Did General Motors destroy the LA mass transit system?

Cecil’s column Jan 10, 1986.
Cecil covered the subject but left out some interesting pieces.

The rapid decline of trolleys in America was started after the Federal government
ordered the Electric companies in America to sell their interest in public transportation in 1935. *{One reason for this was that it gave electric companies too much influence on public officials through routing and service in their electorate. }*1935 was the high point of the depression and the automobile industry was foundering. General Motors in 1932 formed a transit company that bought other transit companies replaced their trolleys with buses and then sold them (often for a loss) with the requirement that the new owners must by GM buses. By 1937 GM took on partners like Chevron, Phillips, Firestone, Mack, and Greyhound to form an even bigger transit company. Because GM used various transit companies, most communities didn’t know GM was even in the picture. When communities did recognize GM’s involvement, Gm just went somewhere else. Between 1936 and 1955 the number of trolleys in America had dropped from 40,000 to 5,000. GM’s National City Lines had accounted for removing trolleys in 45 major cities. GM and the other owners of National were indicted in 1949 on charges of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. GM was later found guilty of not antitrust but of violating business law by requiring affiliated companies into buying only GM buses.
While trolleys were in decline before GM’s practices, GM did hurry its demise. One wonders, if left to itself, if trolleys could have turned the corner and returned to their glory days. After the interstate programs of the 50s and 60s the experts said that days of “off-road” vehicles was gone. Now SUVs are the norm. In the late 1980s the experts said network television was dead, cable had won. Now in 2005 we have 4 more networks(FOX,UPN,WB, PAX). Radio died in the 1990s but now we have satellite radio. In fact, could subways not be just an underground trolleys? I believe even LA started a subway system.

As for GM’s Nazi history, Germany restricted the export of profits in the 1930s and here is the difference of two companies. GM reinvested the profits from Opel into other industries that made war goods. Another America company, Coca Cola reinvested into its own consumer industry. When America entered the war with Germany, the Coca Cola company renamed itself Fanta and continued to only invest in the soft drink industry. Coke recieved little complaints after the war, but not so for GM. But this was nothing new for GM because in 1934, retired marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler{I swear I didn’t make up this name!} testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that he had been approached to lead a fascist army of veterans to overthrow FDR. The group that approached him included, he was told, the Dupont family and its company GM. While several people confirmed the general’s testimony, Congress felt there wasn’t physical evidence to continue investigating the claim. But in that same year, 1934, GM did start funding an ultra rightwing anti-Roosevelt group called the American Liberty League. An agreement printed into the Congressional Record in August 1942, showed that GM had signed with the Nazis in 1937…to do whatever was possible to replace FDR with a leader that would favored Germany and shared its facist beliefs.

Now General Motors has a very interesting history, these two subjects are just the beginning…the story of the Corvair is a lot more fun. Better yet, let me tell you about the 1953 Buick Roadmaster…its starts… :slight_smile: