Rockefeller & competition - ida tarbell reading
A History of The Standard Oil Company written by Ida Tarbell, was a 19 installment piece on John D. Rockefeller and his companies. While Rockefeller was best known for his Standard Oil Company, he was also known for consolidating all of the oil companies into one big trust. Written in 1890, Tarbell describes the South Improvement Company (created and run by Rockefeller) that helped consolidate the oil distributors of Cleveland into one large corporation.
For several days an uneasy rumor had been running up and down the Oil Region. Freights were going up. Now an advance in a man’s freight bill may ruin his business; more, it may mean the ruin of the region…
On the morning of February 26, 1872, the oil men read in their morning papers that the rise which had been threatening had come; moreover, that all member of the South Improvement Company were exempt from the advance. At the news all Oildom rushed into the streets. Nobody waited to find out his neighbor’s opinion. On every lip there was but one word, and that was “conspiracy.”
For weeks the whole body of oil men abandoned regular business and surged from town to town intent on destroying the “Monster,” the “Forty Thieves” and the “great Anaconda” as they called the mysterious South Improvement Company. Curiously enough, it was chiefly against the combination which had secured the discrimination of the railroads – not the railroads which had granted it — that their fury was directed. They expected nothing but the robbery from the railroads, they said. They were used to that; but they would not endure it from men in their own business.
No number of resolutions could wipe out the memory of the forty days of terrible excitement and loss which the region (Cleveland) had suffered. No triumph could stifle the suspicion and bitterness which had been sown broadcast through the region…Their sense of fair play, the saving force of the region in the days before the law and order had been established, had been violated. These were things that could not be forgotten. There henceforth could be no trust in those who had devised a scheme which, the producers believed, was intended to rob them of their business.
For several days an uneasy rumor had been running up and down the Oil Region. Freights were going up. Now an advance in a man’s freight bill may ruin his business; more, it may mean the ruin of the region…
On the morning of February 26, 1872, the oil men read in their morning papers that the rise which had been threatening had come; moreover, that all member of the South Improvement Company were exempt from the advance. At the news all Oildom rushed into the streets. Nobody waited to find out his neighbor’s opinion. On every lip there was but one word, and that was “conspiracy.”
For weeks the whole body of oil men abandoned regular business and surged from town to town intent on destroying the “Monster,” the “Forty Thieves” and the “great Anaconda” as they called the mysterious South Improvement Company. Curiously enough, it was chiefly against the combination which had secured the discrimination of the railroads – not the railroads which had granted it — that their fury was directed. They expected nothing but the robbery from the railroads, they said. They were used to that; but they would not endure it from men in their own business.
No number of resolutions could wipe out the memory of the forty days of terrible excitement and loss which the region (Cleveland) had suffered. No triumph could stifle the suspicion and bitterness which had been sown broadcast through the region…Their sense of fair play, the saving force of the region in the days before the law and order had been established, had been violated. These were things that could not be forgotten. There henceforth could be no trust in those who had devised a scheme which, the producers believed, was intended to rob them of their business.
