162 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
people to support such a flock of parasites. He reviewed his theo
ries about the unequal burden of the law upon rich and poor and
the frequent miscarriages of justice. In his Der Katechismus der
Arbeiter, he predicted the decline and fall of the American Re
public because of the prevailing caste systems, the Southern slav¬
ocracy, the white slavery of the immigrant workers, and the
universal decline in public morality. Most of his contributions
along these lines were primarily destructive criticism. For all
existing evils he had but one remedy: a complete revolution end
ing with the establishment of the Utopia described in the Garantieen.Die Republik der Arbeiter printed the news about strikes but
did not regard them as a means to progress. Weitling had no inter
est in mere wage increases, and thought they resulted only in
spiraling costs and prices. He understood and emphasized the
difference between real wages and take-home pay; he deplored
the selfish competition for wages between various crafts and the
callous unconcern which the organized trades manifested toward
the unskilled and the unemployed; and he frankly admitted that
in this respect the working class was "as egotistic, selfish, unin
telligent and avaricious" as other groups.^23 In short, Weitling was
not interested in strikes until all workers could be included and
the demonstration of labor solidarity carried out under a unified
leadership, for the attainment of the basic reforms which he had
outlined.
Finally, though Die Republik der Arbeiter was more of a propa
ganda sheet than a newspaper, it felt a certain responsibility to
the German-American element, as interpreter, defender and pre
server of German culture in a new and strange land. Weitling
loved the singing and the comfortable social intercourse of his
German fellow countrymen as it found expression in singing so
cieties, Turner Halls, taverns, and beer evenings. He frequently
attended German Sängerfeste and Volksfeste and thought some
of them equal to the best he had seen in Europe. Such festivities
(^23) Wilhelm Weitling, Der Katechismus der Arbeiter (New York, 1854), 11.