EPUB paragraph 9 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
[The president] professed great ignorance of the affairs of the company, saying his knowledge of it was “nebulous.” As to the investigation on foot through Mr. Garfield’s department, he seemed to know little.… He exhibited no personal animosity or unkindly feeling, nor could they judge from anything said that he himself was at the bottom of this investigation.
Names: Garfield
EPUB paragraph 10 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
While Archbold professed satisfaction, Junior, educated by his father-in-law in the president’s mutable ways, was more skeptical. “Senator Aldrich observed at my house the other night that while the President agreed with whoever talked last with him and seemed won over entirely to that view of the matter, the following day the next man who approached him with a different view gained an equally cordial hearing and relief.”
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. · John D. Archbold · Nelson W. Aldrich
EPUB paragraph 11 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Even as Roosevelt entertained the bosses of Standard Oil, he was about to unleash the government’s full fury against it. He was offended by its obstructive tactics with Garfield, its refusal to concede the legitimacy of his investigation. When he sent the Garfield Report to Congress, he warned that the Justice Department might prosecute Standard Oil for the abuses revealed. This linkage of Standard Oil with railroad rebates laid down the lines for future antitrust prosecution. Like Lloyd and Tarbell, Attorney General William H. Moody decided that the Standard monopoly had been based on a pattern of secret, illegal rebates. In late June 1906, Roosevelt summoned Moody and other cabinet members for an unusual nocturnal session at the White House to discuss possible prosecution. On June 22, Moody announced a preliminary investigation, headed by Frank B. Kellogg, of an antitrust suit against Standard Oil—a move that one newspaper reported under the stark headline, “Standard Oil Officials May Go to Prison.”
Names: Ida M. Tarbell · Henry Demarest Lloyd · Theodore Roosevelt · Standard Oil · Frank B. Kellogg · William H. Moody · White House · Garfield · Justice Department · Moody
EPUB paragraph 12 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
By this time, Standard officials knew that they had been grossly deceived by the president’s genial manner. “There is no doubt that the special Cabinet meeting, which the President called, and where the action was entirely dominated by him, led to the instituting of the proceedings,” Archbold told Rockefeller. Trying to strike a brave note, he added, “all well, feeling first rate, and ready for the fight.” As always, Standard Oil reacted with bravado, and Hell Hound Rogers sent these fighting words to Rockefeller: “It is my opinion that we are all right and going to win out sure, without doubt I do not think we have anything to fear.”
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · John D. Archbold · Henry H. Rogers · Standard Oil · Cabinet
EPUB paragraph 13 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
In retrospect, it seems clear that the ambiguous signals from the White House reflected more than duplicity on Roosevelt’s part, for he was genuinely reluctant to wield the big stick against Standard Oil. He preferred compromise to antitrust cases, which were slow, time-consuming, and fiendishly difficult to win. He wanted to supervise trusts, not break them up and sacrifice their efficiency, and he was searching for some conciliatory overture from his adversaries, a suggestion that they would accept government oversight and voluntarily mend their ways. But compromise was so alien to Archbold that he did not see that he might have averted an antitrust suit with a little political flexibility.
Names: John D. Archbold · Theodore Roosevelt · Standard Oil · White House
EPUB paragraph 14 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
By the time the Roosevelt administration formulated its suit, Rockefeller had not darkened the door of 26 Broadway for years. After 1905, he even stopped drawing a token salary. But Rockefeller was still held responsible for the sins of Standard Oil and most vilified when least involved in the business. Aware of the benefits of giving a human face to the trust, Roosevelt presented Rockefeller as the active genius of the cabal, and the press dramatized the antitrust case as a cockfight between Roosevelt and Rockefeller, the White House and 26 Broadway.
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Theodore Roosevelt · Standard Oil · 26 Broadway · White House
EPUB paragraph 15 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
The cover of McClure’s Magazine containing the malevolent “character sketch” by Ida Tarbell that so deeply wounded Rockefeller. (Courtesy of the Drake Well Museum)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Ida M. Tarbell · Drake Well Museum · McClure’s Magazine
EPUB paragraph 16 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller en route to testify in an antitrust case against Standard Oil, November 18, 1908. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Standard Oil · Rockefeller Archive Center
EPUB paragraph 17 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller goes to court, escorted by John G. Milburn, a Standard Oil lawyer in the federal antitrust suit. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Standard Oil · Rockefeller Archive Center · John G. Milburn
EPUB paragraph 18 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
John D. Archbold, Rockefeller’s combative protégé and successor. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · John D. Archbold · Rockefeller Archive Center
EPUB paragraph 19 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller (center) pauses at Forest Hill with some favorite golf cronies. From left: Dr. Hamilton F. Biggar, Elias M. Johnson, Capt. Levi T. Scofield, and Dr. Charles A. Eaton. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Hamilton F. Biggar · Rockefeller Archive Center · Forest Hill · Elias M. Johnson · Capt · Levi T. Scofield · Charles A. Eaton
EPUB paragraph 20 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
An eerily hairless Rockefeller holds an unidentified grandchild, September 23, 1904. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Rockefeller Archive Center
EPUB paragraph 21 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
The first version of Kykuit, completed in 1908 and found wanting by John and Cettie. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: Laura Spelman Rockefeller · Rockefeller Archive Center · Kykuit · John
EPUB paragraph 22 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
The more compact and elegant second version of Kykuit, finished in 1913 and today open to the public. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: Rockefeller Archive Center · Kykuit
EPUB paragraph 23 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
An aerial view of John D.’s golf hideaway in Lakewood, New Jersey. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Rockefeller Archive Center · Lakewood
EPUB paragraph 24 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller, nattily attired, strolls among the sheep that browsed outside his Golf House residence in Lakewood. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Rockefeller Archive Center · Lakewood · Golf House
EPUB paragraph 25 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Chief lieutenants of the Rockefeller philanthropies:
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
EPUB paragraph 26 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Dr. Simon Flexner, director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
Names: Simon Flexner · Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
EPUB paragraph 27 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Wickliffe Rose, head of the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission
EPUB paragraph 28 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Starr J. Murphy, legal adviser to the Rockefeller Family Office; and (bottom, right) Wallace Buttrick, secretary of the General Education Board. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: Wallace Buttrick · Starr J. Murphy · General Education Board · Rockefeller Archive Center · Rockefeller Family Office
EPUB paragraph 29 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Abby Aldrich and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., circa 1916. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. · Abby Aldrich Rockefeller · Rockefeller Archive Center
EPUB paragraph 30 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
The Rockefellers could be playful on occasion. Abby Aldrich and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., costumed for a fancy dress ball at Louis Tiffany’s home, probably around 1910. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. · Abby Aldrich Rockefeller · Rockefeller Archive Center · Rockefeller family · Louis Tiffany
EPUB paragraph 31 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., leaves hearings on the Ludlow Massacre, held at New York’s City Hall in January 1915. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. · Rockefeller Archive Center · New York · City Hall · Ludlow Massacre
EPUB paragraph 32 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Junior takes the stand to testify about Ludlow. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. · Rockefeller Archive Center · Ludlow
EPUB paragraph 33 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
A photographer captured an impromptu encounter between Junior and labor organizer Mother Jones—a vocal critic of Colorado Fuel and Iron—at the January 27, 1915, hearings. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. · Mary Harris Jones · Colorado Fuel and Iron · Rockefeller Archive Center
EPUB paragraph 34 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Publicist Ivy Lee worked to rehabilitate the tarnished Rockefeller name after the Ludlow disaster. (Courtesy of the Princeton University Library)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Ivy Lee · Ludlow · Princeton University Library
EPUB paragraph 35 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller sits wedged between two ladies in the backseat of his touring car. His hands often strayed during the afternoon drives. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Rockefeller Archive Center
EPUB paragraph 36 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Jo Davidson sculpts an equally stony-faced Rockefeller in 1924. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Rockefeller Archive Center · Jo Davidson
EPUB paragraph 37 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Abby Aldrich and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., with their children in Seal Harbor, Maine, 1921. From left to right: Laurance, Babs, John 3rd, David, Winthrop, and Nelson. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. · Abby Aldrich Rockefeller · Abby Rockefeller Mauzé · John D. Rockefeller III · Nelson Rockefeller · Laurance Rockefeller · Winthrop Rockefeller · David Rockefeller · Rockefeller Archive Center · Seal Harbor · Maine
EPUB paragraph 38 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller with Bessie’s grandchildren, Elizabeth and John de Cuevas, Ormond Beach, 1933. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Elizabeth Rockefeller Strong · Rockefeller Archive Center · Ormond Beach · John de Cuevas · Queen Elizabeth
EPUB paragraph 39 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller’s winter home in Ormond Beach, Florida, called The Casements. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Rockefeller Archive Center · Ormond Beach · The Casements · Florida
EPUB paragraph 40 · Text/Cher_9780307429773_epub_c26_r1.htm
Rockefeller trades one-liners with Will Rogers in Ormond Beach, February 1927. (Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center)
Names: John D. Rockefeller, Sr. · Rockefeller Archive Center · Ormond Beach · Will Rogers
Source: Ron Chernow, Titan. Names and relationships retain the full atlas’s extraction limits. Map points are references; historical sites and regions can be approximate. Open the full interactive atlas.