| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 26 January 1887 |
ENGELS TO PASQUALE MARTIGNETTI
IN BENEVENTO
London, 26 January 1887
Dear Citizen,
I wrote to you on the 18th of this month[1] in reply to your kind letter of the 9th8 and afterwards I received yours of the 21st.
I can only confirm what I said in my last letter: neither here in England nor in the United States of North America is it possible for someone who does not speak English to earn a living other than by manual work.
The Argentine Republic would perhaps provide more favourable hunting ground; there is a strong Italian colony and you would learn Spanish without much difficulty. But it is a long way away, the voyage would be costly, and it would be difficult to come back. The country is progressing, but that is all I really know. Not being familiar with Argentinian legislation, I do not know under what conditions one can live there from teaching in an elementary school.
As for commerce. I have been out of it for 18 years and I no longer have any relations with commercial firms or factories.9 What is more, in some cases a reference from me would be worse than none at all (if one could find a firm whose partners still know me) because people know me not so much as a businessman of the past than as an active socialist of the present. And then there is the fact that all the big cities are swarming with commercial dealers not suspected of socialism who are looking for work and who are preferred because of their commercial education. I have for long considered whether it might not be possible to find some way out of this from here, but I cannot see one.
I am writing to Vienna (Austria) and Hamburg to try and find something, though without much hope. But we can only try, and I shall let you know the outcome.
You would do well to write to Lafargue too. He was here when your letter of the 9th arrived and was informed of its contents. He said he feared there was no hope of his finding a job for you in Paris; but when he is back among his friends he might get more information and change his mind. I shall write to him at the same time on your behalf.[2]
The great problem is that we socialists are not only politically but also civilly proscribed, and for the entire bourgeoisie it is both a pleasure and a duty to see that we starve. This anathema falls principally upon educated and cultured men, whom they consider to be deserters from their own class that have passed over to the enemy camp. This problem presents itself everywhere; we faced it ourselves in 1844 and 1849. How many times did Marx and I not wish that we knew some manual trade, for even the bourgeois cannot live without the products of manual labour!
Would it not be possible for you to find work with one of the Italian socialist newspapers, in Milan or elsewhere? I do not receive them, and I am therefore not well informed of the present state of the socialist party in your country. In any case it would be preferable if you could remain in Italy.
I repeat that I shall be pleased to do everything in my power to find a way out of the difficulties you are caught up in. I only regret I cannot open better vistas. I shall not forget what you have done to make our ideas and my writings known in Italy, and rest assured that, if something comes up for you somewhere, I shall not let it escape me.
With sincere greetings,
F. Engels