ON TOUR FOR THE CAUSE 173
he was convinced that three successful demonstrations in com
munal living would be sufficient to affect profoundly the gov
ernment of the entire United States.
A visit to Sandusky, then and for many years afterward an im
portant center of German settlement on Lake Erie, yielded fifteen
recruits for the Bund. Lest they become discouraged, Weitling re
minded his followers that the Odd Fellows lodge was started with
only five members and predicted that the Arbeiterbund would be
launched with an initial membership of 1,000. Using his fan
tastic method of prediction by geometrical progression, he
pointed out that if 100 members could be enrolled at the outset
and each member would bring in one new member at fixed in
tervals, the Arbeiterbund would have over 50,000 adherents in ten
years, and a pension fund of $2,000,000 to be invested in stores and
shops. From this investment he believed a profit of $500,000 could
be derived, although $25,000 a year would probably be sufficient
to meet all legitimate claims! "We shall come to power along this
road," he predicted, "if only the leaders will remain steadfast, and
the members will accept that leadership and not dissipate their
strength through internal factional controversies." In passing on
from Sandusky to Toledo, Weitling stopped at a little settlement
of former German students and army officers, led by a Graf
Degenfeld, and was much interested to find a community which
lived by hunting, sold wood for powder and brandy, and seemed
to work as little as possible.
In Detroit, the members of an existing Arbeiterverein and the
association of German cabinetmakers voted unanimously to join
Weitling's Bund. That unexpected success so stimulated the spon
sor that he immediately revised his earlier estimates and predicted
25,000 members in two years. He described the state of Michigan
as very beautiful, but Detroit proved a disappointment, for it was
without paved streets, except for the main thoroughfare, and it
was full of churches and lodges. In Chicago, working conditions
were bad and Weitling enrolled but one member, a brewer. At