In the Rockefeller Estate, Sheffield and the Rockefeller siblings met with a reporter named Ida Tarbell, who was a banner of private antitrust. Of course, this negotiation could not be called friendly!

"There is no hatred that can't be resolved. If you are dissatisfied, just make a price and shut up." Edith Rockefeller looked at the woman in front of her with a very tough attitude. Under the other's unyielding attitude, she finally endured It couldn't help but explode.

"Miss Ada, your father was defeated by my father when he was young. This is all normal business competition. It is unreasonable for you to attack our company relentlessly over the past few years. Your reports are full of falsehoods and frame-ups. "Little Rockefeller also said righteously, "Where are you righteous again?"

Ida Tarbell's father also got involved in the oil field and became a ghost under the expansion of Standard Oil. Ida Tarbell later met a senior executive manager of Standard Oil and learned many unknown things about Standard Oil. Find an opportunity to publish it in a newspaper, and at the same time write a book to prove its success.

The exchanges between the two sides were full of gunpowder, which made Sheffield, who was originally an outsider, helpless. Looking at what he saw in front of him was after the subjugation of the country, it was somewhat similar to himself.

However, Sheffield still expressed his position and said with a sarcastic tone, "You just think that if your father succeeds, today's Standard Oil will be his. If it really comes to this, you will still raise your arms today." Scream, are trust companies harmful? All you are doing now is just jealousy."

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

Edith Rockefeller stood up directly. Before she could stand up completely, Sheffield grabbed her and sat down again. Then she heard her man say, "The fact that you can survive to this day proves that you are a lucky man."

"You dare to threaten a reporter?" Ida Tarbell said in disbelief. She is now a public figure. As a civil leader on antitrust laws, people care about her every move.

"You're not the first person I've threatened!" Sheffield took out a handkerchief dismissively, wiped the sweat on his face, and said to himself, "I've even threatened the Attorney General, why can't I threaten you? .What will happen if you spread the word? No one will testify for you. Who knows whether it is slander?"

"Then just watch!" Little Rockefeller knew that the negotiations had no results, so he spoke openly, "Ninety percent is not enough, Standard Oil needs more, and if the domestic supply is not enough, we need foreign supply. No one can stop us. ."

"That's right!" Sheffield said in agreement, "Do you expect a group of small workshops to compete with European companies? If you want to stand up among European companies, and you want full domestic competition, you want good services but no money. , do we companies owe you anything?”

This meeting not only did not calm the situation, but instead made the confrontation more intense. Sheffield directly raised the banner and signed an article in Princeton's New York Times praising his partner, the Rockefeller family, "We are refining oil for the poor." , the poor need good and cheap oil, and we have won credibility by relying on high quality and low price."

"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 Rockefeller's ally in the newspaper and shouted, "Once oil prices rise, new life will

The automobile industry may suffer setbacks in development, and this should be something the federal government considers."

"Some losers attribute their failure to other reasons. There is no other reason than their own incompetence." Sheffield said without mercy. "Escape from Europe and achieve success in the New World through personal efforts. People, especially

Men must compete in order to survive in the future, and cannot provide any assistance 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 the fact that your ancestors occupied the Indian land back then.

Today, if your ancestors had mercy, this is still a place for Indians. To survive or perish in competition is an individual's own choice. Don't use competition as an excuse to know that your turn is the weak one when you meet Indians.

Just longing for fairness is not fairness, but hypocrisy."

“Unwilling to admit one’s own incompetence, one instead curses the society around him as if he harbors deep hatred. Even those who have lost out in the competition complain bitterly about how unfair this society is, completely forgetting that they are participating in it.

The competition is equally ruthless. Ida Tarbell is just one of them, incompetent and stupid. We have many competitors around the world."

Ida Tarbell quickly started her own counterattack in public opinion, "Capitalists, workers, politicians, citizens - all are violating the law, or allowing the law to be trampled on. Who will defend the dignity of the law? Lawyers? This

Some of the best lawyers in the country have been raised, not to defend themselves in court, but to serve as consultants to corporations and businesses, teaching them how to circumvent the law without risking severe punishment. By judges? Many of them do.

Respecting the law so much that they return to court to release those found guilty because of a mistake or evasion.”

"That makes sense!" Seeing that Ida Tarbell's remarks in a newspaper that was hostile to him seemed to be particularly popular, Sheffield said to Edith Rockefeller when no one was watching, "Actually, it's still true.

We are a bit too undisguised. In fact, among the trusts, Standard Oil is not too extreme, and is even a very restrained company among them. However, because of its huge scale, Standard Oil is the largest trust, and it attracts all the firepower of other trusts to itself.

Already."

Because the leader of the trust company was under investigation by the Ministry of Justice, the stock market experienced unusual fluctuations. Sheffield almost slept dreaming about the days of the stock market crash. He instantly became alert. Although he had never experienced stock trading, he began to study this number game.

stand up.

At the same time, of course, he has not forgotten to continue to support Standard Oil's confrontation. To be fair, the bottom class longs for fairness. Slave owners understand it very well. It is understandable and it is understandable. National conflicts can be discussed, but class conflicts cannot be discussed. All he can do is

, standing next to Standard Oil without any hesitation, waving the flag and shouting.

As long as the nuclear bomb is not released, the threat faced by slave owners will always exist. The Manhattan Project is really what all the big companies in the United States dream of. If it reaches that point, 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 Standard Oil came out. Sheffield took the time to ask Edith Rockefeller, "Standard Oil has also been a frequent visitor to the Department of Justice. It has been since more than ten years ago."

Since two years ago, the Ministry of Justice has been living close to your family. Have there been such drastic fluctuations before?"

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

I dare not be uninterested in the past two years. Sheffield took a deep breath. If the leading trust in the United States, such as Standard Oil, is experiencing relatively large stock market fluctuations due to public opinion, it means that the current stock market is really not healthy.

Already.

The existence of Standard Oil is more significant to the United States in this era than Apple and Microsoft combined. No other company after Standard Oil can occupy such a high share of the industry. When Apple and Microsoft are a series of giant companies, because of some news about them

, all stock prices fluctuate, can this be said to be normal?

It can only be said that the stock market is no longer healthy, but this kind of fluctuation is harmless to Standard Oil. The Rockefeller family has huge cash flow and will not go bankrupt instantly like a trust company when it is run.

The White House did not take a position on other companies speaking for Standard Oil, nor on both sides of the trust's defense and opposition, as if it stayed out of the matter.

After several months of sitting and watching the public conflict among the public, Justice Minister Noske suddenly announced that after careful investigation and evidence collection, he believed that Standard Oil had violated the scope of unfair competition under the antitrust law and would fine him 2,000 yuan.

The administrative fine of $5 million does not require approval by the Supreme Court.

The news came and gave everyone a blow. The federal government, which had been silent all this time, issued a huge fine. Twenty-five million US dollars, an astronomical figure in the eyes of ordinary people.

When the news came, everyone felt like they were in a dream. Soon many people poured into the exchange and sold their Standard Oil stocks.

Standard Oil's stock began to fall continuously after the market opened. One-tenth of its market value disappeared in one day, and one-third of Standard Oil's market value had fallen in a few days.

"William, what should we do?" Edith Rockefeller was also a little anxious. She had never encountered such a scene since she could remember. Will the Rockefeller family go bankrupt if this continues?

Sheffield held Edith Rockefeller in his arms, reached out and patted her back to comfort her, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, the technical adjustment will make it go back up!" A few days are enough to see something, Standard Oil
Chapter completed!