Robert Owen
Robert Owen (14 May 1771, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales � 17 November
1858) was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of socialism
and the cooperative movement. Owen's philosophy, which Karl Marx would
later name utopian socialism, was derived from three fundamental pillars
of his thought. First, he believed that no one was "responsible for his
will and his own actions" because "his whole character is formed
independently of himself." Owen firmly believed that people were the
product of their environment, which fueled his support for education and
labour reform. His views made Owen a pioneer in the promotion of
investment in human capital. Owen's second pillar was his opposition to
religion. Owen felt that all religions were "based on the same absurd
imagination" which he said made mankind "a weak, imbecile animal; a
furious bigot and fanatic; or a miserable hypocrite." However, he did
embrace Spiritualism towards the end of his life. His third pillar said
that he disliked the factory system, and supported the cottage system.
Robert Oven, in his Address to the
Superintendents of Manufactories puts forth the revolutionary idea
that managers should pay as much attention to their vital machines
(employees) as to their inanimate machines.
Biography of Robert Owen
Early Life
Owen was born in Newtown, a small
market town in Montgomeryshire, Wales. He was the 6th child, out of 7.
Here his father had a small business as a saddler and ironmonger. Owen's
mother came from one of the prosperous farming families; here, young
Owen received almost all his school education, which terminated at the
age of ten. After serving in a draper's shop for some years, he settled
in Manchester.
Commercial Success in Manchester
(1790)
He very rapidly gained success. When
only nineteen years of age he became a worker of a cotton mill employing
one hundred people, and by his administrative intelligence and energy
soon made it one of the best establishments of the kind in Great
Britain. In this factory, Owen used the first bags of American
sea-island cotton ever imported into the country; it was the first
sea-island cotton from the Northern States. Owen also made remarkable
improvement in the quality of the cotton spun; and indeed there is no
reason to doubt that at this early age he was the first cotton-spinner
in England, a position entirely due to his own capacity and knowledge of
the trade. In 1794 or 1795 he became manager and one of the partners of
the Chorlton Twist Company at Manchester.
Philanthropy in New Lanark (1800)
During a visit to Glasgow he fell in
love with Caroline Dale, the daughter of the New Lanark mill's
proprietor David Dale. Owen induced his partners to purchase New Lanark,
and after his marriage with Caroline in September 1799, he set up home
there. He was manager and part owner of the mills (January 1810).
Encouraged by his great success in the management of cotton mills in
Manchester, he hoped to conduct New Lanark on higher principles and
focus less on commercial principles.
The mill of New Lanark had been started in 1785 by Dale and Richard
Arkwright. The water-power afforded by the falls of the Clyde made it a
great attraction. About two thousand people had associations with the
mills. Five hundred of them were children who were brought at the age of
five or six from the poorhouses and charities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The children had been well treated by Dale, but the general condition of
the people was very unsatisfactory. Many of the workers were in the
lowest levels of the population; theft, drunkenness, and other vices
were common; education and sanitation were neglected; and most families
lived in only one room. The respectable country people refused to submit
to the long hours and demoralising drudgery of the mills.
Many employers operated the truck system, whereby payment to the workers
was made in part or totally by tokens. These tokens had no value outside
the mill owner's "truck shop." The owners were able to supply shoddy
goods to the truck shop and still charge top prices. A series of "Truck
Acts" (1831-1887) stopped this abuse. The Acts made it an offence not to
pay employees in common currency. Owen opened a store where the people
could buy goods of sound quality at little more than cost, and he placed
the sale of alcohol under strict supervision. He sold quality goods and
passed on the savings from the bulk purchase of goods to the workers.
These principles became the basis for the Co-operative shops in Britain
that continue to trade today.
His greatest success, however, was in the education of the young, to
which he devoted special attention. He was the founder of infant schools
in Great Britain, especially in Scotland. Though his reform ideas
resemble European reform ideas of the time, he was likely not influenced
by the overseas views; his ideas of the ideal education were his own.
Though at first regarded with suspicion as a stranger, he soon won the
confidence of his people. The mills continued to have great commercial
success, but some of Owen's schemes involved considerable expense, which
displeased his partners. Tired at last of the restrictions imposed on
him by men who wished to conduct the business on the ordinary
principles, Owen, in 1813, arranged to have them bought out by new found
investors. These, who included Jeremy Bentham and a well-known Quaker,
William Allen, were content to accept just 5% return on their capital,
allowing Owen a freer scope for his philanthropy. In the same year, Owen
first authored several essays in which he expounded on the principles
which underlay his education philosophy.
Owen had originally been a follower of the classical liberal and
utilitarian Jeremy Bentham. However, as time passed Owen became more and
more socialist, whereas Bentham thought that free markets (in
particular, the rights for workers to move and choose their employers)
would free the workers from the excess power of the capitalists.
From an early age, he had lost all belief in the prevailing forms of
religion and had thought out a creed for himself, which he considered an
entirely new and original discovery. The chief points in this philosophy
were that man's character is made not by him but for him; that it has
been formed by circumstances over which he had no control; that he is
not a proper subject either of praise or blame. These principles lead up
to the practical conclusion that the great secret in the right formation
of man's character is to place him under the proper influences -
physical, moral and social - from his earliest years. These principles -
of the irresponsibility of man and of the effect of early influences -
form the key to Owen's whole system of education and social
amelioration. They are embodied in his first work, A New View of
Society, or Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human
Character, the first of these essays (there are four in all) appearing
in 1813. Owen's new views theoretically belong to a very old system of
philosophy, and his originality is to be found only in his benevolent
application of them.
For the next few years Owen's work at New Lanark continued to have a
national and even a European significance. His schemes for the education
of his work-people attained to something like completion on the opening
of the institution at New Lanark in 1816. He was a zealous supporter of
the factory legislation resulting in the Factory Act of 1819, which,
however, greatly disappointed him. He had interviews and communications
with the leading members of government, including the premier, Lord
Liverpool, and with many of the rulers and leading statesmen of Europe.
New principles were also adopted by Robert Owen in raising the standard
of goods produced. Above each machinist's workplace, a cube with
different coloured faces was installed. Depending on the quality of the
work and the amount produced, a different colour was used. The worker
then had some indication to others of his work's quality. The employee
had an interest in working to his best. Though not in itself a great
incentive, the conditions at New Lanark for the workers and their
families were idyllic for the time.
New Lanark itself became a much frequented place of pilgrimage for
social reformers, statesmen, and royal personages, including Nicholas,
later emperor of Russia. According to the unanimous testimony of all who
visited it, New Lanark appeared singularly good. The manners of the
children, brought up under his system, were beautifully graceful, genial
and unconstrained; health, plenty, and contentment prevailed;
drunkenness was almost unknown, and illegitimacy was extremely rare. The
relationship between Owen and his workers remained excellent, and all
the operations of the mill proceeded with the utmost smoothness and
regularity. The business was a great commercial success.
Plans for alleviating poverty through
Socialism (1817)
Hitherto Owen's work had been that of a
philanthropist. His first departure in socialism took place in 1817, and
was embodied in a report communicated to the committee of the House of
Commons on the Poor Law.
The general misery and stagnation of trade consequent on the termination
of the Napoleonic Wars was engrossing the attention of the country.
After tracing the special causes connected with the wars which had led
to such a deplorable state of things, Owen pointed out that the
permanent cause of distress was to be found in the competition of human
labor with machinery, and that the only effective remedy was the united
action of men, and the subordination of machinery.
His proposals for the treatment of poverty were based on these
principles. Communities of about twelve hundred persons each should be
settled on quantities of land from 1000 to 1500 acres (4 to 6 km�), all
living in one large building in the form of a square, with public
kitchen and mess-rooms. Each family should have its own private
apartments, and the entire care of the children till the age of three,
after which they should be brought up by the community, their parents
having access to them at meals and all other proper times.
These communities might be established by individuals, by parishes, by
counties, or by the state; in every case there should be effective
supervision by duly qualified persons. Work, and the enjoyment of its
results, should be in common. The size of his community was no doubt
partly suggested by his village of New Lanark; and he soon proceeded to
advocate such a scheme as the best form for the re-organization of
society in general.
In its fully developed form - and it cannot be said to have changed much
during Owen's lifetime - it was as follows. He considered an association
of from 500 to 3000 as the fit number for a good working community.
While mainly agricultural, it should possess all the best machinery,
should offer every variety of employment, and should, as far as
possible, be self-contained. "As these townships" (as he also called
them) "should increase in number, unions of them federatively united
shall be formed in circles of tens, hundreds and thousands", till they
should embrace the whole world in a common interest.
In Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race, Owen asserts
and reasserts that character is formed by a combination of Nature or God
and the circumstances of the individual's experience. Owen provides
little real evaluation of the subject but agrees with socrates' general
overview.
Community Experiment in America (1825)
At last, in 1825, such an experiment
was attempted under the direction of his disciple, Abram Combe, at
Orbiston near Glasgow; and in the next year Owen himself commenced
another at New Harmony, Indiana, U.S.A. After a trial of about two years
both failed completely. Neither of them was a pauper experiment; but it
must be said that the members were of the most motley description, many
worthy people of the highest aims being mixed with vagrants,
adventurers, and crotchety, wrongheaded enthusiasts, or in the words of
Owen's son "a heterogeneous collection of radicals... honest
latitudinarians, and lazy theorists, with a sprinkling of unprincipled
sharpers thrown in."
Josiah Warren, who was one of the participants in the New Harmony
Society, asserted that community was doomed to failure due to a lack of
individual sovereignty and private property. He says of the community:
"We had a world in miniature � we had enacted the French revolution over
again with despairing hearts instead of corpses as a result. ...It
appeared that it was nature's own inherent law of diversity that had
conquered us ...our "united interests" were directly at war with the
individualities of persons and circumstances and the instinct of
self-preservation..." (Periodical Letter II 1856) Warren's observations
on the reasons for the community's failure led to the development of
American individualist anarchism, of which he was its original theorist.
Robert Owen in London
After a long period of friction with
William Allen and some of his other partners, Owen resigned all
connection with New Lanark in 1828. His actual words to William Allen at
the time are often quoted as being: "All the world is queer save thee
and me, and even thou art a little queer". On his return from America,
he made London the center of his activity. Most of his means having been
sunk in the New Harmony experiment, he was no longer a flourishing
capitalist but the head of a vigorous propaganda, in which socialism and
secularism combined. One of the most interesting features of the
movement at this period was the establishment in 1832 of an equitable
labour exchange system in which exchange was effected by means of labour
notes; this system superseded the usual means of exchange and middlemen.
The London exchange lasted until 1833, and a Birmingham branch operated
for only a few months until July 1833.
The word "socialism" first became current in the discussions of the
"Association of all Classes of all Nations," which Owen formed in 1835.
During these years, his secularistic teaching gained such influence
among the working classes as to give occasion for the statement in the
Westminster Review (1839) that his principles were the actual creed of a
great portion of them. His views on marriage were certainly lax enough
to give ground for offense.
At this period, some more communistic experiments were made, of which
the most important were that at Ralahine, in County Clare, Ireland, and
that at Tytherly in Hampshire. The former (1831) proved a remarkable
success for three and a half years until the proprietor, having ruined
himself by gambling, had to sell out. Tytherly, begun in 1839, failed
absolutely.
By 1846, the only permanent result of Owen's agitation, so zealously
carried on by public meetings, pamphlets, periodicals, and occasional
treatises, remained the co-operative movement, and for the time even
that seemed to have utterly collapsed. In his later years, Owen became a
firm believer in Spiritualism. He died at his native town on 17 November
1858.
Role in spiritualism
It is alleged by the British
Spiritualists' National Union that the Seven Principles of Spiritualism
were dictated by Robert Owen to the medium Emma Hardinge Britten. The
support for his ideas amongst spiritualists and nonconformists led Owen
to gradually alter his views on religion, and he embraced spiritualism
towards the end of his life. This is mentioned through Gerard O'Hara's
book "Dead Men's Embers". Owen insisted he could communicate with great
minds of the past by means of electricity
Children of Robert Owen
Robert and Caroline Owen's first child
died in infancy, but they had seven surviving children, four sons and
three daughters: Robert Dale (born 1801), William (1802), Anne Caroline
(1805), Jane Dale (1805), David Dale (1807), Richard Dale (1809) and
Mary (1810). Owen's four sons, Robert Dale, William, David Dale and
Richard, all became citizens of the United States. Anne Caroline and
Mary (together with their mother, Caroline) died in the 1830s, after
which Jane, the remaining daughter, joined her brothers in America,
where she married Robert Fauntleroy.
Robert Dale Owen, the eldest (1801-1877), was for long an able exponent
in his adopted country of his father's doctrines. In 1836-1839 and
1851-1852 he served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives
and in 1844-1847 was a Representative in Congress, where he drafted the
bill for the founding of the Smithsonian Institution. He was elected a
member of the Indiana Constitutional Convention in 1850 and was
instrumental in securing to widows and married women control of their
property and the adoption of a common free school system. He later
succeeded in passing a state law giving greater freedom in divorce. From
1853 to 1858, he was United States minister at Naples. He was a strong
believer in spiritualism and was the author of two well-known books on
the subject: Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (1859) and The
Debatable Land Between this World and the Next (1872).
Owen's third son, David Dale Owen (1807-1860), was in 1839 appointed a
United States geologist who made extensive surveys of the north-west,
which were published by order of Congress. The youngest son, Richard
Dale Owen (1810-1890), became a professor of natural science at
Nashville University.
Works by Robert Owen
* 1813. A New View Of Society, Essays on the Formation of Human
Character. London.
* 1815. Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing System. 2nd
edn, London.
* 1817. Report to the Committee for the Relief of the Manufacturing
Poor. In The Life of Robert Owen written by Himself, 2 vols, London,
1857-8.
* 1818. Two memorials behalf of the working classes. In The Life of
Robert Owen written by Himself, 2 vols, London, 1857-8.
* 1819. An Address to the Master Manufacturers of Great Britain.
Bolton.
* 1821. Report to the County of Lanark of a Plan for relieving
Public Distress. Glasgow: Glasgow University Press.
* 1823. An Explanation of the Cause of Distress which pervades ihe
civilized parts of the world. London.
* 1830. Was one of the founders of the Grand National Consolidated
Trade Union (GNCTU)
* 1832. An Address to All Classes in the State. London.
* 1849. The Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race.
London.
Robert Owen wrote numerous works about his system. Of these, the most
highly regarded are:
* the New View of Society
* the Report communicated to the Committee on the Poor Law
* the Book of the New Moral World
* Revolution in the Mind and Practice of the Human Race
The Robert Owen Collection, that includes papers and letters as well as
copies of pamphlets and books by him and about him is deposited with the
National Co-operative Archive, UK.
Robert Owen
Robert Owen, the son of a saddler and
ironmonger from Newtown in Wales, was born on 14th May, 1771. Robert was
an intelligent boy who did very well at his local school, but at the age
of ten, his father sent him to work in a large drapers in Stamford,
Lincolnshire. After spending three years in Stamford, Robert moved to a
drapers in London. This job lasted until 1787 and now aged sixteen,
Robert found work at a large wholesale and retail drapery business in
Manchester.
It was while Owen was working in Manchester that he heard about the
success Richard Arkwright was having with his textile factory in
Cromford. Richard was quick to see the potential of this way of
manufacturing cloth and although he was only nineteen years old,
borrowed �100 and set up a business as a manufacturer of spinning mules
with John Jones, an engineer. In 1792 the partnership with Jones came to
an end and Owen found work as a manager of Peter Drinkwater's large
spinning factory in Manchester.
As manager of Drinkwater's factory, Owen met a lot of businessmen
involved in the textile industry. This included David Dale, the owner of
Chorton Twist Company in New Lanark, Scotland, the largest
cotton-spinning business in Britain. The two men became close friends
and in 1799 Robert married Dale's daughter, Caroline.
With the financial support of several businessmen from Manchester, Owen
purchased Dale's four textile factories in New Lanark for �60,000. Under
Owen's control, the Chorton Twist Company expanded rapidly. However,
Robert Owen was not only concerned with making money, he was also
interested in creating a new type of community at New Lanark. Owen
believed that a person's character is formed by the effects of their
environment. Owen was convinced that if he created the right
environment, he could produce rational, good and humane people. Owen
argued that people were naturally good but they were corrupted by the
harsh way they were treated. For example, Owen was a strong opponent of
physical punishment in schools and factories and immediately banned its
use in New Lanark.
David Dale had originally built a large number of houses close to his
factories in New Lanark. By the time Owen arrived, over 2,000 people
lived in New Lanark village. One of the first decisions took when he
became owner of New Lanark was to order the building of a school. Owen
was convinced that education was crucially important in developing the
type of person he wanted.
When Owen arrived at New Lanark children from as young as five were
working for thirteen hours a day in the textile mills. He stopped
employing children under ten and reduced their labour to ten hours a
day. The young children went to the nursery and infant schools that Owen
had built. Older children worked in the factory but also had to attend
his secondary school for part of the day.
Owen's partners were concerned that these reforms would reduce profits.
Unable to convince them of the wisdom of these reforms, Owen decided to
borrow money from Archibald Campbell, a local banker, in order to buy
their share of the business. Later, Owen sold shares in the business to
men who agreed with the way he ran his factory.
Robert Owen hoped that the way he treated children at his New Lanark
would encourage other factory owners to follow his example. It was
therefore important for him to publicize his activities. He wrote
several books including The Formation of Character (1813) and A New View
of Society (1814). In 1815 Robert Owen sent detailed proposals to
Parliament about his ideas on factory reform. This resulted in Owen
appearing before Robert Peel and his House of Commons committee in
April, 1816.
Robert Owen toured the country making speeches on his experiments at New
Lanark. He also publishing his speeches as pamphlets and sent free
copies to influential people in Britain. In one two month period he
spent �4,000 publicizing his activities. In his speeches, Owen argued
that he was creating a "new moral world, a world from which the
bitterness of divisive sectarian religion would be banished". His
criticisms of the Church of England upset many people, including
reformers such as William Wilberforce and William Cobbett.
Disappointed with the response he received in Britain, Owen decided in
1825 to establish a new community in America based on the socialist
ideas that he had developed over the years. Owen purchased an area of
Indiana for �30,000 and called the community he established there, New
Harmony. One of Owen's sons, Robert Dale Owen became the leader of the
new community in America.
By 1827 Owen had lost interest in his New Lanark textile mills and
decided to sell the business. His four sons and one of his daughters,
Jane, moved to New Harmony and made it their permanent home but Owen
decided to stay in England where he spent the rest of his life helping
different reform groups. This included supporting organisations
attempting to obtain factory reform, adult suffrage and the development
of successful trade unions. He expressed his views in his journals, The
Crisis and The New Moral World.
Owen also played an important role in establishing the Grand National
Consolidated Trade Union in 1834 and the Association of All Classes and
All Nations in 1835. Owen also attempted to form a new community at East
Tytherly in Hampshire. However, like New Harmony in America, this
experiment came to an end after disputes between members of the
community. Although disillusioned with the failure of these communities
and most of his political campaigns, Robert Owen continued to work for
his "new moral order" until his death on 17th November, 1858.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRowen.htm
Classics of Organization Theory, Shafritz,
J.M. and Ott J.S.
|
