For years corporations and politicians, too, during any major event play the unfounded  blame game to curry favor in public opinion, even what they relayed had no factual basis. At the same time, behind closed doors, their actions were the opposite.

An interesting case occurred on September 17, 1917 when the south lumberyard of Red River Lumber Company’s Westwood operation caught fire.The fire destroyed two million board feet of lumber valued at $800,000. Officials were quick to pass judgement that it was an arson set by the Industrial World of Workers (IWW) a union detested by lumber companies. While the charges would later be unfounded, Red River’s initial message of the dangers of unions was the major headlines and that was what the public believed.

The story does not end there. Red River filed a lawsuit against American Cast Iron Pipe Company for $91,305.31 for defective water pipes that hampered fire-fighting. As can be customary in civil litigation, the case dragged on and did not go to trial until June 1923. The court side with American Cast Iron Pipe  and Red River lost the case.

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