| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 20 June 1893 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
London, 20 June 1893
My dear Löhr,
I was glad to conclude from your letter that there was still time to insert, in your Rave amendé et corrigé,[1] such of my suggested alterations as you approve of. 195 That was one of the reasons why I did not lay great weight on having the proofs here: once the matter mise en page,[2] it is difficult to insert alterations which necessitate either the cutting out, or the putting in, of a line or a few lines; at least in Germany I have had many a hard fight about the extra expence arising therefrom, and Mister Sonnenschein is careful to insert, in the agreement, a precise limit of what such alterations may cost extra. As to your two objects: to have a faithful translation, and one that should read as an original work, you have certainly attained them both and I am longing to read myself—without keeping one eye constantly on misprints and formal matters—again in your French: when I read it I said to Louise there is only one man in and about Paris that knows French, and that one is neither French nor a man but Laura.
As to the Alsatian Rave I'll forgive him his Alsatianism in consideration of his working-class countrymen; the 12,000 Muhausen[3] votes for Bueb, the 6,200 Strasburg ones for Bebel (who is almost sure to get in there) and the 3,200 Metz ones for Liebknecht, besides odds and ends all over the country. Bebel who has been there several times lately is quite in love with the Alsatian working men and with the country altogether, although at Strasburg last Sunday fortnight they nearly smothered him bodily with their enthusiasm in Hammerle's beer-garden.
Our elections went off glorious. 204 In 1890—20 seats, now 24 carried at the first assault; in 1890—about 60 ballottages, this time 85. Of seats we lost two and gained six new ones; of the 85 ballots, there are 38 in which, in 1890, we did not get into the ballot (only the two candidates with the highest number of votes are admitted to ballot); and of the 85, there are also 38 in which we have chances (in the remaining 47 we are in a hopeless minority, unless miracles happen) and out of these 38 we may reasonably expect 25 successful elections. But the gap caused by the complete break-up of the Radical (Freisinnige) Partei 223 has created such a state of confusion that we must be prepared for a series of surprises; amongst the Radicals, party discipline has ceased to exist and the people in each locality will just act as they think fit. By bringing up our full strength at second ballot by the assistance of the bourgeois democrats in South Germany and of the mutual jealousies and bickerings of the other parties, we shall be able to come up again to the old complement of 36, so that only for an increase above that number we shall be dependent on the active assistance of Radicals, Anti-Semites 217 and Catholics, 71 that is to say upon the strong anti-military current which pervades the peasantry and petty-bourgeois class.
But the number of seats is a very secondary consideration. The principal one is the increase of votes, and that is sure to be considerable. Only we shall not know it until the full official returns are placed before the Reichstag; the most important part of that increase will consist in the—relatively small—number of votes cast in entirely new, remote country places, showing the hold we are beginning to take of those rural districts which were hitherto inaccessible to us and without which we cannot expect to be victorious. When they are all counted up, I still believe we shall have something like 2 1/4 million votes, more than has ever been cast for any other party in Germany.
Altogether, the effect has been stunning upon the whole of the German and English bourgeois press. And well it may be. Such a steady, unbroken, resistless progress of a party has never been seen in any country. And the best of it is that our increase of 1893 involves—by the extent and variety of the newly broken ground it shows—the certain promise of a far greater increase at the next general election.
The new departure of the parti ouvrier[4] with regard to 'patriotism' is very rational in itself 1'; international union can exist only between nations, whose existence, autonomy and independence as to internal matters is therefore included in the very term of internationality. And the pressure of the pseudo-patriots, sooner or later, was certain to provoke an utterance of this kind, even without the alliance with Millerand and Jaurès 169 who no doubt have also urged the necessity of such an act. Guesde's interview in the Figaro 224 is excellent, not a word to be said against it. The address of the Conseil[5] — here I am interrupted. I shall have to go to the railway station. Mrs. Gumpert (you know Dr. Gumpert died a short time ago) is going to Germany and on the way going to stay a few days with us, and I must fetch her from the train. So I must say good-bye for a day or two, my observations on the address being of no great importance and no hurry whatever about them. Good luck to the everlasting traveller.[6] What a change has come over poor Clemenceau that even a Déroulède can bull-bait him! 225 Sic transit gloria mundi.[7] The anti-Semite patriotic bullies seem to have it all their own way both in France and Germany as far as the bourgeois are concerned! Love from Louise and your old
General[8]