Letter to Paul Stumpf, January 3, 1895

ENGELS TO PAUL STUMPF

IN MAINZ

London, 3 January 1895
41 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Old Man,

As you see, I reciprocate your congratulations on the completion of my 74th year (you were kind enough to make me a year younger (than I am) with a resounding Happy New Year. Let us hope that, come the next one, we shall both of us still be hale and hearty; for I have a great desire just to take one peek into the new century, though by the first of January 1901 or thereabouts, I shall be a complete wreck, and then let happen what may.

I was not unduly disturbed about the row in the party. 463 It is much better that things of this kind should crop up from time to time and be properly thrashed out than that people should don their nightcaps. For the very fact that the party has steadily and inexorably grown and expanded has meant that the new elements are more difficult to absorb than their predecessors. The working men of the big cities, i.e. the most intelligent and wideawake, are already ours and what we are now getting are either the working men of the small towns and rural areas, or students, salesmen, etc., or again, those struggling to keep their heads above water,

the petty bourgeois and such independent craftsmen as still own or rent a parcel of land, and now, into the bargain, the small peasant proper. And since our party is in fact the only really progressive party and, what is more, the only one strong enough to ensure that advances are made, it is obviously tempting to bring a little socialism to bear on the debt-ridden and near- rebellious middle and big peasants as well, particularly in districts where such people predominate on the land. That might well involve going beyond the limits of what is allowed on principle by our party, in which case there will be a bit of a fracas, but so sound is our party's constitution that no harm will have been done. No one is so stupid as seriously to envisage a break with the great majority of the party, nor is anyone so conceited as to believe himself able to set up, alongside our big party, a small private one, like the Swabian People's Party 464 which has actually succeeded in swelling its numbers from seven to eleven Swabians. All this quarrelling has served only to disappoint the bourgeois who, for twenty years now, have been regularly counting on there being a split, while at the same time ensuring that there should not be the slightest risk of one. Take, for instance, the present Subversion Bill 428 and Liebknecht's elevation to the status of representative of the rights of the Reichstag and of the Imperial Constitution, 436 likewise the threatened coup d'état and infringement of the law by the powers that be. Of course stupidities are committed on our side also, but to render it possible for opponents such as these to get the better of us, we should have to be of a stupidity so abysmal as to be without rival anywhere else in the world today. Otherwise your idea of giving the younger generation a chance to take the helm in the party and thus get itself into a fix would not be at all bad; but I believe that they will acquire experience and common sense even without an experiment of that kind.

As you can see from my address, I have, as we used to say, moved a few doors along. This house is much better and more convenient and is very close to the park entrance.

I hope that the 'Heilig Geist' where we downed a good few glasses in our time, is still flourishing. 465 I should like to cool off on some hot summer's day in its Gothic vaults. But who knows what may not happen? One should never say die.

Well, once again a Happy New Year and warm regards from

Yours

F. Engels