Owen

Owen, 2 industrialists and social reformers. Robert Owen (1771–1858) was a socialist and pioneer of the cooperative movement. He introduced better conditions in his cotton mills in Scotland and was active in the trade union movement in Britain. In the United States Owen set up short-lived “villages of cooperation,” such as that at New Harmony, Ind. Robert Dale Owen (1801–77), his son, campaigned in the U.S. for birth control, women's property rights, state public schools, and slave emancipation. He was a member of Congress from Indiana (1843–47).