180 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNISTfaith in the Second Coming! Weitling marveled that the leaders
of the community were able to enforce celibacy although most of
the members lived in individual houses. He advised the restoration
of marriage to ensure the future of the colony but did not succeed
in convincing the governing elders.
From Pittsburgh, Weitling moved down the river, via Wheel
ing, to Cincinnati. The boat fare was expensive, and in Wheeling
he detected the evil influence of "preachers, Jews and Democrats."
In Cincinnati, he found that the cabinetmakers were on strike and
that rioting had occurred near one of the factories because of a
ten per cent wage reduction; as a result twenty-one workers were
under arrest. He was invited to address a mass meeting of the
strikers and their sympathizers; and he seized the occasion to ex
plain his views on the inadequacy of ordinary trade-union methods
and the futility of isolated local strikes, as he pleaded for affilia
tion with his Arbeiterbund. Hassaurek spoke at the same meeting,
and on this occasion, at least, the two men refrained from attack
ing each other.
Before the middle of December, 1851, Weitling was in Louis
ville, one of several important river towns which had been acquir
ing a sizable and influential German group during the immigra
tion of the 1840's and 1850's. Many Forty-eighters had settled
there, and the city already supported two German papers, a Ger
man theater, and other German organizations. About one third
of the total Louisville population was German, and the number
was being augmented almost daily by new arrivals from the father
land. A local historian, writing in 1852, referred to the Germans
as "one of the best classes of our population... careful, pains
taking industrious people, of quiet, unobtrusive and inoffensive
manners; and ... in a majority of instances, men of education
and ability."^2
Weitling felt quite at home in this vital, growing German com
munity. Seventy-two joined his league, and others contributed
(^2) Ben Cassaday, The History of Louisville (Louisville, 1852), 247-48; see also
Der deutsche Pionier, I (1869), 46-50.