Muckraking: Investigative Journalism of the Early 20th Century

The exposing of Standard Oil's Corruption

By the year 1904, Standard Oil had monopolized the entire oil production and distribution industry in the United States. This monopolization was the direct cause of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the company, becoming the richest man in modern history and the richest American of all time. The horizontal integration that engulfed the industry angered many American's, yet not much could be done about it due to the amount of money that Standard Oil had accumulated. One of those American's was Franklin Tarbell, a Standard Oil employee and the father of famous author and muckraker Ida. M. Tarbell. Franklin planted a sense of suspicion and resentment towards the company in his daughter from a young age. After years of training and experience as a writer, Ida Tarbell translated these hereditary resentments into a nineteen piece article in McClure's magazine. The serialized work known as, "The History of the Standard Oil Company," first published in 1904 was one of the leading factors in the busting of the oil monopoly when it was finally found to be violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1911. 



Tarbell used familiar muckraking tactics such as gaining the trust of several of Rockefeller's close associates and interviewing one of the companies founders, Frank Barstow. After months of research, she finally uncovered the crucial piece of evidence she needed. She discovered that Standard Oil had been rigging the railroad prices to decrease the value of it's competition until they were cheap enough to buy out. 

Tarbell's exposé gave the thousands of American's who were upset with Standard Oil's business practices some validity. It also converted many of the public readers from McClure's magazine to a stance against Standard Oil and the idea of monopolization in any sector of business. 

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