230 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
not only the answer to strikes and violence but also the proper
method to teach workers "forecast, calculation, frugality and self-
denial."
As already suggested, Weitling was fearful lest too many co
operative shops and stores and eating halls divide the resources
and decentralize the leadership of the workers' movement and pre
vent the establishment of his favorite project, the banks of ex
change. He regarded his colonization projects as subordinate to
a bank of exchange also, for he believed that colonies would re
quire such a central bank to survive the pressures of outside com
petition. His admonitions fell on deaf ears. Co-operation was in
the air among the Germans as well as among other American
workmen, and co-operatives were tangible, local projects in which
workers were ready to invest. They promised employment and
an end to over-production, and from their profits the workers
expected to derive no end of enjoyment. Plans already had been
worked out by several groups to employ musicians and artists
with the surplus from co-operatives to perform for the workers
and teach their children. In the face of such widespread enthusi
asm, Weitling's only hope was to try to utilize the craze for co
operatives, in whose soundness he had believed for a long time,
for the larger purposes of the Bund.
The German workers proved to be promoters as enthusiastic
as their native American colleagues. In February, 1850, the Ger
man carpenters of New York planned a co-operative shop, and
before the end of September, successful co-operatives had been
started by German workmen in other crafts. Some promised to
affiliate with Weitling's bank of exchange. In April, 1850, the
German button and fringe makers met at Shakespeare Hall to dis
cuss the movement; a New York co-operative grocery operated
at twelve per cent profit, and the German confectioners had a
"self-employing shop." German cabinetmakers, 2,000 strong,
launched a plan to raise $5,000 for a shop which would guarantee
employment during the dull season; and the members of the Ger
man Joiners' Association pledged one week's labor to a fund to