Beckman adopted a pacifist stance in the years before World War II. He wrote an open letter to Senator William Borah of Idaho encouraging him in his efforts to maintain American neutrality. At a rally on October 20, 1939, Beckman supported noted radio priest Father Charles Coughlin in his stand for peace. The next week he went on the radio with Coughlin and said that the Communists wanted the U.S. to enter the war so that worn out by the war, it would be more susceptible to communist thought. He made numerous speeches against U.S. involvement in the war until Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese.