62 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
As already suggested, Weitling favored a system which would
bring the recognized leaders in the field of learning and science
into the top administrative posts. No mere counting of heads
would bring this about. He cited evidence to show that money
and smooth oratory had defeated government by the people many
times in human history. Despite the communal ownership and
administration of all material things which he advocated, he was
eager to ensure the recognition of genius, reason, and superior
talent. Because he believed that only those who were themselves
of this class could select leaders who possessed these qualities, he
proposed a complicated method for judging ideas and plans anony
mously. Thus men's status and powers in the new organization
would depend on ability evaluated scientifically, without refer
ence to personalities. To ensure this impartial and unprejudiced
choice of the highest capacities, inventors were expected to sub
mit their drawings and writers their writings in a competition con
ducted by academies, which offered honors and prizes in order
to stimulate progress. Among other things, Weitling hoped to
encourage the invention of a universal language, progress in air
transportation, and "pouring" buildings in one piece from the
ground up.
Thus the selection of the most competent would be made by a
group of experts who themselves were eligible for the highest ad
ministrative posts. No office carried with it a definite term of serv
ice, however, and it was expected that men would yield their
places of power and influence gracefully whenever better men
appeared. Elections turned on plans, models, and inventions sub
mitted anonymously to the board of expert judges. "If much is
invented," the author blithely observed, "there will be frequent
elections" and the examinations will be made more and more diffi
cult. Thus knowledge and intelligence, not privilege and power,
would govern the new society. No one, however able and talented,
"can represent the people who refuses to give his possessions for
the common good." On the other hand, men of such extraordinary
gifts were not bound to fixed schedules of work, though they were