The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-11

Standard or when into its employ,
as it was to have been convicted OF
theft or any other crime. OF course,
this was an exaggerated feeling, but
it was the natural feeling of an i'm
questionable nature in that environ
ment of bitterness caused by the
suffering of the oil men.
AS L grew older the whole thing
assumed in my mind the form of
terrible drama. When 1 reached an
age when 1 began to think of writing,
l resolved that some day should
write a novel of which the Standard
should be the theme. 1 believe have
packed away now fifty or sixty thou
sand words of very poor stuff on that
subject.
Thousands of Documents Consulted.
Later 1 took up historical work,
but l have never lost my interest in
the development of the Standard Oil
Company. AS I grew older realized
that my feelings as a child were not
altogether correct, that there was
something to be said on the side of
the Standard, and have felt a sort
of Intellectual, or perhaps moral
necessity to get the thing straight
for myself. Two or three years ago,
as one of the editors of McClure's
Magazine, I discussed with my supe-
riors how we might handle this trust
problem, and 1 suggested that we pub
lish history of the Standard Oil
Company. The suggestion seemed
good and my superiors finally con-
scented to my undertaking it.
OF course, with my experience as
Child l never should have seen the
possibilities in such a piece of work;
without my experience in historical
work I should not have thought of
ing. And what seems to me now as
important as anything else was the
feeling that I wanted to get the thing
straight in my own mind. Otherwise,
L do not believe that l should have
cared to undertake it, for it has been
serious piece of work.
For thirty years the Standard Oil
Company has been almost necessarily
on the rack in law suits and federal
Investigations in agreements of all
kinds, and it was necessary for me to
read page after page, literally miles of
questions and answers, in order to find
out what happened. 1 have no legal
training, so that it has often been very
difficult for me to really grasp what
was meant. At the same time it has
been necessary for me to see scores of
people in order to get the color and the
feeling that was essential for my
story
In Ohio, especially, Miss Tarbell
found a monumental task cut out for
her. The Buckeye State has been
fighting the Standard Oil day in and
day out, year after year, with never
a let up, since 1872 when John D.
Rockefeller and his business associates
were first hauled up for public inves-
tigation. Ohio has been the oil trusts
most insistent corporate foe, and, as
result, the state is filled to the
crowding point with a mass of testi-
mony taken at score upon score of in
vestigations of the trusts business
methods. There We're 300 volumes of
nearly 1000 pages each to be consult
ed in Ohio alone, and this part of the
task was so onerous that Miss Tar
bell had to call in the aid of a skilled
lawyer, who, after spending months
in the work, has just finished UP his
share of the investigation of those
records.
From the Ohio documents Miss Tar
bell has secured interesting revelations
made under oath by John D. Rookie
Teller himself, and such prominent
Standard Oil men as j. D. Archibald
and Dan O'Day. both of New York
city, and Henry H. Rogers who came
out of the old whaling town of New
Bedford.
investigations in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania is another state
whose records Miss Tarbell found to
be fairly saturated with startling evil
dence taken at inquiries into the
Standard Oils ways of doing business
and in numerous lawsuits, In one
county-Clarion-do requiring
weeks of hard study were discovered.
These have to do with numerous suits
brought against the trust by indepen-
dent oil men, the latter charging their
formidable competitor with conspiracy