than the leaders in other industries. Judge Lindley agreed with the government, fining each defendant $10,000. In 1949, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Lindley's decision; A&P decided not to appeal further. In September, the anti-trust division asked the court to order the spinoff of A&P's manufacturing operations and the breakup of A&P's retail operations into seven independent companies. Thousands of letters poured into the Justice Department supporting A&P; the Hartford brothers gave extensive interviews with Time magazine and appeared on the November 13, 1950, cover. Time wrote that, next to General Motors, A&P sold more goods than any other retailer in the world. John was quoted as saying, "I don't know any grocer who wants to stay small ... I don't see how any businessman can limit his growth and stay healthy." The case dragged on into the business-friendly Eisenhower administration. In late 1953, the government agreed to drop its demands to break up A&P if they shut down their produce brokerage that also supplied competitors. In fighting the anti-trust suits, A&P also emphasized the considerable impact of their activities on the public welfare, which had been recognized as the legacy of George Hartford Sr. and his sons. The concepts pioneered and perfected by the Hartfords and their competitors enabled the public to enjoy healthier eating at lower cost. In 1950, the average American consumed 10 percent more food than in 1930, with poorer households enjoying an especially important improvement in the quality of the food they consumed. John Kenneth Galbraith supported this contention in his 1952 book, American Capitalism, by citing A&P as an example of countervailing power. To support his thesis, he discussed a 1937 A&P study of the feasibility of opening a plant to manufacture corn flakes. The mere possibility of A&P producing corn flakes forced existing corn flake manufacturers to lower their prices by 10%. A&P's decline began in the early 1950s, when they failed to keep pace with competitors that opened larger supermarkets with more modern features demanded by customers. By the 1970s, A&P stores were outdated, and efforts to combat high operating costs resulted in poor customer service. When these efforts failed to turn A&P around, the heirs of the Hartford family and the Hartford Foundation, which owned a majority of the stock, sold to the Tengelmann Group of Germany. 1951–1974: Post-Hartford era In 1951, John Hartford died in the Chrysler Building after