Dear Sir, in answer to yours of the 26th ult. I am directed by 
the Council to state that the International Association recognises 
no special national interests among the working men who may 
happen to have been born in different countries. 

One of our aims is to eliminate whatever may yet remain of 
national antipathies and, perhaps, animosities, from the minds of 
working men. The Council cannot, therefore, endorse the kind of 
representation implied in your memorial. General Cluseret had his 
feelings outraged by the French police, which was probably the 
reason why the trade societies gave him credentials which induced 
him to institute a comparison between himself and the French 
ambassador at Washington.” The French ambassador at Washing- 
ton has to vindicate the personal interests of a dynasty, and the 
property interests of the French traders. The Paris workmen have 
no such interests to be taken care of on the other side of the 
Atlantic, against the probable encroachments of the American 
working men. We consider the interests of the French workmen 
resident in the United States strictly identical with the interests of 
all the other working men of the United States. 

To facilitate the inter-communication of such as may be 
separated by difference of language, and perhaps manners, we 
have correspondents, who are conversant with these things, and to 
them we trust for managing the rest. 

The communication with the United States is distributed among 
the secretaries of the different nationalities of the General 
Council. General Cluseret and Mr. Pelletier are our French 
correspondents in America. They correspond with our Secretary 


Appendices 443 


for France.* Siegfried Meyer and Vogt are our German correspond- 
ents. They correspond with the German Secretary” here, and the 
General Secretary manages the English correspondence; and 
beside such trade union officers as Mr. Jessup, we look to you as 
our correspondent in case any misunderstanding should arise 
between different nationalities, to endeavour to set matters right, 
but we cannot admit that either French or Germans have an 
opposite or special interest from any other workmen, and we 
always urge them on to take an active part in, and identify 
themselves with, the movement of the working men of the 
country, in which they reside, particularly in America. 

Respecting the secret society movement, I am instructed to ask 
you to favour us at your convenience with your opinion as to the 
cause which has tended to bring about the necessity for secret 
action. We have been advised to persuade you and friend Jessup 
to publicly stand up against it, but we suppose there is a necessity 
for it, or else it would not have come into vogue and moreover it 
would be presumptuous on our part to offer advice in such a 
matter, but we wish to know the reasons, to bring them to the 
knowledge of the working men of the Old World, who have just 
emerged from conducting their agitation in secret. 


Yours faithfully, 
J. George Eccarius, General Secretary