60 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
pecially difficult tasks of an "honor corps" could complete their
term of service in one instead of three years.
This unique organization was patterned on the military. Un
questioning obedience to the superior officer was enforced, and
the rank and file were quartered in barracks or billeted upon the
families of the district. Instruction included training for mining,
railroading, canal, road, and bridge building; work in the building
trades; and preparation "to colonize foreign lands." It was ex
pected that this program of rigorous compulsory training would
provide society with all the necessary labor and guarantee a singu
larly healthy race of men.
Unlike some of the proletarian leaders whom he knew, Weit¬
ling, as already suggested, had a deep respect for education and
science, however disparagingly he might speak at times of the
professors in the universities. He regarded every kind of work a
potential science, and he had unlimited faith in what science could
accomplish for the advancement of humanity. So he advocated a
system of schools, ranging from art and trade schools to a great
university for every million of population; and he favored an as
sociation of teachers and learned, known as the Lehrstand, to assist
in making all appointments in agriculture and industry which re
quired several years' special preparatory training. Professors in the
faculties of the university were represented in the government
of the Familienbund, and students chose ten of their number
to sit with a council of the educated, the Gelehrtenausschuss.
Every teacher was required to perform some manual labor, if
time was available. Students were permitted to choose freely what
they wanted to study, but only those who maintained the highest
standards received work-time credit for their intellectual labors.
At the apex of the administrative pyramid was the Trio or
Dreimännerrath, consisting of the top men in the three branches
into which Weitling divided all science: the science of healing,
which included the whole spiritual and physical nature of man,
for he wanted both philosophers and physicians; physics, by which
he meant a study of natural phenomena and the application of the