Ida Tarbell
by J. J.
Ida Tarbell was a muckraker, which was a person who searched for and exposed scandals and corruption. She was America’s first journalist who was a woman, and in the popular magazine, McClure’s, Tarbell published many articles in which she criticized the Standard Oil Company. During her time, many women did not have many social or political rights. She wrote many significant stories, and she used her reporting skills to criticize one of the most powerful companies in the world, which was the Standard Oil Company. In her book, The History of the Standard Oil Company, she revealed the illegal ways John Rockefeller used to monopolize the early oil industry. She mentioned that Rockefeller tried to destroy and hurt smaller oil companies illegally. The constant reports she wrote led to many legal cases, and soon, the case was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States. Her reports led to the Supreme Court’s solution of breaking up the Standard Oil trust. http://www.nancyhuntting.net/Ida-Tarbell-B.jpg http://tarbell.allegheny.edu/biobib.html http://www.manythings.org/voa/people/Ida_Tarbell.html |