Document I
From Chapter 2 of John Stewart Mill's Utilitarianism (London: Longmans, Green, Ryder, and
Dyer, 1871).
The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness
Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as
they tend to produce the reverse of happiness According to the Greatest Happiness Principle, the
ultimate end, for the sake of which all other things are desirable (whether we are considering our
own good or that of other people), is an existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and as
rich as possible in enjoyments, both in point of quantity and quality…According to the utilitarian
opinion human action is necessarily the standard of morality; which may accordingly be defined
as the rules for human conduct, which if observed, would lead to the Greatest Happiness to the
greatest extent possible, secured to all mankind; and not to just a few.
Document J
Several excerpts from the writings of Robert Owen
The working classes may be injuriously degraded and oppressed in three ways:
1st — When they are neglected in infancy
2nd — When they are overworked by their employer, and are thus rendered incompetent from
ignorance to make a good use of high wages when they can procure them.
3rd — When they are paid low wages for their labour
Two Memorials on Behalf of
the Working Classes (1818)
Eight hours daily labour is enough for any human being, and under proper arrangements
sufficient to afford an ample supply of food, raiment (clothing) and shelter, or the necessaries
and comforts of life, and for the remainder of his time, every person is entitled to education,
recreation and sleep.
"Foundation Axioms" of Society for Promoting National Regeneration (1833)
The lowest stage of humanity is experienced when the individual must labor for a small pittance
of wages from others.
Paper Dedicated to the Governments of Great Britain, Austria, Russia,
France, Prussia and the US (1841)
Document K
The Philosophy of Horace Mann
1. It is impossible for someone to be ignorant and free.
2. The public should pay for, maintain, and control public education.
3. Education should be inclusive, not just for the wealthy
4. Education must be nonsectarian. In other words, education should not be linked to a
particular group, whether religious or political.
5. Education should be based on the democratic ideals of a free society.
"EDUCATION THEN, BEYOND ALL OTHER DEVICES OF HUMAN ORIGIN, IS A GREAT EQUALIZER OF T
HE CONDITIONS OF MEN,—THE BALANCE WHEEL OF THE SOCIAL MACHINERY."
—HORACE MANN
Document L
Excerpts from the Factory of 1833
... no person under eighteen years of age shall [work] between half-past eight in the evening and
half-past five in the morning, in any cotton, woolen, worsted, hemp, flax, tow, linen or silk mill...
... no person under the age of eighteen shall be employed in any such mill ... more than twelve
hours in ... one day, nor more than sixty-nine hours in ... one week...
There shall be allowed ... not less than one and a half hours for meals.
It shall not be lawful ... to employ in any factory ... as aforesaid, except in mills for the
manufacture of silk, any child who shall not have completed his or her ninth year.
Every child restricted to the performance of forty-eight hours of labour in any one week shall
attend some school.
Statutes of the Realm, 3 & 4 William IV, c. 103.