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Quote by Ida Tarbell

“We are a commercial people. We cannot boast of our arts, our crafts, our cultivation; our boast is in the wealth we produce. As a consequence business success is sanctified, and, practically, any methods which achieve it are justified by a larger and larger class.”

Quote by Ida Tarbell

Book:The History of the Standard Oil Company

Work

The History of the Standard Oil Company

This book delves into the origins, operations, and eventual dissolution of Standard Oil, one of the most significant corporations in American history. It examines the strategies and business practices that propelled the company to dominance, as well as the legal battles and antitrust actions that led to its breakup. more

Author

Ida Tarbell was an American author known for her investigative reporting on the Standard Oil Company. Her work, 'The History of the Standard Oil Company,' exposed the practices of the monopolistic corporation and had a profound impact on public perception of big business. more

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“There is no gaming table in the world where loaded dice are tolerated, no athletic field where men must not start fair. Yet Mr. Rockefeller has systematically played with loaded dice, and it is doubtful if there has ever been a time since 1872 when he has run a race with a competitor and started fair.”

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Author:Ida Tarbell

“One of the most depressing features of the ethical side of the matter is that instead of such methods arousing contempt they are more or less openly admired. And this is logical. Canonise 'business success,' and men who made a success like that of the Standard Oil Trust become national heroes!”

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Book:The History of the Standard Oil Company: Briefer Version

Source: The History of the Standard Oil Company: Briefer Version

“[On dishonest business methods:] ... frequently the defender of the practice falls back on the Christian doctrine of charity, and points out that we are erring mortals and must allow for each other's weaknesses! - an excuse which, if carried to its legitimate conclusion, would leave our business men weeping on one another's shoulders over human frailty, while they picked one another's pockets.”

“Now, if the Standard Oil Company were the only concern in the country guilty of the practices which have given it monopolistic power, this story never would have been written. Were it alone in these methods, public scorn would long ago have made short work of the Standard Oil Company. But it is simply the most conspicuous type of what can be done by these practices. The methods it employs with such acumen, persistency, and secrecy are employed by all sorts of business men, from corner grocers up to bankers. If exposed, they are excused on the ground that this is business.”

Source: The History of the Standard Oil Company

“Very often people who admit the facts, who are willing to see that Mr. Rockefeller has employed force and fraud to secure his ends, justify him by declaring, 'It's business.' That is, 'it's business' has come to be a legitimate excuse for hard dealing, sly tricks, special privileges.”

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Author:Ida Tarbell

“The surprise of the fight on the long day, of the experiments with the shorter one, has been not only that the business could stand it, but that the business thrived under it as surely as the man did. It is but another of the proofs which are heaping up in American industry to-day that whatever is good for men and women - contributes to their health, happiness, development - is good for business.”

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Book:New Ideals in Business, an Account of Their Practice and Their Effects Upon Men and Profits

Source: New Ideals in Business, an Account of Their Practice and Their Effects Upon Men and Profits

“How defeated and restless the child that is not doing something in which it sees a purpose, a meaning! It is by its self-directed activity that the child, as years pass, finds its work, the thing it wants to do and for which it finally is willing to deny itself pleasure, ease, even sleep and comfort.”

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“You cannot settle a new country without suffering, exposure, and danger. Cheerful endurance of hardships and contempt of surroundings become a virtue in a pioneer. Comfort is a comparatively new thing in the United States.”

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Book:New Ideals in Business, an Account of Their Practice and Their Effects Upon Men and Profits

Source: New Ideals in Business, an Account of Their Practice and Their Effects Upon Men and Profits

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Book:All in the Day's Work: An Autobiography

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Book:The Ways of Woman

Source: The Ways of Woman