Evening star., 1927-04-17
BY WILLIS J. BALLINGER.

T@O my suggestion that perhaps
she had written the Life of
Judge Gary because she had
had a change of heart and was
sorry that she had said such
severe things about the Standard OH
CORPORATION a quarter century ago,
Ida Tarbe1l leaned forward suddenly
and giving decided emphasis to her re-
marks by pointing a pair of glasses
directly at me, she said:
Not at all. My mind will never
be changed about the origin OF the
Standard OIL Corporation. I haven't
recanted a single thing I ever said
about that. / wrote the Life of Judge
Gary" because Mr.. Gary has stood for
an entirely different conception Of
business than did Mr.. Rockefeller, sr.
Some persons think / have had
change of heart because I have
pointed out some commendable facts
about one OF our greatest corpora
tions. 1 was never opposed to the
size of any particular business or com.
bination But I was opposed to the
idea of big business and combination
that the senior Mr.. Rockefeller had. a"
Every Inch Lady.
A rather tall. slender lady, garbed
in a plain but tasteful brown dress,
with a very kindly face, was the i'm
preston that registered itself on my
mind as / began my interview with
Miss Tarbell. Every inch a lady
would be another way of describing
her. My gaze turned next to the
| room. 1t was the study of Miss Tar.
bell. / counted no less than four
| pictures and one bust of Abraham
| Lincoln / seemed to be in a Lincoln
| sanctuary and, indeed. was. for Miss
Tarbell is great admirer of Father
| Abraham"
| At the beginning of the twentieth
century there appeared in Mcclure s
Magazine a series of articles on the
| Standard Oil Corporation which subse.
| quently were bound together In book
| form under the caption, History of
| the Standard Oil Corporation. A
veritable wave of public excitement
swept over the nation. Like Uncle
Toms Cabin" the public conscience
was aroused by the amazing tale Of
ruthlesness unfolded by this lady in
| vestigator, who was welding a pen
with such devastating and powerful
| effectiveness.
| Miss Tarbell had been born in the
| heart of the oil district of Pennsyl-
| vania. She had entered Allegheny
| College as one of five courageous girls
| the rehles of theis age. She stoCNi
| at the parting of the ways between
the oldfashioned girl and the germina.
| ton of the modern woman, for 1t was
| at this time that women began 10 lift
| their skirts off the street, so that
| they could walk more comfortably
After college she lived 10 Europe for
| five years, but she never forgot her
I % Nf -
| the old Standard Oil Corporation. and
| through a chance connection with
/ McClure's she began her epoch max.
| ing work on this subject.
Not Alarmed by Size.
You mean that you don't care how
| big business becomes" I said.
| Not a bit, replied Miss Tarbell
/ II am not even alarmed by what is
known as the integration Of corpora
/ tions-where they seek TO control the
| sources of their raw materials and
make themselves completely inde
pendent. 1t all depends on how this
| power is used. / quarreled with the
| purpose and methods of a period wher
| buccaneers We're seeking bigness in
/ business in order to limit production
| raise prices and hold up the unpro.
| tected consumers pocketbook
Henry Ford has shown the world
on the other hand, that bigness in
| business can be used so that the pub.
lie will be greatly benefited. Ford be-
lieves in maximum production and a
low selling price for each unit of pro-
duction. The buccaneers of my day
taught minimum production and the
highest possible price for every unit
that they turned out In the former
qp hnfh he fnI
gains. In the latter case only the
individual gains. Where an individual
takes profit from society and gives
| nothing in return, he is nothing bet
ter than a pirate. And 30 years ago
| our Nation was overrun with bucca-
neers and social pirates.
The end Of business was nonop.
oily. Any method to attain this end
was sanctioned. 1t was like prize.
fight with no rules An industrial
chieftain could metaphoricaily bite
Kick, scratch, gouge the eyes out of
MS opponents and nobody seemed to
care. 1t was an age of business bar.
Darism. The purpose was iniquitous
The methods were brutally wrong"
How did this tendency TO ruthless
combination arise, Miss TarbeIl?" I
asked. II have often wanted TO get
that question settled. For instance
the other day / was told by a very ac.
complished student of economics. who
is making an exhaustive study of this
period Of our history, that the attempt
to create monopoly came about as a
natural economic consequence of
causes quite beyond human control
With the rise of factory methods and
production for a rational market that
was no longer like the old local mar.
ket, which could be accurately esti-
mated every year by the producer.
overproduction came on. 1t was in.
evitable, because thousands of indie
pendent producers, all producing for
market which they could no longer
have before their eyes. and whose
capacity they could only guess at.
were blindly quitting tie market. A
few of these producers saw that bv
monopoly they could control this ma
tional market and put an end to cha.
otic production and the haphazard
guessing of the markets capacity.
This student saw in the monopoly of
this period only seif-defense move