MARX TO LUDWIG KUGELMANN ” 

London, 12 December 1868 
Dear Friend, 

I wanted to write to you at greater length, but am prevented 
from doing so by unforeseen external ‘business’. But do not let 
this keep you from taking up your pen again soon. 

The letter from Freund (returned enclosed, with thanks) 
interested me greatly.’ It is high time for other people to come 
forward in Germany than the present ‘pillars’ of science. 

I also return the portrait of Dietzgen.™? His biography is not 
quite what I had thought. But I always had a feeling he was ‘not a 
worker like Eccarius’. In fact, the sort of philosophical outlook he 
has worked out for himself demands a certain calmness and 
disposable time that the everypay workman does not enjoy. I have 
two very good workers living in New York, A. Vogt, a shoemaker, 
and Sigfrid Meyer, a mining engineer, both formerly from Berlin. 
A third worker who could give lectures on my book? is Lochner, a 
joiner (comMMoN workinc MAN), who has been here in London asour 
15 years. 

Tell your dear wife that I never ‘suspected’ her of serving under 
Madame General Geck.‘ I queried only in jest.’ Incidentally, 
the ladies cannot complain about the ‘International’ since it has 
appointed a lady, Madame Law, as a member of the General 
Council. Joking aside, very great progress was demonstrated at the 
last congress of the American ‘Lazor Unron’,\ inter alia, by the fact 
that it treated the women workers with full parity; by contrast, the 
English, and to an even greater extent the gallant French, are 

a See this volume, p. 180. - > the first volume of Capital - ¢ Marx refers to Marie 
Goegg. Geck means dandy. - 4 See this volume, p. 175. 

130. Marx to Asher & Co. Not before 12 December 1868 185 

displaying a marked narrowness of spirit in this respect. Everyone 
who knows anything of history also knows that great social 
revolutions are impossible without the feminine ferment. Social 
progress may be measured precisely by the social position of the 
fair sex (plain ones included). 

As far as the ‘serrtement’ is concerned, there could never, from 
the outset, have been any question of my taking over a business 
before my book was finished. Otherwise I could long have 
extricated myself from any embarrassing situation. The fact is 
simply this—but strictly between us—that, on the one hand, J 
made an arrangement with my family; on the other, Engels, 
without my knowledge, through agreement with his partner about 
his own income (he is leaving the business in June), has made a 
SETTLEMENT for me, as a result of which, from next year, I shall be able 
to work in peace.* 

With best greetings. 

Yours 
K. M.