IN SWITZERLAND 49
written about the "Guarantees of Harmony"; Weitling added
"Liberty," or "Freedom." Some of his friends regretted the time
and energy which he spent in writing books and told him in no
uncertain terms that he should concentrate his efforts on propa
ganda and the founding of communist societies. Although Ewer-
beck managed to send the author a thousand francs, the new book,
as in the case of earlier publications, was mainly a labor of love
and sacrifice. Weitling felt called upon to explain his "system" in
language which the workers could understand, and he hoped that
the gospel would spread to the comrades in Germany and Austria,
where the distribution of books of this kind through dealers was
a very precarious business.
The type for the Garantieen was set at the establishment of
Alexander Michod, printer of the Junge Generation, and before
long the author and printer were involved in a sharp disagreement
over the cost of the publication. The book was sold by subscrip
tion, each subscriber agreeing to take at least two copies. Some
took ten, and Simon Schmidt induced the Lausanne group to take
two hundred. Workers invested their savings and carried the
printed sheets into Paris, where they were bound. The venture was
anything but a financial success, though the book later went into
new editions, and 600 copies of the third edition were sold in
Hamburg through the efforts of the workers' associations of that
city. Metternich's spies promptly reported the appearance of this
new instrument of revolution, noted that one copy already had
reached Frankfurt (apparently Weitling had sent it to Gutzkow),
and summarized its contents for the secret archives. The police
were forced to admit that it was "written with great earnestness
and profound research" and had made a serious impression, "even
upon statesmen," in Lausanne.^26
The title page of the first edition bore the often quoted words,
"We want to be free! Free as the birds of the heavens; free to
travel through life as they do, in happy flight and precious
harmony"; and the author launched at once into his discussion of
(^26) See Brügel, Österreichische Sozialdemokratie, I, 29, 30.