21. Other states hop on the Pennsylvania bandwagon
Once Pennsylvania leveled charges on Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller for creating a monopoly which controlled the oil industry in the United States, other states quickly joined in the legal action. Each state which brought charges, or initiated investigations, did so only within its own borders, rather than in federal courts. Rockefeller was forced to face them individually, based on the practices and activities within the several states, which took up increasing amounts of his time and attention and appeared to him to be another hated waste. As investigations increased, so did the sensationalist coverage in the nation’s newspapers and magazines, ironically often read of an evening in the flickering light of oil lamps lit by kerosene provided to the consumer by Standard Oil.