Socialism And The Ethics Of Jesus Author:Henry C. Vedder Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Failing to induce the English government to undertake socialistic experiments, Owen undertook them for himself. A socialistic colony, conducted on his principles... more », was attempted at Abram Combe, near Glasgow, but the experiment from which most was hoped was made at New Harmony, Indiana. The history of this belongs, however, to a later chapter. A bank on the principle of a universal labor exchange was another of Owen's enterprises. All of these attempts failed after a brief trial, as his critics predicted would be the case, but not for the reasons on which the predictions were based. The causes of the failure were elements that might have been and should have been excluded from the problem. In spite of his business experience, Owen was not the man to conduct such enterprises to success. His experience had been that of a manufacturer; he knew little of trade or agriculture, less of banking and general business. He should have associated with himself one or more men of experience in those affairs of which he knew little. He was not skilled in judging men; he was too sanguine, too quixotic, too visionary. His philosophy of determinism had bred in him a faith in the essential goodness of human nature that would not permit him to see facts patent to every ordinary observer. No groups of perfectly rational and unselfish men can be created by magic out of vagrant adventurers and cranky enthusiasts, nor even out of the average stolid British worker. Every project of Owen's proved a magnet to draw to it precisely the men that would insure its failure : the over-sanguine, quick to be discouraged when their roseate fancies were not immediately realized; the odd and cranky, who will not fit into any scheme, and are everywhere a source of o discord; the self-willed and ambitious, who cannot...« less