Influence Of The Standard Oil Company On Rockefeller's Oil Industry
The Influence of The History of the Standard Oil Company on Rockefeller's Oil industry
In 1859, Edwin Drake drilled the first U.S. oil well in Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. After five months of drilling and obtaining the nickname“crazy Drake'', Edwin discovered an oil well 65 feet deep. Oil refining was necessary to use the oil (King). At first, refiners boiled the oil, however, this process was extremely dangerous (King). Oil refineries were mostly located in Cleveland and Pittsburgh due to easy railroad access (King). The oil industry was very unstable at this time, there were lots of booms and busts due to the disorderly running of the oil refineries (King). Four years after the first oil well was drilled, in 1863, John D. Rockefeller founded
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Ida Tarbell’s 1904 exposé, The History of the Standard Oil Company, led to outrage from the public and thus prompted Standard Oil to respond to the controversies. Charles Morris, a foremost practitioner of antitrust law and a Harvard graduate, critiques Tarbell’s book, stating that the locational advantage comes with disadvantages like high land prices and unreliable access to supplies. Morris also implies that Tarbell’s argument regarding rebate legality was incorrect since contracts in restraint of trade were not illegal. He also states that Tarbell’s claims that Standard Oil’s rebates were “unethical” is meaningless. 2006 (Morris). While the ethical scaling of Standard Oil’s business practices is hard to determine, other factors of Morris’ arguments are inaccurate. For example, in the Supreme Court case, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the rebates were pronounced illegal. The Supreme Court document declared that “rebates, preferences, and other discriminatory practices in favor of the combination by railroad companies; restraint and monopolization by control of pipelines, and unfair practices against competing pipelines”221(Supreme Court 1911). Stephen Leccees, a historian with a Ph.D. in history from Fordham University, argues that due to the public already being wary of big business and after The History of the Standard Oil Company was published, the public viewed Standard Oil as unethical and detached. “The History of the Standard Oil Company in McClure's Magazine from 1902 to 1903 created a public firestorm, prompting John D. Rockefeller and his associates to turn to the infant field of public relations. Despite their efforts, historians largely ignore, marginalize, or criticize Standard Oil and Rockefeller's response” 2017 (Leccese 245). The criticism of the public led Standard Oil to change its public relations to begin a proactive PR campaign compared
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1065 Words | 5 PagesDuring the times, Ida Tarbell, muckraker and advocate, dedicated her entire life to exposing these methods in the case of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. What she concluded was that “John D. Rockefeller and his associates … fought their way to control by rebate and drawback, bribe and blackmail, espionage and price cutting” (Tarbell). Some of these may seem beneficial, such as rebates and price cutting, but their reality is much worse. Rebates were only available to Standard Oil, not to any smaller businesses, discouraging entrepreneurship, innovation, and overall advancement in the oil industry. In addition, the use of this saved money to cut prices only increased Standard Oil’s profits and reach, making them exponentially more powerful, and making the market that much less competitive.
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471 Words | 2 PagesThe Standard Oil Company caused this by not being honest with their trustees and made them accept unfair offers. John D. Rockefeller stated to them, that anyone who refused his offer would be run into bankruptcy. He also stated that after running them into bankruptcy he would make sure to cheaply buy their estates at any auction held. We notice this when a competitor complains to the government by saying, “My refinery has been shut down during the past three years, owing up to the powerful and all-prevailing machinations of the Standard Oil Trust... I have had to consequently shut down, with my business absolutely ruined and my refinery idle."
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John D Rockefeller Captain Of Industry Essay
1415 Words | 6 PagesThose who knew him personally described him as an "exact and honest" man. In 1864, Rockefeller had gotten married and dove into the oil refinery business one year later. It wasn't until the year 1870, however, that he and five other men founded the Standard Oil Company. Said company was able to make the price of oil drop a whopping 85%! In its first year, the company only controlled 2-3% of the nation's crude oil, but that drastically changed in a decade.
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1950 Words | 8 PagesThis fact, exposed by trustbusters and muckrakers such as Ida Tarbell, led to a monumental shift in public sentiment towards large trusts and ultimately led to the revolutionary Supreme Court case Standard Oil Company of New Jersey vs. United States, which created a new standard for big
How Did Ida Tarbell Changed American History?
1009 Words | 5 PagesIn this book she writes “So long as the Standard Oil Company can control transportation as it does to-day, it will remain master of the oil industry, and the people of the United States will pay for their indifference and folly. . . .”(Tarbell). After years of battling the Standard Oil Company they were brought to the supreme court and in 1911 The Standard Oil Company was shut down because it was under violation of the Sherman Antitrust
How Did Rockefeller Build The Economy During The Gilded Age
1490 Words | 6 PagesRockefeller established an oil refinery near Cleveland. Within the first two years it was the largest in the area. Eventually, after many successes in the industry, Rockefeller turned his full attention to the oil business. In 1870, Rockefeller and his partners started the Standard Oil company. This business immediately began making money, partly because of the favorable economic conditions and partly because of Rockefeller’s drive to streamline the company’s operations and keep margins high.
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Ida M. Tarbell
742 Words | 3 PagesMs. Tarbell series on Standard Oil published in, “1904” would cause the government to act. “Tarbell meticulously documented the aggressive techniques Standard Oil employed to outmaneuver and, where necessary, roll over whoever got in its way. A short while later, President Theodore Roosevelt used the phrase “muckraker” (from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress) in a speech in reference to Tarbell….” (Connecticut History.org). Ms. Tarbell earned praise of President Theodore Roosevelt for exposing Standard Oil’s corrupt practices.
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