How the feds crippled a transportation giant

Here’s an interesting contrast to how the federal government has changed during the past century: Many Americans have expressed chagrin over Washington recently lending General Motors and Chrysler billions of dollars to help keep the automakers afloat. By comparison, a century ago the feds effectively brought the locomotive-manufacturing industry to its knees with heavy-handed legislation that ultimately cost thousands their jobs and did significant permanent damage to the US economy.

While the recent bailouts of GM and Chrysler are relatively fresh in most people’s minds, what happened in the first decade of the 20th century is obscure history to most. But it’s no less instructive in how government has the power to giveth and the power to taketh away.