# McClellan Committee hearings, Part 5: Dave Beck testifies (26 and 27 March 1957)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/mcclellan-part-5-beck-1957-03-26/

The select committee's hearing at which Teamsters president Dave Beck, sworn, challenged the committee's jurisdiction and declined to answer questions about union money, saying a truthful answer "might tend to incriminate me."

Part 5 of the printed hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field covers 26 and 27 March 1957. The committee had been created on 30 January 1957 by Senate Resolution 74; John L. McClellan was chairman and Robert F. Kennedy chief counsel.

In his opening statement (printed p. 1510) the chairman said the hearing was "scheduled primarily to allow Mr. Beck to turn over to the committee certain of his personal financial books and records," and that evidence before the committee "clearly indicates that from the years 1949 through the first 3 months of 1953, Mr. Beck took more than $320,000 from the teamsters union treasury in Seattle." This is the chairman's statement of what the committee expected to show, not a finding.

Sworn, Dave Beck gave his name, his Seattle residence and his Washington office, and said "I am president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America." He read a statement challenging the committee's jurisdiction and said he would assert all his constitutional privileges. Asked about specific sums, he answered that a truthful answer "might tend to incriminate me."

The committee's conclusions about Beck are in its [interim report of March 1958](/items/mcclellan-srept-85-1417-interim-report-1958/). The volume prints Beck's home address, which is not repeated here.

## Sources

- Internet Archive, scan of the printed hearings, Part 5: https://archive.org/details/investigationofi05unit
- Full text (OCR) on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/download/investigationofi05unit/investigationofi05unit_djvu.txt