Benjamin Disraeli vs. Robert Owen:

Benjamin Disraeli vs. Robert Owen: 19th century industrialization

Benjamin Disraeli, the novelist and Prime Minister of Great Britain under Queen Victoria, is often credited with being one of the architects of the British Empire. However, despite his questionable legacy in relation to the laborers of British colonies, Disraeli did support rights for the working classes of his own nation. Disraeli was a member of the Chartist movement, a movement that demanded universal male suffrage, fairly drawn (non-gerrymandered) electoral districts, the abolition of property requirements for Members of Parliament, salaries for MPs to enable poorer men to hold office and support their families, annual elections, and a secret ballot (Everett 1997). While the Prime Minister believed firmly in the greatness of Britain, he questioned the potential of the Industrial Revolution, unchecked by laws, to foster economic mobility for most members of the lower classes. Disraeli advocated controls upon the abuses of industrialization through political means.

In contrast, the industrialist Robert Owen believed that factory owners could work to socially engineer a better society within their own enterprises. Owen believed, above all, in the value of scientific progress. While Owen did concede that industrialization had caused harm for many individuals, he believed that compassionate employers like himself were the solution: "Owen combined business acumen with humanitarian concern while insisting on discipline and good conduct from his employees" (O'Brien 2010). Owen said that industrialization could better the lot of individuals, like the young women working in his mills, and uplift the human character through social engineering, by "removing discontent" and giving "permanent, productive employment to the poor and working classes" and thus "let prosperity loose on the country" (O'Brien 2010). Unlike the politician Disraeli, who lived squarely in the middle of the horrors and squalor spawned by industrialization, Owen lived in a relatively isolated, rural area in Scotland. While overseeing his mills, Owen was solely focused upon his own project of social engineering, taking place in his own factories. A parallel between these two men in American history might be that of Franklin Roosevelt and Henry Ford: one man believed in creating laws to empower workers, while another believed in using the tools of industrialization to better the lives of his employees, as he saw fit.