WEITLING'S "SYSTEM"Weitling thought he had anticipated every possible objection to
his plan. Unfortunately, it does not seem to have occurred to him
that his theory emphasized only the time spent on the job and over
looked what was accomplished in that given time. Thus the door
was left open to exploitation of the talented and the industrious
by the stupid and the lazy; conceivably, under a system of equal
pay for all work, the ablest might seek the easiest jobs and the most
stupid the most difficult.
The Garantieen closed with eloquent chapters on the superior
ity of communism to all other systems and described the happi
ness and prosperity that would result from a planned economy
regulated by science and motivated by a sincere feeling of brother
hood. The author knew that Utopias may spring full-grown from
the mind of man, but that they never are realized in a day. And so
he offered suggestions for a period of transition, such as free public
education, a free press, poor relief, tax reform, co-operatives, and
extensive social legislation. These, however, were mere palliatives.
What was needed was a revolution, not necessarily a bloody one,
although twenty years of chaos would not be too great a price to
pay for an entirely new social order based on equality, justice,
and brotherhood.
It was in this connection that Weitling reverted to his earlier
suggestion of "justification of theft" and referred to the social
revolution as the "last theft," when it would be honorable and
permissible to rob the rich to help the poor. He was sure that good
would issue eventually from an excess of the bad and a period of
disorder. He talked about "a war without mercy" and prepared
a plan to be enforced after a few weeks of tumult and "the first
victory." Provisions were included to disarm the rich, arm the
proletariat, grant amnesty to all prisoners, and create a people's
militia. A provisional "revolutionary paper money" would be used
until the Kommerzbuch system could be established; thus the
wealthy would be forced to join the revolutionaries because their
gold would no longer buy so much as a loaf of bread. Yet Weit
ling offered to pension the rich who would surrender their posses-