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Just before midnight on January 1, 1899, the newly elected Governor of New York stumbles up the walkway to the executive mansion in Albany. His name is Theodore Roosevelt, and this is his first full day in office. He's been out drinking all night with friends to celebrate, but he lost track of time. He meant to be home hours ago. He lumbers up the front stairs and tries to open the door, but it's locked. He's only lived in the mansion for 18 hours. And now he's learning the hard way that the staff apparently shuts up the house before they go to bed at night. They're all fast asleep and he's stuck out here in the snow. Teddy cups his hands on the glass and peers into the dark mansion, hoping to see a servant wandering through the foyer, but nope, it's dead inside. He doesn't want to wake up the staff or his wife, Edith, not when he's hours late and glassy eyed. He trudges through the snow to the side of the house and throws his weight against a different door, hoping it might budge. But to the staff's credit, the door is deadbolted, so he resorts to testing windows and luckily one of them inches open. Teddy sighs with relief and pushes up the window pane. Then he takes a deep, steadying breath and jumps, hoisting his massive body over the sill. He's strong but drunk, so it's a struggle to wiggle his way through the open window, then finally fall like a sack of flour onto the living room floor. He grimaces, hoping the sound of his body meeting hardwood doesn't wake the house. He listens for sounds of movement, staring up at the ceiling, which is spinning slightly. This is not exactly the start to term he was hoping for, although it is the first quiet moment he's enjoyed since he started campaigning last year. All things considered, it's nice to be alone in the dark for a little while. The mansion had been a madhouse all day, with his family moving in and well wishers stopping by to congratulate him on winning the governorship, plus the staff telling him all sorts of information he's already forgotten. By the time he left for dinner, his head was spinning. It's been a hectic few years and Teddy only expects it to get worse in the months ahead. Over the past 10 years he's been married, elected to the New York assembly, made a father, and then immediately widowed only hours after his wife died. His mother passed away too. He was so racked with grief that he left his baby daughter with his sister for a few years to escape to the Badlands in North Dakota. He re entered public life three years ago in 1886, shortly after marrying his second wife, Edith. They've been friends since childhood and she's still Teddy's closest confidante. That same year he ran for New York mayor and lost, but President McKinley noticed that he had a mind for politics and decided to bring him into the fold. He appointed him Assistant Secretary of the US Navy A high level administrative role given to a civilian. Teddy's job had been to help the Navy keep its bases and shipyards ready for war, which ended up being a necessity a year into his tenure. So about 18 months ago, the US declared war on Spain in an attempt to liberate Cuba. Teddy quit his job and went to war. He helped assemble a team of cowboys, cops and college athletes that he called the Rough Riders. They were the first United States volunteer militia with uniforms that were designed to make them look more like cowboys than cavalry. Their diverse backgrounds and Wild west aesthetic got them a lot of press attention during the war. The good press helped Teddy win his governor's race back in November. He ran as a progressive Republican. He promised to advocate for working Americans by busting up some of the massive corporate trusts that had sprung up over the past 30 years. The ones that are now exploiting the American workforce. In 1899, a corporate trust was similar to shell companies. Today, one corporation might own dozens of smaller companies. So even though it seemed like the market was flooded with competition, in reality they all contributed to the same corporation's bottom line. That meant that these corporations could fix prices, lower wages for workers and and edge out competition. It gave the illusion of a free market, but in reality was anything but. Nine years ago, in 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust act, which protects against corporate monopolies. But that hasn't stopped massive corporations from accumulating untold power and wealth. The three largest corporations in the country are run by JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. These men are wealthier than some European countries. They own lavish estates along the East Coast. Morgan and Carnegie would throw lavish parties for the upper set, while Rockefeller earned a reputation for filling his pantry with exotic cheeses from overseas. Together, Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller are worth more than a trillion dollars in today's money. Meanwhile, 90% of American families are surviving on less than $100 a month. Men like Rockefeller prey on the poor. Their factories are untenable and so dangerous that 1 in every 11 steel workers dies on the job. They expect their employees to work from sun up to sundown without paid time off or holidays. It's no wonder people are starting to unionize and push back against big business owners. Teddy Roosevelt is in full support of workers. He's ready to end these massive corporate trusts. But that's going to take every ounce of fight he has in him. Because men like Rockefeller have spent an exorbitant amount of money to ensure that nobody can interfere with their bottom line. In the last presidential election of 1896. A candidate named William Jennings Bryan ran on an antitrust platform. He became so popular that JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller banded together to throw their weight behind William McKinley. Each spending more than $20,000 on his campaign. That's about 200 million today. With their help, McKinley's campaign was able to outspend Bryan five to one. Rockefeller and his ilk also paid off the newspapers, orchestrating PR campaigns and favorable headlines to ensure McKinley got the right kind of publicity leading up to the election. Even still, the race was close. 90% of eligible voters showed up at the polls. An unprecedented turnout. But ultimately McKinley eked out a win. And the moment he took office, he rolled back regulations to give men like Rockefeller full reign to run their business. However they saw fit. For the small price of $20,000 each, three men had bought the presidency. And for the past few years they'd enjoyed unprecedented power. Especially since McKinley isn't the only politician letting the industry titans run roughshod over America. Nobody is more pro big business than Thomas Boss Platt. Boss Platt is the entrenched leader of the Republican state party in New York, the economic capital of America. He's handpicked every official judge and even go governor of New York for over a decade. Placing them like cogs in his well oiled party machine. He chose Teddy for the governorship last year. Assuming that because Teddy is young, he's malleable. With enough prodding he'll fall in line and use his growing popularity to strengthen Platt's hold on the Republican party. Teddy has bad news for Boss Platt on that front. He's happy to work with him when it benefits the people of New York. But he isn't going to be coerced into supporting corporate trusts. Soon he plans to announce that some of these corporate monopolies will be required to pay taxes in New York. Teddy knows that the second he makes that announcement, Platt and his big business buddies will try to oust him in some way. Teddy will have to move fast though. Tonight. With a bottle of whiskey working its way through his bloodstream, it's hard to imagine moving at all. He slowly clambers to his feet and struggles up the stairs to his bedroom. Tomorrow the fight begins. Tonight he's gotta get some sleep. By November 1899, Teddy has spent 11 months waiting for Thomas Platt's retaliation. Ever since he introduced his new corporate tax, he's been learning the hard way that wealthy people like Andrew Carnegie and J.D. rockefeller hate to pay their fair share in taxes. And Platt, who's in Their pocket publicly opposed Teddy's bill. Platt's been furious ever since the bill passed the state legislature in a landslide vote. Teddy knows that Boss Platt and his big business buddies are looking for a way to weaken Teddy's position to get him out of the spotlight. And now it's possible they've found it. This morning, Vice President Garrett Hobart died a full year before the presidential election of 1900, which means President McKinley is in need of a new running mate. And Teddy has a bad feeling that it's going to be him. Putting him on McKinley's ticket would be the perfect way to use Teddy for his popularity. Then lose him. Teddy's the most popular Republican in the public eye. Over the last year, he's been traveling the country polling huge crowds at all the railway stations on his route. The crowds are even larger than what McKinley saw during the presidential election. Teddy is a man of the people and his name on a presidential ticket would certainly earn McKinley votes. But making him Vice president would also end his political career. At the time, vice presidents don't have much to do. They tend to enjoy some publicity on the campaign trail, then fade into obscurity, never to make waves in politics again. It would be a death knell for Teddy's career and would make it nearly impossible for him to forward his trust busting agenda. Teddy understands that by McKinley embracing him and pulling him close as his VP, he'd be silencing him. And because his biggest donors are still Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller, they would essentially be silencing him. Already he's heard rumblings that the new VP might be him. So he decides to try and get out ahead of a potential nomination. He writes to Boss Platt telling him point blank that he does not want to be Vice president. He'd rather retire from politics and become a history teacher than wind up on McKinley's ticket. The holidays come and go and Teddy hears nothing from Boss Platt or President McKinley. But McKinley doesn't appoint a new VP either. He announces that the office will be vacant for the rest of the year until his current term is over. December turns to January and Teddy hopes that maybe he's off the hook. But then, on the morning of January 11, 1900, he's in his office when any hope of lying low gets crushed. He receives evidence that Louis Payne, the superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department, is engaging in corrupt business practices with some financiers in New York City. Essentially, he's taking bribes and kickbacks from the insurance industry that he's supposed to be regulating. Teddy knows this is bad. Louis Payne is one of Platt's hand picked nominees. And Platt protects his people at all costs. As governor, Teddy can't turn a blind eye to corruption. But he also knows that outing Payne is going to piss off Platt enough for Platt to retaliate by having McKinley put Teddy Roosevelt on the ticket as VP. Teddy has to be sure that the evidence against Louis Payne is rock solid. So he calls a friend, Adjutant General George Andrews, and asks him to conduct a speedy investigation into the potential scandal. 24 hours later, Andrews delivers damning evidence that Payne is abusing his position to line his pockets. Teddy sighs, knowing that all of this is going to blow up in his face. He tells an aide to get Thomas Platt on the phone and invite him to breakfast. The following Saturday. On January 20th, Teddy sits down in his dining room across from Thomas Platt. He slides Platt a folder full of evidence against Louis Payne and asks Platt to take a look. Platt leafs through the documents with disinterest, which is pretty much the reaction Teddy's expecting. He gives a quick oral report. Of what what the file says. Payne is corrupt. He's misusing power to make money. He's working against the people he serves. He tells Boss Platt that he has no intention of removing Lewis Payne from office to avoid a scandal. He'll wait a few months until Payne's term is set to expire. But then he wants to replace Payne with someone who will actually serve the people of New York. Platt bristles. He assures Teddy that Payne a good man and he'll be staying on as superintendent. The comment confirms what Teddy already Platt is fully aware that Payne is corrupt. He just doesn't care. But Teddy doesn't let Platt's blatant corruption derail him. He pulls a piece of paper out of his breast pocket and hands it over to Platt. He explains that it's a list of names. All moderate Republicans who under normal circumstances, Platt himself would approve of. None of them are nearly as progressive as Teddy, but they'll conduct the job of superintendent honorably. He tells Platt that he's willing to nominate any of these men to the position. Platt can hand pick the new superintendent like always. Then Teddy lays it all on the line. Platt has three days to pick a name. After that, Teddy is sending a name of his own choosing to the legislature. When it opens on Wednesday morning. Platt grabs the list with his thumb and forefinger. The same way he might hold a rotting banana peel. He lets the paper fall on top of the envelope of evidence as though discarding it in the Trash where it belongs. Then he tells Teddy he'll consider the proposal. Platt thanks Teddy for his time. Then he makes his way out of the Governor's mansion. Teddy watches from the window as Platt hurries down the front steps and into his carriage. A winter wind kicking up snow flurries around him. Teddy expected the meeting to be a disaster. So in that sense everything is going according to plan. The next morning Teddy learns that Platt has made a public announcement saying that after a successful breakfast with Teddy at the Governor's mansion, he's throwing his full support behind Theodore Roosevelt for the Vice Presidency. That in his opinion New York State and the entire country would benefit from Roosevelt on McKinley's ticket. There was no way for him to publicly break away from the nomination. And given that Boss Platz supports legislation that benefits big business and big business has McKinley in their pocket, he knows that McKinley is probably already on board with his nomination. In a matter of days he'll be formally asked to join the ticket. Teddy Roosevelt spends the next year campaigning as president. McKinley's VP Rockefeller and JP Morgan are once again spending money hand over fist to get McKinley elected. And thanks especially to Rockefeller's generous spending, McKinley wins the November election by a comfortable margin. In January 1901 he's re inaugurated as President. Meanwhile Teddy's forced to sit back and watch as Rockefeller and the other business titans expand their empires to unprecedented heights. Heights. Then Rockefeller and Morgan go after their competition with iron fisted brutality. Rockefeller buys an iron ore mine out west. Then announces plan to build the largest steel mill in the country. He sets his steel at rock bottom prices. The move is crippling to Andrew Carnegie who can't afford that level of competition. Carnegie spends a fortune to buy the mine from Rockefeller, just to keep Rockefeller out the of steel business. But the sale leaves Carnegie financially weakened. And JP Morgan goes in for the kill. He offers to buy Carnegie steel, offering him 480 million for his business. About $19 billion today. It's an offer that Carnegie can't pass up. Morgan uses the acquisition to create U.S. steel, the largest corporation in history. It becomes the world's first billion dollar corporation. Corporation Meanwhile, most Americans still live in poverty. The people are fed up and anarchist movements are growing in popularity. To the common majority it's clear that politicians are more interested in helping the rich than protecting their voters. On a brisk morning in September 1901, Teddy Roosevelt wipes the sweat from his brow as he lumbers up the side of Mount Marcy, the tallest peak in the Adirondacks. He's had Plenty of time to go hiking this year since a vice president's only job is to stay alive. Besides, the city drives him nuts these days. His entire life he's been a man of action and now he's powerless. It's easier to be alone in nature than surrounded by problems he can't solve. He reaches the summit of Mount Marcy in the soaks up the breathtaking view. Rolling green foothills span out in every direction, dotted with orange and red where the leaves are beginning to change. It gives him a moment of solace, which he desperately needs after the week he's had. On Friday, McKinley was shot by an anarchist just after delivering a speech at the Pan American exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. for a day or two, Teddy has been a heartbeat away from becoming president. But McKinley was recovering now, so Teddy was back to climbing without really getting anywhere. He looks down and sees something that's not part of the typical scenery. A messenger was running up the hill frantically waving a telegram. Teddy's heart skipped. He knew exactly what that telegram was going to say. McKinley wasn't going to make it. Teddy hustles down the mountainside to meet his destiny. He needs to prepare to become the 26th President of the United States. Eight days later, Theodore Roosevelt walks through the home of his friend Ansley Wilcox. Ansley lives in Buffalo. Teddy's been staying with him this week as they waited to see whether the President would recover from his injuries. Teddy walks into Ansley's library where a crowd of about 50 people has already gathered. He strides to the front of the room where a judge in a black morning coat is waiting for him. That morning, President McKinley died of infection and gangrene. And now Teddy is being sworn in as the leader of the free world. It's surreal as he places his hand on Ansley's Bible and repeats his oath to protect and uphold the Constitution and to be a civil servant. A week ago, Teddy was on top of a mountain, at a loss for what to do in his limited role. Now he's President of the United States, one of the most powerful men on earth. And he's going to use that power to bring down the titans who thought his country was for sale. A few months later, as Theodore Roosevelt throws his weight around the Oval Office, a now 44 year old IDA Tarbell has left Titusville, Pennsylvania for New York City. She opens the door to her room at the Hotel Grifu where she's been living the past few years. She ushers a schoolteacher inside. She's a journalist now, writing for McClure magazine. And for the past year she's been conducting an in depth investigation into Rockefeller and Standard Oil. She's never forgotten what Rockefeller did to the small refineries in her hometown. But it's only now that she has a platform to do something about it. She wants to expose his shady business practices to her readers and eventually the whole country. Her father, Franklin begged her not to go toe to toe with Rockefeller. He knows that Rockefeller could easily ruin her and her magazine. But Ida doesn't care. If anything, she feels encouraged. Ever since Teddy Roosevelt assumed the role of President, he's been invoking the Sherman Antitrust act to go after massive corporations. In February he filed a lawsuit against J.P. morgan's Northern securities company. And by all accounts, Teddy is set to win the suit. It'll be a massive victory for the working class. But to Ida, it's not enough. Not yet. Standard Oil is the pinnacle of capitalist greed and war workforce exploitation. She's dedicated to outing Rockefeller as the corrupt corporate bully he truly is. The school teacher sits down at Ida's kitchen table and pulls an envelope out of his jacket. He explains that a student gave him these documents a few days ago. Ida skims them, her eyes going wide. They're records from the railway companies about oil shipments. The schoolteacher explains that he himself is a small, small time oil refiner. It's a family business. It doesn't make them much money, but it helps supplement his meager teacher's salary. According to these documents, Rockefeller and the railroads are up to their old tricks. Price gouging small refineries while cutting Rockefeller discounts so the small refineries are forced to sell. It's the exact same tactic he used to acquire the refineries in Titusville back in the 1850s. Rockefeller's hired young boys like the teacher's student to come in and destroy the evidence. But his student felt guilty when he saw his favorite teacher's name on the documents and decided to hand them over to warn him about what Rockefeller was doing. Ida wishes she were shocked, but this is the kind of behavior she's come to expect from Rockefeller. He'd run her own father's business into the ground to the point that her dad's business partner killed himself, leaving Ida's family strapped with debt. She's been looking for a way to bring him down ever since. That opportunity came at the end of the last year when she received an anonymous briefcase full of evidence against Rockefeller showing his shady business practices over the past few years. It encouraged her to dig deeper she spent months scouring every library in town for a copy of a book published in 1879 called the Rise and Fall of the South Improvement Company. It details the corrupt practices Rockefeller used with sic to amass wealth and power back in the 1870s. The book contained the only known records of Rockefeller's corruption from around that time and she needed those records to establish a pattern. She finally found a copy in the New York library. Rockefeller had every other copy of the book burned or destroyed. And now she was holding proof that after all this time, he was still going after small oil refineries, using illegal practices to squash his competition. It was madness and she intended to put an end to it. Ida thanks the teacher for coming to her. She understands it's a risk. She promises him that soon the whole nation will know exactly what kind of man Rockefeller is. Over the next year, Ida publishes a series of articles that expose John D. Rockefeller. They incite public outrage and are so widely circulated that in 1904 the collection of articles are printed as a book called the History of Standard Oil. That same year, President Theodore Roosevelt is running for re election, touting himself as a trust buster, someone who stands up to massive corporations and wins. On March 14, 1904, the Supreme Court rules to dissolve Northern Security, forcing J.P. morgan to break up his monopoly into a series of smaller businesses. And now Teddy knows that given the popularity of Ida's articles, he'll have to go after Rockefeller the moment he wins re election. It's an imposing thought. For more than 30 years, Rockefeller has ruled over an untouchable empire. At this point, standard oil controls 90% of oil production in the United States. Teddy will need the support of the Supreme Court and the American public if he has any hope of breaking up the corporation. But he also knows that the success of Ida's book could be enough to fuel his court case. Roosevelt files the lawsuit in early 1906. It's set to become the biggest antitrust case of of all time. But there's a problem. The federal government can't find Rockefeller. He goes on the run to avoid getting served subpoenas to appear in court. He knows he'll have to testify under oath and frankly, he's the best witness the prosecution could possibly call to the stand. There are rumors that he's fled to California, then Maine and Key West Florida. Then the feds catch word that he's hiding out on a flight friend's yacht off the coast of Puerto Rico. He's not taking phone calls, even from his wife. He's convinced the Lines are tapped. At one point, he moves to a compound in Lakewood, New Jersey, an estate he's outfitted with security guards and floodlights to keep out any solicitors that might sneak onto the property. He's so busy running from the law that he misses the birth of his own grandson. To the authorities, it's like he's fallen off the face of the map. Until he makes a crucial ordering some fancy cheese. See, Rockefeller might be rich, but he's known for being frugal. He'd buy massive million dollar estates and then decorate them with furniture left behind by the previous owners. He doesn't like to buy things new. And he rarely indulges in luxury food items or expensive license wines. His only splurge is cheese. He has rare cheeses shipped wherever he goes. Eventually, the Feds realize he's back home on his estate when boxes of cheese start arriving at the local train station. So the Feds devised a plan. They'll have phony drivers deliver the cheese to Rockefeller's estate, then strong arm their way inside and serve the tycoon his long overdue subpoena. Except somehow Rockefeller finds out about the plan. He and his entire family escape to France, where they remain for over a year. In the meantime, the Feds issue a warrant for Rockefeller's arrest and he's finally brought to justice when he comes back from Paris in the spring of 1907. The case doesn't go to court until 1911, but when it does, it's the trial of the century. The prosecution brings up the South Improvement Company, which led to what the newspapers called the Cleveland Massacre when Standard oil bought up 22 small oil refineries in Titusville, Pennsylvania some 35 years ago. The prosecution provides evidence that ever since, Rockefeller has been bribing politicians to block bills that were bad for Standard Oil. He created a monopoly through intimidation tactics and secret kickbacks from railroads. In total, there were 12,000 pages of testimony given by 444 witnesses. And in the end, the court determined that Rockefeller's unreasonable business practices were in violation of the Sherman antitrust Act of 1890. Standard Oil is forced to break up into 34 smaller companies, many of which are still around today, like Exxon Mobile and Chevron. Rockefeller thought he could protect his empire by buying the presidency and castrating any rivals who tried to bring him to heel. In a moment of overconfidence, he put his strongest enemy a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. And when a destitute anarchist took fate into his own hands, Theodore Roosevelt was given an opportunity to bring Rockefeller down. It's a bitter defeat for Rockefeller. Rockefeller. But there's a final twist. Losing his empire isn't the financial undoing he expects it to be. Rockefeller is still a shareholder in all 34 of those byproduct companies, which quickly expand thanks to a new use for oil as gasoline. The growing automobile industry soon makes John D. Rockefeller even wealthier than he was as head of Standard Oil. Soon he's the richest man in history, with a net worth of over $660 billion in today's money. Even though the lawsuits let Rockefeller come out ahead, Theodore Roosevelt's efforts prevent new corporate monopolies from forming for several decades. Anyway, Rockefeller never really sees the error of his ways. To him, Standard Oil engaged in nothing but pure capitalism, although he does become more generous after the lawsuit. Throughout the rest of his lifetime, he donates about 15% of his net worth to charity, specifically to the Rockefeller foundation, which advances public health care around the world for decades to come. He also donates to churches and universities, pouring into the communities that helped him become a tycoon in the first place. By the time he died in 1937 at 96 years old, he seemed to understand that charity could build a far better legacy than greed. From Ballin Studios this is A Twist of History. A quick note about our stories. They're all heavily researched, but some details and scenes are dramatized. A Twist of History is hosted by me, Joel Blackwell, executive produced by Mr. Ballin and Zach Levitt. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Perry Kroll. This episode was written by Aaron Lan, story editing by Luke Baratz and Aaron Lan, edited by Alistair Sherman and audio mixing by Colin Lester Fleming. Post production supervision by Jeremy Bone and Cole Ocasio Research and fact checking by Abigail Shumway, Camille Callahan, Evan Beamer, Alex Paul, Patricia, Nicole Florentino, Calvin, Riley Holgate, Matt Gilligan, Matt Teamstra Production coordination by Delaina Corley and Samantha Collins artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner and Robin Vane. Thanks for listening to A Twist of History. You can listen to more of me over at the let's Read Podcast and let's read YouTube channel. See you next time.
