Letter to Karl Marx, April 7, 1869

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 7 April 1869


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 7 April 1869

Dear Moor,

The letters from Tussy and Wilhelmchen[1] returned enclosed. The latter remains true to his principle of greatly scorning all facts. Anybody who regards facts as important, who 'takes them into consideration', is someone who idolises success, a Bismarckian. So even if Schweitzer's 'dirty deeds' were as cheap as blackberries, he would not give us any facts about them, since, according to the principles of the People's Party,[2] the only important thing about all these facts is that Wilhelm declares them to be 'dirty deeds'. It follows that, as Schweitzer's dirty deeds become enormous, the friction with him disappears. The fellow's logic is as amusing as the anticipation with which he still hopes for a proclamation from you, declaring him to be the angel of light, and naming Schweitzer as Satan.

It is also amusing that he wants to sell an essay[3] of at least 4 or 5 printer's sheets for 1 '/2 groschen, and emphasises: not at a profit. Le représentant a dit: avec du fer et du pain on va jusqu'en Chine. Il n'a pas parlé de chaussures.[4] And Wilhelm has not mentioned who will meet the loss when you sell things at '/s to 'A of cost price.

I have not yet written to Meissner, and I really cannot expect him to do the wondrous things that Liebknecht boldly ventures. Once Wilhelm has spoken with an expert about the printing costs, determined a rational price and made sure that he can raise the printing costs, I am not disinclined to let him print the stuff; tell him to write to me as soon as he can fulfil these conditions, then we shall arrange further steps.

Snieuntojown is sun-jovn-to-jovn — sun-eve-to-eve.[5]

The word has caused me to rack my brains; there really are some very difficult things in West Frisian.

The Bazleyite agitation in favour of state aid for cotton cultivation has not yet become so public here that there has been anything substantial in the newspapers. However, I shall soon send you some cuttings about the STRIKE in Preston,[6] which the MASTERS directly provoked in order to bring about a general shut-down of the factories there. Since they cannot agree amongst themselves on SHORT TIME or complete closure, as some would then go on working and the others would be vexed at this, the sole form to bring about joint action amongst them is a STRIKE, since no manufacturer opposes the proposal to reduce wages. The cream of the thing is that these fellows, who admit that, for 2 years, they have been losing 1 to 2d. per lb of yarn or cloth, and still did not want to close down or work SHORT TIME, now declare that a 10% wage reduction, i.e., a saving of — to —- penny per £, is a matter of life or death!

Best greetings

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ In a letter TO MARX of 3 April 1869, Liebknecht gave an optimistic account of the outcome of the struggle against Schweitzer at the congress of the General Association of German Workers in Barmen-Elberfeld (see Note 318). According to him, Schweitzer had sustained a crushing defeat, the leadership had passed into the hands of the Hamburg board and strife was extinguished. Summing up his information, Liebknecht wrote: 'The General Association of German Workers numbers only 11,000 men who have extremely vague political notions and mostly support Bismarck. Our Union is more numerous and enlightened.'
    Liebknecht also wrote about his intention to bring out Engels' work The Peasant War in Germany as a separate pamphlet (2,000 copies) (see present edition, Vol. 10).
  2. ↑ The German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei) was set up in 1865 and encompassed the democratic elements of the petty bourgeoisie and part of the bigger bourgeoisie, chiefly from South and Central German states. As distinct from the National-Liberals, it opposed Prussia's supremacy and advocated the plan for the establishment of the so-called Great Germany incorporating both Prussia and Austria. While pursuing an anti-Prussian policy, the People's Party voiced the particularist aspirations of some German states. It was against Germany's unification as a single centralised democratic republic, advocating the idea of a federative German state.
    In 1866, the German People's Party was joined by the Saxon People's Party, whose nucleus consisted of workers. This left wing of the German People's Party had, in effect, nothing in common with it except anti-Prussian sentiments and the wish jointly to solve the problems of national unification in a democratic way. Subsequently, it developed along socialist lines. The main section of the Party broke away from the petty-bourgeois democrats and took part in founding the Social-Democratic Workers' Party in August 1869.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, The Peasant War in Germany.
  4. ↑ 'The commercial traveller said: with iron and bread you can get as far as China. He did not mention boots.'
  5. ↑ See this volume, pp. 247, 251, 253.
  6. ↑ The strike of workers in the cotton yarns and goods industry in Preston (Lancashire) began in March 1869 as a response to the provocative decision of the manufacturers to cut wages by ten per cent. The General Council and the trade unions organised financial support by workers in other towns, as a result of which the strike lasted until August 1869, and ended in a compromise (wages were reduced by 5 per cent). Reports on the progress of the strike appeared regularly in The Bee-Hive.