| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 3 December 1890 |
ENGELS TO FERDINAND DOMELA NIEUWENHUIS
IN THE HAGUE
London, 3 December 1890
Dear Comrade,
My warmest thanks for the good wishes you sent me on my seven- tieth birthday, now happily surmounted. I welcome these as tendered both in your own name and in that of the Dutch Labour Party and wish the latter the best possible progress and you yourself the health and strength that will enable you to fulfil the important role that has fallen to you. And I would request you to act as interpreter in conveying these my thanks and good wishes to the comrades over there.
As regards your query about buying your son out of military ser- vice there would, I think, be nothing improper about this in princi- ple. It is — generally speaking—just as permissible for us to make use of the advantages conceded by the present-day state to the privileged members of society, as it is for us to make use of the products[1] of oth- ers, to live indirectly on the exploitation of others, as indeed we must in so far as we are not ourselves economically productive. If the la- bour party benefits as a result, I would even regard it as a duty. Moreover, the class from which remplaçants are recruited is not, as a rule, the working class proper, but that stratum which already over- laps to a large extent with the lumpenproletariat. And if one of the latter sells himself into the army for a few years, it does at least mean that an unemployed man has found himself a berth.
What calls for particular consideration, however, is the impression such a course of action on your part might make on your party com- rades and, further, on the vast mass of workers who still remain out- side the party — whether the matter would be one of indifference to working-class opinion or whether it would stir it up against Social- Democracy. That is a point that can only be determined on the spot by someone with a thorough knowledge of the circumstances, and I shall therefore refrain from voicing an opinion on it.
I am equally unfamiliar with the situation of the common soldier in the Dutch army, and upon that a great deal depends. In Germany it is our chaps who go to make the best soldiers.
Cordial regards from
Yours,
F. Engels
After your Bielefeld experience, you will not, I suppose, be in any particular hurry to return to the Holy German Empire of the Prus- sian Nation!