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Ida Tarbell Quotes about Business

All Ida Tarbell Quotes Business quotes Peace
Very often people who admit the facts, who are willing to see that Mr. Rockefeller has employed force and fraud to secure his ends, justify him by declaring, 'It's business.' That is, 'it's business' has come to be a

Very often people who admit the facts, who are willing to see that Mr. Rockefeller has employed force and fraud to secure his ends, justify him by declaring, 'It's business.' That is, 'it's business' has come to be a legitimate excuse for hard dealing, sly tricks, special privileges.

Ida Tarbell
Business, People, Special

There is no gaming table in the world where loaded dice are tolerated, no athletic field where men must not start fair. Yet Mr. Rockefeller has systematically played with loaded dice, and it is doubtful if there has ever been a time since 1872 when he has run a race with a competitor and started fair.

Ida Tarbell
Running, Business, Men
"The History of the Standard Oil Company". Book by Ida Tarbell (originally serialized in nineteen parts in McClure's Magazine), 1904.

Now, if the Standard Oil Company were the only concern in the country guilty of the practices which have given it monopolistic power, this story never would have been written. Were it alone in these methods, public scorn would long ago have made short work of the Standard Oil Company. But it is simply the most conspicuous type of what can be done by these practices. The methods it employs with such acumen, persistency, and secrecy are employed by all sorts of business men, from corner grocers up to bankers. If exposed, they are excused on the ground that this is business.

Ida Tarbell
Country, Business, Men
Ida M. Tarbell (2009). “The History of the Standard Oil Company”, p.287, Cosimo, Inc.

Buy cheap and sell high is a rule of business, and when you control enough money and enough banks you can always manage that a stock you want shall be temporarily cheap. No value is destroyed for you - only for the original owner.

Ida Tarbell
Money, Business, Want
Ida M. Tarbell (2009). “The History of the Standard Oil Company”, p.269, Cosimo, Inc.

One of the most depressing features of the ethical side of the matter is that instead of such methods arousing contempt they are more or less openly admired. And this is logical. Canonise 'business success,' and men who made a success like that of the Standard Oil Trust become national heroes!

Ida Tarbell
Depressing, Business, Hero
Ida M. Tarbell (2012). “The History of the Standard Oil Company: Briefer Version”, p.224, Courier Corporation

We are a commercial people. We cannot boast of our arts, our crafts, our cultivation; our boast is in the wealth we produce. As a consequence business success is sanctified, and, practically, any methods which achieve it are justified by a larger and larger class.

Ida Tarbell
Art, Business, Class
Ida M. Tarbell (2009). “The History of the Standard Oil Company”, p.284, Cosimo, Inc.

When the business man who fights to secure special privileges, to crowd his competitor off the track by other than fair competitive methods, receives the same summary disdainful ostracism by his fellows that the doctor or lawyer who is 'unprofessional,' the athlete who abuses the rules, receives, we shall have gone a long way toward making commerce a fit pursuit for our young men.

Ida Tarbell
Business, Athlete, Fighting
Ida M. Tarbell (2009). “The History of the Standard Oil Company”, p.292, Cosimo, Inc.

The surprise of the fight on the long day, of the experiments with the shorter one, has been not only that the business could stand it, but that the business thrived under it as surely as the man did. It is but another of the proofs which are heaping up in American industry to-day that whatever is good for men and women - contributes to their health, happiness, development - is good for business.

Ida Tarbell
Business, Fighting, Men
Ida Minerva Tarbell (1916). “New Ideals in Business, an Account of Their Practice and Their Effects Upon Men and Profits”

[On dishonest business methods:] ... frequently the defender of the practice falls back on the Christian doctrine of charity, and points out that we are erring mortals and must allow for each other's weaknesses! - an excuse which, if carried to its legitimate conclusion, would leave our business men weeping on one another's shoulders over human frailty, while they picked one another's pockets.

Ida Tarbell
Christian, Business, Fall

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