New Lanark: As Seen by Robert Southey and Robert Owen - Term Paper Example

New Lanark: As Seen by Robert Southey and Robert Owen. Robert Owen (1771-1858), the renowned social and educational reformer, was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. He attempted to put these theories into practice at the New Lanark cotton mills in Scotland. From 1800 – 1812, he initiated several changes in the functioning of the mill, not only in the machinery and infrastructure, but also in the handling of the employees and their families. His business partners opposed his attempts at reform, including welfare measures. In order to promote his own views about New Lanark and to attract new business partners, Owen published A Statement Regarding the New Lanark Establishment in 1812. The Statement set out Owen’s proposals for community management and social reform. This was followed by A New View of Society from 1813 – 1816. The location of the New Lanark mills in the vicinity of the Falls of Clyde made it a popular tourist destination. Robert Southey, who was one of the ‘Lake Poets,’ and Poet Laureate of England, recorded his observations of the mill in his Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819. Southey’s tour included a day-long visit to New Lanark, where Owen personally conducted him round the premises. For the large part, Southey’s impression of New Lanark differs markedly from Owen’s own account of his reforms. While Southey approves of Owen’s new buildings and childcare, he is critical of Owen’s other reforms and beliefs in ‘character formation.’ Southey is greatly impressed by Owen’s maintenance of the buildings at New Lanark. He concedes that the rows of houses constructed for the mill worker are “cleaner than the common streets of a Scotch town” (Southey, 1819, p. 260). He appreciates the cleanliness and ventilation of the mills. He declares that the mills “are perfect in their kind” and commends Owen’s “admirable management” (Southey, 1819, p. 260). Southey also approves of the mill stores which caters to the needs of the workers. All the facilities listed in the Statement - playground, store-cellar, kitchen, dining cum dance hall, church cum lecture hall and good roads – are now in place at the ‘New Institute.’ Southey’s approval demonstrates that Owen has lived up to his promise to build up the mill community and “add to its domestic comforts” (Owen, 1812, p. 118). Southey’s impression supports Owen’s claim that the workers’ “houses were rendered more comfortable, their streets were improved, the best provisions were purchased” (Owen, 1816, p.122, II). Southey endorses Owen’s reforms which improve the living conditions of the community. Southey is also agreeably impressed with Owen’s child-care center. Children who are old enough to leave their parents, but not yet able to begin their education, are kept under supervision while their parents are at work in the mills. Southey delights in their “glorious noise,” (Southey, 1819, p. 263). Southey notices that Owen has a sincerely paternalistic attitude towards the children, “laying his hand on the head of one, shaking hands with another, and bestowing kind looks and kind words upon all” (Southey, 1819, p. 263). He admits that these little children look happy. It is clear that Owen has attempts to make the playground a place where a child is taught that “he is never to injure his play-fellows; but that, on the contrary, he is to contribute all in his power to make them happy” (Owen, 1816, p. 126, III). However, Southey critical of the display put on by the older children. Southey is clearly unimpressed by the children’s marching and singing and considers the show to be a mechanical, mass production. He declares that “these puppet - like motions might, with a little ingenuity, have been produced by the great water-wheel” of the cotton mills (Southey, 1819, p. 262). He compares these movements to that of Dutch cows whose tails are tied to a common string so that “when any one cow wags her tail, all the others must wag theirs also” (Southey, 1819, p. 262). This comparison demonstrates Southey’s disdain for regimentation in the children. On the other hand, Owen obviously considers such regimentation to be a practical application of his theory that “children can be trained to acquire ‘any language, sentiments, belief, or any bodily habits and manners, not contrary to human nature’” (Owen, 1816, p. 109, I). The children’s drill is in line with Owen’s stated desire “to introduce confidence, regularity, and harmony” in his community (Owen, 1816, p. 119. II). He implements these mass drills as he believes that such early training will mold the children into sober, disciplined adults. Owen believes that children “partake of that plastic quality, which, by perseverance under judicious management, may be ultimately moulded into the very image of rational wishes and desires” (Owen, 1816, p. 114. II). Southey obviously does not subscribe to Owen’s notion that “children collectively may be taught any sentiments and habits or --- trained to acquire any character” (Owen, 1816, p. 137. IV). To Southey, Owen’s attempt at ‘character formation’ is merely mechanical regimentation. However, although Southey remains skeptical of the long-term consequences of Owen’s child reforms, he appreciates Owen’s fatherly concern for the children’s welfare and points out “the genuine benignity and pleasure with which he noticed them” (Southey, 1819, p. 263). Southey commends Owen’s paternalistic attitude towards his young charges. Southey points out that Owen’s reforms succeed only because they are executed in a carefully controlled environment. He compares New Lanark to a cotton plantation, categorically stating that the mill workers, although they are white, “are as much under his (Owen’s) absolute management as so many negro-slaves” (Southey, 1819, p. 264). He emphasizes Owen’s absolute control over the environment by pointing out that Owen is “part-owner and sole Director” of New Lanark. Owen is able manipulate the environment and execute “various expedients to withdraw the unfavourable circumstances by which they had hitherto been surrounded, and to replace them by others calculated to produce a more happy result” (Owen, 1816, p. 119. II), only because he owns the land and the mills. Owen controls drunkenness in the community by ensuring that “pot- and public-houses were gradually removed from the immediate vicinity of their dwellings” (Owen, 1816, p. 120. II). Southey declares that such high-handed measures would not be possible in the wider world which is beyond Owen’s control. He criticizes Owen saying, “Indeed, he never looks beyond one of his own ideal square villages, to the rules and proportions of which he would square the whole human race” (Southey, 1819, p. 265). The mathematical precision with which Owen goes about his reforms is possible only in this controlled environment. This is proved by Owen’s use of the ‘silent monitor,’ which records the workers’ productivity in ‘books of character.’ The workers accept Owen’s reforms only because “they would not have had much option about accepting it” (Open University, 2004, p.132). Owen’s reforms “can only be kept in play by absolute power” (Southey, 1819, p. 265). Southey emphasizes that such control would be completely unenforceable in the outside world. Southey does not share Owen’s enlightenment belief that human nature is universal, and modifiable through environmental factors. Southey categorically proclaims “But I never regarded man as a machine; I never believed him to be merely a material being; I never for a moment could listen to the nonsense of Helvetius” (Southey, 1819, p. 264). Southey does not accept Helvetius’ principles of equality of intelligence and the belief that character is formed only by environment and education. He does not “suppose, as Owen does, that men may be cast in a mould --- and take the impression with perfect certainty” (Southey, 1819, p. 264). Southey rejects Owen’s Utilitarian beliefs, according to which the greatest good is the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Southey condemns Owen’s attempts at reform which lead “him to make these human machines as he calls them --- as happy as he can, and to make a display of their happiness” (Southey, 1819, p. 264). While Owen declares that “the promotion of common happiness --- must be the inevitable goal” of man (Owen, 1816, p. 109. I), Southey believes that “the strength of man consists” in “individuality of character” (Southey, 1819, p. 265). Southey is in direct opposition to Owen’s belief that the “greatest of all errors, (is) the notion that individuals form their own characters” (Owen, 1816, p. 136. IV). Owen’s reforms at New Lanark are based on communal living. Southey vehemently opposes any measure which suppresses individuality. Robert Southey’s impression of New Lanark largely contrasts with Robert Owen’s own account of his reforms. Southey approves of the infrastructure of Owen’s Institute and praises the ambience of the cotton mills. He is also favorably impressed by the happy demeanor of the infants in the child-care center. However, Southey is vehemently against the regimentation which characterizes Owen’s reforms at New Lanark. He sees this as the suppression of individuality and accuses Owen of equating his workers with his factory machines. Southey does not agree with Owen’s utilitarian principles. He declares that Owen’s reforms and attempts at ‘character formation’ appear to succeed at New Lanark only because the community is completely under Owen’s power and have no chance of being implemented on a larger scale. Southey concedes that Owen may be motivated by the best of intentions at New Lanark but dismisses his reforms as impracticable in the outside world. Reference List.  Open University, 2004, Industry and Changing Landscapes, Open University, Milton Keynes.  Southey, Robert, Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819, Publisher, Place of Publication. My online sources: Southey’s Account: http://archive.org/stream/journaloftourins00sout/journaloftourins00sout_djvu.txt Owen’s Essays: http://labspace.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=478309 I, II, III and IV in the in-text citations refers to the number of the Essay. Read More