The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-09
DEATH OF ROBERT OWEN.

Our dispatches by the. Europa announce the
death OF Robert Owen-at one time, perhaps,
the most famous man of his day. He was in
the eighty-eighth year of his age, having been
born in Wales in the year I'll. He distin-
guished himself quite early at school. but before
he was eighteen he engaged in the cotton
manufacturing business, into which he was in
strumental in introducing the machinery of
Arkwright, then a great improvement. His
factories, called the Choriton Mills were situa-
| ted near Manchester, and became very lucrative.
But he was induced, after few years, to re-
move to New Ianark, between FdinhurOh and
Glasgow, in Scotland, where Arkwright had
founded a number of factories, in connection
with David Dale, an enterprsing and benevO-
lent man. Owen married the daughter of Dale,
and was taken into the partnership. His sym
| pathieS in behalf of the working classes con
curing with those of Dale, they commenced
| together practical reform in regard to their
dwelling houses, their hours of labor, and the
| education of their children which was conducted
| for some time under such fattering promises
of success that it attracted the attention of phi
| anthropists and statesmen in all parts of the
world. As there were more than a thousand
persons employed in the mills about half of
| them under eighteen years of age, fine field
was presented for the display of their beneyo
| lent activities.
Owen succeeded, we believe, in shortening
the duration Of the childrens labors, and in
enabling them to attend his school, where the
intellectual system, as it was called, Or the sys-
tenn of teaching by objects, was first put i'm
| practice In the evenings and on Sundays the
adults were Instructed by lectures, objects, dia-
grams, and books, so that the place soon put on
a scholastic air, quite unusual in the manufae-
turing towns Of Scotland or England As Owen
instituted, at the same time, a police which,
though it was carried on without punishments
was rigid, his community was regarded as Il
model community. He himself considered it so.
and he began to commend IT as an example for
all the earth. The late Duke of Kent father
of the present Queen of Great Britain, became
very much interested in Mr.. Owens expert
ments, and through his influence the aristocracy
and clergy Of England lent him their counte-
nance. But, unfortunately, Mr.. Owen con
nected his scheme for the practical improve
ment of the working classes with certain reli-
gious and social doctrines, which soon deprived
him Of the support of those eminent orders
Adopting a grossly materialistic theory of life,
he held that men were entirely the creatures of
circumstances, and that all that was necessary
for the thorough regeneration of society, was a
changein its external conditions Improve the
circumstances by which the child is surrounded,
he said, and you improve the child.
There was enough of truth-and of the most
important truth-in Owens theory, TO com
mend it to the attention of the world, and par
ticularly of the classes for whose benefit it was
specially intended. He was considered an
oracle by them, and, indeed, the fame which
he acquired, and the reputed success of his
practical scheme, attracted towards him the re-
CARDS Of sovereigns. The King of Prussia, we
think it was, sent for him. and consulted him
in respect to the establishment and manage
ment of model villages in Prussia. He lived,
also, on terms of familiarity with the King Of
France, and he made several voyages to Mex-
co, at the request of the Government, TO intro
duce his reforms into that country.
On one of these visits, in 1928, he requested
from the Mexican Ministry the control of the
States of COahuila and Texas, for the purpose
of testing his system of social organization on
the largest scale. But, as those provinces were
not within the gift of the Ministry, they offered
him, as an alternative, district of some hun
bred and fifty miles in breadth, on the Pacific
coast, north of the Gulf of California. Mr.
Owen, for some reason or other, did not accept
it, and it is curious to remark that, if he had,
the gold mines of California would probably
have been discovered twenty years before they
wore, and Mr.. Owen become the richest man in
all the world.
The riches, however, would not have tempted
him from the prosecution of his scheme in
which he was interchangeable, making in behalf
of it many voyages across the Atlantic, visiting
the crowned heads and great Ministers of Eu-
rope, and the Presidents Of the North and South
American Republics, writing in the newspapers
and periodicals, and lecturing before associa-
tons and meetings. He was enabled to do all
this, because his manufacturing experiment had
brought him fortune Of half a million of dol
lars and more-all of which, we presume, he
expended in his various benevolent projects.
In 1925, Mr.. Owen purchased New Harmony,
in Indiana, which was owned by the Harmon
lists, q band Of German socialists, under Rapp,
(since the founder Of Economy, near Pittsburgh
and he made a trial of his system there, with
the assistance of his SON, Robert Dale Owen,
now our Minister at Naples. For while, we