248 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
and opposition was rising to centralization under Weitling's
leadership and to integration of the settlement with the Arbeiter
bund. The dissension ended in a secession, the first of several still
to come. The erring brethren were permitted to depart in peace
and were paid off with $800 of the Arbeiterbund's money. The
women who remained were promised individual "hearths and
homes."
Weitling in May, 1852, receipted for contributions of $1,924.34
to the treasurer of the Bund for purposes of the colony, but has
tened to explain to his followers that he had encountered more
dissatisfaction and trouble in six weeks at Communia than in any
ten years of his career, and that instead of starting afresh, he had
been forced to take over a colony already four years old. He
commented cynically that the members of the Bund sigh for re
lief from the cares of the world, but "when they are here a little
while, they remember the beer mugs of the cities.... They
want change but they cannot be satisfied." Once again he called
for a dozen recruits who were real communists and would not
expect "heaven on earth," and for a half dozen strong, young girls
who would be willing to do a woman's work. He wanted no more
large families with children, nor "women with scolding tongues
and unreasonable demands." He pointed out that Communia, un
like many other colonies, did not require its women to work in the
fields but did expect them to do the housework, cooking, and
laundry for all members of the colony and without masculine
assistance. Weitling had discovered to his sorrow that women
found it more difficult than men to adjust to communism, and he
added ruefully: "if women only wouldn't get children. Children
stimulate their egoism."^7
More important, however, than these internal difficulties was
the growing concern of the founder of the Arbeiterbund about
the safety of the funds entrusted to him by the workers and now
being pumped into this colonizing project. Never distinguished
for practical judgment, Weitling pursued several will-o'-the-
(^7) Weitling to J. Krieg. MS letter in Library of Congress.