Chapter 454 Don't be afraid, technical adjustments

In the Rockefeller estate, Sheffield and the Rockefeller siblings met with a reporter named Ida Tarbell, who was a banner of civilian antitrust. Of course, this negotiation was definitely not friendly!

"There is no hatred that cannot be resolved. If you are dissatisfied, just name a price and shut up." Edith Rockefeller looked at the woman in front of her with a very tough attitude. Faced with her relentless attitude, she finally couldn't help but explode.

"Miss Ida, your father was defeated by my father when he was young. This is all normal business competition. It is unreasonable for you to continue to attack our company for several years. Your reports are full of falsehoods and slanders." Rockefeller Jr. also said righteously, "Where is your justice?"

Ida Tarbell's father also got involved in the oil field and became a victim of Standard Oil's expansion. Ida Tarbell later met a senior executive manager of Standard Oil and learned a lot of unknown things about Standard Oil. She found an opportunity to publish it in newspapers and successfully published a book.

The communication between the two sides was full of tension, which made Sheffield, an outsider, feel helpless. Looking at the country in front of him, it seemed like a fallen country, which was somewhat similar to himself.

However, Sheffield still spoke up and stated his position, saying with a mocking tone, "You just think that if your father had succeeded, Standard Oil would be his today. If that really happened, would you still be shouting today that trusts are harmful? All you are doing now is just jealousy."

"I wonder who this guy who likes old women is?" Ida Tarbell looked at Sheffield and asked knowingly.

Edith Rockefeller stood up directly, but before she could stand up completely, Sheffield pulled her back and she sat down again. Then she heard her man say, "You are lucky to be alive today."

"You dare to threaten a reporter?" Ida Tarbell said in disbelief. She is now a public figure, and as a civilian leader in antitrust law, people are paying attention to her every move.

"You're not the first person I've threatened!" Sheffield took out a handkerchief with disdain, wiped the sweat off his face, and said to himself, "I've even threatened the Attorney General, so why can't I threaten you? What can you do if you spread the news? No one will testify for you, so who knows if it's slander?"

"Then you just wait and see!" Rockefeller Jr. knew that the negotiations would lead to no results, so he said, "Ninety percent is not enough, Standard Oil wants more, and if domestic supply is not enough, we need foreign supply. No one can stop us."

"That's right!" Sheffield agreed, "Do you expect a bunch of small workshops to compete with European companies? You want to hold your head up high in the European companies, and you want to fully compete in China. It's like you want good service but you don't want to pay. Do we owe you anything?"

This meeting not only failed to ease the situation, but made the confrontation more intense. Sheffield directly raised the banner and praised his partner, the Rockefeller family, in the New York Times under the name of Prinz, "We refine oil for the poor. The poor need good and cheap oil. We have won our reputation by providing high quality and low prices."

"Stable oil prices have supported the development of the automobile industry, which has allowed cars to enter thousands of households. Only Standard Oil can do this." Sheffield established the image of a Rockefeller ally in the newspaper and shouted, "Once oil prices rise, the nascent automobile industry may suffer a setback in development. This is something the federal government should consider."

"Some losers attribute their failures to other reasons. There is no other reason, it's just that they are incompetent." Sheffield said without mercy, "Escape from Europe and succeed in the New World through personal efforts. People, especially men, must compete in order to survive in the future. No assistance can be given to the weak. The weak must either support themselves or be eliminated by society. I would like to ask many people to pay attention to one thing. Your ancestors occupied the land of the Indians to get to where we are today. If your ancestors had mercy, this would still be the land of the Indians today. Survival or destruction in competition is a personal choice. Don't use competition as an excuse when you meet Indians. When you are the weak, you desire fairness. This is not fairness, but hypocrisy."

"They are unwilling to admit their own incompetence, but instead curse the society around them as if they have a deep hatred for it. Even those who have lost in the competition complain bitterly about how unfair this society is, completely forgetting that they were equally ruthless when they participated in the competition. Ida Tarbell is just one of them, not only incompetent but also stupid. We have many competitors all over the world."

Ida Tarbell soon began her counterattack in public opinion. "Capitalists, workers, politicians, citizens - all are breaking the law or allowing it to be trampled upon. Who will defend the dignity of the law? Lawyers? Some of the best lawyers in this country have been trained. Instead of defending in court, they serve as consultants to companies and businesses, teaching them how to circumvent the law without fear of severe punishment. Judges? Many of them respect the law so much that they return to court to release those who are guilty because of a mistake or excuse."

"That makes sense!" Seeing that Ida Tarbell's remarks in the newspaper that was hostile to him seemed to be particularly popular, Sheffield said to Edith Rockefeller when no one was watching, "In fact, we are a little too open about it. In fact, among the trusts, Standard Oil is not excessive. It is even a very restrained company. But because Standard Oil is huge and is the largest trust, it has attracted all the firepower of other trusts."

Because the leading trust company was investigated by the Ministry of Justice, the stock market experienced unusual fluctuations. Sheffield almost dreamed about the stock market crash when he woke up. He became alert in an instant. Although he had no experience in stock trading, he began to study this number game.

At the same time, he certainly did not forget to continue to support Standard Oil. To be fair, the slave owners understood that the lower classes longed for fairness. But they could understand. National conflicts could be discussed, but class conflicts could not. All he could do was to stand by Standard Oil and cheer for it, regardless of his conscience.

As long as nuclear bombs are not invented, the threat faced by slave owners will always exist. The Manhattan Project is indeed what all large companies in the United States dream of. If it comes to that, he has no doubt that the United States can also make a guarantee not to use nuclear weapons first, with the exception of civil war.

Because of the investigation by the Department of Justice, Standard Oil's stock price would fluctuate almost every time news about it came out. Sheffield took the time to ask Edith Rockefeller, "Standard Oil is also a frequent visitor to the Department of Justice. Since more than a decade ago, the Department of Justice has been like a close friend of your family. Has there ever been such a dramatic fluctuation before?"

"Not in my impression!" Edith Rockefeller asked curiously, "Aren't you not interested in the stock market?"

In the past two years, he has been very interested. Sheffield took a deep breath. If a leading trust in the United States like Standard Oil is experiencing large stock market fluctuations due to public opinion, it means that the current stock market is really not healthy.

The existence of Standard Oil is as significant to the United States as Apple and Microsoft combined. No other company has been able to occupy such a high share of the industry since Standard Oil. When a series of giant companies such as Apple and Microsoft all experience stock price fluctuations due to some news about them, can this be considered normal?

It can only be said that the stock market is unhealthy, but this fluctuation is harmless to Standard Oil. The Rockefeller family has huge cash flow and will not go bankrupt instantly like a trust company due to a run on the bank.

The White House did not make any statement on the issues concerning other companies speaking for Standard Oil, or on both the defense and opposition of the trust, as if it was staying out of the matter.

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After watching public opinion conflict for several months, Attorney General Noske suddenly announced that after a thorough investigation and evidence collection, he believed that Standard Oil had violated the unfair competition scope of the antitrust law and would be fined $25 million. The administrative fine did not require the approval of the Supreme Court.

The news came as a shock to everyone. The federal government, which had remained silent, issued a huge fine. Twenty-five million dollars was an astronomical figure in the eyes of ordinary people.

When the news came, everyone felt like they were in a dream, and soon many people flocked to the exchange and sold their Standard Oil stocks.

After the opening, Standard Oil's stock began to fall continuously. After one day, one-tenth of its market value disappeared. After a few days, the market value of Standard Oil had dropped by one-third.

"William, what should we do?" Edith Rockefeller was also a little anxious. She had never encountered such a situation since she could remember. If this continued, would the Rockefeller family go bankrupt?

Sheffield pulled Edith Rockefeller into his arms, patted her on the back and comforted her, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, it's just a technical adjustment, it will go back up!" A few days were enough to see some things. The stock plunge of Standard Oil did not affect other industries. It was a purely technical adjustment.

(End of this chapter)