Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, July 30, 1890

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 30 July 1890


First published in: Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Joh. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F. A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE

IN MOUNT DESERT[1]

[London], 30 July 1890

Schorlemmer and I are home again after our very delightful and very interesting trip to North Cape and Norway generally and, as from Sunday, I shall be able to start sending stuff to you again and make up for arrears. Morgan[2] received with many thanks, the more so as Ely's intervention was avoided. It is always disagreeable to be beholden to an intermediary. The relevant letters[3] have likewise come back and been destroyed.

The People's Press is also likely to go under in a fortnight's time. It was an attempt by the Fabians[4] to insinuate themselves into the leadership of the movement—at the same time there was much good will but to an even greater extent a lack of journalistic and business experience on the part of the 2 men actually running it,[5] with the result that the whole thing has got into a muddle. There'll be an unpleasant hiatus but it will, I trust, lead to the founding of an organ representative of the new unions.

Those two battles in Leeds were magnificent.[6] It was splendid news to be greeted with on our return.

There is also a social democratic organisation in Bergen, but we had neither the time nor the occasion to look it up; I merely saw in the newspapers that it had its own premises and had applied for a licence to sell beer.

Our trip has done us a power of good. Tussy and Edward are themselves off to Norway next week. Regards from Schorlemmer and

Your

F. E.

Also and especially to your wife.

  1. ↑ Engels wrote this letter on a post card. He put down the following address on the back: F.A. Sorge Esq., Hoboken N.Y., US America which someone corrected to: Hoboken N.Y., US America in Mt. Desert, Maine.
  2. ↑ L. H. Morgan, Houses and houselife of the American aborigines
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp.499-500
  4. ↑ The British Fabian Society was founded by democratic minded intellectuals in 1884. This society was named after the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus (3rd century B.C.), who was named Cunctator ('the delayer') from his cautious tactics in the war against Hannibal. Playing the leading part in it were Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Bernard Shaw and others. Local organisations of the Fabian society sometimes included working-class members. Rejecting notions of militant class struggle and the revolution, the Fabians believed it was possible to move from capitalism to socialism by means of reforms implemented within the framework of a municipal socialism.
  5. ↑ Robert Dell and William Morris
  6. ↑ The owners of the gas enterprises of Leeds demanded that workers be hired for a term of 4 months without a right to participate in strike action during this period. The volume of work done in an 8-hour day was supposed to be 25 per cent higher than what had been performed before, that is, when the working day had been longer. These entrepreneurial conditions, amounting to an actual annihilation of the Gas Workers and General Labourers' Union and of the hard-won legal working hours, caused anger and counter-action amongst the working men. Early in July 1890 it came to clashes between strikers and blacklegs, the latter being supported by the police. The stubborn resistance of the striking workers made the strike-breakers and troops retreat. The employers had to withdraw their demands. The exploit of one of the heroes or the Leeds strike, Will Thorne, received high praise from Engels who presented him with a copy of the English edition of Volume I of Capital bearing the following dedication: 'To Will Thorne, the victor of the Leeds with fraternal greetings from Frederick Engels'.