Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…The monopoly was fading anyway, which probably was the other factor that made three things. One, Roosevelt bought the son of a bitch but he didn't stay bought. Two, Tarbell, the muckrakers, and public opinion. Three, legitimately, they're still the most powerful company in the world, but they weren't as powerful. I don't want to flash forward too far here, but I do know that in 1911, when the Federal Antitrust Law, when things went down, which I'll just leave there for a second, their market share had eroded to 64%. There were at least 147 other refining companies competing within the United States. At that point, John D. had left the company. You do have this really interesting scenario where, did it need to be broken up at that point? Are we chasing demons of 20 years earlier? We'll hold on that for now, but I think that's the thing to noodle on at this point. A bunch of crazy drama happens between 1906 and 1911, but it's all a sideshow. It just takes that long for all this to get to the Supreme Court. Then judgment day, May 15th, 1911, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward White read the decision.…

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