Letter to Hermann Schlüter, March 21, 1891

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 21 March 1891


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO HERMANN SCHLÜTER

IN HOBOKEN

London, 21 March 1891

Dear Schlüter,

Your letter of the 10th arrived day before yesterday. Many thanks for the information about conditions out there, which is all the more welcome in that, journalistic methods being what they are in America, one knows that one cannot believe the papers and is, as a result, completely at sea.

Likewise many thanks for the books on silver and MINERAL RESOURCES. The one on silver and gold for 1890 will also be of interest to me when it appears. But more important to me than anything else, following last year's census, would be the Compendium of the (eleventh) Census 1890 when this comes out; I inherited from Marx the COMPENDIUM of the 10th CENSUS 1880 in 2 volumes, but it wasn't published until 1883[1] ; not that that matters — this time it's unlikely to take so long.

I have no recollection at all of Marx's second speech, nor can I imagine what it might be.[2] If the few pages seem worth bothering about, it might be best if you were to print them in the Volkszeitung[3] and let me have a few copies.

You are quite right; Marx's critique of the programme[4] will achieve its object all right, and it was with this in mind that I published it. It seems, however, that the rage it has aroused in 'influential circles' in the party is terrible to behold; save for Fischer, who was pleased about the thing, no one has written to me — something, I'm glad to say, I can quite well put up with.

If your wife[5] should come to Europe, we shall, I trust, have a chance to see her here in London, when she may convince herself that we are still going strong.

The Roshers are shortly moving to the Isle of Wight where Percy is to manage an agency for his brothers. They left their house the day before yesterday and for the time being are staying with his parents, a few doors away from me.

You would oblige me by forwarding the enclosed to Sorge straight away.

Predictably, Julius[6] has not yet completed the removal from 114 Kentish Town Road[7] (due on the 25th); they have taken it on for another six weeks. Ede is busy writing for the Vorwärts and the Neue Zeit and is coming on tremendously. The Avelings are doing well; now that The People's Press has gone phut, you ought to read The Daily Chronicle; though the paper is UNIONIST LIBERAL and as such an ally of the TORIES, it provides the best news concerning the labour movement over here, and is prepared to accept all reports. The Eight Hours movement is going splendidly (cf. Ede's articles in the Vorwärts[8] and ditto in the Neue Zeit).[9] The TRADES COUNCIL has given way; this time the demonstration is going to be enormous and, what's more, of one mind. For the English, the LEGAL 8 HOURS AGITATION is the gateway to the socialist movement; once they have swallowed the 8 hours BILL for everyone, including men (and they are well on the way to doing so), they will stick at nothing—they'll have broken with the old middle-class FREE-TRADE viewpoint.

Warm regards to your wife and yourself from Louise and

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ Engels has in mind two censuses: Department of the Interior, Census Office. Compendium of the Tenth Census (June 1, 1880)..., Parts I-II, Washington, 1883 and Department of the Interior, Census Office. Compendium of the Eleventh Census: 1890, Parts I-III, Washington, D.C., 1892-1897.
  2. ↑ In his letter to Engels of 19 November 1890 Schlüter said he had recently read the German translation of Marx's speech, 'The Protectionists, the Free Traders and the Working Class', made in 1846 by Joseph Weydemeyer, a friend and associate of Marx and Engels. The speech was first published in the Belgian newspaper Atelier démocratique on 29 September 1847. In reply to Engels' questions, Schlüter wrote, on 10 March 1891, that Weydemeyer's translation had appeared, alongside that of Marx's 'Speech on the Question of Free Trade' (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 450-65) in Hamm in 1848, as a pamphlet entitled Zwei Reden über die Freihandels- und Schutzzollfrage von Karl Marx. Schlüter also gave a detailed description of the pamphlet.
  3. ↑ New Yorker Volkszeitung
  4. ↑ K. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program
  5. ↑ Anna Schlüter
  6. ↑ Julius Motteler
  7. ↑ the premises of the Sozialdemokrat office
  8. ↑ E. Bernstein, 'Arbeiterschutz-Gesetz-Reformen in England', Vorwärts, Nos. 56, 64 and 67; 7, 17 and 20 March 1891.
  9. ↑ E. Bernstein, 'Briefe aus England', Die Neue Zeit, 9. Jg. 1890/91, 2. Bd., Nr. 25.