Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 28, 1993 TAG: 9312280132
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Seattle Times
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Medium
Once one of Seattle's most celebrated Beck figures - a University of Washington regent, member of the state parole board and confidant of presidents - Beck saw his empire topple during the Senate racketeering investigations of 1957 when, red-faced and angry, he took the Fifth Amendment 142 times.
After serving 2 1/2 years at McNeil Island Federal penitentiary in Puget Sound for signing a false income tax return for his union, Beck returned, still protesting his innocence, to buy and sell property to help pay off $1.2 million in attorney fees. He said the property sales earned him a lot more than all his years as a union leader, where his top salary was $50,000.
Born in Stockton, Calif., on June 16, 1894, Beck came to Seattle with his parents when he was 4. He sold newspapers, did some amateur prizefighting and dropped out of school at age 15 to drive a laundry truck. After serving in the Navy in World War I, he began his rise through the ranks of the labor movement. He helped break the 1919 Seattle General Strike, spearheaded by the radical Industrial Workers of the World, by convincing his fellow laundry-truck drivers to vote against the strike. All Teamsters, he said, eventually joined in to break the back of the strike.
Ever after, he would point to his strong anti-communist stand.
In 1924, Beck was elected secretary-treasurer of his truck-driver's local, and the following year was hired as a Teamsters organizer.
Although Beck's "goon squads" became notorious, he personally steered clear of most violence and said he condoned fists and clubs only in self-defense.
In 1952, Beck, by then executive vice president of the International Teamsters Union, was elected by acclamation to succeed Dan Tobin as president.
For Beck, the sky seemed to be the limit until the U.S. Senate, via the McClellan Rackets Hearings, began an investigation of alleged misuse of Teamster funds in 1957. Under the glare of television cameras, Beck eventually appeared before a Senate committee, where he underwent relentless questioning by the committee's legal counsel, Robert Kennedy. Beck took the Fifth Amendment 142 times. Internal Revenue Service audits of union records and Beck's personal finances already had begun.
In the aftermath, the Teamsters were ousted from the AFL-CIO and Beck announced he wouldn't seek re-election to the union's top job.
by CNB