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Quote by 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!”

Quote by Ida Tarbell

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

Work

The History of the Standard Oil Company: Briefer Version

This book provides a brief yet comprehensive look at the history of the influential Standard Oil Company, exploring its origins, rise to prominence, and eventual dissolution. 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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“[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.”

People Ends Hard Facts Force Business Special Willing Privilege Excuse Tricks Secure Justify Fraud Employed Declaring Sly

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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Author:Ida Tarbell

“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

“we were raising our standard of living at the expense of our standard of character.”

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

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

“There is no more effective medicine to apply to feverish public sentiments than figures.”

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Book:The Ways of Woman

Source: The Ways of Woman

“It is not alone that justice is wounded by denying women a part in the making of the civilized world - a more immediate wrong is the way the movement for a fuller, freer life for all human beings is hampered.”

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Author:Ida Tarbell

“The theory that the man who raises corn does a more important piece of work than the woman who makes it into bread is absurd. The inference is that the men alone render useful service. But neither man nor woman eats these things until the woman has prepared it.”

Men Doe Important Pieces He Man Theory Raises Prepared Equality Bread Absurd Corn Inference

Author:Ida Tarbell