Letter to Johann Philipp Becker, September 15, 1879

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 September 1879


First published in: F. Engels, Vergessene Briefe (Briefe Friedrich Engels' an Johann Philipp Becher), Berlin, 1920
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO JOHANN PHILIPP BECKER

IN GENEVA

London, 15 September 1879

Dear Old Man,

I trust you got my last letter[1] and the money order for 75 frs by post.

Sorge writes saying that he has written to you, too, about the necessity of renewing the power of attorney in respect of Lingenau's will, since Geib's death might otherwise put the lawyers of the contending party into the position of being able to declare the old power of attorney invalid and thus bring about new delays.[2]

Marx, who is still at the seaside[3] and has apparently made a wonderful recovery, has just written telling me to ask you to send him the form for the power of attorney[4] so that he can attend to the same. Would you therefore be so good as to do this as soon as possible. If it involves you in any expense, write and tell me at once what it amounts to and I will send you the money. The sooner this is done the better. The power of attorney should, of course, be exactly the same as before, only omitting Geib's name, or else mentioning him as deceased.

The business of the German party organ in Zurich[5] is becoming more and more of a lark. The Zurich editorial committee which, under the general management of the Leipzigers, is to supervise and censor the paper, consists of Höchberg, Schramm and Bernstein. But now, in the Jahrbuch für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, published in Zurich by Höchberg, Schramm, Höchberg and Bernstein have printed an article 'Rückblick auf die sozialistische Bewegung in Deutschland'[6] in which all three are revealed to be common or garden bourgeois and pacific philanthropists; they accuse the party of having been too exclusively a ''workers' party', and of having provoked the hatred of the bourgeoisie, and claim that leadership of the movement should be entrusted to 'educated' bourgeois of their own stamp. That's really going a bit too far.

Luckily Höchberg dropped in on me unexpectedly the day before yesterday, whereupon I gave him a piece of my mind. The unfortunate lad—not a bad chap, au fond,[7] but alarmingly naive—came down to earth with a bang when I pointed out to him that we couldn't think of lowering the proletarian flag which we had held aloft for nigh on 40 years, still less join in the general petty-bourgeois fraternisation fantasies against which we had been fighting, again for nigh on 40 years. In short, now he at last knows where he stands with us and also why, whatever the Leipzigers may say or do, we can't march shoulder to shoulder with people of his ilk.

We shall likewise supply Bebel with a quite categorical statement as to our standpoint vis-à-vis these allies of the German party,[8] and then wait and see what they will do. If the party organ adopts the standpoint of the said bourgeois article, we shall publicly declare our opposition to it. However, they're unlikely to let things go so far.

Write soon, then. Warmest regards from Marx and

Your old friend,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ See this volume, pp. 383 84.
  2. ↑ On 18 March 1876, Ferdinand Lingenau, a German socialist who had emigrated to the United States, bequeathed about $7,000 to the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, naming August Bebel, Johann Philipp Becker, Wilhelm Bracke, August Geib, Wilhelm Liebknecht and Karl Marx as executors. After his death on 4 August 1877, they tried to have his estate passed on to the party, but Bismarck managed to prevent this by applying diplomatic pressure.
  3. ↑ On 21 August 1879, Marx interrupted his stay in Jersey (see Note 494) and n arrived in Ramsgate to join his daughter Jenny and her newborn son Edgar. He returned to London on 17 September.
  4. ↑ Ibid., p. 385.
  5. ↑ This refers to the preparations for the publication of the illegal newspaper Der Sozialdemokrat in Zurich, the new central printed organ ot the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. The need for such a newspaper emerged after a ban on the entire party press, above all the Vorwärts, following the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law in October 1878 (see Note 462). In July-September 1879, extensive correspondence on the political line of the new paper and its editors was maintained between August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Louis Viereck (in Leipzig), Carl Hirsch (in Paris), Eduard Bernstein, Karl Höchberg, Carl August Schramm (in Zurich), and Marx and Engels (in London). The campaign Marx and Engels conducted for a sound political line of the party's future central printed organ is fully expounded in their Circular Letter to August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Wilhelm Bracke and Others of 17-18 September 1879 (see this volume, pp. 394-408).
  6. ↑ A reference to the programmatic article 'Rückblicke auf die sozialistische Bewegung in Deutschland' which appeared anonymously in the Jahrbuch für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Jg. 1, 1. Hälfte, Zürich-Oberstrass, 1879, S. 75-96. Its authors were Karl Höchberg (pen-name Ludwig Richter), Eduard Bernstein and Carl August Schramm. Marx and Engels examined it in detail in the Circular Letter (this volume, pp. 401-08).
  7. ↑ at bottom
  8. ↑ See next letter.