A Sandburg Stumper

[Rob Wick]

I'm officially out of clues so I'm going to call this. The answer is that both wrote about John D. Rockefeller in a controversial way. Tarbell, of course, wrote the Standard Oil series, but Sandburg wrote about the 1910 UMW strike in Colorado. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, which was owned by Rockefeller, was the site of what came to be known as the Ludlow Massacre. Sandburg wrote in 1915 in the Chicago Daybook that Rockefeller had hired Ivy Lee, whom Sandburg referred to as "a paid liar" as a public relations expert. I heard this while listening to Ron Chernow's biography of Rockefeller.

Best
Rob