Chronicles: It still takes a day to make one barrel, and when you've got 3,000 a day wells, you need a lot of coopers.

- At a very young age, Ida realized that she really likes science and really wanted to try things.

- She expressed her unhappiness by doing whatever she wanted and pretty much defying everybody.

- "That which moved me most deeply, gave me joy that made me weep, was that now I should have something to show my family.

I had felt a deserter.

My fathers and brothers experiences in the oil business, of which I wanna speak later, were more than discouraging.

They were alarming.

My sister was ill, and in the hospital my mother's letters were saturated with anxiety.

And here I was, the eldest child in the family, a woman of year and of some experience who had been given an education whose social philosophy demanded that she do her part in working out family problems.

Here I was across the ocean writing picayune pieces at a fourth of a cent a word.

While they struggled there, I felt guilty, and the only way I kept myself up to what I had undertaken was the hope that I could eventually make a substantial return."

- Ida began writing for McClure while still in Paris, but after spending two years in the city, she returned to the United States in the summer of 1892.

Her first stop was Titusville for a much needed visit with her family.

It also served as a last professional reprieve before her career would skyrocket.

From there, she traveled to New York City where she would begin working from McClure's Magazine full-time.

- When she went to work for McClure, he brought her back to the states.

First she went to New York briefly, and then he sent her to Washington DC to write about Napoleon Bonaparte.

The series was an enormous success, absolutely enormous.

And she had saved the magazine because the magazine was often in financial trouble because McClure had such big ideas that needed funding.

And so the next idea was Abraham Lincoln and Ida went around to the states, Illinois and Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln had lived and interviewed people who had known him.

She went to the general store with the Cracker Barrel and and talked to people who had seen him split rails, which he hated.

And she, in her work, uncovered the Abraham Lincoln we know today - The legacy of Ida Tarbell is really important in so many ways.

First of all, from my perspective, that she is female and she is branching out, stepping out into what had been and what was a man's arena, right?

So she's engaging in politics, and historically, many in society saw politics as being it's a dirty game.

Proper women shouldn't be involved in politics because they're supposed to be well-behaved, and they're not supposed to hear those backroom conversation and things like that.

That happens historically with politics.

- One of her main achievements was, and she would say it was her main achievement, in regard to Lincoln, Ida showed that they were honest, hardworking, decent people.

And she became the leading authority and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, and it made her loved.

I mean, because people loved Lincoln and they loved what she presented.

And she said, "Abraham Lincoln made me an American."

- With the popularity of her biographies on Napoleon, and more notably, Lincoln, Ida became more than a patriot - she became a voice of authority in journalism.

John D. Rockefeller came from humble beginnings.

He was born in the small town of Richford, New York in 1839 to Eliza and William Rockefeller.

William, his father, spent much of John's childhood as a traveling conman.

- William Avery went around and manipulated people.

You know, going from town to town, pretending to be a doctor and mute and deaf and getting handouts from people and then coming home to his family and being like, oh, here's some money.

And then off again in another couple months to do the same thing somewhere else - until he was found out.

And that's not who John was, and that's not who he wanted to be either.

He did not wanna be associated with his father.

- John began work as a bookkeeper for a produce merchant company named Hewitt and Tuttle.

There he learned how to build partnerships, barter was ship captains and freight agents and negotiate transportation costs, which most believed were fixed rates.

John went on to form his own produce commission firm in 1859.

As the Civil War ended, Rockefeller turned his attention from food to the oil industry.

In the wake of the boom years prior, oil industry leaders thought the only useful byproduct of crude oil was kerosene.

Much of the residual was flushed into nearby waterways.

- Because he had heard about Samuel Kerr refining it into kerosene in Pittsburgh and the oil industry with this completely new substance, using it as it luminant, and something that could take the place of whale oil, something that was in our own backyard.

I mean, why not jump on that bandwagon?

- By 1868 with the help of a new business partner, the company owned the largest oil refinery in the world in Cleveland.

Two years later, Rockefeller Andrews and Flagler formed the standard oil company.

This was the same year the Tarbell family moved from the pit hole area to Titusville.

- John D. Rockefeller was a business genius.

He insisted on efficiency.

He did not want a drop wasted.

Everything was to be used by 1880.

It was in control of 90% of oil refining.

- Almost every state that there was oil discovered had a standard oil.

California, Texas, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey.

You know, John figured it out.

He figured it out how to give birth to this industry in a way that, I mean, it's still sustaining today.

- Business trusts are unincorporated business organizations created for the benefit and profit of their shareholders, known as trustees, much like an LLC or corporation.

It has the added benefit of private ownership.

It does not require permission from the state to operate, have public disclosures, nor does it have fees or mandatory reporting to the state.

It only requires the consent of the involved parties as it's a private operating agreement.

Because of this, it can avoid many of the expenses of an LLC or corporation.

Trusts involve less government intrusion.

In the early 20th century, business trusts were very popular because they avoided government prohibitions on developing land.

Eventually, the use of business trusts lessened because the rules governing corporations diminished.

Typically, attorneys and other regulators opted for state-sanctioned entities for obvious reasons, including they are easier to locate, regulate, and easier to sue.

Trusts remain a powerful way for businesses with regard to asset management protection and wealth transfer.

- The South Improvement Railroad Company offered special rates to Rockefeller's standard oil company for the transport of his oil, a privilege not granted to smaller producers and refiners.

The Oil War of 1872 started when protests broke out and rail cars were vandalized.

Rockefeller's part in the railway scandal brought death threats from the independent oil producers in the Titusville area.

- This happened in large measure because of deals that he made with the railroads, kickbacks, and drawbacks.

He got a certain amount of money from what his competitors paid to the railroads.

Railroads were supposed to be common carriers with the same price for everyone, but he got special deals.

And so when Rockefeller was able to have control of refining, this became a problem for the producers in Titusville, including Ida's father.

- Although a lot of the things that he did were considered unethical at the time, there were no railroad regulations then.

The railroads could do as they pleased with who they wanted to give rebates to, or who they didn't wanna cut breaks to.

He did it as if he was kind of like a father trying to teach his fledgling child his knowledge of business the way that his brain worked.

This was what he was charged to do on earth.

- Ida was a young girl.

During the turmoil of that time, the struggles her family faced then would be something that would be reflected throughout her life and her work.

- "In those days, I looked with more contempt on the man who had gone over to the standard than on the one who had been in jail.

I felt pity for the latter man, but none for the deserters.

From the ranks of the fighting independents."

- Franklin, Ida's father, remains an independent oil producer.

He never sells out to a bigger company, and of course, never sells out to Standard Oil, which means the Tarbell has never become fabulously wealthy.

People who did sell out to Rockefeller, they were paid in Standard Oil stock, and that was in the long run better than cash, because that stock just became more and more valuable.

So those who did sell out to Standard Oil typically ended up pretty well off, which is why the Tarbell stayed more of a middle class family.

- In Samuel McClure's eyes, Ida's formative years in the world's first oil boom town made her the perfect journalist to investigate the expanding monopoly.

By this time, the oil company and its business tactics were like tentacles that gripped every aspect associated with producing and refining oil.

It was this metaphor that earned the Standard Oil Company, the moniker of the octopus.

In her forties, the worldly Ida saw the risk inherent in putting Standard Oil under her microscope.

She was in a word... reluctant.

- Sam McClure knows her background that she grew up in the oil region that her father has dealings in the petroleum industry.

So he asks her to write about standard oil and Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller at its helm is making a lot of money and making a lot of deals that are very questionable, and it's very typical of that time period of these pieces of journalism that turn into bigger stories exposing what's really happening.

She talks to Franklin about it, and he also doesn't think that this is a good idea.

This could be dangerous for her, for her career, for her reputation.

Standard Oil, and of course, John D. Rockefeller have so many resources and so much money.

- What's the phrase?

"The only thing that needs to happen for evil to flourish is for good [people] to do nothing."

Now, the quote really says "good men", but I said "people".

It's interesting that, that she's from Northwestern Pennsylvania, really not New York City, not Philly, not Washington DC, but she's from a small community in in Northwestern Pennsylvania.

Yet she is able, because she is persistent, she refuses to give up on this call on her life.

I'll put it in religious terms, on the call on her life to to do something about Standard Oil Company and its practices.

- When she started writing about the Standard Oil Company, she expected to find that the men she knew in Titusville wrong.

But as she got more into the story and learned more about his business practices, she certainly changed her opinion.

She felt that if he'd followed the law, he would've been almost as successful and he would've been a hero.

- The one thing that makes her history of Standard Oil successful is her relationship with HH Rogers, who was an executive at Standard Oil, but Rogers was in the oil region, and they have a shared history and memories of Rouseville in the early days.

They have some of the similar experiences.

Of course, there's an age difference, but they are able to have those conversations and reminisce and all that comes with nostalgia.

And Rogers tells her things that he probably wouldn't have told anybody else.

Coupled with the fact that she was also a woman, that maybe he didn't take her as seriously.

- The Standard Oil Company operated in various states, and so it was very difficult to understand the full dimensions of the thing nationally.

And so her series of articles provided lawyers and people who were determined to do something about the situation.

- Between 1902 and 1904, McClure's magazine published Ida's 19-part series on the history of Standard Oil.

In those pieces, she systematically makes the case about how monopolies and trusts are harmful to the economy and against our best interest as a country.

The series is later compiled into a book simply titled, "The History of the Standard Oil Company."

The case she makes is so thorough against the company, it even catches the attention of then president, Theodore Roosevelt.

- It was decided that the situation should be investigated by the Bureau of Corporations that Teddy Roosevelt had set up.

Today we call it the Federal Trade Commission.

- You have a president who does care about her publication on standard of oil company.

So the fact that he reads her report and doesn't just cast it aside, he is certainly moved by what she is writing, and the evidence that she provides makes it simply impossible to challenge what she has written.

So I think the fact that if, if Roosevelt had not accepted the report, we, I don't even know that we'd be studying about her, would we?

- The situation in Kansas was pretty much like Pithole.

The problem was, however, that Standard Oil would not cooperate, and Teddy Roosevelt invited some of the executives of Standard Oil to come and talk to him, and they had a pleasant tea and felt that the executives left feeling everything was gonna be okay.

But it wasn't because Teddy Roosevelt couldn't tell him to their face, but he was really furious.

So in 1905, the House of Representatives decided there needed to be an investigation, and from this, they developed a court case, and Kansas just led the way in going after Rockefeller and the case, the cases move their way up to the Supreme Court.

- Despite John's best efforts, the government finally catches up with him to serve him a subpoena, to testify in court on the company's violation of the Sherman Antitrust Law.

He takes the stand in Illinois.

- At first, he wasn't going to, but he decided to because if he testified there, he wouldn't have to testify anywhere else.

He wouldn't have to testify in Ohio.

He wouldn't have to testify in any of the other court cases for Standard Oil.

They would ask him a question, he would sit and ponder, and then he would answer even slower to the point where some people saw him as a feeble man, and why are they making this sweet old man testify in court?

- "The Standard was found guilty and a punishment long known as the big fine.

$29 million inflicted.

The country gasped at the size of the fine, but not so.

The Bureau of Corporations, my correspondent there contended that over 8,000 true indictments had been found and that the maximum penalty would've amounted to over $160 million."

- But ultimately, following the ruling, this fine was never collected.

- It ended up that he did not have to serve any jail time.

He wasn't concerned with any kind of fines that they could give him because they wouldn't be paid out for years and years because of all the other court cases that would have to be taken care of throughout Standard Oil.

- "The Judge's decision aroused, general exaltation in the oil regions as any failure of the Standard to get what it wanted was bound to do, and with good reason.

What one set of men had done another could do.

The future of competition in oil seemed to be upped to the oil men themselves."

- There's some political cartoons of the day that show Rockefeller kind of being annoyed with Ida, or Ida being frustrated by Rockefeller.

But really it doesn't damage her reputation.

He doesn't personally attack her in any way.

And really at the end of the day, Standard Oil is broken up because it's deemed to be a monopoly, and it must be divided into 30 some companies.

But really all that does is make Rockefeller richer.

- Well, what was also happening was the automobile was becoming a dominant force in American life, and so Rockefeller had a new way to make money.

It wasn't lamp oil anymore, now it was petroleum.

- By 1906 at age 49, having laid her father's rest the previous year, Ida was ready to move on from McClure's and spearhead a publication of her own with a handful of coworkers who were fed up with Samuel McClure's continued an exhausting antics.

They did just that.

Buying the American Magazine.

That same year, Ida moved the remaining Tarbell family, including her aging mother, Esther, her brother William, and her sister Sarah, to Easton, Connecticut.

Tarbell would continue to write investigative pieces through 1915, while also touring, lecturing, and sharing stories of her adventures as she continued to travel the world.

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. His son, John D. Jr, and their business associates went on to form the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913.

This organization leads philanthropic missions to better living conditions around the globe.

One of the foundation's early humanitarian efforts involved medical research, which led to solving thousands of cases of hookworm in the Southern us, which was still recovering from the Civil War.

After touring, giving lectures about her works, Tarbell served on President Wilson's Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense during World War I - Was Ida Tarbell, a feminist?

Well, some people would say she was.

She probably would say she was not.

But here she is doing things that the feminist movement of the 20th century said women should be doing; having their voices heard.

You know, she was a muckraker, so she was causing trouble for men in society, powerful men, you know, and she got away with it.

- Although she was known for standing up for the voiceless, she shocked many of her peers when she denounced the idea of women gaining the right to vote.

- Why wouldn't someone like that support the right to vote for women?

It, it really is a mystery in some ways why I, I am honestly, I've studied women's history for all of my professional life and it it boggles the mind why women would be opposed to women's right to vote or to women's rights in general.

But there are some women who, who do hold to traditional views and believe that, shall we say, a woman's place is in the home.

Well, obviously, Tarbell didn't really believe that because she was engaging and she was stepping out, she was breaking the mold that society had prescribed for her.

- Despite criticism over her disagreements with the suffragette movement, Tarbell continues to be a model for informed and respected journalism in present times.

As many of the issues she brought to light seemed to be reaching a boiling point.

Today, there is a continued effort to keep the legacy of the Tarbell family alive.

One group, the Oil Region Alliance even bought the old Tarbell home.

Though it looked much different then in recent years, they've restored the cupula, which was the defining feature of the structure, and also where Ida spent countless hours as a teenager examining things through her microscope.

- Coming from a history and historic preservation background and actually get to work with history in historic buildings is amazing.

- Today, guests can attend an event called Tarbell Tea, which features a student of the local high school portraying Ida... - "We underestimated how much money we would need, so we got there and we were poor."

- while fellow classmates also share stories of other local figures who have impacted local history.

This event offers a fun and educational experience that funds upkeep of the more than 150-year-old home.

- It's part of their heritage, whether their family was in the oil industry or something like that.

It's something that they should have the opportunity feeling pride for.

- Ida died in Connecticut in 1944.

She was 86 years old.

She's buried in Titusville alongside her family.

While her work helped lawmakers gain control over monopolies of the era, we seem to have lost sight of what a healthy business ecosystem is.

Once again, with many industries, seeing large corporations consolidating power.

- Yeah, Senator, we, we have volume discounts that we offer to some merchants.

I suspect Walmart is one of - Them.

Why is it that small businesses continue to use Visa and MasterCard when they're getting, you're getting charged so much more.

In my opinion, it's a matter of convenience for the customer.

Maybe.

Is it because that Visa and MasterCard are effectively monopolies?

They control 80% of the market, certainly part of the 80% of the market - Today, an oligarch is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.

We've seen the consequences all across America, and we've seen it before more than a century ago.

But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts.

They didn't punish the wealthy, just made the wealthy play by the rules everybody else had to.

And we've gotta do it again.

- The question now is, who will be our generation's Ida Tarbell?

- Chronicles is made possible by a grant from the Erie Community Foundation, a community assets grant provided by the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority support from Springhill Senior Living, and the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

This is WQLN.