Letter to Karl Kautsky, December 4, 1892

ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN STUTTGART

London, 4 December 1892

Dear Baron,

My best thanks for your good wishes in respect of a day that was spent very happily. Alas, tippling still does not agree with me and I shall have to atone for it by abstaining for the next few weeks.

Thank you, too, for sending the prospectus for the new journal—do you know the chaps 91? I have never heard of any of them.

I haven't yet been able so much as to look at Schmidt's latest on the rate of profit^[1] since, until Volume III^[2] is finished, I shall have to fend off everything that might entail extra work—there being far too many interruptions as it is.

As for the Neue Zeit, 85 Ede^[3] and I have discussed it at length, and yesterday I wrote a long letter^[4] to August on the subject.

It is my opinion that if, as proposed by Dietz and August, the Neue Zeit is to be given a lighter, more popular tone and made 'more interesting' from a literary point of view, it will have to move to Berlin. For only there can a political review covering all events up to the eve of publication be catered for on the spot and only there can a wealth of artistic and literary work, which would otherwise come a week too late, be produced with speed and 'immediacy'. This and other circumstances would mean that a Berlin edition would have 20 or 30 per cent more subscribers than a Stuttgart one.

But in that case the Neue Zeit would have to sacrifice the better part of its contents—and the latter would call for a monthly or quarterly of a more rigorously learned nature than hitherto and which, because intended for a smaller public, would have to be sold at a higher price.

But what if neither is feasible? In that case—and this has only just occurred to me—it might perhaps be better to turn the Neue Zeit back into a monthly but with the same capacity as at present, i.e. 104 sheets a year and 8-9 a month. The longer articles could then appear in one, or at most 2, numbers and would, in the second case, have to be subdivided into I, II or I, II, II I, IV installments which would be conducive to their general intelligibility. With 2 sheets a month it's impossible to break off longer articles at the point the sense requires, since this would almost invariably be precluded by considerations of space and diversity. But in this way you could train your contributors to divide up their things themselves into 2 installments. And then there could be 'something for everyone' in every number. But here again, you would have to reckon on a reduced circulation, and hence be obliged to raise the price—or so at least it seems to me.

At all events, before making any experiments you should consider the matter carefully. Once made, a false step is difficult to reverse.

If the weekly Neue Zeit were to move to Berlin it would, in many respects, replace the weekly central organ which might otherwise hold out for another year. Between now and then a great deal may happen. Things are livening up. It looks as though the Panama scandal 60 might mark a turning-point so far as the development of France is concerned. You should pester Lafargue about collecting material for a longish essay on the subject, or supplying you with articles as each particular phase of the scandal reaches its climax. With that sort of material the Neue Zeit would be able to outstrip the dailies even in the matter of factual news.

As for the Vorwärts—the less said the better!

Your

F. Engels

Herewith a trifle for the Neue Zeit. If you think Sternberg's report is too long, condense it; having once got going I translated the whole thing. 92