{Manchester, 28 April 1870] 

I was very pleased by the detailed and precise financial 
statement.” Here, in England, in front of my very eyes, so many 
attempts to found workers’ movements and organisations have 
failed because of bad treasurer’s work and book-keeping, and the 
resultant recurrent justified and unjustified charges of embezzle- 
ment and so on, that in this case I can consider myself competent 
to deliver judgement on the importance of this point. The workers 
have to deprive themselves for every farthing, so have the fullest 
right to know where every farthing goes, as long as they do not 
need and are not putting aside secret funds. And I believe that this 
is of special importance, particularly in Germany, since there, too, 
exploitation of the workers by knavish agitators has become the 
fashion. It is a hollow pretext to say that, by publishing such 
financial statements, you betray the weakness of your own party to 
the enemy. If the enemy wishes to judge the strength of a 
workers’ party according to its specifically weak side—the state of 
its funds— it will, in any case, be out in its reckoning. And the 
damage done in one’s own ranks by keeping such things secret is 
far greater than that which can arise from publication. 

2 Record of Marx’s Speech on “The Bee-Hive’ From the Minutes of the General Council 
Meeting of April 26, 1870. -» K. Marx, Resolution of the General Council on ‘The 
Bee-Hive’. - © 3 May 

Bonhorst bewails the apathy of the workers —but I find that 
things are going unexpectedly swimmingly in Germany. The 
individual successes naturally entail a hard struggle, and those 
involved naturally think things are going too slowly. But compare 
1860 and 1870, and compare the present state of affairs in 
Germany with that in France and England—and recall the head 
start that these two countries had over us! The German workers 
have got half a dozen of their people into parliament; the French 
and the English not a single one Allow me to remark, in this 
connection, that all of us here regard it as of the greatest 
importance that as many worker candidates stand as possible in 
the coming elections, and that as many are elected as possible.*