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Show by Ralph Robey Senator John L. McClellan, chairman of the Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor Management Field, which perhaps per-haps is better known as the Rackets Committee, has completed a seven sev-en weeks' Investigation of tthe International Brotherhood of Teamsters Team-sters and its president, James R. Hoffa. There was a relatively brief investigation of the Teamsters 'and Hoffa last year, but this time the Committee really gave them the works. The facts brought out were so shocking that Senator McClellan issued a special report in which he called for the "immediate resignation or removal" of Hoffa. He termed Hoffa a "cancer" in the labor movement. These are strong won Is and back of them are the following: ' charges by Senator McClellan: 1. That Hoffa "has not only placed hoodlums and men with crim-. crim-. inail records in key positions in thte union, but he and his chief lieutenants have consorted with the major racketeers and gangsters In the United States." 2. That Hoffa "spends the union's funds as if they were his own and handsomely takes oare of his cronies and friends." 3. That Hoffa "appears to labor under the belief that there is nothing that cannot be fixed," and always around him, for the protection pro-tection of himself and his hoodlum friends, is a staff of a dozen higgly paid attorneys which costs the union hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. 4. That Hoffa appears to "countenance the cheat, the lie, the steal and violence to gain his ends" and shows "arrogant disrespect for members of his union, for the general public, and for the United States Government." 5. That Hoffa is seeking power "greater than the people and greater than the Government." 6. That Hoffa, since his election as President of the Teamsters, has done nothing to rid the union of undesirable characters. 7. That Hoffa has used, or permitted to be used, millions of dolars of union funds for loans to gangsters and racketeers, or to back projects of his friends, or for his own personal benefit. All of these charges, it should be noted, grow out of information presented to the Committee by witnesses under oath, or are the result of staff investigation. Many of the statements, especially those relating re-lating to financial matters, were denied by Hoffa or other Teamster witnesses, but denials do not materially change the conclusion that this is truly a sorry mess that has been uncovered. |
