THE WORKINGMEN'S LEAGUE 199
The chief opposition to Weitling's program came from such
papers as the Washington Zuschauer, which accepted political
advertising from the Whigs; from Catholic papers; from con
servative Democratic papers like the Columbus Westbote; and
from the New Yorker Staatszeitung, which regularly referred to
socialism as a "rhinoceros." The Westbote ridiculed Weitling as
"the dictator and saviour of these latest world reformers" who
talk about a "blood red republic"; it suggested that if Americans
could read propaganda of this sort in English translation, they
would be forced to conclude that Germany had emptied her in
sane asylums in the United States.^12
There is some evidence to show that Weitling would have pre
ferred postponing his call for a workers' congress to found a
workers' party until more preliminary spadework had been done.
Nevertheless he found it desirable to take the initiative in inviting
the German workers of the United States to send delegates to
Philadelphia, and he scheduled October 21, 1850, as the date for
the beginning of their deliberations. Officially, the call was issued
in the name of the German Central Committee of United Trades
and the German-American Workingmen's Society of Philadel
phia. Representation was fixed at the ratio of one delegate per
hundred members, and each worker was asked to contribute
twenty-five cents to cover the expenses of the congress. At the
request of Die Republik der Arbeiter, other German-language
papers joined in the call.
The debates in the various Arbeitervereine concerning the pur
pose of the congress, and the contests for election of delegates
proved spirited and exciting.^13 The New York Abendzeitung
Weitling's papers there is a letter to Brisbane in which he suggested, "I may be
and am inclined to be of use to you. Your paper can break its course at any time,
so long not another paper such course has taken." See also Rep. d. Arb., Septem
ber 30, 1854, and Redelia Brisbane, Albert Brisbane: A Mental Biography (Bos
ton, 1893).
(^12) Columbus (Ohio) Westbote, November 29, 1850. For a list of papers fairly
sympathetic with Weitling's program, see Rep. d. Arb., December, 1850, and
Belleviller Zeitung, August 22, 1850.
(^13) See St. Louis Anzeiger des Westens, September 24, 1850.