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HE SAW THROUGH CAPITALISM

This is also centennial year of
Robert Owen, pioneer socialist

N NOVEMBER 17, 1858,

there passed away an odd,
but also a very remarkable
man: Robert Owen.

He was born’in Wales, made
his reputation in Scotland,
his political career in Eng-
land and unsuccessfully tried
out his socialist ideas in the
United States.

But beyond this he belongs
to the whole world, which has
honored him as one of the
great founding fathers of soc-
ialism, ever since Frederick
Engels paid tribute to him
in Socialism — Utopian and
Scientific.

Robert Owen is remarkable
not only as one of the pion-
eer socialists, but as a man
who saw. through capitalism
from. the inside. Up to the
age’ of 45 he was a textbook
example of business ‘success.

He was born in 1771 in
Newtown, Montgomeryshire,
as the son of a local saddler
and ironmonger, and started
work at the age of nine. He
Was manager of a cotton-mill
of 500 workers by the age of
20, and before he was 30 he
was partner and manager in
the great cotton-mill of New
Lanark and had married the
former owner’s daughter.

By the time he was 40, he
was not only one of the most

successful “captains of in-
dustry,” but had a_world-
wide reputation as.an en-

lightened employer and a soc-
ial and educational reformer.

Admittedly his fellow manu-
facturers considered some of
his ideas to be lunatic; for
instance, his dislike of child
labor and. long hours, his
championship of Factory Acts,
his insistence on paying
workers during interruptions
in production, and on setting

up stores which sold them
goods cheaper than private
stores.

What was even odder, he
used the -profits from these
stores for the workers’ bene-
fit and the upkeep of his
schools: For Owen was. also
one of the great pioneers of
educational reform, and the
virtual inventor of infant
schools. Not even the fact
that he made as much profit
as his more flint-hearted col-

leagues reconciled Owen’s
partners to his - “irresponsi-
bility.”

Still, he did make plenty

of profit, and all the estab-
lished order, from the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury down,
applauded the man who seem-
ed to show that kind and
enlightened employers wouid
solve all -problems,

.

Only Owen himself was not

satisfied. He was not only an
extremely shrewed business-
man and organizer, but also
a very good and simple man
who wanted nothing more
than to create a good world.
And he could not blind him-
self to the fact that, though
the Industrial Revolution and
capitalism had made him rich
and successful, they seemed
to be taking humanity into
increasing misery.

He had become wealthy:
and yet the new wealth of
the nation “was the creation
of the working class.” He had
done a lot for his workers,
and yet “the people were my
slaves.” For that matter, they
were still a long way from

a life’ worthy” of - human
beings.
Capitalism created wealth

—but also unemployment. The
great slump after the Na-
poleonic Wars caused Owen
to think matters out.

Surely the answer was to de-
vise a system of society which
used the new productive re-
sources as the common prop-
erty of all, for the common
welfare of all?

Gradually Owen evolved
his ecommunist-schemes — at
first, simply as methods for
coping with unemployment;
later, for the whole of soc-
iety.

As a sensible and practical
businessman, he worked out
his projects for cooperative
communities in the most con-
vincingly realistic way.

Very naturally, he put them
up. to the important people
who had so applauded his
earlier“ efforts at reform.
Since his schemes were abso-
lutely reasonable, they were
surely bound to _ persuade
every intelligent person.

But they did not. In the

ROY REID, Saskatoon, Sas-
katchewan: The call of the
Canadian Labor Congress for
a new political alignment
shows up the need for a seri-
ous discussion by ‘the organ-
ized farm movement in Can-
ada.

The constitution of the Sas-
katchewan Farmer’ Union
states: “The objects of the un-
ion- shall be to promote the
interests of its members by
suggesting suitable legislation
and to make appropriate rep-
resentations to the legislature

eyes of the established order,
Owen, the famous philanthro-
pist, became Owen the well-
known agitator, who- wished
to abolish rank, wealth and
property, not to mention re-

ligion.
It was all most. odd ‘to
Owen, who neglected class

interest and class struggle. On
the other hand, the workers
themselves welcomed the new
idea of socialism.

After the failure of his ex-
periment in building a Com-
munist colony at New Har-
mony in the U.S., in which
he lost. most of his fortune
(1824-28), Owen found him-
self an influential figure in
the, British labor movement.

In 1830-34 he inspired and
led the greatest movement for
general union of the working
class seen so far, the Grand
National Consolidated Trades
Union of Great Britain and
Ireland.

He led it badly—he had no
clue about politics — and it
collapsed. After the middle
eighteen-thirties his influence
declined (except “in what was
to ~ become the British Co-
operative movement), though
he went on campaigning for
his ideas.

We should not blame Owen
too much for his utopianism,
his oddities and his utter fail-
ure to understand how social-
ism can and must be brought
about.

In his day ~he could give
us little more than the analy-
sis of capitalism and _ the
pioneer vision of socialism —
for which we admire him. He
was an old man when Karl
Marx, who acknowledged his

debt to him, worked out
scientific socialism.
For all his weakness he

was a great man.
E. J. HOBSBAWM.

=

Liz Taylor proves 4
she can actually ad

T WOULD hardly be ac-
[ curate to describe Cat On
A Hot Tin Roof as a cinema-
tization of ‘Tennessee Williams
recent prize-winning play.
Despite excellent camera set-
ups and editing, it remains a
filmed play.

This is not a complaint,
however, for the material is
solid enough to maintain in-
terest. Scripted by director
Richard Brooks (assisted by
James. Poe), character and
situation are well developed
in a gripping dramatic evolu-
tion.

The surprising thing “about |

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is
that Elizabeth Taylor is ac-

tually good. Perhaps not as~-

capable as Judith Anderson
and Madeleine Sherwood, she

does act — convincingly for
the most. part. Quite a de-
parture from an . undistin-

guished past.

On the other hand, we take
fine performances for granted
from such fine actors as Paul
Newman, a graduate of the
Actor’s Studio which has
turned out Brando and Dean

N FORUM

or to parliament in order that
such suggestions may be re-
flected in legislation:”

Another section of the con-
stitution states: “The union
‘shall, in its operations, be
non-political.”

These two statements of the
“objects” of the union appear
to contradict each other. As I
see it, influencing the govern-
ments to pass legislation in
the interests of the -farmers is
definitely political action. ‘I be-
lieve the second clause should,
accordingly, be amended,

’ Big business is trying to
“hold the line” on wage in-
creases to the labor unions. At
the same time they continue
an agricultural -policy that is
forcing farmers, and especially
young farmers, to leave the
land. ‘

Farmers would do well to,

take a good look at this situa-
tion. Wage increases to in-
dustrial workers. are’ less
than enough to meet. the ris-
ing cost-of living. This; along
with increasing. -unemploy-
ment, means less buying power.

‘to lean on a few “damns

November 28, 1958 — PACIFIC rriBuNE—PAw

among others; or from ae
Ives, who has been carvin
out a. distinguished se
career in recent years:

are we disappointed. Ive i
particular gives a Vvig0l0 7

beautifully shaded perfor q
ance that is bombastl¢
convincing.

The story concern
family in the southerD—
States whose mechanis™ e
flushed into the open i? "l =
of crisis. The idea 15 ‘he
novel, but treatment ° nS :
several groups of prope
and ambitions

or!

is fresh b
reasonably down-to-earth

: pn!
though there is a tender

“hells”? and frank se i
to establish social realis™
“Mendacity is the syste™ i.)
live in,” says one of the Pi eh,
cipals, neatly summariZ/ ne
basic situation. The © iy"
goes on to insist that
is what is needed — 2@ ‘49
we shal] have ultimately:
it or not. 1 ob
A number of inciden!® ing
servations are made al0P? id
way. Many are on money cho :
its evils; others are ps ino
logical. Without suger
that Williams is repeatiné née}.
self, although there at® — 4js
niable parallels in * »
work, Cat On A Hot Tit “ig
is often reminiscent © ye)
vigor and_ sociological
tration of his earlier 18
car Named. Desire.
the new play has 2 BF the
clarity in its resolutioP "or
inner problems and the®
ial implications. yoo! :
Cat On A Hot Tin
neither a great play — jm
great movie. But it i5 ®° ipl
portant and moving ©?
lifts a small corner of the i
with which official My

“masks life as it actl

in those United State®
N. E.§