216 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
were organized among the Germans, but the socialist movement
as such virtually had to make a fresh start in America after the Civil
War.^21
By 1854, ugly charges were circulating about financial irregu
larities in Weitling's declining Arbeiterbund. The New Orleans
Gemeinde reported that its accounts did not tally with those
printed in Die Republik der Arbeiter, and Weitling accused the
treasurer of the central committee of failing to report several con
tributions, whereupon the latter filed his accounts in the presence
of witnesses. As of February 26,1854, they showed an income for
twenty-one months, including subscriptions to the paper and pay
ments for the colony, of $18,240.48, the bulk of which had been
paid out to Communia, Iowa. Two thousand dollars had been
spent on Die Republik der Arbeiter. The treasurer's cash balance
amounted to only $865 for the various insurance projects of the
organization, though the pension fund was carried on the books
at $7,195 and the fire-insurance fund at $482. Weitling believed
that a movement was on foot to force him to sell the colony and
appealed to local treasurers to send their funds more promptly to
New York headquarters.
In April, 1854, a number of the Gemeinde refused to give Weitling the power of attorney he had requested for the Bund and the
colony to facilitate clearing up the tangled relations which were
forcing both enterprises into bankruptcy. Further secessions followed his admission that the property of the colony was now the
only remaining security for pensions. Thereupon, certain Ge
meinde stopped payments altogether, demanded the return of their
deposits, and became more and more abusive in their attacks on
Weitling's personal character. The New York group split into two
factions because Weitling postponed the election of a new central
committee, and presently the Arbeiterbund was involved in a(^21) See Hermann Schlüter, Die Internationale in Amerika (Chicago, 1918), 6-7;
Heath, Social Democracy Red Book, 29; Heinzen's Pionier, September 5, 1858;
C. F. Huch, "Geschichte der freien Sonntagsschule des Arbeiterbundes bis zum
Jahre 1884," Mitteilungen des Deutschen Pionier-Vereins von Philadelphia, XIV
(1910), 28-40.