Robert Owen, the enthusiastic and practical Socialist, was not successful in his colony of New Harmony in United States. The improvement of his workmen's material interests in the New Lanark Mill in Scotland, finally proved a disappointment. (See also "Why I am in Favor of Socialism.")
Purrington, William Archer. (Lawyer and Author.)
I do not know of any practicable scheme of Socialism, or of any satisfactory definition of the term upon which Socialists agree; an accurate definition is the necessary basis of intelligent expression of opinion.
Apparently, Socialists in general believe, or at least preach that the State should own the material and means of production, to the end that all should share what is now enjoyed by the few. I doubt if the proposed means would achieve the desired end. At present the United States Government supplies us with postage stamps. The stamps will not stick.
Socialism will be practicable, if ever, only when
"The roughs, as we call them, grown loving and dutiful,
Worship the true and the good and the beautiful.
And preying no longer, as tiger and vulture do,
Read the Atlantic, as persons of culture do."
That day is far distant, and even when it comes the man of brains will assert his individualism.