| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 12 December 1894 |
ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE
IN HOBOKEN
London, 12 December 1894
Dear Sorge,
Today one copy of Marx's Capital, Vol. III, has gone off to you by registered Book Post. I trust you will get it.
What has earned us such an undeserved stroke of luck as the 'lese-majestie' suit brought at little Willie's[1] behest against our chaps for having remained seated in the Reichstag, is beyond my comprehension. 436 No one could have done us a greater service. Little Willie and 'Mr von Köller, Whatever they do there's worse to foller' are a fine pair and as if cut out to get everything into a mess and us—out of it.
Bebel has emerged victorious. In the first place, after Bebel's articles Vollmar broke off the controversy, 434 in the second, his appeal to the Executive was most resolutely rejected and, in the third, he appealed to the parliamentary group but the latter, having been declared incompetent by Bebel, admitted its incompetence, which means that the matter will come up before the next Party Conference, when Bebel can be certain of a majority of two-thirds or three-quarters.
It is the third campaign Vollmar has fought for a leading position in the party outside of Bavaria. On the first occasion he demanded that we should actively support Caprivi and become government socialists. 437 On the second, that we should go in for state socialism and assist the present German Empire in its socialist experiments. 438 On both he got a flea in his ear. And now he has got another.
The act of staying seated in the Reichstag has impressed the French more than all the work the party has done over the past thirty years. Between ourselves, the Parisians—and I mean the Parisians, not the French—have gone very much to seed. Their love of fine phrases and their respect for the melodramatic are gradually becoming intolerable. I hope you and your wife are well. Warm regards to you both.
Yours,
F. E.
Out of gratitude to Schlüter for sending me the CENSUS REPORTS,[2] etc., I have also sent him a copy of Volume III[3] by registered BOOK POST. But since I do not know whether his address, 935 Washington, still holds good, I have sent it to him care of the Volkszeitung, P. O. Box 1512, N. Y. City. Would you be so good as to let him know this?