46 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
pinches and what is to be done about it.... No one who has not
himself been a worker, can judge the condition of the worker."^23
The journal's motto was: "Opposition to the interest of the indi
vidual, insofar as it injures the interests of all, and for the interests
of all, without excluding a single individual." Gutzkow was im
pressed by the prospectus; and when he by chance received a
package of the papers in Paris, he was greatly affected by Weit¬
ling's eloquent description of the lot of the journeyman as he
wandered from place to place in search of employment. Gutzkow
did not become a communist, but he became convinced that the
workers were entitled to a careful and sober reply to their griev
ances and suggested the establishment of a department of national
welfare, to combat socialism from above.^24
Weitling wrote almost the whole first number of the new
journal, which reiterated his familiar plea for the union of all
workers, the emancipation of the whole human family, and the
establishment of co-operatives. As usual, he quoted Scripture and
referred to Jesus and his apostles as fellow workers; he demanded
faith and courage and closed with the lines: "We pray constantly
'Thy Kingdom Come.' Well, it will come, the kingdom of the
saints, promised 1800 years ago to those who live in communal
harmony. The boundaries of the nations will crumble when the
Son of Alan comes to judge the quick and the dead."
In March, 1842, Die junge Generation restated its editor's well-
known views about government, laws and punishment. In the
second number of the Hülferuf, Weitling already had paid his re
spects to those who would divert attention from communism and
brotherly love to mere political action. Now he went on to expose
the illusions of nationalism and the folly of national hatreds. He
thought the Rhine question and the controversy over Alsace-
Lorraine eventually would be solved not by the sword but in the
spirit of love. He ridiculed the admonition that workers be thrifty
in order that the banks might profit by their self-denial. In other
(^23) Quoted also in Beer, Allgemeine Geschichte des Sozialismus, 436.
(^24) Gutzkow, Parker Brieve, 260-62, 270-73.