’I do not imagine that there is the smallest difference between the general affection of the lower order of the people, except with regard to that which may be produced by the different circumstances in which they are placed.’[66]

Another question was:  ’Do you conceive that it is not injurious to the manufacturer to hazard, by overwork, the health of the people so employed?’ He replied: 

’If those persons were purchased by the manufacturers I should say decisively, yes; but as they are not purchased by the manufacturer and the country must bear all the loss of their strength and their energy{;} it does not appear, at first sight, to be the interest of the manufacturer to do so.’[67]

Owen had grasped the meaning of social responsibility, and he devoted his life to social service.  But he was too wayward to observe the conventions of society, and passed beyond the social pale.  The factory reformer became the Socialist.  Whether his disciples comprehended his philosophy we may doubt, but he understood better than any one else their instinct for association, and he gratified it.

It is not contended that Owen was responsible for all the associative effort of his generation; for with political and religious associations he had no sympathy.  But the spirit which infected him infected others after him, rousing them to associate now for this, and now for that social or religious or political purpose.

3.  We may divide associations for social purposes into two classes.

To the first class belong associations formed to secure the abolition of some abuse.  These naturally disappear when their object is attained.

For example, there was the Anti-slavery Campaign in which Joseph Sturge and other Quakers played so prominent a part.  By an organized crusade of political education the Abolitionists induced an originally hostile Parliament to emancipate the West Indian negroes in 1833, and to shorten the period of semi-servile apprenticeship in 1838.  Yorkshire was the home of the Short Time Committees, which organized the campaign against White Slavery at home.  The Ten Hours Movement caused the Ten Hours Bill to become the law of the land.  From Lancashire came the Anti-Corn Law League, whose story is told in another chapter.

The second class of association was the association for economic betterment—­the Friendly Society, the Co-operative Society, the Trade Union.  Conceived in enthusiasm and self-inspired, these associations asked only of the State a legal framework in which to develop, but they did not win it without struggle and delay.

The Government was anxious to encourage thrift, but the development of the Friendly Societies was impeded for a time by legislation aimed at political conspiracy.  The Corresponding Societies Act of 1799 prevented the Friendly Societies from forming a central organization with branches, and the Dorchester Labourers of 1834 discovered the peril into which the ritual of oaths might lead innocent men.