The Utopian Communist: A Biography of Wilhelm Weitling

202 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
for teachers, who were to be elected by the people; the complete
divorce of church and school; public libraries; special institutions
for the blind, orphans, and the deaf and dumb; adult education
for workers in evening and Sunday schools which emphasized
technical and general education, and instruction in English; and
the development of reading clubs, bookstores, Turnvereine, and
other organizations for the improvement of the mind.
Another set of resolutions dealt with ways and means to raise
the funds necessary to carry out the proposed program. Every
member of the Arbeiterbund was expected to contribute six cents
a month to a propaganda chest, to seek new converts by personal
solicitation, and to support Die Republik der Arbeiter, the official
organ of the movement in New York. Plans to finance an occa­
sional supplement in French and English for non-German readers
also were considered. Lastly, there were resolutions on coloniza­
tion, looking toward the creation of "workers' republics" from
the surpluses to be derived from the co-operatives and the banks
of exchange.
The congress adjourned with the expectation that further meet­
ings would be held. A final manifesto signed by twenty members,
including W. Rosenthal of Philadelphia, who had served as pre­
siding officer, Weitling, Franz Arnold, and other representatives
from New York, St. Louis, Louisville, Baltimore, Buffalo, Cin­
cinnati, Pittsburgh, Williamsburg, and Newark expressed com­
plete satisfaction with what had been accomplished and predicted
great things for the future.
News of the congress reverberated through the radical Ger­
man-language press for some time. Some of the local organizations
solemnly ratified the congressional resolutions, and for a brief
period, the Arbeiterbund seemed to boom. Co-operatives multi­
plied and small sums were raised for a bank of exchange, an aspect
of the movement to be treated more fully in the following chapter.
In Weitling's own words the purpose of his Bund was to spread,
by word of mouth, printed matter, and example, information
about a "republic of the workers." By that term he meant a state