Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

After winning re-election in 1904, an election that coincides with the publication of Tarbell’s book, President Theodore Roosevelt decides that it is time to restrain Standard Oil. The public mood demands it. Several states, including Missouri, file lawsuits. Rockefeller has been retired for more than seven years, but he is still the face of the industrial behemoth and the most sought-after witness. In public, he exercises extreme caution; he fears violence and also wants to avoid being served with subpoenas. His seasonal homes become fortresses. He attempts to resign as president of Standard Oil—an honorary title to begin with—but the board denies his request.

In 1906, the Rockefellers sail for France to spend time with their ailing daughter Bessie. On the voyage, Rockefeller encounters New York journalist William Hoster; his attitude toward the press softens. Hoster treats Rockefeller with respect, and the titan grants him what amounts to an extended interview at Compiegne, near Paris, where Hoster becomes his “bosom companion” (529) on the golf course, on bike rides, and at dinners. A few months later, back in New York, Bessie dies following a paralytic stroke. In 1909, Rockefeller publishes his memoir Random Reminiscences. Mark Twain introduces Rockefeller as a speaker at a luncheon for New York publishers.

In 1906, the federal government begins its legal assault on Standard Oil. Individual states have targeted it in the past, but now the Roosevelt Administration is determined to reverse decades of industrial consolidation and break up the trust. Between the federal government and the states, Standard Oil in 1907 faces 13 separate lawsuits. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, future commissioner of Major League Baseball, presides over one case in Chicago and levies a historic $29.24 million fine, eventually overturned by a federal appeals court.

Meanwhile, Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan help rescue Wall Street from financial hemorrhaging during the Panic of 1807, an act that wins Rockefeller another small measure of goodwill from the public. Still, John D. Archbold’s history of paying spectacular dividends to stockholders, bribing public officials, and failing to control his legendary temper while testifying in court works against Standard Oil. William Randolph Hearst publicizes incriminating letters from Archbold relating to the bribery of congressmen. Junior resigns from both Standard Oil and US Steel to focus full-time on philanthropy and social causes such as “white slavery,” or what the modern world would call human trafficking (551). A federal circuit court rules against Standard Oil, and on May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court hears the appeal and upholds the ruling. Chief Justice Edward White announces the verdict that Standard Oil must be dissolved, though the decision includes caveats that soften its impact on trusts in other industries. Ironically, the breakup of Standard Oil sends the value of its formerly-constituent, newly-independent companies soaring. The breakup seeds modern oil giants such as Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, and later British Petroleum. In 1913, two years after the verdict, Rockefeller’s fortune swells to “a lifetime peak of $900 million” (556).

With Gates’s assistance, Rockefeller contemplates creating a “benevolent trust” of “unprecedented scale and scope” (563). In 1909, Rockefeller donates $50 million to the endowment of the Rockefeller Foundation, with Gates, Junior, and Harold McCormick as its three trustees. This foundation would be unrestrained by state or even national boundaries. New York state grants the Rockefeller Foundation a charter in 1913. Rockefeller already has a long history of massive philanthropic projects ranging from the University of Chicago to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. The Rockefeller Foundation, however, will prove to be the mechanism by which Rockefeller accelerates his pace of giving and broadens its reach. Gates is overburdened by the stress of managing Rockefeller’s wealth, so in 1913 Junior becomes president of the Foundation’s board of trustees. Initially, the Foundation focuses on Rockefeller’s philanthropic staple: medical research. Within a decade, however, the new philanthropic giant expands into China and elsewhere and becomes “the largest grant-making foundation on earth” (570).