----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Barry" <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
You were speaking -- although you appear ignorant of it -- of the 1947 LA CIVIL suit over the LA Red car trolley lines. GM lost: they had to pay $1.I was thinking of UNITED STATES V. NATIONAL CITY LINES. Is that the same case?
Yes, same case. GM, Firestone, Standard Oil, and Phillips Petroleum formed National City Lines, a Bus Company, and NCL bought out Streetcar franchises nationwide, including the LA Red trolley line. GM made National City Lines buy only GM busses. (Go figure.) That was found to be against antitrust laws, so GM was fined $5K, and each GM executive was fined a buck apiece.
But the case spawned an industry of folklore of how GM killed off the trolley in the US, and if it weren't for nasty evil GM we'd still be able to ride trolleys today.
There was a fairly long exchange here a few years back on the subject, and I hope I don't trigger a repeat performance.
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