Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, October 7, 1890

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	7 October 1890

First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49

ENGELS TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT

IN BERLIN

L[ondon,] 7 October 1890

Dear Liebknecht,

Volksblatt^[1] 1-4, and 7 copies of 5,^[2] received with thanks, also your letter.

I would gladly contribute to the Volksblatt if time permits and opportunity arises. But just now I shall have to desist from all journalistic activity for a while until I have at last completed the third volume.^d

As in the case of the Neue Zeit and other papers, I have to lay down two conditions: 1. that in articles signed by me, nothing be altered without my consent, 2. that fees, IF ANY, are paid into the party funds as my contribution.

The first thing to be eliminated from the Volksblatt is the deadly boring tone which has now pervaded it. The Hamburger Echo is a cosmopolitan paper by comparison, though the leading articles may be dry; otherwise its tone is urbane and smacks of a big city. The Volksblatt, on the other hand, is largely written as though in a dream and Lenchen maintains that the Sankt Johann-Saarbrücker Leitung is more interesting. This impression of somnolence is what has always struck us about the paper. Them Berliners prides themselves on their wit, does they? Cor lummy!! So put a bit of life into the thing, otherwise our Political Advertiser will be competing altogether too unfairly against its Prusso-German counterpart³ — and we can't after all take that for our model.

Besides the papers in question, I am sending you a Daily Chronicle containing the true story of the recent GAS SCARES when one or two officious generals wanted to send 700 troops to Becton (east of the EAST END, on the Thames).^[3] This will show you what kind of paper it is.

I am glad that you should both be settling down so quickly in Berlin.

Tussy and Guesde will probably be coming from Lille to join you.

Your

F. E.

Warm regards to your wife and children.

↑ Berliner Volksblatt
↑ with Engels' article 'Reply to Mr Paul Ernst' of Capital
↑ Fearing a strike at their enterprises, the owners of the Gas Light and Coke Company in Becton intended to call out troops to intimidate the workers. An army unit stationed at Chatham was put on the alert on 3 October 1890, but there followed no orders to leave the barracks. The government's readiness to make troops available for action against strikers was sharply condemned at many workers' meetings in different areas of London.

[1] Berliner Volksblatt

[2] with Engels' article 'Reply to Mr Paul Ernst' of Capital

[3] Fearing a strike at their enterprises, the owners of the Gas Light and Coke Company in Becton intended to call out troops to intimidate the workers. An army unit stationed at Chatham was put on the alert on 3 October 1890, but there followed no orders to leave the barracks. The government's readiness to make troops available for action against strikers was sharply condemned at many workers' meetings in different areas of London.

[1]

[2]

[3]