COMMUNIA, IOWA 267
pay outstanding bills and continued to file monthly reports. Un
daunted by the mounting crisis, he described in his illiterate Ger
man happy days in Communia spent by the "Bionier des fernen
Westens" (pioneers of the Far West) in hunting, singing, and
enjoying 'Wieskei Bunsch" (whisky punch). Weitling re
torted that "no colony of the Arbeiterbund could honorably ac
cept a simpleton as administrator even if he had a heart of gold,"
and when colonists replied that they needed as administrator a
man who could swing an ax, not a theoretician, he advised them
to appoint an Irishman or a "Nigger." Greatly excited and deeply
wounded, he made comments of an increasingly personal nature
about some of his brother colonists; and his old friendship with
Richter, whom he blamed for "scandalous" letters emanating from
Communia, turned to bitter enmity. He advised the aged pension
ers of the Bund to give up all hope of ending their days in such a
quarrelsome community, announcing that on April 1, the colony
would be formally suspended as a member of the Arbeiterbund.
On March 11, the Baltimore Gemeinde released a blistering at
tack on Communia, accusing the members of character assassina
tion and demanding an end to the pending lawsuit and a public
sale of the property so that the Arbeiterbund might have an op
portunity to buy it at sheriff's sale. Weitling gladly consented
to the proposal. At the instigation of the Philadelphia Gemeinde,
a delegation was sent to the colony at a further expense of $42 3.29
to the Bund to study the situation at first hand and report directly
to the membership. Weitling accompanied the group only as far
as Dubuque. The delegation found no solution for the problem
and could do no more than report that the colonists would leave
if paid in full by June 1, that several farmers wanted to remain for
the harvest, that one member insisted on being paid in gold or
silver, and that none was ready to drop the lawsuit.
B. F. Weiss, a member who served as the first postmaster of
Communia and who was loyal to Weitling, urged him to come
in person to make a settlement, for the colonists were "fed up"
with communism and had no confidence in the existing adminis-
barré
(Barré)
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