SOME INSTANCES OF ITS PRACTICAL FAILURE


I have stated my conviction, and the reasons for it, that Socialism is
essentially undemocratic and unChristian, as well as unAmerican. Yet
after all it is in the practical realm of experience that it has proved
to be most lacking and inefficient. To prove this, it is hardly
necessary to point to the classic illustrations of the utter failure of
Socialism when actually tried in France under the leadership of Louis
Blanc and Albert during the days of the Second Republic in the year
1848, or again when tried under the form of the Commune in 1871. The
horrors of the extreme form of Socialism known as Bolshevism, as seen
in the Russia of 1918, are destined to implant a useful lesson, not soon
to be forgotten, in the minds of intelligent people throughout the
entire world.

One of the best illustrations of the failure of a practical Socialistic
State is that of the "Mayflower" settlement at Plymouth in 1620. In
order to raise the money needed for the venture the Pilgrims borrowed
seven thousand pounds from seventy London merchants. In order also to
provide a species of sinking fund it was decided to accept the
suggestion of the creditor merchants that the net earnings of the
colonists should go into a common fund for the space of seven years and
then should be divided among the shareholders. It should especially be
remembered that the Pilgrims were a set of people small in number and as
a consequence easy to govern; of a high type of industry and integrity;
and that they were united by the strongest of all common and social
interests,--that of deep religious conviction. Furthermore, the relative
positions in life of the personnel of the entire Plymouth Colony showed
a remarkable equality. Their method of living was primitive and most