476 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



ignorant class of Irish labourers. Apparently no more 

 unpromising material could be found in the three kingdoms. 

 Yet in a few months their whole natures appeared to be 

 entirely changed. Their idleness became untiring in- 

 dustry ; their wastefulness a most careful economy ; their 

 quarrelsomeness a cheerful good- temper and joyousness 

 which lasted for three years ! Here was a marvellous 

 change of conduct under conditions of simple justice, 

 sympathy, and self-interest ; but there could have been no 

 change whatever in the nature of these poor people. It 

 was simply the result of a change from bad conditions to 

 good conditions, from injustice, tyranny, contemptuous 

 abuse and oppression by their immediate superiors and 

 employers, to one of fairness, freedom, civility and mutual 

 self-interest. And yet our would-be teachers, who claim 

 to be of the " superior " classes, can find no remedy for the 

 countless and terrible evils of our existing social system, 

 but a vague appeal for a higher " human nature " in some 

 distant future ! May we not properly say to such people 

 "Physician! cure thyself." It may be true that some 

 human natures need elevating ; but it is quite as likely to 

 be the nature of those who believe that the piling up of 

 wealth for themselves and others of their class is the great 

 object of life, as of those simple Irish ploughmen and 

 labourers who only asked to be allowed to work hard under 

 moderately fair conditions, and so long as they were per- 

 mitted to do so lived joyous, contented, and blameless 

 lives. 



We are again and again told, that attempts at realizing 

 socialism have all failed, and that they have failed in 

 consequence of deficiencies in the character of the workers. 

 History, however, tells a different story. The three experi- 

 ments which in various degrees best illustrate the advan- 

 tages of socialistic co-operation are those of Robert Owen at 

 New Lanark, E. T. Craig at Ralahine, and more recently, 

 of the Willimantic Thread Company of Connecticut under 

 the management of Colonel Barrows. 1 All of these 

 succeeded perfectly, so far as the conduct, contentment and 



1 See Mr. D. Pidgeon's account of this place in his Old World 

 Questions and New World Answers, Chapter XIII. 



