Sometimes a biography essay just kind of writes itself because one sees so much of who they would like to be that they just cannot stop the next word from writing itself. Ida M. Tarbell is that person for any girl who knows she is right about what she believes, and her only tool for bringing the truth before the world is a shiny little pen with black ink. And then that She-Ra Writer moment fizzles as the wannabe writer learns the chick she was about to proclaim Goddess with a ‘G’ did not support women’s rights, leaving her left only to say, “whaaat?”
The story of Ida M. Tarbell could be likened to a “Davida” facing down her own Goliath. Who was her Philistine nemesis? A little known company that by the year 1900 dominated the once fair market oil industry to such an extent Mom and Pop nearly gave up. Specifically, Ida’s Mom and Pop. Ida’s foe was Standard Oil, a company that history would remember for its shrewd business practices, but Tarbell would bring to light was really a capitalist pig before bacon was cool.
Before she was a famous journalist, Ida M. Tarbell was a little girl born in 1857 in a log cabin in Nowhere, Pennsylvania. She grew up surrounded by the struggles of the ones who were trying to compete with the too-big-to-get-any-fatter oil company, Standard Oil. John D. Rockefeller, President of Standard Oil, negotiated, inked, and implemented an underhanded deal with the railroad companies that was all but blessed in Holy Water and string cheese by the U.S. government. Betrayed, there were two choices for many oil refiners when she was a child; sell out to Standard, or hold out on producing and refining oil, and pray you get enough business to put food on the table. As a child, she was greatly affected by this, since her own father was one of these people struggling, and it would no doubt come into play when she brought down the same oil company years later.
Graduating from Allegheny College as the only woman in her class, Tarbell studied Biology. However, during her time in college, she developed a love of writing. This interest was strong enough that she would leave her job of teaching science in Ohio. Tarbell would end up pursuing her love of writing, and move back to her home state of Pennsylvania. Writing was her true calling, and she would get the chance to do just that when she met the editor of The Chautauquan, a small newspaper.
Tarbell would travel to Paris, write biographies, and create an impressive resume for herself. Hard work, dedication, and talent would see opening up new doors for the journalist. And, eventually, they did. She was contacted by the editor of a magazine while he was searching for readers for his new monthly. His name was Samuel McClure, and he would bring her journalism career to new heights. Eventually, however, Tarbell would find her calling.
And that calling was to become a very large thorn in the side of Standard Oil. Tarbell had convinced the editor of the magazine she was working for to allow her to do a three-part piece on the corruption of oil companies. He agreed, but Tarbell’s father warned about the potential repercussions of her articles. Regardless, she ignored her Dad and soldiered on.
PBS.org who hosts a website on Ida Tarbell quotes her as saying, “The rapidly changing economic landscape and the rise of monopolistic trusts was "disturbing and confusing people." Happy to take on the moniker ‘Muckraker’ coined by Theodore Roosevelt, Tarbell went on to expose what trusts were doing to the small business owner in the oil and gas industry specifically. However, her work exposed big business so badly the government acted quickly to put some clothes on it. Soon after, The Sherman Anti-trust act among other landmark pieces of legislation became law in an attempt to even the playing field for Americans in all industries, and protect a capitalist society from monopolistic greed.
Tarbell is noted as saying that “she did not condemn capitalism itself, but "the open disregard of decent ethical business practices by capitalists." About Standard Oil, she wrote: "They had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me."
Without the work of people like Tarbell, American history would likely have taken an entirely different turn. Sadly, Tarbell is also quoted as saying the women’s movement corrupted the proper place of women in the private sector. And, much as Standard Oil’s corrupt business practices ruined her perception of them, her stance on women’s rights does not cement her standing with this author. Oh well, maybe it’s too much to ask heroes to be completely perfect. Did Ms. Tarbell consider that in her assassination of Standard Oil? The world will never know.
Source:
PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
"Ida Tarbell." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
