130 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
anarchists and communists, but... also the banner for universal
freedom in a European social republic."
In number five, the last issue of his ill-fated journal, the editor
once more summarized his "social economy." He demanded jobs
for all and stressed the obligation of every individual to labor for
the benefit and in the service of society. He pointed out the need
for constantly increasing production in order to raise the level of
consumption and well-being and insisted that to this end science
and invention must be steadily encouraged. To ensure maximum
prosperity for all, however, he advocated the creation of a "minis
try of social economy" whose duty it would be to provide a com
pletely planned economy in which the state would become the
sole purchaser of goods and services. Thus the evils of the capitalist
system would be eliminated and an adequate standard of living
would be guaranteed for all. This was the "end result" toward
which all his propaganda was directed.
Weitling had as yet had little opportunity to study firsthand
conditions in the United States, but he already was sharply critical
of American democracy and referred to it as "that anarchy of
liberty" under which the richest, the most powerful, and the most
cunning derive the greatest benefits. It apparently had been the
editor's hope to use the new paper as the official organ of the
Befreiungsbund, the fraternal organization of workers to provide
sick benefits and old-age pensions which he had advocated during
his first trip to the United States, but of course the early collapse of
this publishing venture ended all such ambitious plans. As a matter
of fact, Der Urwähler revealed little of the early fire of the re
former, and took a position far more moderate than the program
advocated in Weitling's earlier books.^9
A second "Congress of Democrats" was held in Berlin on Oc
tober 26. This was a larger and more heterogeneous body than
the first assembly which Weitling had attended. Among the 234
(^9) See Heinrich Leonard, "Wilhelm Weitling und seine Zeitung 'Der Ur-
wähler,'" Neue Deutsche Presse (Monatsheft des Verbandes der Deutschen
Presse, Berlin, 1948, Nos. 9-10), 18-19.