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Ida Tarbell was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania in 1857. Educated at the Sorbonne (1891-94) in Paris, she returned to America where she joined the staff of McClure's Magazine. Working with Lincoln Steffens, Tarbell campaigned against corruption in politics and business. This style of investigative journalism became known as muckraking.

Tarbell's articles on John D. Rockefeller and how he had achieved a monopoly in refining, transporting and marketing oil appeared in McClure's Magazine between November, 1902 and October, 1904. This material was eventually published as a book, History of the Standard Oil Company (1904). Rockefeller responded to these attacks by describing Tarbell as "Miss Tarbarrel".

In 1906 Tarbell joined with Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker to establish the radical American Magazine. She also wrote several books on the role of women including The Business of Being a Woman (1912) and The Ways of Women (1915). Tarbell's last published work was her autobiography, All in the Day's Work (1939). Ida Tarbell died in 1944.

 

 

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(1) Ida Tarbell, The Standard Oil Company, McClure's Magazine (December, 1902)

In the fall of 1871, while Mr. Rockefeller and his friends were occupied with all these questions certain Pennsylvania refiners, it is not too certain who, brought to them a remarkable scheme, the gist of which was to bring together secretly a large enough body of refiners and shippers to compel all the railroads handling oil to give to the company formed special rebates on its oil, and drawbacks on that of others. If they could get such rates, it was evident that those outside of their combination could not compete with them long, and that they would become eventually the only refiners. They could then limit their output to actual demand, and so keep up prices. This done, they could easily persuade the railroads to transport no crude for exportation, so that the foreigners would be forced to buy American refined. They believed that the price of oil thus exported could easily be advanced 50 per cent. The control of the refining interests would also enable them to fix their own price on crude. As they would be the only buyers and sellers, the speculative character of the business would be done away with. In short, the scheme they worked out put the entire oil business in their hands. It looked as simple to put into operation as it was dazzling in its results.

 

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