INTKODUCTION 15 



in force, and were of better quality. All these efforts met 

 with success, and people came from all over Europe to New 

 Lanark to see and to learn. 



Owen's work of reform was ere long extended to wider 

 fields. His first attempt to introduce co-operation was in 

 connection with a scheme which he submitted to a Committee 

 of the House of Commons. His idea was to have the country 

 divided into districts of 1000 acres each, with a population in 

 each district of about 1200 persons, a central building was 

 to be erected for their use with common kitchen, dining-hall, 

 schoolroom, hbrary and lecture hall. The members of each 

 of these communities would, he thought, feel and act as members 

 of one family which would induce thrift and kindliness ; each 

 member was to take an equal part in the work and equal share 

 of the surplus. He formed a society to put this scheme into 

 practice and in 1821 started the first co-operative periodical, 

 The Economist. But disagreement between Owen and the 

 other leaders arose to hamper the progress of the society, which 

 became little more than a co-operative store. An attempt to 

 carry out his social reform on a large scale was tried by Owen 

 in Indiana, U.S., where he bought a large tract of land ; but it 

 failed, and Owen returned to England, where his ideas had 

 begun to gain ground among the working classes. Supply 

 stores, loan societies-, sick clubs, and benefit societies were 

 formed by labourers, and even some factories, such as a cloth 

 mill, a dye work, a candle factory, and so forth. An attempt 

 was also made to apply the co-operative principle to agriculture. 

 But most of these societies had ulterior aims beyond their 

 immediate practical object, and some of these aims were far- 

 fetched and often quite impossible of realisation. Their organ^ 

 The Co-operator^ proclaimed their final aim to be the purchase 

 of the land and a communistic existence, and a resolution 

 confirming this to be the aim was carried at a co-operative 

 congress Avhich was held in Liverpool in 1832. Voluntary 

 co-operation was considered by Owen and his disciples as a 

 means towards an end which included abolition of all private 

 property, rehgion, marriage, and legal punishment, acknow- 

 ledgment of the irresponsibility of the individual, and the 

 introduction of a new system of education. As the voluntary 



