IN SWITZERLAND 39
Indeed, he was sufficiently impressed to quote, in a letter to Ruge,
Weitling's lines to the effect that "the perfect society has no
government, but only an administration, no laws, only obligations,
no punishments, only means of correction." It is more than prob
able that intercourse with the philosophical tailor may have turned
Bakunin's thoughts from mere speculation to actual revolution and
thus have helped develop the creed of anarchism which marks his
later years.^16
On his arrival in Geneva, Weitling had joined the existing Ar¬
beiterbildungsverein (society for the education of the workers)
and promptly had tried to convert its members to communism. He
received mail in Switzerland under several party names, Freymann,
Rogge, and Müller. To his great chagrin, he discovered that the
Geneva society was dominated by the Young Germans, re
publican nationalists who had no interest in the cosmopolitanism
of the communists. Failing in his attempt to establish a workers'
co-operative dining hall which he had hoped to manage, Weitling
left the organization and, with the help of men such as Becker and
Schmidt, proceeded to promote new educational and singing
societies and communal eating halls, all of which were used as
screens for the communist activities of the League of the Just.
Operating under such innocent names as Harmonie and Ein¬
tracht, these clubs admitted new members only after careful
scrutiny. The candidate had to be proposed two weeks in advance
and had to receive the unanimous approval of the membership.
Thereupon, he was allowed to pay an initation fee, was handed
propaganda literature, and was given a membership card signed by
the officers of the society. Each member who introduced a new
candidate to the organization endorsed his name on the reverse
side of the membership card, and all members were expected to
sign the roster of the association. An appropriate address wel
comed the initiate into the fraternity at the time when he took the
(^16) See E. A. Carr, Michael Bakunin (London, 1937); Ernst Barnikol (ed.),
Gerechtigkeit; ein studium in 500 Tagen (Kiel, 1929), 162-63; and F. A. Sorge
et al, Briefe und Auszüge aus Brief en (Stuttgart, 1906), 12.