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The history of the Plymouth colony from 1620 until its absorption by the colony of Massachusetts in 1691, teaches us many lessons in political philosophy. There are two which I desire to recall to you to-night: one as to the right to private property, the other as to pure democracy.

The Pilgrims began government under the Mayflower Compact with a system of communism or common property. The experiment almost wrecked the colony. As early as 1623, they had to discard it and restore the old law of individual property with its inducement and incentive to personal effort. All who now urge communism in one form or another, often in disguise, might profitably study the experience of Plymouth, which followed a similarly unfortunate and disastrous experiment in Virginia. History often teaches men in vain. Governor Bradford's account of this early experiment in communism in his annals of "Plimoth Plantation" is extremely interesting. The book is rich in political principles as true to-day as they were three hundred years ago. After showing that the communal system was a complete failure and that as soon as it was abandoned and a parcel of land was assigned in severalty to each family, those who had previously refused to work became "very industrious," even the women going "willingly into y^e feild" taking "their litle-ons with them to set corne, which before would aledg weaknes, and inabilitie," Bradford proceeds as follows: