Morley Safer - Correspondent:  The conspirators had managed , in the decade from _ 1936 _ to 1946 , to dismantle streetcar lines in forty - five cities . The key to the federal case was intent . Did the defendants just go along with the national trend , or did they destroy electric mass - transit on purpose ? The juries and the judges said that they were big boys and they knew what they were doing . But Dixon thinks the punishment was ridiculous . The government had asked that individual corporate officers be sent to jail .
William Dixon: The government did not get them , much to my disquietous surprise and personal disgust .
Morley Safer - Correspondent: What was the punishment for the individuals ?
William Dixon: Well , the judge said this was nothing more than a " traffic violation " by the defendants , and he imposed a one - dollar fine on the individual defendants as punishment .
Morley Safer - Correspondent: The corporations , on the other hand , were given the maximum penalty : a $ 5000 fine .