ON TOUR FOR THE CAUSE 167were touring America at the same time, and with the many foreign
and domestic crises of the 1850's—was so great that his own ac
tivities attracted relatively little notice.
Weitling was accused repeatedly of wasting the funds of his
followers in useless and expensive travel. He replied that his first
two trips had not cost the propaganda chest of the Arbeiterbund
a penny, and that statement is substantially correct. The payments
for subscriptions to Die Republik der Arbeiter were dispatched
promptly to the central committee in New York or were used to
buy supplies for co-operative stores which Weitling helped to
establish in several cities. He was extremely sensitive to the charge
that he was engaged in a money-raising campaign and insisted that
organization, not finance, was his major purpose. He supported
himself largely from the sale of his own books or lived on the
hospitality of his friends. In midsummer of 1851 the remainder of
his books had arrived from Germany. He sold the Garantieen for
a dollar a copy, and the Menschheit for ten cents. Early in his
American career he had received one of those "free tickets" by
which people of some public importance were able to deadhead on
the railroads, and this railroad pass accounts for the relatively
small amounts listed in his account books for travel fare. In July,
1855, Weitling reported that his total expenses for this purpose
during all of his seven journeys amounted to $472.65. His first
trip cost $125. Friends and followers not only offered him the
hospitality of their homes but frequently contributed to his travel
fund as well. A Polish barber of Trenton, New Jersey, for ex
ample, a veteran of the uprising in Cracow, sent regular contribu
tions of two dollars a week throughout 1851 and 1852, and there
are other evidences of the complete confidence which members of
the working class had in this champion of their cause.
In the early spring of 1851, Weitling journeyed to Baltimore to
address a great fraternal festival of the workers, which also was at
tended by members of singing societies, a teachers' association, the
"Society for Enlightenment and Social Reform," and other Ger
man groups. Before a crowd estimated as high as 1,400, he made