The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1953-06-18

RO SIS MO Err

ten tnan Inc mana tnat rocks
the cradle is the hand that rules
the world" However, were Will
liam Ross Wallace (author of
that famous line), alive today,
he would have to slightly amend
1t, because the science of pedia-
tries has discovered that rock
ing upsets the baby's tummy.
All through the ages it has
been the mothers who have
charted the course of human ad-
vancement. Though they no
longer rock the cradle, that still
holds true today. Even the wom-
en-folk who came to America on
the Mayflower played no small
part in shaping the kind of soci-
ETY. in which we Americans live
today.
The Bolsheviks, contrary to
popular opinion, did not set up
a new form of society in Russia
in the year 1917. Over the period
of our own brief history we have
he'd over fifty of these communal
or communistic experiments in
the United States. Many of these
had a religious as well as an
economic basis. All fell by the
wayside, sooner or later yielding
to our present American Capt.
talistic System of Private Enter
prise and Private Ownership.
The first of these communal
experiments was made by the
Puritans. When they debarked
| from the Mayflower, they set up
communistic society. All of its
members obtained their food,
drink, clothing and other neces-
sites out of a common stock of
goods. All were given work ac-
cording to their abilities and
capabilities. That was the per-
feet example of what the Puri-
tans mistakenly considered to be
Christianity operating in con-
junction with an economic Sys-
tenn under which all work equal
ly to produce for the use of all.
How did it work out? The best
answer to that question is to
quote William Bradford, Gov
ernor Of the Plymouth colony at
the time this noble experiment
was being conducted. In his
book, History of the Plymouth
Plantation" he has this to say:
"The young men who were
most able and fit for service OBJ
Jected to being forced to spend
their time and strength in work
ing for other mems wives and
children without reCompense. AS
for the mems wives who were
obliged to do service for other
men such as cooking, washing
dishes, ETC., they considered il
a kind of slavery, and many hus,
bands would not brook it. Thi.
feature of it would have beer
worse still if they had been O.
an inferior class. Let none argue
that it is due to human failing
rather than to this communist
plan of life itself. l answer, see
ing that all men have this fail
ing in them, that God in His wis
dom saw another plan of life
filter for them"
The Plymouth colonists finally
voted that each man should have
his own property, each family
being assigned a number Of
acres according to the number
in the family. What happened
then? Again l quote from Gov.
ernor Bradford's book:
"This was very successful. L
made all hands very industri
ous." Further along he pointed
out this disproved the erroneou.
theory that, "the taking away o.
private property and the posses
sion of it in the community
would make a state happy anc
flourishing, as if they were
wiser than God"
And so, the Puritans learned
very quickly that communism
which sounds so beautiful il
theory, just does not work ou
in actual practice-that private
ownership and private enter
prise is the unbeatable combina
ton. The failure of this Ply
mouth experiment and of the
many other communistic colon,
les that have been launched ir
this country, would seem to in.
dicate that communism will not
take root in American soil, nc
matter how carefully and inten-
sively the ground is cultivated
and fertilized by the proponents
of communism.
The mothers of America to-
day, aside from the cradle rock
ing, do not differ one iota from
their sisters of the Plymouth
colony. They want this nation
to continue to be a land of op-
portunity in which their sons
and daughters can, by toll
ability and thrift, make of them
selves whatever they desire.
These mothers are strongly re-
sisting any proposed change in