Letter to Karl Kautsky, June 13, 1891

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 13 June 1891


First published in Aus der Frühzeit des Marxismus. Engels Briefwechsel mit Kautsky, Prag 1935
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN STUTTGART

London, 13 June 1891

Dear Kautsky,

Article on Peru[1] received with thanks. Perhaps you would allow me to keep it here until I have completed the new edition[2] of the Origin. In another article on Negro customs in East Africa[3] I came across a note to the effect that out there a woman's clitoris is cut off before marriage; Sam Moore wrote and told me that this peculiar custom is observed along the River Niger for a distance of more than a hundred miles, though not in his locality where he has satisfied himself as to the presence of the said organ.

The introduction[4] to the new edition of the Origin is ready and I shall send it off to you next week in case you might wish to use it beforehand for the Neue Zeit. If so, please let me have the proofs — in fact, three lots—, the third will go to Rave for the French translation which is finished so far as the old edition goes. Incidentally, Rave doesn't know enough German, Strasbourger though he may be. He has made atrocious howlers, thereby involving Laura Lafargue in a colossal amount of work. I'm only surprised that she took it on at all.

So you can inform Dietz that he won't have to wait much longer. But he might let me know the number of the new edition. The chaps have gone ahead so fast with the 5,000 copies printed in Zurich that I no longer have the slightest idea where I am. Is this the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or which edition?

The fee for Marx's article[5] received with thanks and already distributed. With regard to the payment for the new edition of the Poverty of Philosophy (and similarly for the first edition as well—for which we asked nothing at the time), perhaps you would be so good as to make provisional arrangements with Dietz. If, having done so, you then tell me what percentage of the total fee for the new edition ought to be allocated to yourselves, i.e. to you and Ede, and what percentage to Marx's heirs, I shall be able to form a better opinion. But the pair of you mustn't lose by it.

A stop ought to be put to Grillenberger's machinations, or at any rate he should be made to pay the fees. If he publishes Marx's speech on free trade[6] in your joint translation, you and Ede, not to mention Clara Zetkin, must protest and I should then do the same on behalf of the heirs—as a matter of principle. As regards the Origin, I have been much delayed through having had to consult all the relevant literature. There is no bigger mutual assurance society than the specialists in prehistory. They're a bunch of scoundrels who indulge in camaraderie and cliquish boycotting on an international scale made possible by their relatively small numbers. Now, however, a new element has entered upon the scene in the shape of comparative jurisprudence and, while it has its bad aspects, it may well break up the old ring.

Yesterday Ede showed me Bebel's letter to you. You gave Simon his deserts.[7] Things never turn out particularly well if one aims at 'moderation'; a punch, however, hits home. Odd the way this chap behaves as though 100% of medical men were on his side instead of perhaps 1%.

Your 'Emancipation of the 4th Volume'[8] is nothing by comparison with the 'liberation from feudal seats[9] they inflicted on me in the Berlin edition of the Entwicklung des Sozialismus.[10] Imagine what the evolution of socialism would look like had it happened[11] in Berlin!

Just let the chaps get on with their programme.[12] Bebel will make sure all right that none of the old Liebknechtian vulgar democratic and vulgar socialist catchwords find their way into it. It's quite a good thing that the people in Berlin should first discuss the subject amongst themselves; what they suggest can only be an improvement on the old programme and will still be open to discussion. The disenchantment of our friends who, after a 13 years' interval, are now obliged to meet Liebknecht face to face again and work with him, is really too comical. While the Anti-Socialist Law was in force, he remained ensconced in Borsdorf, concerning himself with nothing save his correspondence. Now, 13 years later, the chaps find him completely changed. On the contrary, he has remained as he was; it is they who have progressed and are now aware that a great chasm exists. Now nothing happens without there being a rumpus, now they find that Liebknecht is editing the paper[13] out of existence. He did no better by the Volksstaat, etc., but then he was helped by the others to keep the paper afloat; now they have other things to do and now they have a Liebknechtian paper tout pur,[14] i. e. Liebknecht and family!

Lafargue's interpretation of the Bible is very pretty — callow but original, marking the final break with the now outmoded, German-rationalist philological method. As a beginning it's all one could ask for.[15]

The OMNIBUS STRIKE has been won![16] At any rate on the main issue. London without omnibuses was and is an odd sort of place. Ede ought to send you a description of it for the feuilleton; I shall tell him so tomorrow. He is enduring his grass widowhood with manly resignation, assisted by us. Kindest regards.

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ 224
  2. ↑ The Anti-Socialist Law, initiated by the Bismarck government and passed by the Reichstag on 21 October 1878, was directed against the socialist and working-class movement. The Social-Democratic Party of Germany was virtually driven into the underground. All party and mass working-class organisations and their press were banned, socialist literature was subject to confiscation, Social-Democrats made the object of reprisals. However, with the active help of Marx and Engels, the Social-Democratic Party succeeded in overcoming both the opportunist (Eduard Bernstein et al.) and 'ultra-Left' (J. Most et al.) tendencies within its ranks and was able, by combining underground activities with an efficient utilisation of legal means, to use the period of the operation of the law for considerably strengthening and expanding its influence among the masses. Prolonged in 1881, 1884, 1886 and 1888, the Anti-Socialist Law was repealed on 1 October 1890. For Engels' assessment of it see his article 'Bismarck and the German Working Men's Party' (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 407-09).
  3. ↑ A. Fleischmann, 'Rechtszustände in Ost Afrika', Das Ausland, Nos. 42, 43; 20 and 27 October 1890.
  4. ↑ The reference is to the preface to the fourth German edition of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State published in Die Neue Zeit, 9. Jg. 1890/91, 2. Bd., Nr. 41 under the title 'Zur Urgeschichte der Familie (Bachofen, McLennan, Morgan)' before the publication of the book. See also this volume, pp. 201, 204, 215-16, 232-33.
  5. ↑ See this volume, pp. 141, 144.
  6. ↑ K. Marx, 'Speech on the Question of Free Trade' (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 450-65).
  7. ↑ 255
  8. ↑ Band (volume); misprint for Stand (estate).
  9. ↑ Sessel (seat); misprint for Fessel (bonds or shackles).
  10. ↑ Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
  11. ↑ In the original: vorjefallen (Berlin dialect).
  12. ↑ Engels means the new programme of German Social-Democracy being drawn up by the party Executive in accordance with a decision of the Halle party congress (see Note 12). Kautsky, in his letter to Engels of 4 June 1891, doubted the Executive's ability to work out a satisfactory programme.
  13. ↑ Vorwärts
  14. ↑ pure and simple
  15. ↑ P. Lafargue, 'Der Mythus von Adam und Eva. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Mythologie', Die Neue Zeit, 9. Jg. 1890/91, 2. Bd., Nr. 34, 35.
  16. ↑ A strike of omnibus and tram drivers and conductors, caused by bad working conditions, took place from 7 to 13 June 1891. It was almost general in character, involving as it did 3,000 workers. Their principal demands were a reduction of working hours and higher wages. The walkout ended in a victory for the strikers — the working day was reduced to 12 hours.