234 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
ticipated in the enterprise would be able to acquire homes for
themselves. By the time Weitling finished his calculations he
found that the cost would be $73,000,000 less than if the railroad
were built by private enterprise and that a profit of $13,000,000
would accrue from the transaction for the Arbeiterbund.
On December 25, 1858, Struve's Organ der freien Arbeiter
referred to Weitling as "one who pointed the way" and "shook
the worker out of his lethargy," even though he failed to lead him
along the right path to happiness. As a result, according to the
judgment of this fellow reformer, he actually though uninten
tionally had helped to destroy labor's confidence by the fantasies
of a mind "unrestrained by... sober, disciplined reason."
In his Der Katechismus der Arbeiter, a 126-page brochure pub
lished in New York in 1854 which represents Weitling's final
contribution to the literature of communism and reform, the dis
appointed author made the observation that "the working class
is as egotistic, selfish, unintelligent and avaricious" as any other
group. Though bitterly disillusioned, he still defended the "sys
tem" expounded in his earlier publications, although he was
through with the "Garden of Eden" and weary of planning for
a new society which would give each individual the freedom to
work, consume, and enjoy what he wanted. At the same time
Weitling concluded that a system of equal pay was unnecessary
and undesirable. He admitted that he had learned from experience
that voluntary associations usually failed, and that selfish instincts
were deeply rooted in the human heart. Thus he found the ex
planation for his failures not in the defects of his own system but
in the "vices of mankind"; and he could not resist a final com
ment, "If all had followed me as the children of Israel followed
Moses out of Egypt, I would have succeeded."
Weitling, like many another ambitious radical reformer, learned
at last that his German brethren were far more interested in lodges
and beer halls than banks of exchange or co-operatives and were
more likely to support the singing societies, Turnvereine, and
bowling and shooting clubs of the bourgeoisie than a radical
barré
(Barré)
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