1) A subset of the language had to be developed to describe Rockefeller. This subset translates poorly into present-day English. The language used had its own rules.
2) "Anti trust" changed in meaning over time.
3) "Monopsomy" contracts with (what came to be ) common carriers was the thing at issue. We live with countless monopsomies today.
4) People like Teddy Roosevelt and Wm. Randolph Hearst built their own empires partially by opposing men like Rockefeller.
5) You cannot psychologize 19th century people in terms of 21st century thinking. Just disease and hunger made them radically different. Trauma was rampant.
6) SFAIK, this ensconced "competition" as a legal good, which has continued to be problematic. The result of the breakup of SO pretty much confirmed what Rockefeller predicted about competition. The resulting stock was MUCH more valuable after the breakup. If anything, that is a measure of how his extreme parsimony held down costs in a public-goods sort of way.
7) I think the change in price of lighting oil has been radically underestimated in its effect on people's daily lives. The subsequent advent of the electric lamp shifted productivity upward even more.
8) There was no boilerplate for the relationship between mass labor and corporations at the time. A coal shortage may have been life threatening under conditions. See also the 1902 Anthracite Strike w/ Teddy Roosevelt as President.
I suspect the Rockefellers ( Jr. and Sr. ) can be more seen as part of the solution than part of the problem in Ludlow. That might have been calculated and PR oriented on their part but still....
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." - LP Hartley.
Comments
1) A subset of the language had to be developed to describe Rockefeller. This subset translates poorly into present-day English. The language used had its own rules.
2) "Anti trust" changed in meaning over time.
3) "Monopsomy" contracts with (what came to be ) common carriers was the thing at issue. We live with countless monopsomies today.
4) People like Teddy Roosevelt and Wm. Randolph Hearst built their own empires partially by opposing men like Rockefeller.
5) You cannot psychologize 19th century people in terms of 21st century thinking. Just disease and hunger made them radically different. Trauma was rampant.
6) SFAIK, this ensconced "competition" as a legal good, which has continued to be problematic. The result of the breakup of SO pretty much confirmed what Rockefeller predicted about competition. The resulting stock was MUCH more valuable after the breakup. If anything, that is a measure of how his extreme parsimony held down costs in a public-goods sort of way.
7) I think the change in price of lighting oil has been radically underestimated in its effect on people's daily lives. The subsequent advent of the electric lamp shifted productivity upward even more.
8) There was no boilerplate for the relationship between mass labor and corporations at the time. A coal shortage may have been life threatening under conditions. See also the 1902 Anthracite Strike w/ Teddy Roosevelt as President.
I suspect the Rockefellers ( Jr. and Sr. ) can be more seen as part of the solution than part of the problem in Ludlow. That might have been calculated and PR oriented on their part but still....
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." - LP Hartley.