178 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNISTlished a paper known as the Popular Tribune, but tolerated no
religious services of any kind. Weitling enjoyed his visit with his
fellow communists, whose language he was able to speak fluently,
but he reluctantly concluded that amalgamation with his Arbeiter¬
bund was impractical.
The next important stop was made in St. Louis, then an ugly
river town with muddy streets, where good beer was sold two
glasses for a nickel, and a dog tax of thirty-five cents was levied.
Weitling addressed three meetings, including an assembly of Eng
lish Socialists. He enrolled forty members for the Arbeiterbund
and collected $70 in dues. He noted that the Freimännerverein of
St. Louis already had begun to decline, though it maintained a
good school, and he concluded that little support for a workers'
movement could be expected from such "university people." He
advised his followers to build workers' halls to serve as school
rooms for the children during the day and to meet the needs of
adults in the evening.
Early in November, Weitling reached Cincinnati, a city which
was to become one of the bulwarks of his movement. The German
element there was of great importance, and Weitling enrolled
more members than in all the cities he had visited previously.
About $2,500 in cash and property were pledged to the Bund, and
another $2,000 was promised by the following spring for coloniza
tion purposes. The workers of Cincinnati already had a hall and
a co-operative grocery, which did a business of $4,500 in nine
months, at a profit of $600. This group of sixty-five members, an
Arbeiterverein, a tailors' co-operative association, and a German
mutual benefit insurance society joined the Bund. The Turner
and the freethinker's society, however, refused to affiliate with
Weitling's organization. Cincinnati at the time had four German
newspapers, and one, a labor paper under Catholic influence,
proved especially hostile, repeatedly attacking Weitling's "pleas
ure trips at the expense of the workers." In Cincinnati, the philo
sophical tailor met Kinkel, the university professor, and found
him to be such a "lovable and friendly" person that Die Republik