Evening star., 1928-04-01
BY MARY. DAY WINN.

big business which this country !:
writing across the pages OF history
i one name flashes again and again
like a keen, bright sword. Twenty
years have passed since 1t made Its first
swift thrust. yet today It's aim Is as
sire. It's force as great as when IT was
first drawn from the scabbard.
There has always been considerable
curiosity on the part OF those VINO 90
not know her as TO what kind OF person
Ida Tarbell Is. Surely woman VINO
could win 50 signal victory In man 5
field must be essentially masculine III
her makeup! -. .ho
Nothing could be further from tns
truth. On recent visit to the IeIIoi
NJ tho trusts" found her embrolder-
IN, dolly It was characteristic.
Thouoh Miss Tarbell has the Keen.
ANALYTICAL, judicial type Of mind usually
described as masculine. she Is IN no
sense a masculine woman. She glorles
in the feminine business OF making a
home. and has two Of them. one IN
Connecticut and one in New 1orh'
When she isn't writing on public ques-
tions she IA raising prize dahlias. making
ample jelly or collecting old pewter.
Character Of Author.
The amazement which those VINO
have known her only through ner VIII
ing experience when they meet neI
| face to face Is sometimes lu1icrous. Not
long ago Padraic Colum. the poet. was
The guest of honor at reception al
~ Dor and Brush Club. OF which
.Nsiss ida" as she is called by ner
! friends is the president. He was IN
| troduced to the tall, handsome woman
with the kindly. humorous Twinkle III
! her eyes and the modest. almost re-
! firing manner: he saw the members OF
| the ciub-writers and artists-hoVering
! around her with an affectionate reNer-
| erce which has made the club. during
ber Is wears as It's head, like cloSely
/ Unit family. He could not understand.
/ THE whole picture offended his poetic
sense of the fitness of things He saw
no reason for Disgusting his feeilng
about It. and exclaimed over and over
again to Miss Ida and every one else
within earshot: 1T just can't be so!
| You're not the kind OF person expected
at all-not at all.
No one could find out from him ex-
| actlv what he did expect. but 1t was
! something vastly different from the
reality. Certainly 1t was not this gra-
cio,ls. simple woman who, though sne
has an understanding OF business Tar
i above that of the average man and mas
made some OF the biggest financial
| powers in the country tremble in their
shoes. nevertheless belieyes-and VIII
! frankly tell YOU s0-that womanS nrSt
| duty and her fullest freedom are to De
| found not in business. but In the nome
| In the davs when the extreme wing
| OF the feminist party was loudly de-
| manding full equality" for women MISS
Tarbell was an avowed anti. The
very mention OF her name would throw
A huShed pail over anv group OF SUI
fragists. for they knew that word from
her carried more weight than year
worth Of hunger strikes.
Has Faith I'm Sex.
Not that she lacks faith In her sex
on the contrary. she regards woman'
equality" as too obvious to need proof
THE effort of woman to prove her
self equal to man." she has said, is
work OF Supererogation. There Is moth
ing he has ever done that she has no
shown herself able to do equally well.
The basis of her belief that 1t Is un'
wise for women to compete with mar
on what she considers mans grounc
is that for her TO do so is harmful K
the man.
IF man" she saws. 'is to remain 8
civilized being, he must be held to hi:
business of producer and protector. He
must be kept up to his part in the part
nership. The fate of the meddler !:
common knowledgel"
Most of Miss Ida's writing during the
Winter is done in the high-ceilinged
| book-lined sitting room of her apart
ment on East Nineteenth Street. In what
the politicians used TO call the white
glove section" of Gramercy Park. The
capacious davenport In front OF hel
open FIRE receives a stream of visitors
from the humblest novice coming for
advice and help to the biggest captains
of finance. also coming. not infreQuent-
ly, for advice and help. A poytrait OF
Lincoln. who Is. to quote her own ex-
preston, "the finest type of manhood
| this country has produced" looks down
on his ablest biographer.
Part OF her great admiration for Lin
| coin may be due TO their kinShip OF the
spirit. for the easiest approach TO Miss
Ida, as to the Great Enancipator. Is
| through her heart. though she never
, allows II to betray her principles. she
can be as direct and fearless as mathe-
maticS In analyzing and exposing an
economic evil. and at the same time
tender and generous To fault in deal
ing with the human people who caused
the evil or have been broken by II.
Nothing Personal In Fight.
In her fight against big business there
has been no personal venom. In the ef-
forts made to diseredit her after the
publication OF her Standard OIL history
| hat kA ia rpi
! ance against the oil trust and was try
| ing to get even.
This was untrue. It Is fact that
| she was born near the oil region of
| PENNSYLVANIA and moved as q child to q
| little settlement ON OH Greek: that she
| grew up In the middle of one of the
| most thrilling industrial dramas in our
| history. and that her father was an oil
| producer who had been injured by the
| competition OF the oil trust But for
| this none Of the family harbored per-
| Sonal grudge.
! In 1899 Miss Tarbell was a contribut-
| Ing editor Of McClure's Magazine. and
had already won considerable acclaim
as the author OF Life of Nine. Ro-
land" life of Napoleon" and a Life
Of Lincoln" The publication In Me-
| Clure's OF this last work Is said 10 have
added lS0 900 subscribers To the maSa-
| sine Charles l., Dana, then editor OF
| the New York sun. ranked 1t as "one Of
| the ten indispensable books for every
! American"
| MIR Mcclure wanted to call attention
| to the methods OF the trusts ly publish
| ing the history OF one af them. Miss
! Tarbell was already. So To speaS. Satur~
| ated With oil information, and had, In
| addition, shown remarkable ability ior
| tefreting out facts. without fear or
| favor, and putting them before ,ha pub
| lie with logic and clarity. she Was a
historian OF the first rank. and the book
| which she wrote as an exposure nt the
methods OF hig business caused the sem
sation II did because II was not a heated
| harangue hy Soan box socialist but