MARX TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE”’ 
[London,] 8 March 1872 
33 Rathbone Place, W.C.*% 

Dear Sorge, 

Have only received today the German Rules* sent by Liebknecht 
and they cannot be sent off until Monday.” Over there people seem 

aK. Marx, Allgemeine Statuten und Verwaltungs-Verordnungen der Internationalen 
Arbeiterassoziation. - » 11 March 

to imagine that the Genera] Council just conjures up everything 
out of a hat, whereas the contrary is the case: without the private 
contributions of its members and their personal friends, absolutely 
nothing could be done. I notice the same comments in letters from 
Speyer, Bolte and yourself, as I do in correspondence from other 
countries. Every country believes that our entire time can be 
devoted to it alone. If we wanted to grumble about every single 
detail, we could, e.g., complain that your Reports to us appear 
simultaneously in the Volksstaat. 

Since I was commissioned by the General Council at long last to 
report on the spit in America? (the matter had had to be 
postponed from one meeting to the next on account of the chaos 
within the International in Europe)—I have carefully gone 
through all the correspondence from New York together with 
everything that appeared in the papers and have discovered that 
we were by no means duly informed in time about the elements 
that brought about the breach. A portion of the resolutions I have 
proposed* has already been accepted, the rest will be passed next 
Tuesday” and the final judgment will then be sent off to New 
York. 

You will receive 1,000 copies of the German Rules. Hales will 
send 500 in English. I am sending 200 French ones, which have all 
been ordered. 

Eccarius says that the things were sent to Gregory” (his private 
correspondent) because you had written to him that you were 
resigning from office but had not named a new correspondent. 

The complaint about the French having their ‘own’ correspon- 
dent is quite unjust,** since the Germans also had one of their 
own and Eccarius, the Secretary for the Unrrep States, can certainly 
deal with correspondence in German and English, but not in 
French. Moreover, the complaint was politically ill-advised, since it 
seemed to justify the view of the French members of the Councit 
that Section I aspired to dictatorial authority over the other 
sections.** It arrived here at the same time as the complaint from 
the Counter-commitrer that Section I was represented on the old 
committee in numbers exceeding those stipulated by the Rules. 

The cost of the Rules was higher for the Counrer-comMMITTEE 
because import duties had to be paid (at least, that is what they 
maintain). 

a K. Marx, ‘Resolutions on the Split in the United States’ Federation Passed by the 
General Council of the I.W.A. in Its Sittings of 5th and 12th March, 
1872’. - > 12 March 

I hope that your committee will be satisfied with the decision of 
the Counci. 

We are having a pamphlet against the pissenrers* printed in 
Geneva, which will be almost as big as the one on the Civ. Wag. 
In the meantime the dissenters have drawn in their horns in their 
last circular, so as to dull the polemic. 

Yours, 
K. Marx