274 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNISTing years he lived in straitened circumstances if not actual poverty,
and when he died he had nothing to leave to his family. These facts
are sufficient evidence that he did not make money out of either
the colony or the Arbeiterbund.
No man can be expected to diagnose his own shortcomings with
complete objectivity. From Weitling's own pen comes an analysis
of his failures which he excused in part by claiming that he had
never had adequate authority, either in the Bund or in the colony,
and had yielded too often to "the folly of majority rule." He was
forced to admit that most men are egotistical, that many lack
courage and virtue and confidence in their fellows. He believed
also that existing laws, drafted by "lawyers, priests and capitalists,"
were unfair to labor organizations.
In one of the later issues of Die Republik der Arbeiter he com
pared the theories and principles which he had advocated in the
Garantieen with his actual experience in Europe and America. In
self defense, he pointed out that the plans outlined in his magnum
opus were intended for a whole state—indeed, for the whole of
human society—and that at least fifty years of cleansing and puri
fication by revolution and possibly war were needed before they
could be put into practice successfully. He maintained also that a
socialist state isolated in a capitalist world would encounter great
obstacles in trading with its capitalist neighbors and would need
a huge military establishment to defend itself.
The principles of the Garantieen, when applied to a little colony
in pioneer Iowa, simply would not work. The colonists had to
deal constantly with outsiders, had to seek credit and pay interest,
had to sell at a profit, and had to meet the prices and wages of
outside competitors. Moreover, Weitling was forced to admit
that workers in Communia could not be dismissed or ordered to
their jobs, and on that account the productive capacity of a so
ciety based on free enterprise and competition was bound to be
greater. The disillusioned Utopian had discovered that every little
difference of opinion in the colony was likely to turn into a scene
and a scandal. With rare candor and the virtual repudiation of all