CHAPTER ONE SEEDS OF CONFLICT Everyone told Ida Tarbell she should be scared In 1901 the 44 year old reporter began researching a series of articles about one of the nation's industrial giants Standard Oil Trust Even her father told her not to do it saying Standard Oil had the power to ruin McClure's the national magazine she worked for But Tarbell was not afraid Reflecting on that period of her life and the magazine years later she wrote in her autobiography Courage implies a suspicion of danger Nobody thought of such a thing in our office We were undertaking what we regarded as a legitimate piece of historical work What had we to be afraid of 1 Ida Tarbell followed her heart and conscience in exposing the shady business practices of Standard Oil
So Tarbell began her research by digging through thousands of pages of documents and conducting dozens of interviews Her series the History of the Standard Oil Company exposed the illegal and unethical practices Standard Oil had employed to take over the oil industry People across the United States clamored to read the articles which were so popular the original plan for a three part series was expanded to 19 articles In the end Standard Oil did not ruin McClure's In fact the magazine's circulation soared to nearly 500 000 subscribers For her part Tarbell became one of the most famous journalists in the country But for Tarbell writing the series was not about finding fame It was about exploring and exposing a company and an industry that had been part of her life almost from the time she was born The History of the Standard Oil Company remains one of the great case studies of what a single journalist armed with the facts can do against seeming invincible powers Childhood among Oil Fields Ida Tarbell was born on November 5 1857 in the small settlement of Hatch Hollow Pennsylvania Her parents Franklin and Esther Tarbell planned to move with their baby girl Ron Chernow Rockefeller biographer 1998
to lowa in search of new opportunities But before they did so opportunity arose closer to home In 1859 a well struck oil in northwestern Pennsylvania It was the first successful oil well in the nation's history and enterprising men flocked to the region to be part of the oil rush The automobile had not yet been invented but oil was still a valuable commodity It could be refined to make kerosene to fuel lamps Before this time lamps were generally fueled by whale oil or kerosene made from REFINING OIL coal tar But whale oil was With the discovery of oil in short supply and both refineries sprang up in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania it and kerosene from coal New York New York and were too expensive for Cleveland Ohio The process of refining oil began as the most people to afford The product was strained and loaded into wooden tanks discovery of large quantities Next the oil was boiled which of oil meant a new cheaper caused it to vaporize The various vapors were treated in source of lamp oil would different ways to form different be readily available And products The lightest vapors formed gasoline Other vapors those who sold it could became different chemical products In the early days become wealthy of the oil boom before the Franklin Tarbell wanted invention of automobiles kerosene was the most to cash in on the oil boom valuable by product of oil According to Ida her father because of its widespread use as a lamp fuel realized the oil business
