172 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
the seat of his ill-fated experiment in colonization, for he wrote
from upper New York that he must hurry on to Cincinnati and
Iowa, and he urged his friends to raise funds, even before his ar
rival, which might be added to the resources of the Arbeiterbund
to buy land, build model farms, and "create a model state in the
old, decaying commercial state." He requested that his mail be
forwarded to him at "Kolonie Kommunia, Elkader Postoffice,
Clayton County, Iowa."
At Cleveland, Weitling was delighted to find a co-operative
tailor shop operated by the German women tailors of the city,
and he reported that the venture seemed to be successful, though a
similar attempt by the men had failed. The experiment in co
operation was the result of a bitter fight with employers over wage
and price cuts. The "social tailor" addressed about a hundred lis
teners in Cleveland, but his audience was materially reduced by a
picnic which German singing societies and the Turner were hav
ing a half-dozen miles away. Fourteen of the hundred listeners
joined the Bund and made their initial payments. Weitling was im
pressed with Cleveland's wide streets and avenues of beautiful
trees, but he was disappointed that the people of the city had failed
to sense the possibilities offered by Lake Erie and had not re
served the lake front for a public park. In the store of a German
bookdealer he saw "silk trimmings" which he claimed to have in
vented years before in Vienna and perfected in London, and
which were just now coming in vogue in America.
Weitling did not visit Zoar, another communistic venture spon
sored by a German religious sect near the modern town of New
Philadelphia, Ohio, but he received a detailed report on the set
tlement from the nephew of its leader, Joseph Bäumler. For two
years the young man had acted as bookkeeper for his uncle's ven
ture and now he lived in Cleveland. He estimated the holdings
of the colony at approximately 9 ,000 acres valued at $2,000,000,
under the absolute control of Bäumler. Weitling regretted that
such colonies could not be integrated with his Arbeiterbund, for
barré
(Barré)
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