258 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
On the Fourth of July, forty Americans came to Communia
from Elkader, in twelve wagons. They brought along plenty of
whisky and a fiddler, but unfortunately the latter could play but
one waltz tune, "O du lieber Augustin," and that "in wretched
tempo." The Germans furnished beer, milk, butter, and delicious
baked goods for the occasion, and sang German songs for their
American neighbors. Dancing continued until five the next morn
ing. Still somewhat intoxicated from this joyous interlude after
many months of monotonous isolation and hard work, the colo
nists continued the celebration into the next day, when they all
solemnly signed their new constitution.
A new inventory showed a favorable balance of nearly $3,000,
but unfortunately that figure shrank to $562 by the end of the
year. The pension fund of the Arbeiterbund was carried on the
books at approximately $11,000. Weitling lauded the new con
stitution because it permitted "division of work by the piece"
and "freedom of families to maintain their own households," and
he hoped that these conditions which marked a departure from
strict communism would make it easier to recruit additional farm
ers and craftsmen. In the course of the summer, twenty outsiders,
mostly Germans from the neighborhood, were employed by the
colony for wages. Weitling admonished the faithful not to become
too optimistic or too "intoxicated with the ideal of a harmonious
life in a colony," but he started east convinced at last that Com
munia now rested on a stable foundation and could face the future
with assurance. On the return journey, which he made by way of
Chicago and Detroit, he contracted "swamp fever" in Michigan,
and was seriously ill for several weeks.
Unfortunately, trouble broke out again in Communia over the
election of officials under the new charter and especially over the
choice of an administrator. The colonists, still stubbornly pro
vincial in their point of view and becoming more so, demanded
the removal of Die Republik der Arbeiter and the headquarters
of the Arbeiterbund with all its funds from New York to Iowa.