For weeks the press facing its reactions

She wanted to tell the truth. Show how Standard Oil, this gigantic trust which prevailed on the U.S. oil and dictated his act in the world, be it was attended to assert its dominance on the market of black gold. As John d. Rockefeller, his creator, the man continued, despite his apparent withdrawal, to pull the strings, she had for him or hatred or contempt. No doubt it was the character horror. Despite his sixty-three years, it was for her as a hideous old man, a "Mummy" as it was called. But she didn't shoot him. She wanted only that everyone knows what he was capable. Ida Minerva Tarbell, this series on the history of Standard Oil, which the first article was released in November, 1902 in "McClure's names", was much more than a simple journalistic investigation: a genuine priesthood which the referred to his own past. IDA Minerva Tarbell had known from the beginning: working on the Rockefeller trust, it could never be completely objective.

His past... whatever it was to forget, it was inevitably linked to black gold. Born in 1857, Ida Minerva Tarbell had indeed grown derricks and oil tanks. His father, Franklin, had long exercised the profession of teacher in Pennsylvania before settling as a farmer in Iowa, rounding its purposes of months by carpentry work. This is also, in Iowa, that was born Ida Minerva. Then came the crisis of 1857. His savings gone, Franklin was in was returned to Pennsylvania, leaving his family behind him, the time to find a job. It was in 1859, the year of the discovery of "colonel" Drake. As of thousands of Americans, Franklin Tarbell had heard about this great event, the geysers of oil gushing from the depths of the Earth and inundating the soil in continuous flow. Like them, is released to dream of tomorrow singing. Remembering that it was Carpenter, he was rushed to Titusville and there opened a wooden tank factory. In 1860, his family had joined him. IDA Minerva was then three years old.

Prosperity came very quickly. In 1865, following the discovery of a huge deposit at Pithole, near Titusville, Franklin had moved its activity in this city created by oil prospectors. When, two years later, the flow of black gold was stopped as suddenly as it had started, he was not discouraged: for a few dollars buying the best hotel of Pithole, now abandoned, it it had dismantled piece by piece, recovering doors, Windows, pipes and woodwork, convoyant all to Titusville and is used to build a new House. With the money that was left, he was associated with some independent producers and began a new career in the oil...

An unequal combat

Ida Minerva Tarbell, this had been one of the most beautiful periods of his life. Happy father family from need and especially this small hitch which Franklin had made acquisition and with which he went proudly to the mass on Sunday: the difficulties of the past seemed far away. And then, suddenly, all was tilted. A day of 1872, the rumor had run in Titusville: a company created two years earlier, Standard Oil, headed by John d. Rockefeller, had negotiated a secret agreement with railway granting significant discount in exchange for guaranteed quantities to carry. A lethal threat to the independent. For months, that Titusville had producers attempted to resist, multiplying the actions against the "Monster" and "hydra-headed". But the combat was too unequal. The "oil war", as it was called, was Rockefeller who had finally won it, affirming his power over dust from independent producers. This gigantic battle, Franklin Tarbell was left ruined. The power of Standard Oil terrifierait forever: "do not, especially do not. "They will destroy your journal", should he tell her daughter many years later by learning the subject of his investigation. IDA Minerva Tarbell, she, should never forget...

Is - for this that she sought early to take offshore It that, since his adolescence, devoured books, she who had no hesitation, at the age of fifteen to oppose front to the fundamentalism of his father and his creationist beliefs, she still that fascinated the science was the first woman to register, in 1876, at the College of Meadville. It was released four years later, immediately accepting the position of Preceptor to the Union Seminary in Poland, Ohio. It was at this time that this elegant girl of twenty-three years at the beautiful black hair was a promise that it would remain faithful: never to marry and to meet its needs itself. To the end, it would remain a staunch supportrice of the movement for women's rights while stigmatizing the taste of the weaker sex "frivolous activities" such as the dancing and "hunting for boys". A rest of his Puritan upbringing...

In the 1880s, it has had returned to Meadville and began his career as journalist, giving a local magazine several articles on the large female figures of the French Revolution. In 1890, wishing to write the biography of Ms. Roland, whose action the fascinated, it had led to her savings and it was shipped to the France. Installed in Paris, in the quartier Latin, she became the correspondent of several American journals. It is at this time that she met Samuel McClure, founder of the magazine which bore his name and who enjoyed a great reputation among the American elite. Crossing in the city of lights, this perpetual restless seemingly always on the crisis of nerves had commanded him a few historical items. The Pennyslvanie, Titusville, oil, the family: this appeared now far. Just know Ida Minerva that his brother William became one of the leaders of the Pure Oil Company, one of the few

independent oil companies having escaped the control of the Standard Oil of Rockefeller. But his past was finished by the catch. In 1893, William cable he had learned that their father was on the financial rout. Devoured by remorse, she then decided to return to the United States and to reconnect with his family. That is why in 1894 Ida Minerva Tarbell had arrived in New York. She did not yet know, but she was soon back in the murky and brutal black gold universe...

Aged thirty-seven years, Ida Minerva Tarbell is a young woman accomplished to the established reputation. His articles on Parisian life have made her a leading journalist, especially in the eyes of Samuel McClure. Upon his return to Europe, he entrusted also writing a biography of Napoleon, published in episodes. The success was immediate. In a year, circulation of the magazine goes from 25,000 to 100,000 best! Another Biography follows, this time of Abraham Lincoln, which is the draw more than 300,000 copies. In 1899, impressed, Samuel McClure offers him the position of editor-in-Chief of the journal. A forty-two years, Ida Minerva Tarbell became a figure in American intellectual life. It is then that she decided to devote himself fully to a project it is maturing for some time already: the history of Standard Oil. Put in confidence, Samuel McClure immediately gives its agreement.

Moral requirement

Tell the true story of the Standard Oil without anything hiding its dark side: the subject is highly explosive. Constituted trust in 1884 then holding in 1899, the oil group founded by John d. Rockefeller is indeed a true empire. Consisting of 70 companies, controls at this time 84 of the crude oil processed in the United States, 86 of the production of kerosene, and emerged as one of the first global players in the sector. Criticized by the public and the media for its dominant positions, target designated of the famous antitrust Sherman Act, the Standard is on the defensive. But very few are those who really know how the group is formed. "Make clear the essential principles which inspired the major industry leaders to control resources": such is the objective that binds Ida Minerva Tarbell. Step one ounce of anti-capitalism in its approach. Just a moral requirement: denounce businesses that violate the rules of free competition. But if her choice of Standard Oil, it is not only because it's "the mother of all trusts." It is also to pay a debt to his family.

From 1900 and during four years, it will see thousands of documents and interrogating dozens of people. As his father had foreseen, Standard Oil attempts to put pressure on it. During a social dinner, one of the Vice-Presidents of the company thereby seem to inquire as to her State of finances "McClure's names. Barely veiled on the independence of the journal threats, to which Ida Minerva Tarbell responds with a resounding "it is not my problem." Obsessed with it, it's commitment, to the point of losing sleep. In this gigantic work of Ant, testimony will prove particularly valuable: the first, Franck Rockefeller, the brother of billionaire. Since it demanded the repayment of a loan, he dedicated an Inextinguishable hatred. Before the journalist, it spreads in foul-smelling confidences, describing John d. as "a sadist taking pleasure in destroying his opponents" and "an illuminated persuaded to take his mission from God", even not sparing her sister-in-law, "this small little hypocrite." His interviews with Franck Rockefeller, Ida Minerva Tarbell out exhausted. But its main source is other than a Standard Oil Executive: Henry h. Rogers. Member of the Executive Committee, it received several times at his home in the greatest secrecy, to describing in detail the functioning of the group. In the case, Rogers is by idealism and self-interest: at a time when the Standard is in the spotlight, he seeks to insulate themselves from liability. The crossing he rule some accounts with Rockefeller, to which he objected repeatedly. It is through him that Ida Minerva Tarbell manages to penetrate the workings of the Group and to complete its investigation...

Millions of readers

Published between 1902 and 1904, read by millions of people including the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, hard opponent of the Group 24 articles in the history of Standard Oil are the effect of a bomb. The Americans discover the methods of Rockefeller and his entourage: intimidation, restrictions on trade, tariff discrimination... Everything passes! These revelations, very supported despite errors, are much to revive the judicial machine against the Standard. Since Cleveland, John d. Rockefeller, he feigned indifference. "No comment", instructs his staff. For weeks, the press facing its reactions. "His friends say that it is badly affected," title and a newspaper. "He has lost interest in golf," wrote another. When asked, the oil billionaire claims do not read the investigation, joke on his "good friend miss Tarbell". In fact, Rockefeller had read the articles by a domestic and emerged shaken! Sold out by the constant struggles he had to lead, he is the victim of insomnia and nervous disorders. Thirty-five years after having created Standard Oil, the oil tycoon is on his knees.

IDA Minerva Tarbell, it will be two rewards: one to give his father Franklin, a year before his death in 1905, the collection of his articles. And especially to attend the dissolution of the Standard, decided by the Supreme Court in 1911. Become a legend in his profession, the child of Titusville was to pursue a brilliant career as a writer and journalist before retiring on a farm in Connecticut. Until his death in 1944, it should never write on oil.