120 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
meyer came to New York and seriously considered taking over
the paper edited by the "king of the tailors," Marx advised
strongly against it. As late as 1879, eight years after Weitling's
death, when a new edition of the Garantieen came off the press,
Marx watched eagerly for the book and wrote to his friend Sorge
to say that it had not yet arrived.^26
It is interesting to speculate on what might have happened in
the history of communism and in the history of modern Europe
if Weitling's suggestion of bridging the gap between materialism
and humanitarianism had been accepted at the Brussels conference.
Marx and Engels demonstrated that they had the intelligence, the
education, and the determination necessary to develop a system
that was destined to become a powerful force in world affairs.
Weitling lacked the qualifications for such a task; his head was
not equal to his heart. But he saw clearly that a system which
eschewed all considerations of morality, social ethics, and religious
emotionalism, and frankly proceeded on the amoral principle that
the end justifies the means, might be turned into the devil's own
philosophy leading to a new form of tyranny.
Late in the spring of 1846, Weitling went to Bremen. As usual,
he was short of funds, and he talked about getting a job on the
railroad. Early in January, 1847, he was reported in Paris, travel
ing with a false passport. There is no way of reconstructing the
story of his activities during this period. Apparently, some of the
German workers in Paris gave him money when he talked of going
to America to assume the editorship of the Volkstribun, by invita
tion of his friend Kriege, and it is known that the New York
Sozialreform Verein furnished some additional funds for the
journey. According to Weitling's own account, he landed in New
York on the last day of 1846. Other evidence, however, fixes the
date at January 25, 1847.
A number of the newspapers of Germany took notice of the de
parture of the famous communist. The Vossische Zeitung and the
Trierische Zeitung commented on his career, and the Telegraph
(^28) F. A. Sorge et al., Briefe und Auszüge aus Brief en, 162.