The Utopian Communist: A Biography of Wilhelm Weitling

WEITLING AND MARX 109

ist who taught Proudhon German philosophy, though both Hess

and Grün had far more learning than the self-educated tailor. Like

them, he believed that communism must be steeped in love, human

kindness, and justice. His gospel, to use the words of Louis Blanc,

was "L'Evangile en action," a secular faith comparable to that of

the Anabaptists, the Moravian Brethren, and the Levelers and

Diggers of England. It was a gospel to be proclaimed. It did not

need to be scientifically demonstrated.^5

Weitling began his career as a journeyman tailor, and he re­

mained a champion of journeymen throughout his life. He wrote

before the days of Darwinian evolution and modern industrial

capitalism; he did not understand the role of capitalism as an in­

strument of progress in the modern world; and he had never seen

any large-scale industry. His psychology was that of the guild

craftsman who sensed that his livelihood was challenged seriously

by new forces which he did not understand fully, but which

threatened to reduce him to the level of the unskilled city prole­

tarian.^6

Despite a warm heart and a winning, kindly personality, Weitling, as a spokesman for his class, could bitterly denounce the

ruling exploiting employer class. He typified many of the best

qualities of his group: he was a man of courage and self-sacrifice

and a believer in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. He

was not so much the inventor of new ideas as the eloquent voice

that gave expression to the many real grievances of his fellow

workers. He dreamed of a state controlled by skilled workers; and

though he attacked violently the existing differences between em­

ployer and employee, he did not preach the class struggle, but

made his appeal to men of good will in all classes. He was ready to

propagandize the rich and powerful, as well as the poor and im-

(^5) See Sombart, Der proletarische Sozialismus, II, 192. Weitling continued the
same theme in Die Republik der Arbeiter, published in New York.
(^6) See Adolf Douai, "Wilhelm Weitling und die Sozialdemokratie der Gegen¬
wart," Des seligen Schneider's Weitling Lehre von Sozialismus und Communis¬
mus (New York, 1879), 271-81.