Part 948

"Whilst in France the hurricane of the Revolution swept over the land, in England a quieter, but not on that account less tremendous, revolution was going on. Steam and the new tool-making machinery were transforming manufacture into modern industry, and thus revolutionising the whole foundation of bourgeois society. … With constantly increasing swiftness the splitting-up of society into large capitalists and non-possessing proletarians went on. Between these, instead of the former stable middle-class, an unstable mass of artisans and small shopkeepers, the most fluctuating portion of the population, now led a precarious existence. The new mode of production was, as yet, only at the beginning of its period of ascent; as yet it was the normal, regular method of production—the only one possible under existing conditions. Nevertheless, even then it was producing crying social abuses. … At this juncture there came forward as a reformer a manufacturer 29 years old—a man of almost sublime, childlike simplicity of character, and at the same time one of the few born leaders of men. Robert Owen had adopted the teaching of the materialistic philosophers: that man's character is the product, on the one hand, of heredity, on the other, of the environment of the indivIdual during his lifetime, and especially during his period of development. In the industrial revolution most of his class saw only chaos and confusion, and the opportunity of fishing in these troubled waters and making large fortunes quickly. He saw in it the opportunity of putting into practice his favourite theory, and so of bringing order out of chaos. He had already tried it with success, as superintendent of more than 500 men in a Manchester factory. From 1800 to 1829, he directed the great cotton mill at New Lanark, in Scotland, as managing partner, along the same lines, but with greater freedom of action and with a success that made him a European reputation. A population, originally consisting of the most diverse and, for the most part, very demoralised elements, a population that gradually grew to 2,500, he turned into a model colony, in which drunkenness, police, magistrates, lawsuits, poor laws, charity, were unknown. And all this simply by placing the people in conditions worthy of human beings, and especially by carefully bringing up the rising generation. He was the founder of infant schools, and introduced them first at New Lanark. … Whilst his competitors worked their people 13 or 14 hours a day, in New Lanark the working-day was only 10½ hours. When a crisis in cotton stopped work for four months, his workers received their full wages an the time. And with all this the business more than doubled in value, and to the last yielded large profits to its proprietors. In spite of all this, Owen was not content. The existence which he secured for his workers was, in his eyes, still far from being worthy of human beings. 'The people were slaves at my mercy.' … 'The working part of this population of 2,500 persons was daily producing as much real wealth for society as, less than half a century before, it would have required the working part of a population of 600,000 to create. I asked myself, what became of the difference between the wealth consumed by 2,500 persons and that which would have been consumed by 600,000?' The answer was clear. {2936} It had been used to pay the proprietors of the establishment 5 per cent. on the capital they had laid out, in addition to over £300,000 clear profit. And that which held for New Lanark held to a still greater extent for all the factories in England. … The newly-created gigantic productive forces, hitherto used only to enrich individuals and to enslave the masses, offered to Owen the foundations for a reconstruction of society; they were destined, as the common property of all, to be worked for the common good of all. Owen's Communism was based upon this purely business foundation, the outcome, so to say, of commercial calculation. Throughout, it maintained this practical character."

_F. Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, pages 19-24._

Owen's projects "were received with applause at first. 'The Times' spoke of 'his enlightened zeal in the cause of humanity;' the Duke of Kent writes to Owen: 'I have a most sincere wish that a fair trial should be given to your system, of which I have never hesitated to acknowledge myself an admirer;' Lord Brougham sympathised with the propounder of this social scheme; the judicial philosopher Bentham became actually a temporary ally of the 'wilful Welshman;' a committee was appointed, including Ricardo and Sir R. Peel, who recommended Owen's scheme to be tried; it was taken up by the British and Foreign Philanthropic Society for the permanent relief of the working-classes; it was actually presented to Parliament with petitions humbly praying that a Committee of the House might be appointed to visit and report on New Lanark. But the motion was lost. The temporary enthusiasm cooled down. … Contemporaneously with royal speeches alluding to the prosperity of trade, and congratulations as to the flourishing appearance of town and country, the voice of Owen is silenced with his declining popularity. It must be remembered also that he had by this time justly incurred the displeasure of the religious public, by the bold and unnecessarily harsh expressions of his ethical and religious convictions. Those who could distinguish the man from his method, who were fully aware of his generous philanthropy, purity of private life, and contempt of personal advancement, could make allowance for his rash assertions. The rest, however, turned away with pious horror or silent contempt from one who so fiercely attacked positive creeds, and appeared unnecessarily vehement in his denial of moral responsibility. Owen set his face to the West, and sought new adherents in America, where he founded [1824] a 'Preliminary Society' in 'New Harmony', which was to be the nucleus of his future society. …

See A. D. 1805-1827: ROBERT OWEN AND THE COMMUNITY AT NEW HARMONY.

In the following year Owen agreed to a change in the constitution, in favour of communism, under the title of the 'New Harmony Community of Equality.' The settlement enjoyed a temporary prosperity, but soon showed signs of decay, and Owen was destined to meet with as many trials in the new as he had encountered discouragements in the old world."

_M. Kaufmann, Utopias, chapter 6._

ALSO IN: _W. L. Sargant, Robert Owen and his Social Philosophy._

_Anonymous Life of Robert Owen. _

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1800-1875. Struggle of the Trades Unions in England for a legal existence.

During the 18th century, "the employers succeeded in passing a whole series of laws, some of them of Draconian severity, designed to suppress combinations of working men. In England they are called the Combination Laws, and culminated in the Act of 40 George Ill., c. 106, which was passed in 1800 in response to a petition from the employers. It made all trade combinations illegal. … The result of this law, which was expressly designed to put an end to strikes altogether, is an instructive example of the usual effect of such measures. The workmen's associations, which had frequently hitherto been formed quite openly, became secret, while they spread through the length and breadth of England. The time when the books of the Union were concealed on the moors, and an oath of secrecy was exacted from its members, is still a living tradition in labour circles. It was a time when the hatred of the workers towards the upper classes and the legislature flourished luxuriantly, while the younger generation of working men who had grown up under the shadow of repressive legislation, became the pillars of the revolutionary Chartist movement. The old struggle against capital assumed a more violent character. … It was the patent failure of the Combination Laws which gave the stimulus to the suggestion of repeal soon after 1820," and the repeal was accomplished by the Act of 1824. "The immediate consequence of this Act was the outbreak of a number of somewhat serious strikes. The general public then took fright, and thus the real struggle for the right of combination began after it had received legal recognition. In 1825, the employers rallied and demanded the re-enactment of the earlier laws on the ground that Parliament had carried their repeal with undue precipitation. … The Act of 1825 which repealed that of the previous year, was a compromise in which the opponents of free combination had gained the upper hand. But they had been frustrated in their attempt to stamp out the Unions with all the rigour of the law, for the champions of the Act of 1824 were in a position to demonstrate that the recognition of combination had already done something to improve the relations between capital and labour. It had at least done away with that secrecy which in itself constituted a danger to the State; and now that the Unions were openly avowed, their methods had become less violent. Nevertheless, the influence of the manufacturers strongly predominated in framing the Bill. … The only advance on the state of things previous to 1824 which had been secured was the fundamental point that a combination of working men was not in itself illegal-though almost any action which could rise out of such a combination was prohibited. Yet it was under the Act of 1825 that the Trade Unions grew and attained to that important position in which we find them at the beginning of the seventies. Here was emphatically a movement which the law might force into illegal channels, but could not suppress. … The most serious danger that the Trade Unions encountered was in the course of the sixties. Under the leadership of one Broadhead, certain Sheffield Unions had entered on a course of criminal intimidation of non-members. The general public took their action as indicating the spirit of Trade Unions generally. {2937} In point of fact, the workmen employed in the Sheffield trade were in a wholly exceptional position. … But both in Parliament and the Press it was declared that the occurrences at Sheffield called for more stringent legislation and the suppression of combinations of working men. … But times had changed since 1825. The Unions themselves called for the most searching inquiry into their circumstances and methods, which would, they declared, prove that they were in no way implicated in such crimes as had been committed in Sheffield. The impulse given by Thomas Carlyle had raised powerful defenders for the workmen, first among whom we may mention the positivist Frederic Harrison, and Thomas Hughes, the co-operator. … The preliminaries to the appointment of the Commission of 1867 revealed a change in the attitude of the employers, especially the more influential of them, which marked an enormous advance on the debates of 1824 and 1825. … The investigation of the Commission of 1867-1869 were of a most searching character, and their results are contained in eleven reports. The Unions came well through the ordeal, and it was shown that the outrages had been confined to a few Unions, for the most part of minor importance. It further appeared that where no combination existed the relations between employers and hands were not more friendly, while the position of the workers was worse and in some cases quite desperate. The report led up to proposals for the legislation of Trade Unions, and to the legislation of 1871-1876, which was supported by many influential employers. The altitude of Parliament had changed with amazing rapidity. … The Trade Union Acts of 1871 and 1870 give all Unions, on condition that they register their rules, the same rights as were already enjoyed by the Friendly Societies in virtue of earlier legislation, i. e. the rights of legal personality. They can sue and be sued, possess real and personal estate, and can proceed summarily against their officers for fraudulent conduct. They also possess facilities for the transfer of investments to new trustees. The Act of 1871 was extended by that of 1876, framed expressly with the concurrence of the Trade Union leaders. … The working men, now that they are left to conduct their meetings in any way they choose, have gradually developed that sober and methodical procedure which amazes the Continental observer. … At Common Law, any action of Trade Unionists to raise wages seemed liable to punishment as conspiracy, on the ground that it was directed against the common weal. The course run by the actual prosecutions did, indeed, prevent this doctrine from ever receiving the sanction of a sentence expressly founded on it; but it gathered in ever heavier thunders over the heads of the Unions, and its very vagueness gave it the appearance of a deliberate persecution of one class of society in the interests of another. The Act of 1871 first brought within definite limits the extreme penalties that could be enforced against Trade Unionists either at Statute or Common Law. … By the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act of 1875 the workmen's economic aims were at last recognised on precisely the same footing as those of other citizens."

_G. von Schulze-Gaevernitz, Social Peace, pages 86-102. _

ALSO IN: _Le Comte de Paris, The Trades' Unions of England._

_W. Trant, Trade Unions._

_National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, Report of Committee on Societies and Strikes, 1860._

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1805-1827. George Rapp and the Harmony Society. Robert Owen and the Community at New Harmony.

The "Harmony Society" was first settled in Pennsylvania, on a tract of land about twenty five miles north of Pittsburgh, in 1805, by George Rapp, the leader of a religious congregation in Germany which suffered persecution there and sought greater freedom in America. From the beginning, they agreed "to throw all their possessions into a common fund, to adopt a uniform and simple dress and style of house; to keep thenceforth all things in common; and to labor for the common good of the whole body. … At this time they still lived in families, and encouraged, or at any rate did not discourage, marriage." But in 1807 they became persuaded that "it was best to cease to live in the married state. … Thenceforth no more marriages were contracted …, and no more children were born. A certain number of the younger people, feeling no vocation for a celibate life, at this time withdrew from the society." In 1814 and 1815 the society sold its property in Pennsylvania and removed to a new home in Posey County, Indiana, on the Wabash, where 30,000 acres of land were bought for it. The new settlement received the name of "Harmony." But this in its turn was sold, in 1824, to Robert Owen, for his New Lanark colony, which he planted there, under the name of the "New Harmony Community," and the Rappists returned eastward, to establish themselves at a lovely spot on the Ohio, where their well-known village called "Economy" was built. "Once it was a busy place, for it had cotton, silk, and woolen factories, a brewery, and other industries; but the most important of these have now [1874] ceased. … Its large factories are closed, for its people are too few to man them; and the members [numbering 110 in 1874, mostly aged] think it wiser and more comfortable for themselves to employ labor at a distance from their own town. They are pecuniarily interested in coal-mines, in saw-mills, and oil-wells; and they control manufactories at Beaver Falls—notably a cutlery shop. … The society is reported to be worth from two to three millions of dollars."

_C. Nordhoff, The Communistic Societies of the United States, pages 63-91._

At the settlement in Indiana, "on the departure of the Rappites, persons favorable to Mr. Owen's views came flocking to New Harmony (as it was thenceforth called) from all parts of the country. Tidings of the new social experiment spread far and wide. … In the short space of six weeks from the commencement of the experiment, a population of 800 persons was drawn together, and in October 1825, the number had increased to 900." At the end of two years, in June, 1827, Mr. Owen seems to have given up the experiment and departed from New Harmony. "After his departure the majority of the population also removed and scattered about the country. Those who remained returned to individualism, and settled as farmers and mechanics in the ordinary way. One portion of the estate was owned by Mr. Owen, and the other by Mr. Maclure. They sold, rented, or gave away the houses and lands, and their heirs and assigns have continued to do so."

_J. H. Noyes, History of American Socialisms, chapter 4._

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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1816-1886. The modern Co-operative movement in England.