favorable circumstances which surrounded its
commencement; the intelligence, devotion and earnestness which were
brought to the cause by its projectors, and its final total
failure. And they rested ever after in the belief that man, though
disposed to philanthropy, is essentially selfish, and a community
of social equality and common property is an impossibility.

* * * * *

The loss of two hundred thousand dollars did not dampen the ardor of
Robert Owen. He paid up the debts of New Harmony, had the property
surveyed and subdivided, and then deeded it to his children and
immediate relatives and a few of the "staunch friends who have such a
lavish and unwise faith in my wisdom"--to use his own expression.

To give work to the unemployed of England now became his immediate
solicitation. He was sixty years old when he inaugurated his first
co-operative store, which in fact is the parent of our modern
Department-Store.

In this store he proposed to buy any useful article or product which any
man might make or produce, figuring on cost of the raw material and
sixpence an hour for labor. This labor was to be paid for in Labor
Script, receivable in payment for anything the man might want to buy.
Here we get the Labor Exchange. Owen proposed that the Government should
set delinquent men to work, instead of sending them to prison. Any man
who would work, no matter what he had done, should be made free. The
Government would then pay the man in Labor-Exchange Script. Of course,
if the Government guaranteed the script, it was real money; otherwise,
it was wildcat money, subject to fluctuation and depreciation. Very
naturally, the Government refused to guarantee this script, or to invest
in the co-operative stores. To make the script valuable, it had to be
issued in the form of a note, redeemable in gold at a certain time.

The stores were started, and many idle men found work in building mills
and starting various industries. Three years passed, and some of the
script became due. It was found to be largely held by saloonkeepers who
had accepted it at half-price. Efforts had been constantly made to hurt
Owen's standing and depreciate the market value of this currency.

The Labor Exchange that had issued the script was a corporation, and
Robert Owen was not individually liable, but he stepped into the breach
and paid every penny out of his own purse, saying, "No man shall