The Woolly-Minded Cotton Spinner; M. Barger

Robert Owen: MELVIN D. BARGER THE NEARBY WABASH RIVER have seemed symbolically reassur ing to Robert Owen on the day he arrived in Harmony, Indiana in late 1824 to launch the millennium. It had been on another river, the Clyde in Scotland, that Owen became rich and famous as the di rector of the New Lanark cotton spinning mills. Here at Harmony, on the Wabash, he was about to establish a community that would become a beacon for all mankind. For too long, in Owen's view, the world had been in bondage to the sins of individualism and self-in terest. He had a better way, a way of cooperation and sharing. New Mr. Barger is a corporate public relations ex ecutive and writer in Toledo, Ohio. The Woolly-Minded Spinner Harmony, the name he gave the village after purchasing it early in 1825, would direct the world·· to this new way by its successful ex ample. But as students of American history know, Owen's millennium never came. New Harmony was a colossal failure that consumed at least four-fifths of his fortune and destroyed his reputation as an as tute businessman. Far from prov ing that individualism and self interest could be eradicated, New Harmony revealed perverse and virulent forms of both traits.

Hailed as a new beginning in co operation, the community of 900 persons on the Wabash was char acterized by bickering and dissen101 102 THE FREEMAN February sion almost from the start. Estab lished as a new social order that would bring economic security, the village quickly fell behind· in crop production and ordinary mainte nance tasks were neglected. Pro claimed as the model for a system that would usher in a new era, Owen's village was copied only briefly by other communistic so cieties in America and was then abandoned. As a venture that was supposed to spark the millennium, New Harmony was a total failure. Oddly enough, however, the New Harmony debacle may have been the high point of Robert Owen's life, because it won him a place in American history and created a heightened interest in "Owenism," the brand of socialism he espoused. Unfortunately, neither Robert Ow en nor his followers. learned the lessons that New Harmony could have taught them, and much of the "democratic socialism" that is now practiced in the Western world reflects the same fuzzy thinking that destroyed Owen's model com munity. We are still paying for Owen's folly and for the failure to understand the contradictions of Owenism.

Why did the New Harmony venture fail? It certainly had everything going for it. The com munity was actually a going con cern with good buildings, culti tivated lands· and orchards, and a fair amount of livestock when Owen purchased it from a German religious sect called the Rappites. It could have had good leadership, because Owen was wealthy and had proved himself a capable man ager. The New Harmony move ment also had wide support in the new American nation, and Owen had even been given an audience with President-elect John Quincy Adams and the Secretary of the Treasury when he arrived in Washington. There was a kindly tolerance of new ideas, and if New Harmony had been a sound and workable system, the United States had both the political freedom· and the available land for thousands of such communal enterprises. Then or now, nothing in the fun damental American idea was op posed to the socialistic communi ties of the early 19th century, since they were voluntary arrange ments and used peaceful means. So why didn't New Harmony become - as Owen hoped it would - the seed colony of a new social order for the country and the world?

How Allocate Resources? The seed colony didn't repro duce because the problems that undermined New Harmony are essentially the same problems that bedevil every social democratic country in the world, including the present-day United States. Using 1976 ROBERT OWEN: THE WOOLLY-MINDED COTTON SPINNER 103 strictly voluntary, peaceful means, how do youohtain human coop eration ,and allocate resources in· a socialistic society?'· How do you convince the most productive work ers that they should keep on pro ducing when everybody, including the idler· and the incompetent, is rewarded equally? How do you. de cide what is to be produced? Or who ,. is to have what job ?'Who should do the saving to provide investment funds? How can you exchange··. goods and services ina fair. and equitable manner? These are tough,· common-sense ques tions, and they weren't answered satisfactorily at New Harmony. So far, the democratic socialists haven't really answered them either. Socialists are either forced to yield to the requirements of the marketplace, because of their love of freedom, .or· to move towards the totalitarianism of the Marxist Leninist camp, because of their blind love of socialism. Both ac tions are a tacit admission that democratic socialism doesn't work.

In Owen's case,he made no com promises with reality, since he was basically rigid in his outlook and was not capable of altering most of his views. Early in his adult life, he had developed a dis taste for individualism and compe tition, although he was in many ways a gifted individual who could easiIycompetewith others. He was also a man of deep humanitarian instincts, and he would have ab horred ,the brutal socialism 'of modern Russia and China. Be yond that, however, he was dog;. maticand single-minded. Macau lay regarded him as a "gentle bore" a'nd he was said not to have thought differently of a book .for having read it. In other words, Owen was in-some ways insensi tive .to the realities of human na ture and did not learn a great deal either from study or from experi ence. Yet he was an outstanding person of great ability, a high achiever in what would later be the Horatio Alger, Jr. tradition.

A Successful Businessman Owen was born in Newton, Wales on May· 14, 1771, and grew up under circumstances that seem severe by modern standards but were important in shaping his philosophy and life's goals. Unlike some advocates of social change Karl Marx, for example - Owen was a happy and successful man who had no personal reasons to resent the economic system of his day. Although he began his work ing career as an apprentice at age 10 without· pay for the first year, his abilities were such that he had become a manager of a cotton mill at age 18 and within two years was able to demand and obtain a responsible position at the then 104 THE FREEMAN February handsome salary of 300 pounds yearly. He soon became well known in the British cotton spin ning industry, and in 1799 he pur chased an interest in a group of mills at New Lanark, Scotland. He became world famous as a result of the success of his enlightened policies in running the New Lan ark mills.

Owen w'as born at the right time and landed in the right place for the kind of business success he was to enjoy. The mechaniza tion of the cotton spinning arts was in full swing in the late 18th century, and was presenting ex cellent commercial .opportunities for large profits and rapid growth. It was also an ideal opportunity for a person such as Owen who had considerable management skills but, at the outset, little capital. Owen's adult life can be divided into several periods of interest and activity. During his first 13 years at New Lanark, he was occupied with the problems of running the mills and bringing about improve ments in the educational system and working conditions for the people employed in the mill. As he became wealthier and acquired na tional prominence, he began to speak out on social conditions and was soon producing the first of many essays outlining the pro gram that eventually became ·known as Owenism. He was associated with the New Lanark mills until 1828, but long before that the promulgation of his social pro gram had become his chief inter est.

With the closing of the long Napoleonic w'ars in 1815 and a sudden dropoff in demand, England went through a depression. Alarmed because of widespread unemployment, a committee of nobles and other leaders sought advice from manufacturers on ways of dealing with the problem. Owen proposed the development of Villages of Cooperation - the self sustaining community idea that became the blueprint for New Harmony. New Harmony Owen thought that an ideal com munity such as a Village of Co operation would bring out the best in people and put an end to com petitiveness and other traits which he saw as social evils. He decided to prove this w'hen he purchased the Harmonie (I!armony) settle ment in 1825 from the Rappites. He renamed the community New Harmony and issued an open in vitation to persons who might choose to affiliate with the settle ment. But the venture was charac terized by friction and indecision from the start, and by 1828 Owen withdrew most of his support, though retaining title to the prop1976 ROBERT OWEN: THE WOOLLY-MINDED COTTON SPINNER 105 erty. His financial losses were so great that Mrs. Owen, who had not accompanied her husband to Amer ica, was forced to move out of their large mansion into smaller quarters.

Owen unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Mexican govern ment to sponsor a community sim ilar to New Harmony. He then re turned to England and spent the rest of his life advocating social reforms. He was associated with another community venture in Englwnd, but like New Harmony, it was also shortlived. He experi mented with a Labour Exchange, a sort of tradesmen's cooperative to which individuals would· bring articles in exchange for notes in lieu of currency. The exchange soon failed. Owen also led a mas sive union movement in England in the 1830s, but this collapsed within a few months. For the re mainder of his life, Owen contin ued to publicize his social theories. But he had lost most of his in fluence by 1834. He spent his last five remaining years as a devotee of spiritualism, and believed him self to be in contact with famous persons who had passed on. At age 86, he wrote his autobiography, a book that is surprisingly lucid and carries important sections outlin ing the basic tenets of Owenism.

He died at 87. Robert Heilbroner described Owen as "a strange mixture of practicality and naivete, achieve ment and fiasco, common sense and madness." We are notaccus tomed to such "strange mixtures" most of the time. Actually, how ever, Owen's behavior was contra dictory only to those who lacked his view of matters, which he was to call "a new view of society." He always knew what he was doing and had supreme confidence in himself. He perceived a certain kind of role for himself and lived up to it. Guiding Principles Throughout his adult life, Owen was guided by three obsessive be liefs about himself and mankind which were to influence almost everything he did. Many of Ow en's actions will appear stupid and contradictory to the person who does not understand Owen's moti vations and attitudes. In fact, how ever, Owen was an unusually con sistent person. He almost always behaved in accordance with his fundamental beliefs. It was his consistency, in fact, that may have led to his· downfall on some oc casions.

What were the three guiding elements in Owen's life? First of all, he was committed to a form of humanitarianism, and was certain ly humane in his desire to seek a better life for all and to put an 106 THE FREEMAN February end to wretched social conditions and human suffering. He loved people, although in a way that some persons may have felt de meaning and patronizing .He was kindly and gentle,and it is virtu ally impossible to find an instance in which Owen exhibited spite, vindictiveness, jealousy, or greed. He had a friendly manner that others found attractive. His writ ing also had a warm, friendly tone, and his criticisms were usually carefully phrased when they in volved specific persons. The second guiding force in Owen's life was messianism and a belief in the· eventuality of an earthly millenni urn. Yet he was openly anti-religious. He saw him self in a messianic role with a personal responsibility for causing the .millennium (Le., a New Moral Order) to come to pass. Had Owen been merely a humanitarian with out a messianic. mission, he prob ably would have ended his days as the genial director of theN ew Lanark mills. But he was not con..; tent with relative progress. He was able to prove at New La!nark that considerate treatment of .. employ ees and a general interest in im: proving employees' well-being is also compatible with good busi ness.But such improvements were too slow for the transformation that he believed was needed. He wanted to take dramatic and effective action that would quickly transform the world and bring about the glorious millennium. It was this messianic mission.,.- and belief in millennialism -that took him from New Lanark to New Harmony.!

Determined by Environment The third guiding belief in Ow..: en's life was determinism. He was unqualifiedly deterministic, and seems to have been almost com pletely committed to the belief that individuals are shaped by their conditions and their environ ment. He gave some weight to heredity, but devoted most of his attention to conditions. He was openly critical of individualism and seemed to be unwilling to ad mit that certain persons were capable of rising above the condi tions .imposed on them· by society (even though he had!). Owen .was dogmatic in stating his .belief in the proposition that individuals are shaped by their environment. In the first essay in·· ANe,w 1 Frank Pridmore, an Owen biographer, wrote, "When· (Owen) published his New View of Society, he looked for the regen eration of the world fo begin on the mor row: throughout his long life that high vision, ever receding ashe advanced, was still before his eyes; and he died at the ag'e of eighty-seven happy in the belief that the millennium was even then knock ing at the door.'.' Podmore, Frank, Rob ert Owen, Augustus M. Kelley, Publish ers, New York, 1968 (a reprint of the 1906 book), page 124. .

1976 ROBERT OWEN: THE WOOLLY -'MINDED COTTON SPINNER 107 View of Society, Owen stated a fundamental principle which ex pressed his determinism ,and'also bec~me the rationale for many. of his, plans. This principle was re-' stated frequently in Owen's writ ingsand has been considered typ ically Owen ,by his biographers. The principle is: Any general character, from the best to the worst, from the most igno rant to the most enlightened, may be given to any community, even to the world at large, by -the application of proper means; which means are to a great extent at the command and un derthecontl'olof those who have in fluence in the affairs of n1en.2 Owen's determinism, like his messianism, also helped take him out of New ,Lanark and into a wider world of social 'action. Had he not been basically determinist in his outJook, he might have been able to see some of the pitfalls in his plans for, Villages of Coopera tion. As a practical businesslllan, Owen knew that successful ven tures require certain character traits and skills in management personnel and workers. If .l!e had applied' this same understanding to his proposals for ideal com munities, he would have admitted more freely that i the communal 2 Robert Owen, ANew View of Society, first· published 1813/14, Penguin Books, Baltimore; '1969, page 101.

ventures would require similar in dividual traits in order to succeed. Although Owen steadily lost power and influence in the social ist movement after 1834, 'he con tinued to travel and to lecture whenever he could find an audi ence. New stars were appearing in the -socialist constellation, among them Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Both paid homage to Owen as a man and a pioneer socialist, but neither· thought much of his utopian socialism and they thor oughly refuted his major ,tenets. The struggling labor movement also honored Owen in the breach. Owen approved of general strikes, but wanted them. carried out in a spirit of universal charity and philanthropy -an idea that never has' caught on with any major la bor union. Religion Rejected Owen also made a .colossal mis take' when he turned his back on organized religion "and even .at.:. tacked the church in am 1817 speech. This position cost him val uable allies, of course, but it also blinded him' to the important role of religion in shaping society. It was indeed ironic that a religious sect,the Rappites, had established Harmony and operated it as a suc cessful and prosperous community; but things quickly fell apart under Owen. Owen wanted the kind of 108 THE FREEMAN February sharing amd serving that groups such as the Rappites practiced, but he rejected the religious be liefs that held them together. As C. A. Burt, a resident of the fa mous Oneida Community, said with reference to New Harmony's failure: "There are only two ways of governing such an institution as a Community; it must be done either by law or by grace. Owen got a company together and abol ished law, but did not establish grace; and so, necessarily, failed."

To this day, socialistic communi ties survive only when they are held together by religious or na tionalistic feelings or are ruth lessly totalitarian. M'/sreading the Marlcet Perhaps Owen's greatest blun der, however, was in failing to un derstand the marketplace in which he had first accumulated his wealth and acquired prestige. De spite his success as a businessman, there is no evidence that Owen ever attributed his good fortune to the relative freedom of, the mar ketplace in Britain or· saw much social good in the mechanization of the cotton spinning industry. He did not seem to be interested in the kind of progress that occurs by increasing the productivity of the individual worker through the use of labor-saving machines. Dur ing Owen's lifetime, for example, his own cotton spinning industry had made low-priced clothing and fabrics available to the masses. The impact. of the cotton-spinning industry was so extensive that J.

A. Schumpeter asserted that Eng lish industrial history can (1787 1842) "be almost resolved into the history of.a single industry."3 The rapidly improving productivity of the cotton spinning industry ex emplified Adam Smith's argument that "the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, ... occasions, in a well governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people."4 It did not seem to occur to Owen that he and his fellow manufac turers, albeit for profit-seeking purposes, had performed a great social service in building an indus try that gave the majority of the people access to better clothing at lower prices. To Owen, cotton spinning machines had enslaved the worker and left him poorer than before. Adam Smith, study ing the same industry, would have concluded that the steady improve3 J. A. Schumpeter, Business Cycles, vol. 1 (1939), page 271 (referred to in Phyllis Deane's The First Industrial Rev olution, Cambridge University Press, England, 1965, page 84.) 4 Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Gateway Edition, Henry Regnery Com pany, Chicago, printed in 1953, page 19.

1976 ROBERT OWEN: THE WOOLLY-MINDED COTTON SPINNER 109 ments in machinery would tend to benefit almost everybody and that the British standard of living could· be expected to rise with. ev ery increase in industrialization. Owen was unduly pessimistic about the future of mechanized in dustry, despite the fact that he had a major role in early stages of the industrial revolution. Utopian Socialism Replaced by Bolshevism By the time Owen died in 1858, his utopian socialism had been largely displaced by the fiery doc trines that eventually became mod ern Bolshevism. But democratic socialists still claim him as their true ancestor. Clement Atlee, the British Labour Party leader who engineered a great upset victory at the polls in 1945, was quick to point out that "socialist theory was developed by Robert Owen in Britain long before Karl Marx." Perhaps this comment reflects the hope that Owen's humanitarian ism will triumph over the harsh ness of Marx and the totalitarian ism of -Lenin and Stalin.

The unfortunate verdict of un folding events does not sustain this hope. The Owenism that failed at New Harmony did not die there; it has become the underly ing philosophy of today's British and American governments. If there are redeeming qualities in all this, it's that many democratic socialists share Owen's decency Ulnd humanitarianism. But they also share the woolly-mindedness and impracticality that sank his New Harmony enterprise and led to weakness and failure in Owen's other ventures. If it's the spirit of Robert Owen that pervades mod ern society, some of us might want to echo the words of an editorial ist of Owen's time: Robert Owen,·· a benevolent cotton spinner ... conceives that all human beings are so many plants which have been out of the earth for a few thou sand years, and require to be reset. He accordingly determines to dibble them in squares after a new fashion ... Everybody, I believe, is convinced of Mr. Owen's benevolence and that he proposes to do us much good. I ask him to let us alone, lest he do us much mischief.

Robert Owen - humanitarian, messiah, amd determinist - didn't want to let anybody alone. Today, we live with the mischief of his faulty philosophy. ~ ACADEMICFREEDOM JOAN WILKE JUST WHAT does "academic free ... dom" mean? Judging from the events of recent years, it means: (a) the students' rights to decide what they will learn (b) the faculty's rights to decide what they will teach and under what conditions (c) the institution's obligation to present all points of view (d) everyone's right to an education, through college (e) the right to the same education as someone else, regardless of apti tudes or economic means (f) the lowering or abandonment of standards of learning and ac complishment to make universal education possible and uniformly equal (g) anyone's right to disrupt the learning of others Miss Wilke is an advertising writer. 110 (h) everyone's right to learn on the other side of town (i) the right to appear at school in straggly hairstyles and sloppy dress (j) the right of boys and girls to 'share the same athletics and lock er rooms (k) government subsidies of educa tion based on race, sex and eco nomic status (I) all of the above Of course, the only reasonable answer ,can .be : "None of the above." These are just some of the preposterous claims masquerading today as academic freedom.