OWEN
PAALZOW
thinkers at Manchester had developed his
humanitarian creed. At New Lanark he
put it into practice, and he transformed a
low industrial community of about 2,500
souls into a model village which attracted
reformers from all parts of the world. He
released the younger children from work
and built wonderful schools for them
(including the first infant-school in Britain) ;
and he changed the entire character of the
adults, discarding all clerical or religious
assistance. Owen then appealed to manu
facturers and the Government to apply his
scheme generally, but he was challenged
on the subject of religion, and when he
described " all religions " as false (at the
City of London Tavern, Aug. 21, 1817)
the clergy began to oppose him. He
expounded his views in Essays on the
Principle of the Formation of Human Char
acter (1816), and spent half his fortune
in propagating them. In 1821 he founded
the Economist for the purpose of his propa
ganda ; and he was the pioneer of factory
reform, which was later taken over by
Shaftesbury and others. Owen turned to
the workers, founded The British Co-
operator (1830), and inspired Labour
Exchanges and early forms of Co-operative
Societies. In 1834 he established The
New Moral World, and founded a kind of
ethical movement, which he called Eational
Eeligion," with " Halls of Science " and
ten " missionaries." He had at one time
100,000 followers, and through the Trade
Unions, of which he was one of the
stoutest champions, a deep influence on
more than a million workers. His attempt
to create a model community at New
Harmony in America (1825-28) failed,
costing him 40,000 of his own money.
His entire fortune was spent in the service
of his fellows, and until the close of his
life he struggled, by pen and lecture, to
better the world. There was hardly a
reform which he did not initiate or embrace
(industrial, educational, penal, feminist,
etc.). He was the father of British
reformers, and one of the highest-minded
men Britain ever produced. Owen was
573
nominally a Theist, though really an
Agnostic, saying : " When we use the
term Lord, God, or Deity we use a term
without annexing to it any definite idea "
(Debate on the Evidences of Christianity,
1829, p. 104). It was only in 1854, his
eighty-fourth year, that he was "converted"
by fraudulent mediums to Spiritualism.
F. Podmore s Eobert Owen (2 vols., 1906)
is far from adequate in recognizing Owen s
greatness. D. Nov. 17, 1858.
OWEN, Robert Dale, son of Eobert Owen, American reformer. B. Nov. 9, 1801. Ed. Fellenberg s School at Hofwyl (Switzerland). He was born at New Lanark, and added his mother s family name (Dale) to that of his father. In 1825 he accompanied his father to New Har mony, and at the failure of the scheme he remained in America and was naturalized. He edited the New Harmomj Gazette (which was a drastically Eationalist periodical), and worked with Mme. Darusmont [SEE] in all the reforms of the time. In 1835 he was elected to the legislature of the State of Indiana, and in 1843 to the House of Eepresentatives. From 1853 to 1858 he was American Minister at Naples. Owen, with less ability, carried his father s lofty idealism into American politics, and he assisted in every reform. He was one of the chief organizers of the Smithsonian Institution, a strong Abolitionist, Pacifist, and Socialist, and a conspicuous worker in the Malthusian and Feminist movements. He was seduced by the early wave of Spiritualism in America, and his death was eventually hastened, and his mind clouded, by the discovery that his favourite medium was a shameless impostor. He never accepted Christianity. D. June 17, 1877.
PAALZOW, Christian Ludwig, German writer. B. Nov. 26, 1753. Paalzow, who was a distinguished lawyer, translated into German Voltaire s commentary on Montes quieu s Esprit des Lois and other French Deistic works. He wrote a History of 574
