Robert Owen
Robert Owen (14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer and utopian socialist. He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted experimental socialistic communities, and sought a more collective approach to child-rearing, including government control of education.[1] From 1800 to 1829, he managed the cotton mill of New Lanark, Scotland, and turned it into a utopian socialist commune with public education and without police or poor laws. The working day was only 10.5 hours compared to 13 or 14 in most other mills, and he continued to pay his workers while they were unemployed. He also organized for better labour laws.
In 1824, he moved to the United States and put most of his capital in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, as a preliminary for his Utopian society. It lasted about two years. Other Owenite communities also failed, and in 1828 Owen returned to London, where he continued to champion the working class, lead in developing co-operatives and the trade union movement, and support child labour legislation and free co-educational schools.