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Printed page 1510 of the McClellan Committee hearings: the chairman's statement that from 1949 through early 1953 Mr. Beck took more than $320,000 from the Teamsters union treasury in Seattle.
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McClellan Committee hearings, Part 5: Dave Beck testifies (26 and 27 March 1957)

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."

Date
1957-03-26/1957-03-27
Kind
hearing
Source
Internet Archive, scan of the printed hearings, Part 5
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Docket
Investigation of Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, Hearings before the Select Committee, 85th Cong., 1st sess., Part 5
Rights
A work of the United States Senate, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Read from the Internet Archive scan of the print and its OCR text; the page image stored here is from that scan.

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. The volume prints Beck’s home address, which is not repeated here.

itemInterim Report of the McClellan Committee, S. Rept. 85-1417 (March 1958)The select committee's report on its first year, ordered printed 24 March 1958. It finds that Dave Beck "took, not borrowed, more than $370,000 in union funds" and that James R. Hoffa "repeatedly betrayed the members of his own union."itemSenate Resolution 74 (85th Congress), as stated at the first McClellan Committee hearing, Part 1 (1957)The chairman's opening statement in Part 1 of the hearings of the Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field: "Senate Resolution 74, 85th Congress, agreed to January 30, 1957, established this select committee."itemSenator John F. Kennedy at a McClellan Committee session on the Teamsters, 26 February 1957 (Library of Congress)Warren K. Leffler's U.S. News & World Report photograph from a session of the committee investigating the Teamsters, dated 26 February 1957 in the log book. The Library's summary says it shows Senator John F. Kennedy as a member of the committee.