Letter to Florence Kelley, September 15, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 September 1887


First published, in the language of the original (English), in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Job. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48
Reproduced from the original


ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY

IN NEW YORK

London, 15 September 1887 122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Mrs Wischnewetzky,

I have received your letter of 28 August. I am glad the pamphlet[1] sells so well. The copies I received I shall hand over to Aveling who has just returned from the country to be distributed partly amongst the Socialist periodicals, partly at his East End Meetings at his lectures on the American movement.[2] I shall also try through him to get an Agent for its sale and let you know the result.

What I wrote about Trübner3 has come true stronger than I expected. Yesterday Dr Baernreither, Austrian M.P., told me that he had asked Trübner—with whom he dealt regularly—to procure him a copy of our book.[3] Trübner said he had none, and that Dr Baernreither had better order it through an American Agency whose address he gave to Baernreither and through which Baernreither ordered the book. Thus Trübner not only boycotts but actually burns the book.

As to the copies sent to Kautsky he could hardly act otherwise than he did.[4] Neither Lovell nor yourself ever wrote him a line of instruction. I myself never heard whether any copies had been sent to the press here and to what papers. We were completely in the dark, and if the book has not got into the hands of the English press and not been noticed, that is entirely the fault of mistakes committed on your side of the water. Had I been informed of what had been done in that respect, or had I been told that that was left to me I could have acted. There is no doubt of a sale for it here, but not while it is in Trübner's hands; and if I was authorised to find an agent here I have no doubt of being able to do so; of course you would have to send a limited number of copies as a consignment.

The repudiation of the Socialists by George[5] is in my opinion an unmerited piece of good luck which will redeem to a great extent the— unavoidable—blunder of placing George at the head of a movement he did not even understand. George as the standard-bearer of the whole working-class movement was a danger; George as the Chief of the Georgeites will soon be a thing of the past, the leader of a sect like the thousands of sects in America.

Your pamphlet on philanthropy[6] has not yet come to hand. Your translation of Marx's Free Trade speech I shall look over with pleasure and compare it with the French original of which I have perhaps the only copy extant. We will see about the preface later on. The 7th Bemerkung[7] from the Misere de la Philosophie would fit in very well. As to the chapter on Rent, that seems more doubtful, as there is a good deal of reference to Proudhon's notions in it, and I doubt whether Mr Tucker's lucubrations deserve any attention.[8]

The reply of the Executive to my footnote is in itself so deprecatory and meaningless that to reply to it would be a work of supererogation.[9]

I cannot reply in time for the Congress, and the fact remains that I have openly taken sides against the Executive in this matter. A fresh contro- versy across the Atlantic can lead to nothing. As to the Sozialist and Volkszeitung boycotting me, I am sorry for it on account of the sale of the book and pamphlet, otherwise it is a matter of perfect indifference to me. I have got too often over such chicanery by simply waiting and looking on.

Your expulsion I read in the Volkszeitung at the time, it was what was to be expected. I hope your pamphlet will come in time for the Congress, it would have been well if it had been out a month ago so as to come into the hands of the sections before they sent delegates. I am curious what the Congress will do but do not hope for too much.

Faithfully yours

F. Engels

Fortunately the movement in America has now got such a start that neither George, nor Powderly nor the German intriguers can spoil or stop it. Only it will take unexpected forms. The real movement always looks different to what it ought to have done in the eyes of those who were tools in preparing it.

  1. ↑ F. Engels, The Labor Movement in America.
  2. ↑ After their return from the USA (see note 3) Eleanor Marx-Aveling and Edward Aveling launched a large-scale socialist propaganda campaign in London's Radical Clubs (see note 22). Their purpose was, among other things, to familiarise the British workers with the experience of the US labour movement.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England
  4. ↑ In a letter of 28 August 1887, Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky voiced her regret over the fact that Kautsky, to whom the American editor of the Engels-written book The Condition of the Working Class in England, John Lovell, had sent a considerable number of copies, did not take the trouble to send it to London newspapers and magazines for reviewing.
  5. ↑ Characterising the resolution of the conference of the United Labor Party of the State of New York, held on 17-19 August 1887, in Syracuse, N.Y. (see note 6) on the expulsion of the Socialists from this party, ostensibly in conformity with its Rules, Henry George declared in his paper The Standard that this decision largely furthered the success of his efforts to enlist representatives of the petty bourgeoisie and even big capitalists; as he explained, these social groups would have certainly refused to back the new independent political movement had it involved the Socialists with their 'doctrine of the class struggle'.
  6. ↑ F. Kelley-Wischnewetzky, The Need of Theoretical Preparation for Philanthropic Work [New York, 1887]
  7. ↑ observation
  8. ↑ The American edition of Marx's speech on free trade, which he made in Brussels on 9 January 1848 (See present edition, Vol. 6, pp450-65), appeared in Boston in September 1888, in Kelley-Wischnewetzky's translation. Engels wrote a special preface to this edition - first published in the author's translation into the German by the magazine Neue Zeit No 7, July 1888, under the title 'Schutzzoll und Freihandel' and then in the English original, in the latter half of August 1888, in The Labor Standard of New York. Appended as an addendum was the slightly abridged version of the 'Seventh and Last Observation' from Chapter II ('The Metaphysics of Political Economy') of Marx's work The Poverty of Philosophy (see present edition, Vol. 6, ppi74-78). Kelley-Wischnewetzky suggested that the fourth part of this chapter, 'Property of Rent' (ibid., ppi97-206) be likewise included in the addendum; she argued that the American anarchists, Benjamin Tucker in particular, raised a noisy publicity campaign in connection with the publication of Proudhon's works they had undertaken. However, Engels did not find it necessary to include this part.
  9. ↑ In connection with Engels' note to a separate edition of his article 'The Labor Movement in America' (see note 134), the Executive of the Socialist Labor Party issued a statement published in the newspaper Sozialist, No. 35, on 27 August 1887. It expressed surprise that a comrade in such an exposed position as Engels could not expect such ... accusation against a whole number of persons who ... have taken their stand under the circumstances...' and also claimed that allegedly none of the sections of the party 'has come out against the National Executive Committee concerning the financial aspect of the matter'.