Evening star., 1951-12-11
Probers Trying
Data
About Beck
D. c. Agents Hear
Conflicting Stories on
Recorder Nominee
By Don S. Wurren
Stcr StofF CorreSoondent

Senate District Committee agents
today were trying to fight
through conflicting testimony to
determine if Earl w. Beck, Presi-
dent Truman's choice for District
recorder of deeds, had been flat
tered or libelled by witnesses heard
here.
They admitted today they had
not yet found the answer. But
they hoped to discover it before
their inquiry here is concluded in
day or two.
From witnesses in yesterdays
first day of closed hearings they
were told that Mr.. Beck. for Is
years head of a Jackson County
correctional home from which he
resigned under fire in 1910, was
a good administrator, or a bad
administrator, a victim of an anti
Pendergast reform sweep, or one
who too frequently beat his bad
boy" inmates.
ITcSSure 1nQlcateQs
Stories Of Kansas City's politi-
cal upheaval of the 1889 period
were told and retold, with various
twists.
That pressure has been brought
to bear to get wider support for
Senate confirmation for Mr.. Beck
for the $9,360 Washington City
government job seems pretty clear.
Judge Ray G. Cowan of the
State Circuit Court here, assigned
to juvenile court work, who will
be one of the later District Com
mittee witnesses, said he had re-
ceived appeals to back Mr.. Beck.
This attracted interest since he
publicly had attacked the Jackson
County Home for Negro Boys and
Girls during Mr.. Beck's regimel
there. His earlier blasts had
sparked page l stories in the KAN
sas City Star some 10 years agol
Yet less than two months ago he|
wrote the Senate District Commit
tee to commend Mr.. Beck as a
very able and competent man."
Admits Shift of Opinion.
Confirming the Kansas City.
Star accounts of his earlier at
tacks on the Beck industrial home,
Judge Cowan said: ':Yes, I did
jump on Mr.. Beck" He said he
had disagreed pretty violently"I
with some policies at the home, :,
and that he thought Mr.. Beck had
been "a little too rough"
Asked how this could be recon-
Iciled with his current support Of
Mr.. Beck, Judge Cowan declared
that the Jackson County Court
was partly to blame for cutting
welfare agency budgets.
In addition he said: 'I have
had calls from YMCA people to
back Beck, from the National AS
sociation for Advancement of COL
ored People, and from some mem
bers of the church group that I
myself belong to-"
He asked how he could reject
such pleas when all these repre-
Sentatives said Mr.. Beck was a
good man. His own criticisms Of
Mr.. Beck's management, he con-
cluded. boiled down to matters Of
Judgment"
Use of Strap Barred.
One of the stories that preceded
Mr.. Beck's retirement as head Of
the Jackson County home was that
he had beaten an inmate so that
blood ran down the boys legs.
He denied this at the October
hearings in Washington although
finally admitting he averaged
one whipping a month-using q
strap.
The key witness in this case.
dating back to the Kansas City
school board custer hearings in
1889, was Miss Rudy Locke, a
former teacher at the Beck insti-
tuition who was examined yester-
day. Committee Counsel Gerhard
P. Van Arkel and Republican as
sistant Robert C. Albrook said she
did not deny her previous testi-
mony but that she could not estab-
lish that any beating that may
have been done was administered
by Mr. Beck.
A much broader denial that Mr..
Beck used physical punishment
on his bad boys" was given the
committee by Judge Fred w. Kali
Der, a member of the Jackson
County court since 1910. He said
he personally had looked into
charges that Mr.. Beck had allowed
boys to be beaten with barrel
slaves and that he had concluded
they were untrue.
Lays Trouble to politics"
He put Mr.. Beck's custer
troubles all down to polite
A somewhat similar story was
given the Senate investigators by
Carl r. Johnson. colored attorney.
president of the Kansas City
branch of the, National Associa-
ton for Advancement of Colored
People. He said he had known
Mr.. Beck for many years and knew
of no case of "fagrant brutality"
The principal Beck opposition
witness yesterday was Norman
Howell. an attorney, who was one
of the leaders in this 1939-40
to sweep out remnants
of the old Pendergast machine.
He charged that Mr.. Beck's county
home inmates had been beaten,
that they had lacked proper food.
He told reporters also that "poh-
tics had nothing to do with that
'housecleaning job"
with land no longer used for Dis
trict public purposes.