WEITLING'S "SYSTEM" 59from the sun. One milk wagon would replace a hundred milk
maids with their pails; fences and walls would disappear with the
abolition of private property; each area would produce what it
was best fitted to produce; and, as envy was banished from the
earth and men worked for the sheer joy of helping their fellow-
men, production would increase 300 per cent in a five-year period.
In a similar fashion, industry was organized into a Werkstand
representing the manual laborers, artisans, and workers in the arts
and in the factories. Based on the usual multiples of ten and a hun
dred, Geschäftsführer and Meister were chosen, every ten masters
constituting a workers' council (Werksvorstand). This group
would represent the leaders of each type of work. In addition,
every area that had as many as a hundred of these councils also had
a Meisterkompagnie (Master Company) composed of those who
had made useful inventions and notable contributions to progress.
This body, with the Werkvorstände of the area, chose representa
tives to a Gewerbeausschuss (Committee of the Trades) compa
rable to the Landwirtschaftsrat of the farmers and in turn inte
grated with the Ministry of the entire Familienbund. Weitling
expected to develop a system of production in which most work
ers probably would follow several occupations, thus eliminating
monotony by rotating the tasks assigned every two hours.
The Industrial Army was another prominent feature of Weit¬
ling's new society. All able-bodied members of the community
between the ages of fifteen and eighteen were required to spend
three years in training in the industrial army, under the super
vision of overseers who had made the army their career or had
been chosen from the better educated group because of their spe
cial talents. Failure to progress satisfactorily in the curriculum
provided by the army might subject the delinquent to another
three years of service. The Industrial Army was divided into corps
according to the nature of the tasks which were being taught, and
each corps was recruited by the volunteer method or by drawing
lots. Every six months the personnel was transferred to a new
corps to broaden the training program. Volunteers for the es-