| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 9 August 1890 |
ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE
IN MOUNT DESERT
London, 9 August 1890
Dear Sorge,
A week ago on Wednesday I sent you a postcard[1] gratefully acknowledging receipt of Morgan.[2] Today, a few lines in so far as time allows before the post goes.
The trip to North Cape did us both[3] a great deal of good and, after another 3 or 4 weeks of extra recuperation at the seaside, whither we shall be going next week (I have been held up here by sundry domestic business), I think I shall be absolutely fit again. On the face of it I look very well. Aboard our ship (a steam yacht of 2,200 tons), upon which we spent all our time going in and out of all the Norwegian fjords, there were 3 doctors who refused to believe that I'm going to be 70 this year. In fact, I am able to sleep without sulphonal, but how long will it last?
Tussy and Aveling likewise went to Norway on Wednesday. Considering what Ibsen enthusiasts they are, I'm surprised they should have waited so long before seeing the new promised land. I wonder if they are in for another disappointment, as in America? At any rate, Norway is by nature, just as America is socially, a pillar of what the philistines call 'individualism'. At intervals of 2 or 3 miles there are pockets of light soil among the rocks upon which a family might just be able to subsist — and, sure enough, it does, cut off from all the rest of the world. The people are handsome, strong, honest, bigoted and — fanatically religious, i. e. in the country. The towns are just like those on the Dutch or German coast. In Bergen there is a Social Democratic association which, to the horror of the reigning teetotallers, is demanding the right to serve beer in its club. I read an indignant article about it in the Bergensposten.
In Germany there's a minor row in store for the congress.[4] Mr Schippel — a protégé of Liebknecht's — and other men of letters propose to attack the party leadership and form an opposition.
Well, after the abolition of the Anti-Socialist Law, there would be no real objection to that. The party is so big that complete freedom of discussion within its ranks is imperative. Otherwise the many new elements who have joined it during the past 3 years and who are in some cases still exceedingly green and unpolished, could not be assimilated and trained. An accretion of 700,000 in 3 years (only counting the voters) isn't like a bunch of schoolboys into whom you can drum things; discussion and a certain amount of dissension is necessary and will help them over the first hurdle. There's not the slightest danger of a split; the press, now 12 years old, will take care of that. But these insolent literary men, bent on satisfying their colossal vanity, are intriguing and forming cliques for all they are worth, thereby arousing far more wrath than they warrant among the party leaders for whom they create a great deal of unaccustomed trouble and vexation. Hence the latter's conduct of the battle has been anything but skilful; Liebknecht is constantly on the warpath with his 'expulsions' and even Bebel, usually so tactful, has been stung by anger into publishing a somewhat foolish letter. Which is why our literary gents are now screaming about the silencing of the free expression of opinion, etc. The chief organs of the new opposition are the Berliner Volks-Tribüne (Schippel), Sächsische Arbeiter-Zeitung (Dresden) and the Magdeburg Volksstimme. They have gained a certain following in Berlin, Magdeburg, etc., particularly among the new recruits who are still susceptible to the lure of stock-phrases. I shall probably be seeing Bebel and Liebknecht over here before the congress, and shall do my utmost to convince them of the imprudence of any expulsion that rests not on convincing proof of activities harmful to the party, but solely on charges of opposition-mongering. The biggest party in the empire cannot remain in existence unless every shade of opinion is allowed complete freedom of expression, while even the semblance of dictatorship à la Schweitzer must be avoided. I shall have no difficulty so far as Bebel is concerned, but Liebknecht is so subject to the mood of the moment that he is capable of breaking all his promises and doing so, as always, for the best of reasons.
Here the peace of summer reigns save that, in his answer in Justice to my May article in the Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung[5] Hyndman has again sent me to kingdom come as the 'grand lama of Regent's Park Road'.[6]
Lafargue writes to say that in France all the generals in the government, the Senate and the Chamber are definitely opposed to any war. And rightly so. For if there were war, it would be 3 to 1 against that Russia and Prussia would fight a couple of battles and then make it up at the expense of Austria and France, so that each of the latter would lose an ally.
Lafargue's article on the French movement[7] in the Neue Zeit is very good and is charmingly written, but I wish Ede Bernstein had translated it instead of Kautsky, who is too heavy-handed.
I have just received copies of the new German edition of the Manifesto[8] and enclose one herewith.
Many regards from myself and Schorlemmer to your wife and yourself and also to the Schlüters,
Your
F. Engels