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2     ROBERT OWEN AND FACTORY REFORM
and the reputed fanatics and disturbers of the world's
peace are seen by the light of subsequent events to have
been the saviors of a class, a nation, or a race.
                          The present interest in the
study of all phases of degeneration should alone call forth
gratitude for the life-work of Robert Owen; since it is ac-
knowledged that his personal experiments in factory re-
form andthe legislation of which he was the originator
and promoter rescued the youth of the English laboring
classes from the suffering and slavery which encompassed
them in the late eighteenth and at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, and, in so doing, assured the following
generations from the decay which then seemed to be the
only legacy which could descend to them.
                          To follow step by step the life
of this apostle and martyr of social reform is an instruc-
tive lesson, whether one seeks historical light upon a crit-
ical period of human affairs, or whether the wish be to
gain a supreme example of perseverance and devotion,
and of success through apparent failure. For personally
Robert Owen may be compared to the Swiss hero, Win-
kelried, who, in the midst of battle, took to his breast a
sheaf of hostile spears and broke a path for the oppressed.
                          As a man he must be considered
in his three-fold capacity of laborer, capitalist and econo-
mist-statesman; which somewhat extended consideration
demands a knowledge of the class in which he was born,
of the world-events which occurred during the period of
his activity, and of the ideals which rose before the ad-
vanced minds of his time.
                          The son of an artisan, and a
member of a large family., he entered upon life among the
people, and early came to know through association what
sufferings arise from poverty and ignorance. He was
thus practically trained for the pursuits of an object which,
having begun in youth, he maintained, without once
turning aside, until the close of a long career.