Joseph David Beck (March 14, 1866 – November 8, 1936) was an American farmer, labor reform advocate, and progressive Republican politician from Vernon County, Wisconsin.

[1] At the time of Beck's graduation, Robert M. La Follette was in his first term as governor and had begun enacting his progressive agenda.

Beck was hired as deputy commissioner of the state Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics before completing his graduation.

The dual aims of the law were to ensure swift and reliable compensation for injured workers, and to protect businesses, taxpayers, and state court resources from the growing volume of tort suits.

Workers who had sustained a work injury that rendered them unemployable could be awarded permanent and total disability payments, but were not allowed to sue their employers.

[15][16] Beck announced in April 1920 that he would not run for governor and immediately raised speculation that he was instead planning a primary challenge against Republican U.S. representative John J.

[17] Within days, Beck formally launched his campaign for congress, challenging Esch in the Republican primary for Wisconsin's 7th congressional district.

At the time, the 7th congressional district comprised Adams, Clark, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Sauk, and Vernon counties, in western Wisconsin.

[22] With the incumbent, Zimmerman, floundering however, conservative Republicans threw their support behind popular Sheboygan businessman Walter J. Kohler.

[24] After the primary, a lawsuit was filed by prominent Madison attorney Fred M. Wylie, seeking to remove Kohler from the ballot due to alleged violations of state campaign finance rules.

The move, if allowed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, would have left Beck as the Republican gubernatorial nominee as the runner up in the primary.

[25][26] The Wisconsin Supreme Court, however, rejected the complaint; Kohler was allowed to proceed as the Republican nominee and went on to win the general election.

After taking office, La Follette appointed Beck to serve on the three-member commission of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Markets.

[2] Shortly after entering office, he went on the attack against the oleo (margarine) market in the state—as an alternative to butter, the product was despised by Wisconsin's dairy farmers.

Beck was a vocal opponent of the strike, saying that actions of the milk pool were hurting all of Wisconsin's farmers; he suggested that other initiatives undertaken by the agriculture department would be more effective to boost the dairy price.

[32] After reports of violence around the strikes, Beck attacked the milk pool president Walter M. Singler in a radio interview on WTMJ.