ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE” 

London, 12[-17] September 1874 

Dear Sorge, 

The invoice you requested enclosed.4 As far as the German 
Rules * are concerned, please look in the books to see whether the 
printing costs for them were paid for by the old General Council 

a But now, O Lord, dismiss me (cf. Luke 2:29). - > Ludwig Kugelmann - © jocular 
name for Engels - 4 See this volume, pp. 44-45. - ¢ K. Marx, Allgemeine Statuten 
und Verwaltungs-Verordnungen der Internationalen Arbetterassoziation (K. Marx, General 
Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International Working Men’s 
Association). 

or not. I think not; they were charged up to me privately by the 
Volksstaat and, to the best of my knowledge, I have never been 
reimbursed. However, if the amount appears in the account book 
as one laid out by the General Council here, then obviously the 
copies will be inherited by the new General Council and the 
balance in its favour vis-a-vis myself rises to £6.3.6. Unless you 
have any claims on the money, which of course take precedence, 
the present General Council can use it as it wishes, if you agree. I 
have advanced £32 for the cost of printing the Alliance and shall 
certainly lose something like half of it, so that there may be a nice 
little counter invoice at the end of the year. The fact is it would be 
idiotic to hand the money over to these nonentities who are only 
there to make sure that everything goes wrong. 

With your resignation™ the old International is entirely wound 
up and at an end anyhow. And that is a good thing. It belonged to 
the period of the Second Empire, when the oppression through- 
out Europe prescribed unity and abstention from all internal 
controversy for the workers’ movement, then just reawakening. It 
was the moment when the common, cosmopolitan interests of the 
proletariat could come to the fore. Germany, Spain, Italy, and 
Denmark had only just entered the movement or were entering it. 
In reality, the theoretical character of the movement in 1864 was 
still very unclear throughout Europe, that is, among the masses. 
German communism did not yet exist as a workers’ party, the 
Proudhonism was too weak to be able to insist on its particular 
fads, Bakunin’s new trash did not yet exist even in his own head, 
and even the leaders of the English Trapz-Unions thought they 
could enter the movement on the basis of the programme laid 
down in the Considérants of the Rules.* The first great success was 
bound to explode this naive conjunction of all factions. This 
success was the Commune, which was beyond doubt the child of 
the International intellectually, though the International did not 
lift a finger to produce it, and for which the International—to 
that extent with full justification—was held responsible. When, 
thanks to the Commune, the International became a moral force 
in Europe, the row began at once. Each tendency wanted to 
exploit the success for itself. The inevitable decomposition set in. 
Jealousy of the growing power of the only people who were really 
ready to continue working along the lines of the old comprehen- 
sive programme-—the German Communists—drove the Belgian 

a K. Marx and F. Engels, The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International 
Working Men’s Association. - > Preamble - © K. Marx, Provisional Rules of the Associa- 
tion, 

Proudhonists into the arms of the Bakuninist adventurers. The 
Hague Congress was actually the end—and for both parties.”” The 
only country where something could still be accomplished in the 
name of the International was America, and by a fortunate instinct 
the executive was transferred there. Now its prestige is exhausted 
there too, and any further effort to galvanise new life into it 
would be folly and a waste of energy. For ten years the 
International dominated one side of European history—the side 
on which the future lies—and can look back upon its work with 
pride. But in its old form it has outlived itself. In order to 
produce a new International like the old one—an alliance of all 
the proletarian parties of all countries—a general suppression of 
the workers’ movement like that which prevailed from 1849 to 
1864 would be necessary. For this the proletarian world has now 
become too big, too extensive. I think the next International— 
after Marx’s writings have been at work for some years—will be 
directly Communist and will openly proclaim our principles. 

Stahl from Chicago was here. A man of much practical ability, 
like most German Americans. I liked him in other respects too, 
but this does not mean that he won’t do anything silly in Germany. 
Even he is not entirely immune to that conciliation nonsense. 

The Belgians and the Bakuninists are now holding their 
congress in Brussels.‘ For reports see The Times, London, of 
10 September et seq.* Fourteen full delegates: one German 
(Lassallean), one Frenchman, one Spaniard (an unknown called 
Gomez), one Schwitzguébel. The remainder all Belgians. General 
disagreement on all essentials, concealed by the fact that they did 
not debate, but only narrated and listened. Admittedly, I have 
only seen one report. The Italians announced what amounted to 
their resignation; a public International could only harm them, 
they intended in future only to conspire. The Spaniards are 
leaning in the same direction. For the rest, they just tell each other 
lies about the colossal movements they are creating. And they 
imagine they will still find people who will be taken in. 

Mr Bastelica, too, has become a Bonapartist agent. In Stras- 
bourg, he made approaches of that nature to Avrial, a former 
member of the Commune, and was, of course, shown the door. 
One by one, these anarchists all end up in the same way. 

Mesa has written to me from Madrid saying that he will have to 
go to Paris because government persecution is becoming more 

a The Times, Nos. 28104, 28105, 28107, 28108, 28109; 10, 11, 14, 15, 16 Sep- 
tember 1874 (‘The Seventh International Working Men’s Congress’). 

than he can bear. So we are back in contact with Spain once 
more.” 

In Germany things are going splendidly despite the persecu- 
tions, in part because of the persecutions. The Lassalleans have 
become so discredited by their representatives in the Reichstag 
that the government had to start harassing them just so as to 
convey the impression that they are a serious movement. That 
aside, ever since the elections, the Lassalleans have found it 
necessary to cling to the coat-tails of our people.* It was a real 
stroke of luck for Hasselmann and Hasenclever to have been 
voted into the Reichstag. They are visibly ruining their reputation 
there: either they will have to join our people or make a mess of 
things off their own bat. Either course will finish them off. 

Mr Jung thought it fitting to write to Liebknecht and make 
advances to him! Liebknecht sent me the letter and I have shown 
it to people who will reveal this to Mr Jung. 

Marx is in Karlsbad drinking the waters to restore his liver.’ He 
has had a lot of bad luck. Scarcely had he managed to recover 
somewhat in July on the Isle of Wight”’ when he had to return 
because his youngest daughter* suddenly fell seriously ill. No 
sooner had he arrived than Jenny’s little boy died at the age of 
about one year. That really hit him hard again. I think that once 
his liver is all right again the cure may more easily have an effect 
on his overworked nervous system. All the doctors prophesied that 
Karlsbad would do him a lot of good. Up to now the Austrian 
government has left him in peace, and he will probably be leaving 
at the end of this week. 

The squabbles in New York, which made it impossible for you 
to remain in the General Council any longer, are just as much 
proof as consequence of the fact that the thing has outlived itself. 
When circumstances no longer allow a society to act effectively, 
when the first thing to be done is simply to keep the bond of 
union tied so that it can be used again when the occasion arises, 
there are always people to be found who cannot fit themselves into 
this situation, definitely want to play the busybody, and demand 
that ‘something be done’, and this something can then only be 
folly. And if these people succeed in getting the majority, they 
compel everyone who does not want to bear the responsibility for 
their absurdities to resign. What good fortune that we did not 
send the minute books over! 

4 Eleanor - > Charles, first-born of Jenny Longuet 

The French refugees are in utter chaos. They have all fallen out 
with each other and with everyone else for quite personal reasons, 
money matters for the most part, and we are now almost entirely 
rid of them. They all want to live without doing any real work, 
their heads are full of imagined inventions which would bring in 
millions if only someone would enable them to exploit their 
discoveries, a matter of just a few pounds. But anyone who is 
naive enough to take them at their word will be cheated of his 
money and denounced as a bourgeois into the bargain. Le Moussu 
has behaved more disgracefully than anyone and now stands 
exposed as a charlatan pure and simple.* All these people have 
been horribly demoralised by their dissolute life during the war, 
the Commune and in exile, and the situation really has to be 
desperate to rescue a Frenchman once he has let himself go. The 
great mass of politically unknown French workers, on the other 
hand, has simply abandoned politics for the moment and found 
work here. 

Best regards. 

Your 
F. Engels 

17 September 1874 

General Council of the International Working Men’s Association 
On account with F. Engels 

Account No. 1° 

1873 Nov. Received per Serraillier £16.-.- 
Sept. Telegram to New York £1.16.- 
» 25 copies ‘Alliance’* by post 2/- £2.10.- 
1874 Feb. 120” ” 2/-  £1.4- 
» 12 es . 2/-  £1.4- 
» 100 Engl. ‘Rules’ “ by post Ufed. £12.6 
» 400 ” ‘s iad. £2.10- 
» 300 Ger. . Id. £1.5.-£11.1.6 

Balance in favour of the General Council £4.18.6 

@ See this volume, pp. 11-13. - & The account is written on a separate sheet of paper 
and enclosed with this letter. -¢ K. Marx and F. Engels, The Alliance of Socialist 
Democracy and the International Working Men’s Association. - 4 K. Marx, General 
Rules and Administrative Regulations of the International Working Men’s Asso- 
cration. 

Account No. 2 

1874 August. Printing costs of L’Alliance advanced by 
Fe Engels: ccc1iacscnttia cine tee ak nent Ata as £32.-.- 
Up to now have received payment only 
for the above-mentioned 49 copies for Amer- 
ica (not reckoning postage) £4.18.- 
There remains owing to me £27.2-— 
(Accounts with Darson and Meissner still ~ 
to be settled.) 

London, 17 September 1874 
F. Engels