Letter to Georg Lommel, April 9, 1860

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 9 April 1860


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41


MARX TO GEORG LOMMEL

IN GENEVA

[Draft] [London,] 9 April 1860

To G. Lommel. (Geneva)

Citizen,

I have been told by Siebel, whom I saw a day or two since at Freiligrath's while on his way back from Switzerland, that a letter sent by me from Manchester on 26 February to the editors of the Neue Schweizer Zeitung, and intended for you, has fallen into Brass's hands. For I had been informed that you were the editor of the Neue Schweizer Zeitung, a paper I have never seen. It was in this belief that I wrote to you, since your name was known to me through its having featured with such great credit in the annals of the revolution. I would not have written to Mr Brass.

What I wanted of you was to learn something about Vogt's activities. Material concerning the activities of V. and other Bonapartist agents has been pouring in from people belonging to the emigrations of various countries and to the various schools of thought within the revolutionary party. But I wish to set to work with discrimination and a strict regard for the truth. A contribution from you, with your intimate knowledge of how things stand in Switzerland, would therefore be of the utmost value to me.

With regard to your book Hinter den Coulissen, a copy of which was given me by Siebel, I found this of great interest and believe it is important that the second part should appear. In the case of the latter, I might be able to get hold of a financially reliable bookseller for you over here. With regard to part I, I think I could dispose of 300 copies at 1 franc apiece, partly by direct sales at the various societies in London, partly through booksellers. But first the copies would have to be here. If this appeals to you, send the copies to the booksellers 'Petsch, etc., London'.

Finally, I have one more proposal to make you. My friend J. Weydemeyer (previously co-editor of the Neue Deutsche Zeitung in Frankfurt) has given up his post as DEPUTY-SURVEYOR in the state of Wisconsin at the request of the Workers' League in the United States (which has moved its headquarters from New York to Chicago),[1] in order to take over the editorship in Chicago of Die Stimme des Volks, a daily paper founded by the Working Men's and Gymnastic Club.[2] I have been asked by him to enlist correspondents in Europe, and this I have done over here, in Paris and in Berlin. I am taking the liberty of inviting you to act as correspondent for Switzerland, initially on the basis of one contribution per week. Fee 2 dollars (10 frs.) per article— payments, as might be expected from a paper of this kind and particularly at the outset, will be modest for the time being, but will improve as the paper grows. Hitherto there has been only one daily in the state of Illinois, the Staatszeitung.[3] Day by day, however, Chicago is increasingly becoming the centre of the entire North-West of America, where there is a very large German population. I can guarantee prompt payment. If you agree to this proposal, will you start straight away this week and be good enough to advise me. The address is:

J. Weydemeyer, CARE OF Chicago Arbeiterverein, BOX 1345, Chicago (Illinois), United States.

To come back to Vogt, you will have seen a statement of mine (beginning of February)[4] in various German newspapers to the effect that I shall reply to his lampoon[5] after settlement of the libel action I have brought against the Berlin National-Zeitung for printing excerpts from Vogt's concoction.[6]

On pp. 180-181 (cf. the passage) Vogt speaks of a 'conspiracy' he foiled at the Lausanne working men's festival. Can you give me any information about this piece of boasting? The passage runs as follows:[7] What is the truth of the matter?

Finally, I would take the liberty of pointing out that your account of Vogt's activities, which you could send me in the form of a letter, thereby finding yourself in the highly honourable company of other refugees (though it cannot appear until later by reason of the lawsuit in Berlin[8] ), would figure in my pamphlet[9] as a section in its own right, contributed by you, and I would, of course, pass on to you the fee per sheet paid me by the publisher in respect of the section you had contributed. I say this because I know full well what it is to be a refugee, having myself lived under those conditions almost uninterruptedly for seventeen years, and it would be most unjust if one of us were to accept payment from a publisher at the expense of another. Owing to the lawsuit in Berlin and also because Vogt's main attack, etc., is directed against me, my pamphlet will be in great demand and will find a good publisher in Germany. One is inclined to ask whether a concentration of attacking forces would not be desirable in the interests of the cause. On that point you will, of course, be entirely your own judge and under no circumstances should you misconstrue my plain speaking. With fraternal greetings,

Yours truly,

K. M.

When writing to me, address your letters: A. Williams,[10] Esq., 9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill, London.

  1. ↑ The American Workers' League was a mass political organisation set up in New York on 21 March 1853. The majority of its members were immigrant German workers. Joseph Weydemeyer was on the League's organising Central Committee. The League worked for the establishment of trade unions, fought for higher wages and shorter hours, and sought to encourage independent political action by the workers. It virtually ceased its activities in 1855, but resumed them, in New York, in 1857, under the name of the General Labor Union. The Chicago Workers' Association, formed in 1857, was one of its branches. In 1860, it took over the leadership of US workers' organisations, while the General Labor Union ceased to exist.
  2. ↑ Gymnastic Clubs—organisations of German democratic emigrants, including workers, set up in the USA by former participants in the 1848-49 revolution. At a congress in Philadelphia on 5 October 1850 the Gymnastic Clubs united into a Socialist Gymnastic Association which maintained contacts with German workers' organisations in America and published the Turn-Zeitung, a newspaper to which Weydemeyer and Cluss contributed regularly in 1852 and 1853.
  3. ↑ Die Tägliche Illinois Staats-Zeitung
  4. ↑ K. Marx, 'To the Editors of the Volks-Zeitung. Declaration', 6 February 1860.
  5. ↑ C. Vogt, Mein Prozess gegen die Allgemeine Zeitung, Geneva, 1859.
  6. ↑ 'Karl Vogt und die Allgemeine Zeitung' and 'Wie man radikale Flugblätter macht', National Zeitung, Nos. 37 and 41, 22 and 25 January 1860.
  7. ↑ Marx did not copy out the passage from Vogt's pamphlet in the draft of his letter. He did reproduce it in his Herr Vogt (see present edition, Vol. 17, p. 70). He also reproduced the corresponding passage from Lommel's reply of 13 April 1860 (p. 71).
  8. ↑ See this volume, pp. 40 45 and 59 76.
  9. ↑ Herr Vogt
  10. ↑ An alias used by Marx in some of his letters.