Private Enterprise Regained; H. Hazlitt

FEE Classic Reprint Private Enterprise Regained by Henry Hazlitt G overnor Bradford's own history of the Plymouth Bay Colony over which he presided is a story that deserves to be far better known-particularly in an age that has acquired a mania for socialism and communism, regards them as peculiarly "progressive" and entirely new, and is sure that they represent "the wave of the future." Most of us have forgotten that when the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the shores of Massachusetts they established a commu nist system. Out of their common product and storehouse they set up a system of rationing, though it came to "but a quarter of a pound of bread a day to each person. " Even when harvest came, "it arose to but a little." A vicious circle seemed to set in. The people complained that they were too weak from want of food to tend the crops as they should. Deeply religious though they were, they took to stealing from each other. "So as it well appeared, " writes Governor Brad ford, "that famine must still insue the next year alIso, if not some way prevented."

So the colonists, he continues, "begane to thinke how they might raise as much come as they could, and obtaine a beter crope than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in miserie. At length [in 1623] after much debate of things, the Gov. (with the advise of the cheefest amongest them) gave Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993),author of Economics in One Lesson, was a Founding Trustee ofFEE. This essay was written in 1949 and subse quently appeared in the first volume ofEssays on Liberty, published by FEE in 1952. way that they should set come every man for his owne perticuler, and in that regard trust to them selves.... And so assigned to every family a parcell of land. . . . A Great Success "This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was planted than other waise would have bene by any means the Gov. or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave faIT better contente.

"The women now wente willinglyinto the feild, and tooke their litle-ons with them to set corne, which before would aledg weak ness, and inabilitie; whom to have com pelled would have bene thought great tiranie and oppression. "The experience that was had in this commone course and condition, tried sun drie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanitie of that conceite of Platos and other ancients, ap plauded by some of later times;-that the taking away of propertie, and bringing in communitie into a comone wealth, would make them happy and florishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this comunitie (so faIT as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment that would have been to their beneflte and comforte. "For the yong-men that were most able and fltte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens wives and 166 children, with out any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in devission of victails and cloaths, than he that was weake and not able to doe a quarter the other could; this was thought injuestice....

"And for men's wives to be commanded to doe servise for other men, as dressing their meate, washing their cloaths, etc., they deemed it a kind of slaverie, neither could many husbands well brooke it. . . . "By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them 167 plentie, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoysing of the harts of many, for which they blessed God. And the effect of their particuler [private] planting was well seene, for all had, one way and other, pretty well to bring the year aboute, and some of the abler sorte and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any generall wante or famine hath not been amongest them since to this day." The moral is too obvious to need elaboration. D FREE TRADE The Necessary Foundation for World Peace Edited by Joan Kennedy Taylor "Free Trade: The Necessary Foundation for World Peace is a much-needed contribution to the present debate. Protectionism and statism are the same animal. As the late, great authors includ ed in this volume, Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, and Frank Chodorov, strongly insisted, free trade creates the spirit of peaceful growth while protectionism is the forerunner of military aggrandizement. Every reader will reap a wealth of valuable analysis from this book."

-Leonard P. Liggio Executive Vice President, Atlas Economic Research Foundation H ere are fifteen short essays that discuss such thorny issues as world hunger, industrial superiorit)T,industrial unemployment, the American Revolution, foreign investment, the fallacies of economic nationalism, and how free trade protects our national interests. In addition to Bastiat, Mises, and Chodorov, contributors include Clarence B. Carson, W. M. Curtiss, Bettina Bien Greaves, Henry Hazlitt, Samuel H. Husbands, Gary North, David Osterfeld, E. C. Pasour, Jr., and Hans Sennholz. 140 pages $9.95 paperback Please add $3 per order of $25 or less, $4 per order of $26-$50. Send your order with the accompanying check or money order to FEE, 30 South Broadway, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533. Visa and MasterCard telephone and fax orders are welcomed: (800) 452-3518;fax (914) 591-8910.