名人轶事:IdaTarbell,1857-1944: She Used Her Reporting Ski

Ida Tarbell, 1857-1944: She Used Her Reporting Skills Against One of the Most Powerful¹ Companies in the World

Tarbell charged that Standard Oil was using illegal² methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies.

ANNOUNCER⁴:

People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United⁵ States. Today Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about reporter Ida Minerva Tarbell.

Ida Tarbell was one of the most successful magazine writers in the United States during the last century. She wrote important stories at a time when women had few social or political⁶ rights.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Ida Tarbell 

Ida Tarbell used her reporting skills against one of the most powerful companies in the world. That company was Standard Oil. Ida Tarbell charged that Standard Oil was using illegal methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies.

She investigated⁷ these illegal business dealings and wrote about them for a magazine called McClure's. The reports she wrote led to legal³ cases that continued all the way to the Supreme⁸ Court of the United States.

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VOICE TWO:

Ida Tarbell was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in November, eighteen fifty-seven. Her family did not have much money. Her father worked hard but had not been very successful.

When Ida was three years old, oil was discovered in the nearby town of Titusville. Her father entered the oil business. He struggled as a small businessman to compete with the large oil companies.

Ida's mother had been a school teacher. She made sure that Ida attended school. She also helped the young girl learn her school work.

Ida wanted to study science at college. Most people at that time thought it was not important for young women to learn anything more than to read and write. Most people thought educating women was a waste of money.

Ida's parents, however, believed education was important -- even for women. They sent her to Allegheny College in nearby Meadville, Pennsylvania. She was nineteen.

VOICE ONE:

Those who knew Ida Tarbell in college say she would wake up at four o'clock in the morning to study. She was never happy with her school work until she thought it was perfect. In eighteen eighty, Ida finished college. In August of that year, she got a teaching⁹ job in Poland, Ohio. It paid five hundred dollars a year.

VOICE TWO:

Miss Tarbell learned¹⁰ that she was expected to teach subjects about which she knew nothing. She was able to do so by reading the school books before the students did. She was a successful teacher, but the work, she decided¹¹, was too difficult for the amount she was paid. So she returned home after one year. A small newspaper in the town of Meadville soon offered her a job.

Many years later, Ida Tarbell said she had never considered being a writer. She took the job with the newspaper only because she needed the money. At first, she worked only a few hours each week.

Later, however, she was working sixteen hours a day. She discovered that she loved to see things she had written printed in the paper. She worked very hard at becoming a good writer.

VOICE ONE:

Miss Tarbell enjoyed working for the newspaper. She discovered, though, that she was interested in stories that were too long for the paper to print. She also wanted to study in France. To earn money while in Paris, she decided she would write for American magazines.

Ida Tarbell found it difficult to live in Paris without much money. She also found it difficult to sell her work to magazines. The magazines were in the United States. She was in Paris. Some of her stories were never used because it took too long for them to reach the magazine. Yet she continued to write.

Several magazines soon learned that she was a serious writer.

VOICE TWO:

A man named Samuel McClure visited Miss Tarbell in Paris. He owned a magazine named McClure's. Mister¹² McClure had read several of her stories. He wanted her to return to the United States and work for his magazine. She immediately understood that this was a very good offer. But she said no. She proposed¹⁴ that she write for McClure's from Paris.

Ida Tarbell wrote many stories for McClure's. She did this for some time before returning to the United States. Her writing was very popular. She helped make McClure's one of the most successful magazines of its day.

One of her first jobs for the magazine was a series¹⁵ of stories about the life of the French Emperor Napoleon. The series was printed in McClure's Magazine in eighteen ninety-four. It was an immediate¹³ success. The series was later printed as a book. It was very popular for a number of years.

VOICE ONE:

Her next project was a series about the life of American President Abraham Lincoln. She began her research by talking with people who had known¹⁶ him. She used nothing they told her, however, unless she could prove it was true to the best of her ability.

McClure's Magazine wanted a short series about President Lincoln. But Ida Tarbell's series lasted for one year in the magazine. Like her series about Napoleon, the President Lincoln stories were immediately popular. They helped sell more magazines. She continued her research about President Lincoln.

Through the years, she would write eight books about President Lincoln.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Miss Tarbell's reports about the Standard Oil Company are considered more important than any of her other writings. Her nineteen-part series was called The History of the Standard Oil Company. McClure's Magazine published it beginning in nineteen-oh-two.

Her reports showed that Standard Oil used illegal methods to make other companies lose business. One method was to sell oil in one area of the country for much less than the oil was worth.

This caused smaller companies in that area to fail. They could not sell their oil for that low a price and still make a profit. After a company failed, Standard Oil would then increase the price of its oil. This kind of unfair competition was illegal.

VOICE ONE:

Miss Tarbell had trouble discovering information about the Standard Oil Company. She tried to talk to businessmen who worked in the oil business. At first, few would agree to talk.

They were afraid of the Standard Oil Company and its owner, John D. Rockefeller. He was one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.

Miss Tarbell kept seeking information. She was told by one man that Rockefeller would try to destroy McClure's Magazine. But she did not listen to the threats¹⁷. She soon found evidence¹⁸ that Standard Oil had been using unfair and illegal methods to destroy other oil companies. Soon many people were helping¹⁹ her find the evidence she needed.

VOICE TWO:

Ida Tarbell's investigations²⁰ into Standard Oil were partly responsible²¹ for later legal action by the federal²² government against the company. The case began in nineteen-oh-six. In nineteen eleven, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Standard Oil because of its illegal dealings. The decision was a major one. It forced the huge company to separate²³ into thirty-six different companies.

John D. Rockefeller never had to appear in court himself. Yet the public felt he was responsible for his company's illegal actions. The investigative work of Ida Tarbell helped form that public opinion. That investigative work continues to be what she is known for, even though some of her later writings defended

American business. She died in nineteen forty-four.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A picture has survived from the long ago days when Ida Tarbell took on the giant Standard Oil Company. It shows John D. Rockefeller walking to his car. It was taken after his company had lost an important court battle. He is wearing a tall black hat and a long coat. He looks angry.

Several people are watching the famous man from behind the car. One is a very tall women. Mister Rockefeller does not see her.

If you look closely²⁴ at the picture, you can see the face of Ida Tarbell. She is smiling. If you know the story, her smile clearly says: "I won."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Ray Freeman.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program, on VOA
 

1 powerful   

adj.有力的，有权力的，强大的

参考例句：

• The UN began to get more and more powerful.联合国开始变得越来越强大了。
• Such are the most powerful voices of our times!这些就是我们时代的最有力的声音！

2 illegal   

adj.不合法的，非法的，犯法的

参考例句：

• I don't want to get mixed up with any illegal organization.我不想与任何非法组织有牵连。
• It's illegal for people under 17 to drive a car in Britain.在英国，不满17岁的人驾驶车辆是违法的。

3 legal   

adj.法律的，依照法律的，合法的，法定的，正当的

参考例句：

• He is my legal adviser.他是我的法律顾问。
• This is partly a political and partly a legal question.这个问题部分是政治问题，部分是法律问题。

4 announcer   

n.宣布者；电(视)台播音员，报幕员

参考例句：

• The radio announcer said it was nine o'clock.电台播音员报时9点整。
• The announcer tells the listeners what programme comes next.广播员告诉听众下一个是什么节目。

5 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

6 political   

adj.政治上的，政党的，政略性的，政治的

参考例句：

• He was forced to leave his homeland for political reasons.因为政治原因他被迫离开自己的祖国。
• In ideas those two political parties are worlds apart.那两个政党在思想上有巨大分歧。

7 investigated   

v.调查( investigate的过去式和过去分词 )；审查；侦查；研究

参考例句：

• The crime is presently being investigated by the police. 警方目前正在调查这起案件。
• He has carefully investigated the allegations. 他对这些指控作了详细调查。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

9 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

10 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 mister   

n.(略作Mr.全称很少用于书面)先生

参考例句：

• Mister Smith is my good friend.史密斯先生是我的好朋友。
• He styled himself " Mister Clean ".他自称是“清廉先生”。

13 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

14 proposed   

被提议的

参考例句：

• There is widespread discontent among the staff at the proposed changes to pay and conditions. 员工对改变工资和工作环境的建议普遍不满。
• an outcry over the proposed change 对拟议的改革所发出的强烈抗议

15 series   

n.连续；系列

参考例句：

• The students have put forward a series of questions.学生们提出了一系列问题。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

16 known   

adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的

参考例句：

• He is a known artist.他是一个知名的艺术家。
• He is known both as a painter and as a statesman.他是知名的画家及政治家。

17 threats   

威胁，恐吓( threat的名词复数 )； 可能造成威胁的人[事，想法]； 恶兆，兆头

参考例句：

• to make threats against sb 对某人进行威胁
• Threats to reinstate the tax elicited jeer from the Opposition. 恢复此项征税的威胁引起了反对党的嘲笑。

18 evidence   

n.明显，显著，明白，迹象，根据，[物]证据，证物

参考例句：

• The first signs of spring are in evidence.春天的最初迹象已显然可见。
• From the evidence I must conclude that you are wrong.从证据看，我敢断定你错了。

19 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

20 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

21 responsible   

adj.有责任的，应负责的；可靠的，可信赖的；责任重大的；vi.休息，睡；静止，停止

参考例句：

• He must be responsible to me for this matter.这件事他必须对我负责。
• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。

22 federal   

adj.联盟的；联邦的；(美国)联邦政府的

参考例句：

• Switzerland is a federal republic.瑞士是一个联邦共和国。
• The schools are screaming for federal aid.那些学校强烈要求联邦政府的援助。

23 separate   

n.分开，抽印本；adj.分开的，各自的，单独的；v.分开，隔开，分居

参考例句：

• Are they joined together or separate?它们是合在一起还是分开的？
• Separate the white clothes from the dark clothes before laundering.洗衣前应当把浅色衣服和深色衣服分开。

24 closely   

adv.紧密地；严密地，密切地

参考例句：

• We shall follow closely the development of the situation.我们将密切注意形势的发展。
• The two companies are closely tied up with each other.这两家公司之间有密切联系。