Full GM Record Should Be Aired Before A Bailout

I'm guessing that Congress will fashion some sort of financial package for the US auto industry, but before the deal is struck, it would be helpful to generations of Americans less aware of history to have two GM-related items put on the record.

The first was GM's sabotage of its 1960's electric car. As the auto company pleads for taxpayer dollars in the billions to help it stay afloat in a period highlighted by its launch of the electric Chevrolet Volt, let's have GM acknowledge and explain why it killed off its own electric car nearly a half-century ago.

And let's have the House of Representatives reproduce the findings of the late Wright Patman, a Democrat from Texas, who was among those who documented the conspiracy among GM, Firestone and Standard Oil to destroy urban electric rail transit systems in favor of buses that ran on rubber tires and combustion engines.

I remember when the trolley tracks were ripped out of the streets in my hometown of Washington, DC in favor of buses.

I cannot say if Milwaukee's electric trolley systems were specifically part of the GM-Firestone-Standard Oil cabal, but it's well known that the city had both intra-city rail and numerous high-speed interurban trains west to Oconomowoc and south to Chicago that could hit 120 m.p.h.

These losses are still felt today, and the ironies are obvious, as we are trying to introduce modern city trains (light rail) and high-speed Midwest Rail to replace Amtrak.

GM, Firestone and Standard Oil companies used a front company called National City Lines to buy out the rail lines and convince municipalities and other operators to bring in bus systems instead.

After court proceedings, guilty verdicts and appeals, some convictions were upheld, and small fines levied, but the policy and environmental damage had been done, with electric transport again sidetracked in favor of GM non-electric engine and vehicle sales.

GM has a lot of explaining to do that predates its reliance on SUV's and light trucks at the expense of fuel-efficient cars and hybrids.

Congress has a teaching function to perform along with its fiscal stewardship of our tax dollars.

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