ioo MY LIFE 



for the many petty offences or infractions of rules that are 

 inevitable in every large establishment. Owen calls it " the 

 silent monitor," but the workers called it the " telegraph." 

 Each superintendent of a department had a character-book, 

 in which the daily conduct of every worker was set down by 

 marks for each of the ordinary offences, neglect of work, 

 swearing, etc., which when summed up gave a result in four 

 degrees — bad, indifferent, good, excellent. For every in- 

 dividual there was a small wooden four-sided tally, the sides 

 being coloured black, blue, yellow, and white, corresponding 

 to the above degrees of conduct. This tally was fixed at each 

 one's work-place, with the indicative colour outward, so that 

 as Owen or his representative passed down the shops at any 

 time during the day, he could note at a glance the conduct of 

 each one during the preceding day, and thus get both a 

 general and a detailed view of the behaviour of the workers. 

 If anyone thought they were unfairly treated they could 

 complain to him, but in hardly any cases did this happen. 

 He tells us, " As I passed through all the rooms, and the 

 workers observed me always to look at these telegraphs — and 

 when black I merely looked at the person, and then at the 

 colour — but never said a word to one of them by way of blame. 

 At first," he says, " a large proportion daily were black and 

 blue, few yellow, and scarcely any white. Gradually the blacks 

 were changed for blue, the blues for yellow, and the yellows 

 for white. Soon after the adoption of this telegraph I could 

 at once see by the expression of countenance what was the 

 colour which was shown. As there were four colours there 

 were four different expressions of countenance, most evident 

 to me as I passed along the rooms. . . . Never perhaps in 

 the history of the human race has so simple a device created 

 in so short a period so much order, virtue, goodness, and hap- 

 piness, out of so much ignorance, error, and misery. And for 

 many years the permanent daily conduct of a very large ma- 

 jority of those who were employed deserved, and had, No. I 

 placed as their character on the books of the company." 



To show that Owen did not exaggerate the improved con- 

 dition of New Lanark, it will be well to give the estimates 



