Last Go-Round

Teamsters Boss Jimmy Hoffa did his personal bit to uphold his union's reputation last week as he barked through an eight-hour sitting before Arkansas' John McClellan's labor rackets committee, chewed out a torrent of words that filled almost 400 pages of transcript. When he was finally excused. Boss Hoffa walked out of the hearings no more damaged--and not a whit nearer to respectability--than when he first sat down.

The long session was the committee's last go-round with Hoffa (unless it should dredge up some new evidence). It held particular importance for the Brothers Kennedy--suntanned Committee Counsel Robert, whom Hoffa detests, and Massachusetts' Senator John, who had hoped that a fresh public examination of Hoffa's questionable dealings might help his labor bill along in the House--a matter of increasing urgency since Hoffa is now mulling over the idea of creating a nationwide "council" of transport workers with the help of Red-tinged Harry Bridges of the West Coast International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union.

Again and again. Hoffa. regally referring to himself in the third person, grabbed the initiative, freely accused Bobby Kennedy of "headline hunting." once grimly threatened to sue him for making anti-Hoffa speeches.

With Jack Kennedy. Hoffa tangled over the Kennedy labor bill:

Senator Kennedy: Mr. Hoffa, after again listening to you today, you do remain still the best argument for the passage of the bill.

Hoffa: I reserve the right . . . when this bill is passed to advertise to every worker in America the individuals who voted to put the yoke around their neck and destroyed their union.

Kennedy: So there will be no mistake of it. I hope when it passes you will attempt to do that.

Hoffa: You bet your life I will advertise.

As Hoffa left the crowded Senate caucus room at hearing's end, the McClellan committee had little cause for rejoicing. After three years of concentrated digging and tons of testimony, Jimmy Hoffa was a more arrogant, more dangerous labor boss than ever. And, as if to prove it, he headed off to Miami Beach to urge the convention of the International Longshoremen's Association to join with the Teamsters and West Coast Longshoremen in one big happy labor family--which, incidentally, would have tight control over the principal arteries of the nation's transportation.

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