THE WORKINGMEN'S LEAGUE 205
Arbeiterverein in that city. Twenty members of a newly organ
ized group in Nashville hailed the "dawn of a new era" for the
worker in America, and Cabet, replying in French to a letter from
Weitling, promised to call on him in New York to discuss the
pooling of their resources.
The size of the Arbeiterbund may be estimated variously from
1,000 to 5,000. In the first burst of enthusiasm, many societies an
nounced affiliation in corpore, but the real test was the number of
members who actually paid dues. By this criterion, it seems un
likely that the Bund exceeded 4,000 members at its highest point
of success. Additions and withdrawals occurred so constantly
that accurate estimates are exceedingly difficult to make. Weitling's own figures indicate that after four years of activity the net
membership had dropped to 967. He once announced that he
would not call another congress until he had 3,000 members. No
such congress was ever held.
Before the close of the first year, dissension broke out in the
ranks. The causes were many. Weitling objected to a proposal to
summon other German organizations, such as the Freie Gemeinde,
to future labor congresses. A group in Philadelphia charged that
he was seeing the country at the expense of the workers and ac
cused him of regarding the Bund as but another fraternal insur
ance society. In Detroit, the Arbeitervereine were attacked from
Catholic pulpits and were forced to publish rejoinders in the
Michigan Tribune. In Cincinnati, a band of secessionists demanded
"a complete break with Weitling." Before the end of another year,
Rosenthal of Philadelphia, who had presided over the congress of
1850, and A. Minsky, an erstwhile Polish supporter, were read
out of the Arbeiterbund as traitors. Weitling insisted that "Who
ever has created a cause is its natural leader.... Every effort to
upset this principle stems from selfish ambition." Harassed and
depressed by such unhappy developments, he unburdened him
self in a letter to his old friend, Simon Schmidt, with whom he had
worked in Switzerland. Schmidt replied with a complete endorse
ment of his old comrade's course of action and sent him thirty