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Peter Speek and Migratory Labor: An Estonian Revolutionary Finds the Real America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2010

Greg Woirol
Greg Woirol
Affiliation:
Whittier College
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Extract

Peter Alexander Speek arrived in the United States in the fall of 1908 at the age of 35, “having in my pocket only 4c and knowing hardly more English words.” A leader of revolutionary activities against Russian rule in his native Estonia, Speek came to the U.S. a committed socialist intent on developing worker awareness and leading the class struggle. After two years in New York, Speek traveled to the West Coast, entered the graduate program i n economics at the University of Wisconsin, and worked two years as an investigator for the United States Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR). During his time with the CIR, Speek traveled widely across the United States, “visiting labor camps, cheap city lodging houses, gatherings of hoboes and tramps in so-called ‘jungles’, interviewing employers and various public agencies.” Speek wrote dozens of reports during these investigations that served as the foundation for official CIR policy recommendations and for a series of popular press articles on current migratory conditions. In doing this work, Speek became a recognized authority on migratory labor issues. Reference to Speek's reports can be found in studies of early-twentieth-century migratory labor conditions, but a specific evaluation of Speek and of his contributions has not been written. Speek's work for the CIR is of interest because of its subject matter and its comprehensive coverage. Speek's work is also of interest because it was during this period that Speek rejected his revolutionary socialism and became a structural reformer, accepting the basic U.S. economic and political system and working to improve the details of its institutions.

Type
Essays
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 2005 , pp. 293 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2005

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References

1 Peter Alexander Speek to Laura Lee Speek and Peter Alexander Speek II, September 10, 1957, Typescript, Peter Alexander Speek papers (hereafter Speek papers). The Speek papers are held by the widow of Speek's son, Peter Valiant Speek.

2 , Speek, “From Ellis Island to American Citizenship,” September 1927Google Scholar , typescript, Peter Alexander Speek Collection, Estonian Archives in the United States, Lakewood, New Jersey (hereafter Speek collection), 14. Speek published a revised version of “From Ellis Island to American Citizenship” in Human dilations in Industry: A Summary of the Tenth Annual Industrial Conference, Industrial Department of the Young Men's Christian Associations (New York, 1928), 38–44Google Scholar .

3 Speek's research was used as the foundation for a series of articles by Irwin, Will, “The Floating Laborer,” The Saturday Evening Post, May 9, 1914, 3-5, 41-42, 44-45, 48–50Google Scholar ; June 6, 1914, 8-9, 61-63; July 4, 1914,14-15, 45-46.

4 For recent references to Speek's reports see Higbie, Frank Tobias, Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880-1930 (Urbana, 2003), 26, 66-67, 82 83, 210Google Scholar ; or Cresswell, Tim, The Tramp in America (London, 2001), 118Google Scholar . The most widely recognized authority on migratory labor issues in Speek's time was Carleton H. Parker. Parker directed studies of migratory labor for the California Commission on Immigration and Housing and became famous for his reports on the 1913 Wheatland hop-fields riot in California and for his analysis of casual labor conditions. Parker knew and admired Speek's work, had Will Irwin's Saturday Evening Post articles based on Speek's studies distributed to all his investigators, and met with Speek to discuss their mutual investigations when Speek traveled to San Francisco in September 1914. For Parker's reports see “Report on the Wheatland Hop Fields' Riot” and “The Casual Laborer,” both in Parker, Carleton H., The Casual Laborer and Other Essays (New York, 1920)Google Scholar . Parker ordered the distribution of Irwin's articles and commented favorably on Speek's work in “Instructions for Use of Schedule 8,” n.d., typescript, U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, Department of Labor, Record Group 174, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter CIR records). Speek summarized his meetings with , Parker in “Report on the Situation of Migratory Laborers and Unemployment in California,” October 3, 1914, Typescript, CIR recordsGoogle Scholar .

5 Author interview with Peter Valiant Speek, June 8, 1996. Also , Speek, “Personal Information Regarding Peter Alexander Speek,” November 2, 1966, typescript, Speek collectionGoogle Scholar ; “The Author,” n.d., typescript, Speek papers; and Riisna, Eduard, “Ninety-Five Years of Dr. Peeter Alexander Speek: To His Birthday on June the 16th,” 1968Google Scholar , typescript, Speek collection.

6 Raun, Toivo U., “The Revolution of 1905 and the Movement for Estonian National Autonomy, 1896-1907” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1969): 70Google Scholar . Also see , Raun, Estonia and the Estonians, 2nd ed. (Stanford, 1991), 82–86Google Scholar .

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19 Speek's hiring and assignment are described in a letter of reference written for Speek by Frank P. Walsh, chair of the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, August 20, 1915, typescript, Speek papers. For details about the work of the Industrial Relations Commission see , Adams, Age of Industrial Violence, 204–14Google Scholar , and Fitzpatrick, Edward A., McCarthy of Wisconsin (New York, 1944), 191–96Google Scholar . For a list of Speek's reports see “Reports of All Investigators of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations,” CIR records.

20 For recent discussions of the age of tramping workers see Monkkonen, Eric H., ed., Walking to Work: Tramps in America, 1790-1935 (Lincoln, Neb., 1984), 1–15Google Scholar ; Wormser, Richard, Hoboes: Wandering in America, 1870-1940 (New York, 1994)Google Scholar ; Kusmer, Kenneth L., Down & Out, On the Road: The Homeless in American History (New York, 2002)Google Scholar ; Cresswell, The Tramp in America; and Higbie, Indispensible Outcasts.

21 The estimates of the size of the itinerant population are in , Parker, The Casual Laborer, 80Google Scholar ; , Speek, “Report on Psychological Aspect of the Problem of Floating Laborers (An Analysis of Life Stories),” June 25, 1915Google Scholar , typescript, CIR records, 1; and Monkkonen, Eric H., Introduction, in Walking to Work, 8Google Scholar .

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30 , Speek, “Psychological Aspect,” 92–113Google Scholar . Two of these life histories were later published as , Speek, “Autobiographies of Floating Laborers,” in Trade Unionism and Labor Problems, Second Series, ed., Commons, John R. (Boston, 1921), 94–103Google Scholar . The age distribution of the men in the surviving CIR life history sample of Speek's interviews is: 15-19: 2; 20-29: 13; 30-39: 9; 40-49: 3; 50-59: 3. Of the thirty men, sixteen were immigrants and fourteen born in the United States. Of the immigrants, eleven claimed a trade, and five said they had no skilled trade. Of those born in the U.S., eight claimed a trade, and six did not. Wilson's story is in , Speek, “Psychological Aspect,” 91–99Google Scholar . Peterson's story is in , Speek, “Psychological Aspect,” 104–13Google Scholar , and in , Speek, “Autobiographies,” 97–103Google Scholar . For an account of the work of the Industrial Workers of the World among the harvest workers of the Midwest see Dubofsky, Melvyn, We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World (Chicago, 1969), 313–18Google Scholar ; or Hall, Greg, Harvest Wobblies: The Industrial Workers of the World and Agricultural Laborers in the American West, 1905-1930 (Corvallis, 2001), 80–101Google Scholar .

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32 , Speek, “REPORT: An Investigation of Floating Laborers in Superior, Wis., and Duluth, Minn, January 1914,” n.d., typescript, CIR records, 12, 4–6Google Scholar .

33 , Speek, “A General Report, on the Labor and life Conditions in the Labor Camps of the State of New York,” June 22, 1914Google Scholar , typescript, CIR records, 8.

34 , Speek, “Labor Camps of the State of New York,” 4–5Google Scholar .

35 , Speek, “Labor Camps of the State of New York,” 9Google Scholar .

36 , Speek, “Labor Camps of the State of New York,” 9Google Scholar .

37 Speek, “Observations,” n.d., typescript, CIR records, 2.

38 Speek, “Report on the Preliminary Investigation of the Harvest Hand Situation in the States of Kansas and Missouri, June 25-July 5,1914,” n.d., typescript, CIR records, 7.

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40 , Speek, “Harvest Hand Situation,” 8, 10–13Google Scholar .

41 , Speek, “A Report on the Preliminary Investigation of the Construction Camps in the States of Dakota and Montana from July 25 to August 10, 1914,” August 7, 1914Google Scholar , typescript, CIR records, 9,11-12.

42 , Speek, “Report on the Interviews with the Unemployed Migratory Workers in the Streets and Public Parks in San Francisco, Sept. 25-30, 1914,” October 4, 1914Google Scholar , typescript, CIR records, 1, 3-4. For a summary of Speek's evaluation of conditions in Washington state see Speek, “Some of My General Observations and Impressions in the life and Labor Conditions of the Casual Laborers in the State of Washington,” n.d., typescript, CIR records.

43 , Speek, “Observations,” 2Google Scholar .

44 , Speek, “Report on Labor Complaints and Claims,” April 15, 1915Google Scholar , typescript; “Report on Conditions in Labor Camps,” June 4, 1915Google Scholar , typescript; “Report on Psychological Aspect,” June 25, 1915Google Scholar , typescript; “Report on Transportation of Laborers,” July 15, 1915Google Scholar , typescript; “Report on Cheap Lodging Houses in the Cities,” July 25, 1915Google Scholar , typescript; and “Conclusions and Reform Projects in Regard to Floating Laborers,” n.d., typescript, all CIR records.

45 Speek included the story in a later report on labor conditions in Wisconsin. , Speek, “Floating Laborers in Milwaukee,” 6Google Scholar .

46 , Speek, “Report on the Strike of Railroad Laborers on the Milwaukee Ch. St. Paul R.R. near Deer Lodge, Mont.,” August 24, 1914Google Scholar , typescript, CIR records, 5.

47 , Speek, “Psychological Aspect,” 10Google Scholar .

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50 “Final Reports of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations,” The Survey 34 (September 4, 1915): 525–26Google Scholar .

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53 , Speek, “From Ellis Island,” 5, 7, 6Google Scholar .

54 , Speek, “Fro m Ellis Island,” 9,10, 15Google Scholar .

55 , Speek, “From Ellis Island,” 10–12Google Scholar . Also see , Speek, A Stake in the Land (orig. pub. 1921Google Scholar , repr. Montclair, N.J., 1971), 130-33.

56 , Speek, “From Ellis Island,” 15Google Scholar .

57 John R. Commons, “Introduction,” to , Speek, “The Singletax and the Labor Movement,” in Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 878 (Madison, 1917): 251–52Google Scholar .

58 , Riisna, “Ninety-Five Years,” 6Google Scholar .

59 , Riisna, “Ninety-Five Years,” 2, 6Google Scholar .

60 Author interview with Peter Valiant Speek.

61 Speek to Laura Lee Speek, Speek papers; Speek, “The Author.”

62 Speek, “The Singletax.” Speek's publications based on his work for th e CIR included “The Need of a Socialized Jurisprudence,” The American Journal of Sociology 22 (January 1917): 503–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; “The Psychology of Floating Workers,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 69 (January 1917): 72–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; and “Autobiographies,” in Trade Unionism. A detailed list of Speek's work is included in Speek, “Collection of Publications and Manuscripts for Laura Lee Speek and Peter Alexander Speek II from their Grandfather Peter Alexander Speek, October 24,1957,” Speek papers.

63 For example, see Speek's proposals for government regulations to help immigrants as related to private schools, immigrant churches, public schools, adult schools, rural libraries, and community theaters in , Speek, A Stake in the Land, 180-81, 194, 222-25, 241-43, 244-51, 254–56Google Scholar .

64 Furlough, Ellen and Strikwerda, Carl, “Economics, Consumer Culture, and Gender: An Introduction to the Politics of Consumer Cooperation” in Consumers against Capitalism? Consumer Cooperation in Europe, North America, and Japan, 1840-1990, ed. Furlough, Ellen and Strikwerda, Carl (New York: 1999), 3Google Scholar .

65 Speek, “Peter Alexander Speek,” n.d., typescript, Speek papers, 4. Also see , Speek, A Stake in the Land, 136–42Google Scholar .

66 , Speek, “Peter Alexander Speek,” 5Google Scholar . Howe, Frederic C., Denmark: A Cooperative Commonwealth, (New York, 1921)Google Scholar .