COMMUNIA, IOWA 253
lous legal status of the colony, the land could have been bought
and entered only by an individual, and under all the circumstances,
it must be admitted that Weitling seemed the logical person to
make the purchase. Immediately, however, a new storm broke
among the colonists. It increased in violence until it spread through
many of the Gemeinde of the Arbeiterbund. Griesinger, leader of
the first secession, already had accused Weitling before the Cin
cinnati and Louisville groups of robbing honest workmen through
the "swindle" of a $5,000 mortgage on the colony property and
his charges, though unjustified, were sufficiently impressive to
cause rifts in the organization in these two Ohio river cities. To
this accusation now was added the claim that Weitling refused to
transfer title to the forty-acre mill site to the colony and proposed
to keep the property for himself. The colonists voted on the ques
tion and with only three dissenting votes threatened to take the
issue to the courts. Weitling insisted that he would continue to
hold title as security for the Bund. Presently the colonists ex
pressed a readiness to issue stock certificates to every member of
the Arbeiterbund as security for the pension and other insurance
funds and to give notes for future loans, but they insisted on
having the property recorded in their name. Obviously, no such
proposals would satisfy the Bund.
The attitude of the colonists became one of distrust and in
creasing animosity. They wanted to free themselves of the re
straints imposed by Weitling on behalf of the Arbeiterbund and
yet retain the financial support which kept Communia alive. A
recent arrival, who had studied law in Germany, worked as a
sculptor in New York, and become thoroughly bored by the
monotony of life in the colony, circulated the report that the
Arbeiterbund had nothing to show for its investments in Com
munia except a mortgage of $5,000 and claimed that title to all the
colony property still rested in the old colonists. Weitling had to
agree that, legally speaking, seven persons were the owners of
Communia. He suspected them of a plot to divide the colony land
into private farms. Despite the fact that existing resources were