Manchester, 6 May 1868 

Dear Moor, 

I congratulate axyHyow on the half saeculum,*? from which, 
incidentally, I am also only a short span away. Indeed, what 
juvenile enthusiasts we were 25 years ago when we boasted that by 
this time we would long have been beheaded. 

Enclosed returning Kugelmann, Biichner, Schily, Reclus,*° 
Schweitzer * and the Elberfelder Zeitung, and additionally some- 
thing on your book which Siebel’s wife sent me™; he appears to be 

a century 

no longer capable of writing, is in Barmen and going to 
Godesberg. 

The profit story is very nice," but, I shall have to think it over 
further in order to grasp the portée” in all its aspects. 

Ad vocem Schweitzer. The rascal is utilising this business simply 
as an inducement to make us take the bait again. Of course, it 
does not matter that you give him information this time, but 
principiis obsta! Don’t let the fellow catch your little finger lest he 
make an attempt on your whole hand. On the subject itself, I have 
no doubt at all that the German iron industry could dispense with 
the protective tariff, a majore,” therefore, could also stand the 
reduction of the tariff on pig iron from 7T'fo groschen to 5 
groschen per hundredweight (from 15s. to 10s. per ton), and the 
other reductions likewise. The export of iron is increasing every 
year, and not only to Belgium. This would bring ruin to a few 
ironworks established during the wave of speculation in the 50s, 
situated a long way from the coal and otherwise based on 
insufficient, poor pits. But these are for the most part already 
kaputt, and the vicinity of a railway would be more use to them 
than any protective tariff if they should ever become viable again. 
(There is one like this in Engelskirchen, 500 paces from my 
brothers’ factory—the coal has to be brought from Siegburg, 2 "Io 
German miles,’ by wagon—no wonder it lies idle. This sort of 
works cries out for protective tariff, and is cited as proof that it is 
necessary.) 

The Elberfeld-Barmen Chamber of Commerce is the nastiest 
protective tariff institution there is, and notorious for it. Even 
though the main industry of the district is aimed at export. 
However, there are always a lot of trades in decline there, hence 
the lamentations. 

For the rest, your plan about the enquéte is rather good, and I 
like it very much. As far as railways go, the freight charges in 
Germany are lower than elsewhere, and, since goods traffic is the 
main thing in Germany, this could not be otherwise. They could be 
pushed still lower, and the governments have the power to do it, 
but what is most necessary is greater centralisation and equalisa- 
tion in administration and freight charges, and constitutionally this 
is a matter for the Reichstag. By and large, the iron-chaps have no 
cause to yell about high freights. 

a See this volume, pp. 21-25. - > meaning - © As regards - 4 guard against the first 
step (Ovid, Remedia amoris) - ¢ even more - f The German mile ( Meile) was a linear 
measure of different length in different German states, but it can be regarded as 
roughly 41/y miles. - 8 enquiry 

Liebknecht has sent me the trades regulations, on which I have 
promised him some critical comments.*’ Progress compared to the 
regression under Frederick William IV, but what bureaucratic 
confusion. I am sending you the stuff for the fun of it. 

Yesterday the inevitable Leibel Choras arrived and prevented 
me writing. I asked him about the persecution of Jews in 
Moldavia; he wailed a bit, but it does not appear to be all that bad: 
we have to bear it, we Jews do not have the power; he would like 
to be Russian or Austrian, but it does not occur to him to leave. 
The Hohenzollern is a stupid boy, and the government in the 
hands of the ‘clerks’ (boyars in reduced circumstances playing at 
bureaucracy) and they squeeze the Jews so. 

Many greetings to your wife, the girls and Monsieur and 
Madame Lafargue. 

Your 
F. E.