Letter to Hermann Jung, May 10, 1871

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 10 May 1871


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO HERMANN JUNG

IN LONDON

[London,] 10 May 1871

Dear Jung,

The subject in question has been talked over many times previously between Marx and myself and again to-night[1] —we cannot come to any other conclusion but that there are only two candidates likely to take the place that can be taken into consideration, viz. Hales and Mottershead. What you say about Hales is quite correct and if he was proposed, it might be made a condition that he should get himself cleared in a more satisfactory way than he has done hitherto—as to his being an overlooker, so is Dupont, and so long as he behaves straight otherwise, that, though a little unpleasant, should not be an absolute bar. We think him, on the whole, preferable to Mottershead whose temper does not perhaps fit him so well for successful agitation among the London masses and that ought to be the principal occupation of the Secretary.—As to the ignorance of the languages, that is a thing that cannot be helped so long as you yourself are not in a position to take the office which I am afraid you are not; so we shall have to take an Englishman. On the one hand I do not consider the absence of linguistic knowledge a serious impediment under our present organisation; on the other this very circumstance might be the means to define more clearly the position of the Secretary which hitherto appears to be rather uncertain. To draw up the minutes and to carry on the correspondence with the English branches; at the same time to spread the Association amongst the masses of London and to render it independent of the aristocracy of the working classes and its acknowledged leaders,—if we could find a man capable and willing of doing that, we should probably get more consideration for our 15/- than hitherto.[2] We must not forget that the office to be filled up is not that of 'General Secretary' to the Association, as Eccarius chose to call himself, but merely Secretary to the General Council, an office which confines his official duties to those performed in the Council meetings and to the correspondence with English branches (English-American only by special resolution as far as I know); that is to say he is at the same time Secretary for Great Britain and as such has to keep up the agitation in this country which Eccarius never did and which yet is very important. This latter portion of his duties Marx and I consider the most important.

However, you will have to talk the matter over and see what can be done.

At all events here you have our opinion (confidentially of course) as you asked for it; there is no hurry, perhaps it might be as well merely to come to a provisional arrangement, but that will be for your committee to decide, as well as all the rest.

Very truly yours,

F. Engels

Those fellows that ran away from Fort Issy[3] without being attacked deserve to be shot. The military situation has become much worse through this piece of cowardice.

  1. ↑ This refers to the choice of candidates for the post of Secretary of the General Council following Eccarius' resignation as secretary on 9 May 1871. The committee of the General Council with Jung as chairman proposed Hales and Mottershead. During the discussion in the General Council questions were raised concerning the expulsion of Hales from the Elastic Web-Weavers' Society in 1867. When it was explained that the decision on expulsion had later been revoked, Hales was elected Secretary of the General Council on 16 May 1871.
  2. ↑ An allusion to the fact that at that time the salary of the General Council's Secretary was 15s. per week. From mid-May 1871 it was reduced to 10s. per week.
  3. ↑ On the night of 8 May 1871 the Paris Communards abandoned Fort Issy after ten days of bombardment by the Versailles troops that besieged Paris.