Broussais Coman Beck, Seattle businessman and rowing enthusiast, was born in Walla Walla, Wash., on Aug. 29, 1886. He attended the University of Washington and was active in both football and rowing, winning outstanding honors as an oarsman. He left the UW in 1910, and finished his education at Yale, graduating in electrical engineering in 1911. Despite this degree, he went into merchandising, taking department-store jobs in Boston and Portland before a position as the Bon Marche's store manager brought him back to Seattle. He remained a staunch supporter of rowing, and became chairman of the Board of Rowing Stewards at the UW shortly after its inception. He advocated the Washington style of rowing developed by his UW coach, Hiram Conibear, and played an important role in its adoption at Yale and at the University of California. His support for and interest in UW rowing culminated in his 1923 book, Rowing at Washington . In 1929, he turned his attention to the development of "day-light tube" lighting, establishing the Luminous Tube Corporation and serving as its first president. He had suffered from fragile health for much of his life, and after a prolonged illness, he died in Seattle on Aug. 7, 1936.
As the Bon Marche's store manager during the Seattle general strike of 1919, Beck had spies planted into the ranks of the labor movement. The use of agents to infiltrate the labor movement was a common practice at the time, employed not only by the Bon Marche but by police, the federal government, and other employers. The Bon Marche played a central role in galvanizing an uncompromising employer reaction to the labor crisis. In response to the strike, employers formed an alliance called the Associated Industries, presided over by Frank Waterhouse, whose business interests included the department store. After the strike failed, labor leaders called for a boycott of the Bon Marche as part of the strategy against the Associated Industries. The Bon Marche's labor policy required accurate advance information, so in order to insure precise reports Beck tried to keep strict control over his agents, but wasn't always successful. One of Beck's agents gained enough access into the Industrial Workers of the World organization to audit the financial reports of its Northwest Committee for political prisoners.
From the guide to the Broussais C. Beck papers, 1919-1961, (University of Washington Libraries Special Collections)
