Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil monopoly

Ida Tarbell

It is the birthday of pioneer investigative journalist Ida Tarbell (1857), whose book The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904) led to the breakup of John D. Rockefeller's monopoly of the early oil industry. It was first published as a magazine series then as a two-volume book which became a best seller.

Tarbell started her career as a teacher but soon gave that up and began writing. She served as a writer and then managing editor of The Chautauquan, a monthly publication that supported the Chautauqua adult education movement.

She went to the Sorbonne in Paris to write a biography of Madame Roland, leader of an influential salon during the French Revolution, who was beheaded. In Paris, she also wrote articles for McClure's Magazine. That led to an editorship at the magazine, where she wrote a series on Abraham Lincoln, which revealed previously unknown details about his childhood in Kentucky and Illinois.  Later, she wrote a popular series on Napoleon Bonaparte. In the process, she became a well-known biographer.

For her work on Standard Oil, Tarbell interviewed industrialist Henry H. Rogers, one of Rockefeller's associates at the company. Apparently Rogers thought Tarbell's piece would be complimentary and he was surprisingly candid about the company's unfair business practices. Tarbell's detailed research drew on company documents from throughout the nation (an unusual practice at the time), as well as interviews with former employees and competitors. It set the standard for investigative journalism of later years.

Her 19-part series appeared in McClure's Magazine beginning in November 1902.  It revealed how the company engaged in spying and predatory pricing, struck cozy deal with railroads, and bought up competitors at bargain basement prices to create a monopoly over production, transportation, refining, and marketing of petroleum products. From Rockefeller, the series earned Tarbell the epithet Miss Tarbarrel.

In 1911, amid much public agitation about trusts, (Upton Sinclair's exposé of the meatpacking industry, The Jungle, had been published in 1906), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil's practices violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the breakup of the company.

Tarbell's autobiography, All in Day's Work (1939) recounted her muckraking days (a term she abhorred) and other details of her life. Tarbell had a personal interest in the Standard Oil story. Her father was an early oilman, at first in the oil tank business, and later an oil producer and refiner, but was forced out of business by Standard Oil's unethical practices.

Two poets who rivaled the powerful

Lucan, William Cullen Bryant

It is the birthday of two poets, one who lived in ancient Rome and the other who lived in 19th century America. Both did their best to rile the Powers That Be with their poetry.

Lucan (39 AD) was a close friend of the emperor Nero but at some point had a falling out with the tyrannical ruler. It is not clear what led to the feud but scholars think that a poem On the Burning of the City, in which Lucan wrote of "unspeakable flames of the criminal tyrant roamed the heights of Remus" might have contributed to the rift.

In any case, historians tell us that Lucan became part of a conspiracy against the emperor and when his treachery was discovered he committed suicide at the age of 25. He slit open a vein and lay bleeding to death, recalling a poem he had written about a wounded soldier who similarly lay dying. He died reciting his poem.

William Cullen Bryant (1794) was never a close friend of President Thomas Jefferson, and, at the age of 13 published a brutally critical poem, The Embargo, which satirized Jeffersonian democracy. The young Bryant was an Alexander Hamilton Federalist.

Bryant lived considerably longer than Lucan, and didn't commit suicide, politics having become a bit more civilized. Bryant served as editor of the New York Evening Post for 50 years, and remained active in politics, supported Andrew Jackson, and became an advocate of the New Soil Party, forerunner of the Republican Party.

Bryant was once known as America's leading poet. His most well known poem is Thanatopsis (1817), which is translated from the Greek as "Meditation Upon Death." He died at age 83 from complications from a fall in New York's Central Park.

Rare Book Moment: Illustrating the classics

Here's edition No. 12 of Rare Book Moment. Mike discusses the various illustration styles in classics like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Also, watch for the new segment For What It's Worth, a discussion of the values of books mentioned in the program.

Happy birthday, Grantland Rice

Grantland Rice, legendary sportswriter

It is the birthday of legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880), who contributed significantly to sports journalism and dominated it during the Roaring Twenties with elegant prose and thoughtful poetry. He was the first to call the 1924 Notre Dame backfield the Four Horsemen and the first to broadcast a World Series on the radio.

Rice interviewed all the major sports figures of the era and made heroes of many of them, including Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Bobby Jones, Knute Rockne, Babe Ruth, and Babe Zaharias. His writing raised sports events to a new mythical level, comparing the contests to ancient quests of strength and courage.

Of the 1924 Notre Dame-Army game he wrote, "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."

The 1921 World Series was the first Subway Series, with the New York Giants facing off against Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan. Grantland Rice covered the games live, broadcasting on KDKA, the legendary Pittsburgh radio station. The game was rebroadcast on Boston's WBZ. The Giants won five games to the Yankees three.

Rice often expressed his ideas in verse. One of his most often quoted lines is from a poem titled Alumnus Football. "For when the One Great Scorer comes/To mark against your name,/He writes—not that you won or lost—/But how you played the Game."

When Babe Ruth died in 1948, Rice drew on prose he had written in 1910 to compose a poem to honor the great slugger. "Game Called by darkness—let the curtain fall./No more remembered thunder sweeps  the field./No more the ancient echoes hear the call/To one who wore so well both sword and shield:/The Big Guy's left us with the night to face/And there is no one who can take his place."

Rice's biography, The Tumult and the Shouting (1945), was well received by critics and the public. It was syndicated into 15-minute radio segments in 1955 and broadcast throughout the country in 52 parts.