Letter to Victor Adler, January 9, 1895

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 9 January 1895


First published in: Printed according to the book Victor Adlers Aufsätze, Reden und Briefe, Erstes Heft: Victor Adler und Friedrich Engels, Vienna, 1922
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 50


ENGELS TO VICTOR ADLER

IN VIENNA

London, 9 January 1895
41 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Victor,

My only real reason for writing to you today is to advise you that on Sunday evening[1] Louise sent off in a wrapper a ms. containing three items addressed to the Editor, Arbeiter-Zeitung, 10 Schwarzspanierstrasse; these contain:

1. Something about the cotton industry.

2. Something about the activities of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress[2] (already to some extent anticipated in the Arbeiter-Zeitung)

3. An extract from Mrs Crawford's Paris Correspondence.[3] As you have previously had trouble over manuscripts sent in a wrapper, I believe this notification to be pertinent.

Should another attempt be made to charge you excess postage after the event on the pretext that the package has been handled as a letter, it will be high time to lodge a complaint. According to the official excerpt (cited in inverted commas) in the English Post Office Guide, 'MANUSCRIPT OF BOOKS OR OTHER LITERARY PRODUCTIONS' may be sent in a wrapper at a cost of a ha'penny for two ounces anywhere within the area covered by the International Postal Union. It must surely be possible to get this enforced in Austria too, or is the Arbeiter-Zeitung prepared of its own free will to pay a surcharge at twenty times the proper rate (2 1/2 for a 1/2 oz)?

Another thing. From Russia we hear that the December issue of the European Messenger (Vestnik Yevropy)[4] contained an article on Alexander III of extreme and, indeed—censorship in that country being what it is— unprecedented acerbity. Since your wife[5] has a perfect command of Russian, might it not be worth your while to have a look at and, perhaps, make use of it? It really would be a capital joke if the Arbeiter-Zeitung were also to steal a march on the bourgeois press in this particular field.

Up till now, Nos 1 and 3-8 of the Arbeiter-Zeitung have arrived here, all of them addressed to Ludwig Freyberger, as well as a copy of No. 1 addressed in your hand to myself. So far as the arrangement of the material is concerned, the change-over from a twice-weekly to a daily paper[6] is not yet quite complete, but one can see that it is under way and that the Thursday evening and Sunday numbers are distinct from the others in that each has its own particular character to suit a particular reading public. That you should not at present have time to spare for leading articles is understandable; Marx fared likewise with the Neue Rheinische Zeitung[7] —in the entire first month only two were by him, and throughout the whole of the first quarter five, if that. At the outset the editor-in-chief is kept busy enough organising the thing, than which nothing is more important, All in all, the paper has turned out very well considering this is its first week; such shortcomings as it has will all be overcome in the end.

We gave your message to Vandervelde on 1.1., when he called in here for a moment.[8]

I have passed on to Laura as much as was necessary of your letter[9] but have heard nothing about this since. Perhaps Lafargue has written to you direct.

I cannot supply you with very much material on 'Marx in Vienna in 1848'. Some time I shall search through the Neue Rheinische Zeitung for facts and also see if I can find anything more about Becher.[10] Our Vienna correspondent was one Müller-Tellering from Koblenz, like all Koblenzers, fanatical and an inveterate trouble-maker. After returning to Germany at the end of 1849, he first came to Cologne and picked a quarrel with red Becker.[11] His next port of call was London where he promptly fell out with us over a trifling personal matter (which, with a little less contrariness on his part, could have been settled in a few minutes' conversation) and instantly produced a pamphlet, Vergeschmack der Diktatur von Marx und Engels.[12] Next he went to America and tried to stir up trouble against us, but very soon disappeared from the scene. His reports from Vienna before the advent of Windischgrätz showed an undue bias towards violent revolution which, at a time when reaction was everywhere gathering strength, was not unwelcome to us. In those days we could not, from a distance, assess the value of his pronouncements on personalities, but he was doubtless strongly influenced by personal inclination. In such turbulent times we had to allow our correspondents a great deal of responsibility and a corresponding amount of latitude.

And now for another piece of political news which might be of use to you should such matters crop up again: On the evening before last we heard political rumours of a ministerial crisis here, according to which Harcourt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was proposing to resign. At the same time, however, he denied this, saying that the allegation, AS MADE, was completely unfounded. It was improbable that the Chancellor of the Exchequer alone should resign at a moment when he had a surplus of three million pounds and was thus in a position to present a first class budget. But the real facts of the case are as follows: Harcourt favours the introduction of salaries for M.P.s before the dissolution and is encountering strong opposition in the Cabinet—and probably also from the Queen.[13] He had apparently threatened to resign, thus obtaining concessions in regard to the afore-said question. At all events everything has returned to normal for the time being. You can see how unstable things are in official circles over here.

All the necessary steps have been taken as regards the money. You will, I think, be hearing more about this in a few days' time when, I trust, you will also get the cash.[14]

Louise wishes to append a line or two. She and Ludwig send their regards, as do I, to you and your wife

Yours

F. Engels

On the 5th of this month we sent you three copies of the English Socialist papers, Clarion, Justice and Labour Leader (Keir Hardie) and shall be sending sundry other issues thereof from time to time to enable you to decide which you like best. Please take a look at them.

(Postscript from Louise Freyberger)

Dear Victor,

Now that the matter of finance is all but settled, the money should shortly arrive in Vienna. I have one further request to make, namely that you get a certificate of identification made out for Ludwig and myself. Ludwig is applying for temporary membership of the National Liberal Club, the leading club of its kind over here, close to the Houses of Parliament, and frequented by all the Liberal and Radical M.P.s and by journalists of all shades of political opinion. In this country, credentials have to be produced for everything, and it couldn't do you any harm. Much love from the three L.L.L.s.[15]

  1. ↑ 6 January 1895
  2. ↑ The Parliamentary Committee—the executive body of the Trades Union Congress of Great Britain that met in Manchester in 1868 and united the country's unions. As of 1871 the Parliamentary Committee was elected at annual congresses of the British trades-unions and, in fact, was their steering body in between the congresses. It nominated candidates to Parliament, supported draft bills tabled in the interests of the trades unions and worked to prepare regular trades-union congresses.
  3. ↑ This dispatch by Louise Freyberger (Kautsky) about the report of Mrs. Crawford to the newspaper Weekly Dispatch on 6 January 1895 was published by Die Arbeiter-Zeitung (No. 10) on 10 January 1895 (signed: K.L.).
  4. ↑ [name in Russian], Vol. VI, Book 12, December 1894, section [in Russian] (Internal Review).
  5. ↑ Emma Adler
  6. ↑ The central organ of the Austrian Social-Democratic Workers' Party Die Arbeiter-Zeitung was a weekly newspaper in 1893; it became a semiweekly in 1894 and a daily as of January 1895.
  7. ↑ Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Organ der Demokratie.
  8. ↑ In his letter to Engels on 27 December 1894 Victor Adler asked him to invite Emile Vandervelde as a correspondent for the Vienna newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung. A similar request was uttered with respect to Paul Lafargue as well (see Note 477).
  9. ↑ See this volume, p. 395
  10. ↑ On 27 December 1894 Victor Adler wrote in his letter to Engels about his plans to have the Arbeiter-Zeitung publish the article 'Karl Marx in Wien' and asked if Engels could help him with the material for it. He also said he had found some of the data in the newspaper Der Radikale published in 1848 by Alfred Julius Becher.
    On 24 January 1895, the Arbeiter-Zeitung published Max Bach's article 'Karl Marx in Wien" which drew upon the facts supplied by Engels (see also this volume, p. 434).
  11. ↑ Hermann Becker
  12. ↑ A Foretaste of the Dictatorship of Marx and Engels.
  13. ↑ Queen Victoria
  14. ↑ See this volume, p. 384
  15. ↑ Louise, Ludwig and Lulu.