IN AMERICA 145the first objective of the new paper was of necessity the building
of a large circulation list among German-American workers so
that they might be welded by propaganda into a homogeneous
body devoted to specific common ends.
Weitling believed that 1,000 converts in any given locality
would be sufficient to institute a Gewerbetauschbank for workers,
employers, and farmers. He urged workers to pay part of their
earnings in cash to a central bank, accept paper money in ex
change, and permit the use of the available cash for the purchase
in outside markets of what the members could not produce among
themselves. By a weird financial legerdemain, Weitling estimated
that savings of $3,000 a week would result from this bank of ex
change. He rejected all other reforms as mere palliatives. Need
less to add, he was completely dissatisfied with the existing major
political parties and proposed a new party of the workers, to be
led by himself, which would hold labor congresses annually, sum
mon a "Social Parliament" based on occupational representa
tion, and eventually supplant the existing Congress of the United
States.
Thus the first issue of Die Republik der Arbeiter was a recapitu
lation in the main of theories expounded in the Garantieen, and
the editor's statement ended with a challenge to his readers to
produce "something better." Weitling launched his ambitious plan
to proselyte America with total assets of $1.50. Without appealing
directly to any German organization for aid, he went from house
to house among the Germans of New York, rang doorbells on
four streets, and in four days secured 400 subscribers.
To build circulation, the editor counted heavily on the help of
agents in the larger cities who would solicit subscriptions and
supervise the distribution of the paper. Franz Arnold, a mechanic
from Frankfurt am Main who was a gifted speaker and at the mo
ment an ardent supporter of Weitling's movement, traveled about
and addressed groups in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati.^6
Weitling himself made several long trips into the interior, to be
described in the next chapter, so that he might meet and recruit
(^6) See Louisville Beobachter am Ohio, June 11, 1850.