Bringing down America's House of Oil

A new look at the investigative reporting that lead to the breakup of John D. Rockefeller's monopoly,

from the April 22, 2008 edition

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Taking on monopolies

Her "History of the Standard Oil Company," when published in 1904, came right after a wave of mergers – U.S. Steel, for example, was a billion-dollar company that controlled about 60 percent of the steel market. Were monopolies – with higher prices that would come later – the future for American industry? Competitors of Rockefeller and U.S. Steel were quick to say yes and to ask for a strict interpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Presidents Roosevelt and Taft agreed, and they helped set the precedent that allowed the government to break large companies into smaller pieces.

As for Rockefeller, Weinberg observes that he chose to ignore Tarbell's attacks. A high-quality product and millions of customers, Rockefeller argued, were the proper antidote to Tarbell's charges. However, that passive strategy failed, and Standard Oil was broken up into more than 30 separate companies by the Justice Department in 1911. Weinberg wryly notes that these companies often went on to even greater prosperity, but, nonetheless, the idea prevailed that "restraint of trade" needed to be interpreted narrowly in order to break up behemoth corporations such as Standard Oil.

Weinberg seems pleased with that result, and the Wal-Marts of today should take note: Political agitation plus muckraking can defeat a competitive product.

The depth of research on display in "Taking On the Trust" is impressive, but Weinberg is too quick to take Tarbell's allegations as facts. She exaggerated the dangers of Standard Oil, which saved both whales and rivers by finding uses for Pennsylvania's black gold.

Today, as we pay hostile Middle Easterners for more than half of our oil supply, we should perhaps look longingly, not antagonistically, toward John D. Rockefeller, the man whose US company in its prime sold more than half of the oil used in the world.

• Burton W. Folsom, Jr. is professor of history at Hillsdale College and author of forthcoming "New Deal or Raw Deal."

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